DRIVEWAY - STAGE 1

We had our driveway poured last Wednesday. Cant wait to be able to drive into garage this week.
We have made driveway wide enough at top to park 3 cars wide. With 5 children all yet to get licences this will come in very handy as the years roll by.


We will have surfacing done in a month.


House is slowly coming together, next project is to finish backyard then start the mammoth task of our front yard.

POST BUILD PROGRESS UPDATE - ELECTRICAL AND DRIVEWAY PREP

Last week we had our driveway prepped ready for pour on Friday - unfortunately pour did not happen due to weather so we will reschedule for another day this week.


We also had some electrical work done over the weekend with our Kitchen Pendant lights and stair lights being installed as well as changing std power points out for ones with USB ports included.
With the addition of our stools our kitchen is complete and I think I am even more in love with it.


Looking forward to our driveway being poured next.

POST HANDOVER PROGRESS - GRASS

We have been in our beautiful home for almost 4 weeks now and are slowing marking things off the never ending list of TO DO's


Over the past few weekends we have been preparing the back yard to be grassed. (to eliminate the dirt and dust slightly)
My husband spent the full weekend last fortnight on the bobcat moving dirt and shaping the yard ready for top soil and grass. As the rear of our block is a rock shelf he moved the dirt to level off but keeping a fall to allow the water to flow into the drains and out the front.


The following week we had top soil delivered and he spent many afternoons out levelling off and spreading the top soil.


Friday saw the delivery of 250 sqr mtrs of grass and with an approaching storm we spent the last few hours of daylight after work laying the grass.
Very happy with our end result, its nice to look out and see green grass instead of constant dust storms and rock.


We will hopefully retain and deck from the back of the house to the retaining wall in the coming months.


Ordered our security doors so we can open up the back of our home and take advantage of the beautiful southerly's.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PHOTOS

Just some photos of the tail end of our build pre handover.




Rear excavated section to be retained

Rock from rear of home.

REAR FENCE - DIY by amazing Husband

Interior Door Style

Main Bathroom

Kitchen

FRONT STEPS

FRONT FACADE



Main Bedroom Sliding doors
 

HANDOVER 27th SEPTEMBER 2016

We had our handover on Tuesday 27th September.
Still a few small tings to be rectified but nothing to stop us taking possession of our new home.


Handover basically took a little over an hour - we went over everything we had on our PCI list to mark off as done or note that still needs to be done.


A few paint issues were missed so painters had to come back to rectify.
Replacement kitchen cupboard and oven plinth still need to be replaced but is scheduled in for end of month.


We had removalists booked and on our doorstep the following morning at 7.30am and they were brilliant. They treated all our things with care and were all done by 11.30am.


Our kids were brilliant they rode to and from the old and new house loading and unpacking all morning. We had everything in and mostly unpacked by about 5pm that day.


Totally in love with our new home, love that our wonderful children all now have their own space and I finally have a kitchen that fits more then 2 people at a time.
Loved cooking our first meal in our new kitchen and even loved washing up.


Now the fun begins - we have some electrical work to do and a mass of landscaping.
Driveway booked for end of October and the hubby has been busy on the bobcat levelling and shaping the front and back yards.
Still to decide on window furnishing's but for now block out fabric does the job till I can make up my mind on what I want.


Will post more pic's as we settle in and finish each area.

INTERIM OCCUPATION CERTIFICATE

Massive waves of relief as we have just got our Interim Occupational Certificate.


MJH had to remove and rebuild our front stairs today after they were defected for the 3rd time by NCC yesterday afternoon.


I needed to have the IOC today to send to the bank in order to get the funds released so cheque can be picked up on Tuesday ready for handover.


Can't begin to say how much stress it has been trying to get MJH to do what was needed so council would pass the house, just wish they had done what they were forced to do today almost 3 weeks ago.


However staying positive IOC has now been emailed to the bank so funds can be released.


Time to start my annual leave and move into our new home.

HANDOVER UPDATE

Handover has now been moved to Tuesday 27th September 2016.
Despite what we were told at PCI they can not have house ready as promised on the 22nd but we have been assured keys will be given to us on the 27th.


This cuts things a lot finer for moving out of the rental as we have given notice and booked everything based on MJH dates given at PCI.


I am pushing to ensure everything is done as promised - chasing IOC so we can get that to bank to ensure we have funds available to handover on Tuesday.
Have escalated delays to Newcastle Manager to ensure they actually meet their promises for the first time. he has promised that everything will be done as advised.


I also questioned out Provisional Allowance in the contract as they had not advised if they funds had been used and nothing noted on final invoice.
CLO advised they had used a majority portion to which I questioned and have had reviewed to that we now will get 1/2 of the allowance refunded back to us. Awaiting copies of invoices so I can finalise and provide details to have refund processed.


So now we have to wait.
Husband is on site daily putting up fencing at rear and side of block so he is monitoring what is happening and what is not happening.


The process of getting current house packed and ready to hand back to real-estate continues, We are very much look forward to removalists clearing us out on Wednesday morning.


Hopefully the stresses of the past few days will be a distant memory once we have the keys to our home.

PCI UPADTE

PCI has been moved to Thursday 15th as house is not ready sadly.
Carpenters should have finished skirting today and Painters are scheduled for tomorrow.


Have been advise that we will still be able to get keys a week after (22nd Sept).


Purchased the pendant lights for above the island bench in kitchen over the weekend (pic below) and also found the kitchen stools just wanting to confirm that they are able to get 5 stools for me.


Hubby has fitted rear fence and will start side fence tomorrow.
We have taken more rock out from the backyard so atm the yard has a massive pile of rock to be removed later in the week.


Notice given on rental and removalist booked for the 24th - now just need the keys.

BAMBOO FLOORING INSTALLED

Our Bamboo flooring was installed on Monday and it looks so awesome we are so happy with our choice (BALINESE TEAK).


We have waited so ling for flooring to go in as it pulls all of our colour selections together and is just as we had envisaged.


Husband got a sneak peak at them whilst they were being laid - they are now all covered up with a  black protection plastic to eliminate any damage with carpet layers and final trades coming through in the next few days.


Carpet installation commenced yesterday with all underlay put down and carpets to be laid today.
Will be great to see floors once they have been cleaned.


Only a few more days to wait for PCI.

 

 

 

Hallway to Main Bedroom

Linen # 1

Linen # 2

Entrance Hallway



Stairs to bedrooms

PROGRESS UPDATE - PCI BOOKED

Our home is so close to completion. We have PCI booked for Monday 12th.

 

• Security Door and flyscreens installed last Friday.
• Initial clean done.
• Tiler has been and replaced tiles as they were the wrong colour.
• Floors and carpets are being installed today/tomorrow.
• Site clean booked for tomorrow.
• Council is booked for Wednesday to give IOC.

Then final checks done by our SS's manager ready for our PCI Monday.

 

Husband is off on 4 week long service leave and spoke with SS on site today who advised that he is finishing up with MJH on Wednesday.
So glad that we are at the last few weeks of our build as he has been a great SS.
As we are in the last stages we will have PCI and handover with his boss as no point starting a new SS this late in the game.


All in all with a few minor hiccups along the way our build with MJH has been good.
After reading others blogs and lots of forums on different builders and the problems they are/have had the issues we have encountered throughout our build have been rectified fairly promptly and with reasonably low fuss.
MJH quality so far has been excellent and we have been lucky to have a great SS who has been very easy to deal with.


So looking forward to seeing our floors installed, can't wait to do our PCI on Monday.

SITE MEETING WITH SS

On Friday we met with our Site Supervisor as we wanted to check on the house progress and make sure we are still on target for our PCI date.


Tiles have been finished to Main Bathroom and on inspection 1 tile needs to be removed and redone as it sits proud of all the other tiles.
Also it appears their is a colour variance in the original tiles laid and the top 3 rows.


SS can't understand why we were short tiles to begin with but now as a result it may end up being a costly mistake as the colour variance was very noticeable. Chances are they are out of different batches hence the colour variance.


Waiting on SS to come back to us with how this will be rectified.


Everything else seems to be on track - Painters were meant to be on site all weekend although they did not turn up to site on till Sunday. Internal doors were painted when we walked through just not installed. Much happier with the doors now that they are the correct ones.


Bathroom and Electrical fit off scheduled for today, hopefully the painters haven't delayed things further by not being finished and still on site today.


Should have Interim OC by 6th September so as long as everything continues and trades turn up as scheduled we are still on track for PCI 12th September.


Only other issue that we spotted was the colour of the bricks has dulled majorly with the brick cleans.
As they have cleaned the bricks more than once they are actually loosing their colour. Not sure on how this will be rectified - we have chosen to wait till PCI to assess them as if they clean them again they will be even worse.
Quality of bricks is all good apart from this which could end up being a fairly large problem - only time will tell though.

PROGRESS UPDATE - KITCHEN SPLASHBACK INSTALLED

Work on site has been slow last week - site is basically stopped waiting on painters to get in and paint.
Spoke with SS today and he advised that he has all trades booked to our site for the next 3 weeks right down to flooring so hopefully we will still see PCI by 12th September as per contract.


Went to block on weekend to paint our shipping container and put a few posts in to finish retaining wall on low side.


To our surprise our kitchen splashback had been installed.
It looks fantastic - cant wait to see appliances and flooring in.


No other major changes -  the new internal doors are due to be delivered to site today with carpenter booked in for tomorrow to install them all.
Tiler should be back today to finish off Main bathroom as extra tiles were delivered waiting install.


On the down side we have had a few instances of people deciding they can help them selves to things from our site. This weekend it was pallets. Prior to that it was colour bond sheeting and tools from the site next door.
I have advised SS this morning to ensure house is fully locked up each day from now on as we came back to site yesterday afternoon to find the house fully open and the pallets gone.


We are so close to completion that I don't want someone coming in a taking stuff from inside as well.