Tour our bathroom and toilet!

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Blinds!

Bedroom 2 is all blinded up as of tonight!
Here's another pic-


Our room. They look so great! Love them. And they fitted so well. Too dark to check out how they look from the outside but it should suit our Teak timber stain pretty well we think.


Entry

Garage. This was the most diffcult one as it was first!! Had to trim two of the slats to allow for the louvres on the sides. Luckily this was the only one that was like this.

Keeeeeeeeeeeeeys!!!!!!!!!

Well the day has arrived! On the left of my bundle here you can see I have clipped on my garage remote and the silver key is the one that opens our very own first home. Think I might have to keep the garage remote in the car so it doesn't get bumped accidentally, as I opened the garage door while we were standing in the kitchen, just by putting my hands in my pockets!

Here's our laundry filled with early morning light. It has new doors on the bottom cabinet.


All the linen doors were given another coat of paint as they were too dry. They look lovely and glossy now :-)


Stacker door in the kids' retreat. Had fun working out how to open and close them and seeing if the key fitted in the lock. We were just like kids, running around checking everything and playing!

Rangehood is in. It has nice little undercupboard lights in it, those and the one light above the island bench will have to do until we get our friendly electrician to light up the place like Vegas.

Not everything has been fixed but it will be very soon. The paint fix on the pantry doors was dodgy. The painter had just touched up a spot instead of painting the whole door, and as it's gloss paint, it stuck out like... well it was really obvious. Also a red dot remained in the WIR with a hole next to it, and the door jamb in the kids' retreat stacker needed another stain as it was obviously closed before it had a chance to dry last time. Our ss is getting the painter out today to fix all these things and we have it in writing. The saggy fence is also not fixed. We offered to organise it though and send them the bill. That's also written down in our post-handover agreement docs.

Our handover gift was apparently a BBQ set. I didn't even get the chance to open it. Chris spirited it straight out to the car! SS loved his cupcakes and gave one to each of the other SSs that drove past.

Such a strange and exciting feeling having the keys and watching the SS drive off, leaving us there alone in front of what is now OUR house. And even weirder that we had to leave and go to work! Wanted to stick around and keep playing. Alas, that will have to wait for now. Over the next few weeks we will be busy with carpet, driveway, blinds, shutters, appliances, heating, cleaning. Will post more pics as we get these jobs done, in preparation for the big move!

1 sleep til keys!!!

So excited!! Lucky we got lots of sleep last night and went to bed at grandma'o'clock because we will be far too excited to sleep tonight! Fingers crossed everything's ok and we can have the keys tomorrow. SS says the only thing he's waiting on are the two replacement doors for our laundry cupboard. We can always get the keys and accept delivery of the doors next week, so we're lookin good!!! woohoo!

New guttering and final lick of paint

Out to the house today and noticed they have done more fix ups. It's nearly all done! This is the study and hall, looking towards the entry.

They have given our kids' retreat doors another coat of stain, as they were far too dry before.


Kitchen. Looking pretty much the same. As you can see, there are still a couple of red dots around.


Guttering on the front has been removed and will be replaced.

And...... most random thing we've found on our block today, make that all year-

This strange object was sighted in the middle of the driveway!

Not sure how we're looking to be done by Friday as that's only two days away. Will ring our ss tomorrow and see what he thinks...

Retaining wall, windows and sill replaced

Yay! The glass in four of our front windows has been replaced. The new glass doesn't have the ugly safety stickers on it either, so that's another plus!


The window sill at the bottom of this pic has been replaced too, so that it's now on the same angle as the other sills.


This was a surprise! We raised at our PCI that this section of the retaining wall was 5 degrees sloping away from the cut, when it should be sloping about 10 degrees the other way. We didn't think it was going to get fixed, but here it is! Really happy with this as this compulsory item cost a small fortune and to not have it done dodgy was really frustrating.

The saggy fence has not yet been straightened, but it should be as soon as the retaining wall man is done :-)

Also noticed that both our shower screens have been taken off. The jutting out tile in the bathroom shower has been replaced. Not sure why the ensuite shower screen is off... The broken brick at the base of one of our alfresco pillars has also been taken out and a new one put in. The dented aluminium window in our living area has not yet been taken off, but its fly screen has so it must be being done soon. After that, it's just a lick of paint and we're there!

Carpet measure-up & PCI fix ups

Couldn't resist snapping a few pics today while meeting the carpet man out at the house to do our on-site measure. Splashback looking nice and shiny.


Chipped floor tiles in the bathroom have been ripped up and new ones laid. Looks much nicer. The tiler has also fixed up a couple of holes in the grout etc that we put stickers on at PCI.


Two tiling items still to fix. Here's one below. It's the tile right in the corner of the ensuite next to the vanity. The wall looks out of square because the tile hasn't been cut right and the grout lines being a mm out here and there have resulted in the tiler getting to the end and having this crooked one. He will rip up that whole row probably and ensure they are more evenly/parallel spaced. The other tiling issue is one of the shower tiles in the main bathroom sticks out 5mm from the rest. The shower screen needs to be taken off for this tile to be redone.

Our scratched internal door handles have been replaced. The ensuite mirror will be replaced as there's a huge scratch on it that we missed at PCI- thanks must go to the Henley cleaning lady who pointed it out to our ss! Also spoke to the glass guys who came to measure up 4 of our front windows for new glass, which were scratched when the mortar was cleaned off them. Our ss is out at the house now with a carpenter and they are replacing the front door lock (dented) and turning the middle panel of our stacker door around the right way. He will ring us later in the week to let us know if he's on target for handover :-)

Telstra, final payment, FHOG

Ringing Telstra today was far less painful than I anticipated. Was not on hold for very long at all and have booked in the connection for our phone in a couple of weeks time. I think I'm starting to get this smart wiring business! Once the phone is connected we can ring up and get broadband connected. Not sure we'll have much time for the net in the first few weeks of being moved anyway!
Also sent thru an email to the bank with a million questions, such as:
1. How do we put the carpet on the home loan?
2. How do we put the driveway on the home loan?
3. Does the bank have to inspect our house before authorising final payment?
4. If so, book us in man.
5. How do we organise the final cheque?
6. Where o where is our FHOG?????????????????????
So far I have answers to Question 5 only. haha.

PCI pics!

PCI is done! We have covered our house with little red polka dots and done our best to pin point every little flaw we saw. Our re-inspection is due in 13 days. Fingers crossed everything is resolved by then!
Paid the deposit on the carpet today. Also met with the driveway man who is flat out at the moment but will try to fit us in after handover. Trying to nut out all this smart wiring crap. Will ring Telstra on Monday and have cup of coffee and snacks by phone in case I die of thirst or hunger before they take my call off hold.

Here's the ensuite. Small scratch on mirror. Lots of dirty marks around towel rail.


Main bathroom. Lots of chipped tiles on the floor. Lucky we noticed them. Only did because I was sitting on the bath and hung my head down in tiredness, then went 'hey look at those!' haha


Laundry. Two cupboards have to have the doors replaced. They tried to polyfil and sand the scratches out put there by careless installers. Tsk tsk- how could they ever think that sanding laminex would work?????!


Our splashback arrived 10 minutes into the PCI meeting. It looks brownish but it's not. Trust me. It's 'grey nurse' and we love it!

Carpet shopping, getting prepped for PCI

Went and bought some fluoro green dots for our PCI on Friday, just in case the ss runs out; don't want anything to get in the way of it all going smoothly. Was very tempted to get pink ones, but figured the brighter the better!
Stopped into the carpet shop and shortlisted us to two different colours/types. They are both very dense grey twist pile, one is Redbook and one is Godfrey Hirst. Going back tomorrow afternoon to take samples home so we can take them to PCI and lay them out against the floor tiles.
Also stopped into RACV to get home and contents quotes. Pretty happy with their price, just have to finalise exactly what level of cover to go with and then we'll lock it in.

Flyscreens, tiles fixed

Couldn't get in to the house, but noticed the flyscreens are on, the manhole is in the laundry, and the crooked tiling in the entry is fixed. They have also painted our eaves and the portico plaster. Looks done to me!

New fridge!

We didn't plan on buying a fridge today... But called in to E & S to check out their 20% off sale. Was very skeptical. Thought "pfff, it won't be that cheap..." Wrong. It was very cheap. We've admired this fridge for a little while but it was soooo expensive- twice as dear as other fridges the same size. Got offered such a good deal we thought, why not? Love, love, love it :-) It's a massive 653litres, and 'silver finish' so no fingerprints for us, and it has the fancy French doors. Ooo la la.

WE HAVE OUR NEW HOME INSPECTION BOOKED!

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next Friday. 28th May.

Can't wait.

More little fix-ups

Here's one they still need to fix... Our ensuite sink appears to have a blockage! The water just does not drain away!

A few other things have been fixed though. Here's our plaster wall in the pantry. At least now the door will have something to stop up against, and we'll now be able to have shelving on 2 sides rather than just two.

Bits of wood have been put around the lintels on the alfresco to hide the ugly bits where they join the brick. Guessing they will be painted this week.

Tiling in the ensuite is finished, but looks like some sort of sealer needs to be squeezed into the corners as there's no grout in there. Powerpoints are very high up, which is a bit stoopid but probably due to some regulation.

We also have a roof in the portico now. Yay! Nice batten light, don't you think? Very stylish, very standard looking.

Pantry wall, downpipe variation

Got a call today re the missing wall in our pantry. Were asked if we would be happy with a piece of melamine shelving instead- no thanks. No sweat, it's being put in as a plaster wall, as it should have been.

Also got a variation in the mail about moving one of the downpipes from the master bedroom wall to the portico? Not exactly sure where they mean and it sounds like it might be a bit of an eyesore, so we've asked for a copy of the house plan clearly indicating the proposed location.

No more temporary fencing!! Woo hoo!

Well after months and months we can finally take a photo of the finished outside of our home without temporary fencing in front of it. Will be good when that green bin goes, but it's handy, so I want it to stay a while longer!

toilet, pantry, bath, mirrors

Bath tiles have been grouted in place. Doesn't look like they've yet put the silver strip along the edge though... Not sure why there's a peep hole in the base, but everyone's baths seem to have one when they're first put in...

Mirror in the bathroom!


Tiling in laundry is finished. Loving it :-) Looks much nicer going all the way across and will look even better once the washing machine sits under it.


Pantry shelves!!! It's huge; we could have a tea party in there! Our ss said lots of tradies have come to our house and noticed the difference between this and the standard Voyager and said how much they like it. Made me feel all warm and fuzzy when he said that. haha.

Toilet!! Just the one is in so far, the ensuite one.

Showerheads, taps and extra tiling

Showerhead and taps in the main bathroom are on. You can see the extra row of tiling above the shower.


Ensuite feature tile (close-up)


Ensuite shower taps. Very Arthritis friendly!


Ensuite tiling- extra row around the top and tiling on the pillar next to the shower. The whole wall will also be tiled around the mirror.

No grout in the top tiles yet.

Basins in bathrooms, bath in dining room

Robe in one of the minor bedrooms is fitted out.

Laundry sink is in. Tiling has not yet been finished in here.


A bath in the dining room. What luxury!


Sink and taps in the bathroom. They haven't had the plumbing connected yet.