Hamish, the ever inquisitive sookie of a cat loves to explore - specifically anything he will fit in to. We open the pantry - ooh, there he goes. We open the linen cupboard, yep he can fit there too. Where’s Hamish? Oh he’s under the couch. He’s between the washing machine and the door. He’s behind a chest of drawers. And if we can’t find him, he can’t be too far. So we try his sun bathing spots, such as the concrete and gravel out the back (where he prefers to lie half on concrete, half of dirt), or the mulch (as it’s apparently nicer than kitty litter).

But sometimes he does get a little better of us. For a while anyway. Just yesterday as I was walking past the alfresco, with no furry meow in tow, I happened to look out and see four furry paws barely visible underneath the barbeque cover. So, with the camera near by, I get down to Hamish-level, and give a “Hammmish…” yell. And I also get a sequence of photos that just had to be posted.

With the lighting a bit better (i.e. not dark), I also ventured out last night to try some better night photography - and these look much better too. With only minutes between the two photos, the colour shift was phenomenal as the sun quickly set, altering the colour of the sky and the shades it painted on our house.

We recruited the services of Mark Gabell & Associates for the driveway and landscaping work which was a smart move as Mark and his team could then plan things out knowing how it will all fit together.

We vaguely knew what we wanted here and there, but hadn’t really considered the details too much - Mark was great at providing ideas and suggestions on how we can follow what we wanted, and then expand upon them to come up with a plan that would work - and stage it over the Christmas/New Year period.

So up first was the driveway, which you can read about on the previous post, which still looks stunning. And it’s even better now that the mulch has been laid as it was a pretty severe drop from the edge of the driveway to the ground, as we found out if we didn’t reverse from the garage on track.

The work around the back and front was done in some stages over a two week period, which started with simply laying the framework for the beds and path areas - simple stuff. Then filling the frames in, providing soil and mulch, compacting pathways and surface coating. And then the final step was laying the grass, and working on the front retaining wall and mulch.

Now it was great seeing everything come together, including the fine soil used for the beds and grass base. And waking up to see a small trail of paw prints where Hamish meanders down the side of the house. We just weren’t counting on a windy weekend where any gap in a window resulting in the furniture near the window getting coated in a fine layer of dirt. But, now with the grass laid and looking beautifully green, it’s now dust free.

Hamish still looks a little bit unsettled on the grass, and prefers to quickly cross to the garden bed then wander up the side on the mulch - but no doubt when the grass has settled and it becomes less spongey (it’s really really spongey) he’ll no doubt love it, including a range of sunny spots for him to snooze. But he can, at least, get outside and away from his kitty litter tray - something he was so used to before coming to live here.

Plant-wise, we have some ideas of what we want to do, but given February is no doubt going to be a scorcher, we have decided to leave plant purchases until it cools down a little bit - and that gives us some more time to determine exactly what we want to do. But in the interim, we at least have grass and beds ready to go.

Out the back we will be getting a veggie patch prepared too - but similarly that can wait until the cooler weather hits, and we can get things planted ready for the winter season.

In front of the bedroom window, Mark constructed a small retaining wall box, painted Woodlands Grey and then decorated with stained wooden beams. The soil and mulch then cascade around the sides, leaving a raised area for us to work with.

So here’s what we did all up:

• Side and Clothes Line base: Lilydale Topping
• Rear “path”: river pebbles (we thought 7mm, but after advice a larger size was chosen given 7mm are good at ending up in shoe soles and then scratching tiles)
• Driveway: Exposed Aggregate #5 (at Werribee Sand, Soil and Mix)
• Grass: Sir Walter Buffalo
• Mulch: Hammermill

You can find out more about Mark Gabell & Associates at his website, which also includes contact details and what their specialities are. I can’t recommended these guys enough - their quality of service, professionalism, idea generation and workmanship have been superb, and we both just love the finished product. Even if there are no plants, but hey, get the nurseries to look after them during the hot February weather - we can take possession after that…

We had our exposed aggregate driveway installed just after we had moved in (oops, naughty I know), but the thought process here was that the delivery truck could drive right up to the garage without damaging the concrete. But in the end, the truck was huge and didn’t fit anyway. But still, the driveway went in on the Monday after our move in.

I found it so fascinating to watch… the concrete, the levelling, the cleaning, and of course was supervising the letterbox installation (and boy am I glad we had someone do that - it turned out a bit harder than I had thought, but hey, I’ve never dealt with concrete before so what would I know).

It was laid, then the guys came back later in the day with a high-pressure hose to expose the stonework. And that was like being back in primary school where you paint a picture with coloured crayons, then paint over with black paint, and scratch off bits to expose the colour underneath. Was pretty cool to watch.

The next stage, a few days later, involved a lovely smell. Yes, a varnish coat to protect the stonework which we should do every 12 months. In other words, we’ll get the guys to come back and do it for us.

About our landscapers - we’re so thrilled with them, their professionalism, punctuality, friendliness, discussion of ideas and provision of advice - it’s been such a pleasure to have them around. Note, they didn’t do the fences - again, that company deserve their own post. But after all of our landscaping is done, I’ll post more photos, and talk more about their work - but any Point Cookers needing a landscaper, shoot us a comment and we’ll pass on contact details.

As of now, we have our rear garden beds installed, gravel placed at the back and pathway constructed down the narrow side. Down the large side, we have soil prepared, which will hopefully lead to grass being laid this week. And yes, we have a rainwater tank too. So far our garden consists of soil and solar lights. So more photos of the construction and WIP stages to come soon.

Wow…

It’s been a while. We sorta got distracted when we got given the keys to the house. It’s been pretty crazy since then, packing, moving, Christmas, New Year, Hamish moved in (the cat), drive way, fences, letterbox, couch replacement, light fixtures, bin install, ironing board holder install, peeping-hole (for the front door thank you) install, garage tidy, letterbox number install, blinds, plus a bit of R&R in there too.

Settlement day was 11th December 2009, and we arrived for our final inspection with our Site Supervisor at 8am, which was all good - hot water was ready, oven going in, rangehood installed, and it was starting to look very finished.

We did, however, have no garage door at settlement. The garage door company had told our Site Supervisor that the doors had been measured. Then the install date comes and goes, and no doors. So the SS rings them, and is told “oh, no that hasn’t been measured so isn’t ready”. Bah. So delays on that, but it’s all installed now, and looks (and works)  really well. But I guess it wasn’t too much of an issue given that PD don’t do any external gear to the house (i.e. driveway) so not like we could lock the cars in - we’re just grateful that it was installed shortly after, and our SS has been fantastic post-settlement with getting those odd jobs fixed up. Although, one still comes to mind he needs to address… But anyway…

The kitchen is simply superb - the 5 burner cooktop and 900mm oven is a dream to use, and already has had beautiful things made on and in it including our Christmas turkey, paella, a stir fry or two, plus, of course, components for home-made ice cream. Oh yeah, we know how to live.

We moved in about a week after settlement, which was the weekend before Christmas, and unpacked 95% of the gear by then. There is, of course, still 5% to go, even today, but we’ve run out of bookshelf space, so they can stay in a box for now.

But it’s been pretty smooth sailing (except the fences, but they will get a post in their own right later), with the phone connected and internet active when we moved in - so in that sense it didn’t feel like a “new” home as it was all ready to go. And of course, our geek cupboard is very geeky now including switches, modems and routers to get our networked house up to the world of Ethernet. We have our wireless running from the lounge room through an AirPort Express so that we can stream music from our computers to the lounge room speakers via iTunes - it’s just all working so well.

And the best bit, I can see the TV from my office (the 4th “bed” slash “store” room), so can get the best of both worlds.

The thing to look at… the site clean up. Ours was pretty, well, piss poor to put it no other way. We had chunks of concrete left around - see the photos for some size comparisons - and we were told that the site had been cleaned. Rubbish. So we now have a mound of crap that PD didn’t clean up sitting at the front of our place, that our landscapers had moved to prep for landscaping efforts.

But anyway, it’s getting on, and I have another post up my sleeve including driveway photos, and then time for another stir fry - my turn to cook.

To two of our fellow followers and soon-to-be first-time builders who have emailed us already - I do apologise for the delayed updates - but if you’re going house hunting around Point Cook at the displays or your own block, give us a tingle and come and say hi.

As with all new projects, we are already starting a list of things to get addressed in our three month post-completion work, but nothing that we weren’t expecting or warned about, so that should all be pretty straight forward when the time comes… wow, only two months until that…

And I must pull my finger out, and include some of our recent photos. So these are from Day 98, which was last Friday. A little scary to think we hadn’t even cracked 100 days and yet we have a near complete house to look at.

Tomorrow, our inspection day, is the end of Week 15 - so we’re doing pretty well time-wise, and by handover it will be the end of Week 16. Just such an exciting time. Apart from the stress of organising everything after thinking “ah there’s plenty of time”… not really.

But anyway, here is a preview for you to look at our rendered pillars, carpet and updated bathroom fixtures including mirrors, shower screens and all the nice things like that.

We’ll no doubt have more to talk about tomorrow after our inspection.

I spent a bit of time on the phone today booking in fences, blind and shutter installation and a cat door for Hamish.  We’ve also found a landscaper we like and we’re meeting him on the weekend to finalise the plans and book everything in.  Before we move in we’ll have the driveway and fences done.  We should also have a good start on the landscaping before Christmas.  Tomorrow I’ll be onto the water tank people to get that sorted.

Removalists were booked last week for the 19th.  Now we just have to tackle the packing here!!!

We’ve also got some photos we took the other day to put up so stay tuned for them!

So anyway, in preparation for handover, we’re looking at landscaping. We have a decent fence quote, and now just some landscaping queries.

We’re looking at getting some lawn put down the side of the house, and then gravel down the other side and back. That’s the high level description. Then of course there’s the concrete for the water tank and driveway.

Driveway-wise, we went to look at the supplier’s examples and have found one we like - and on asking the guy in the office - it’s the cheapest of the selection too (and yes, this is purely coincidence). But we are looking at the exposed aggregate, and a lighter colour to offset against the dark garage door and light pillars. The one we like has a speckle of dark in it, but not as dark as some others which would make it look too gloomy.

We also looked at some mulch to at least get put down where we want the garden beds to be, with the land underneath prepared, so when the weather calms down in March/April, we can get planting - try not to kill them during the February heat that will no doubt come. So mulch-wise, there’s a nice dark brown mulch with enough life in it to provide good contrast with whatever we end up planting in it.

And finally, our gravel discussion turned into 7mm pebbles. They look clean and simple, and will be very Hamish-friendly - some of the other gravel would not be good for his paws. And, even better, again they’re the cheapest of the range. So hopefully the quote will come in with our budget in mind.

Anyway, here’s a look at the concrete, mulch and pebbles.

We had a meeting with our Site Supervisor this week and had a look at the progress during the week.

So progress first - we have taps, shower heads, toilets, and a bath in place. Sure, the plumbing is turned off from the outside, but at least the inside is starting to look very neat indeed.

Even though we have had a few things get done that were not supposed to, our Site Supervisor has been great, and is on the ball with things too - such as our monsoonal shower - it’s meant to hang 400mm from the ceiling, which, given we’re both over 6 foot, would be a smidge above our heads. So instead, our shower head hangs at 200mm from the ceiling - and with Mikey standing underneath it, it’s quite clear that this adjustment has been an incredibly smart move. So it’s the little things like this that make us once again aware that this house is being built for us.

Our Site Supervisor gave us a rundown of what is planned for this week. And, well, it includes carpentry, render, tiles (finalising), carpet, plumbing, electrical, benchtops and the preliminary clean. Holy crap. By Friday we’ll have a carpeted house. Not that we’re complaining - just after plodding along recently with the tiles at a steady pace, this week looks to be jam packed with work. This all leads up to the final Porter Davis inspection the week after, which means we can then book our final inspection and fingers crossed get a better indication of dates for when we’re going to be moving. It’s getting very close now, and very exciting! We should also be getting the mess around the site cleaned up outside - so of course, the “Before” picture is in this batch… let’s see what it’s like without all of the concrete and crap lying around.

So on day 76 and 78 we caught the tilers on duty so were able to have a sticky beak around and see everything as work in progress. We’re really happy with how the tiles are looking, and are really glad that the brown tiles were replaced with grey tiles when our floor tiles got changed. So even though it was a little frustrating at the time to go through a colour scheme re-think, we both agree that it has worked out in our favour.

The finished product is so neutral and inoffensive, and can now be livened up with any colour we like - as opposed to finding a tone that goes with brown. So that’s all very exciting.

Our stone benchtops have also been measured, so we should be seeing those soon-ish too.

So yesterday we had a special delivery from the Victorian distributor of Polytek and our Antigua letter box. And this thing is huge. But then, also thinking of it in front of a house, will make it appear smaller but at the moment stuck in our narrow hallway, it’s freakin’ huge!

The really odd part is how light it is - it’s a self install letterbox, and something that can easily be done (and carried) by a single person. So there’s a big metal pole that gets bolted on and stuck into some concrete in the ground, you level it out with a spirit level and then wait for it to dry and hurrah - you’re done.

So at least we have that purchase done. And why this letterbox? Well driving around the estates you see a lot of letterboxes - plain, stock-standard off-the-shelf letterboxes that, well, quite frankly, look rather crappy. Some are alright; some look OK; some look like they came from the $2 Shop. And given the style of our house, we thought this would be something unique and make it stand out a little bit - local distribution in Victoria has only started recently so there’s not too many around - don’t go stealing our idea now ; )

And to get stuck on the front (after we’ve figured out what colour(s) we’re painting the Antigua), we also had a special delivery of our address plate in, you guessed it, matching fire engine red. It’s shiny. It’s red. It’s very very cool. So when we have painted our letterbox, we can then go through the process of attaching our address to the front.

You can check out the range of Polytek letterboxes at their website, and also metal address plates from Sign Artist.