Saturday, November 24, 2012

Finally, some pictures!

Sorry about the lack of updates, but we still don't have any internet at home (bloody Telstra!). We have been very busy over the last couple of weeks though, unpacking our house and helping my parents move into their new house too...just 5 minutes down the road from us!
 
Most of our house is unpacked now, but there is still quite a bit of work to do outside in terms of landscaping. Luckily mum and dad's new garden is so well stocked that we are the recipients of a heap of new flowers and fruit trees that dad has transported from the old house. Now to get planting...
 

Kitchen mantle

The coffee corner

Long shot of the kitchen island bench

Dining table

Hall table

Pantry

Family room

Family room & fireplace

Close up of the fireplace

Theatre room

Theatre room with the temporary TV cabinet

Spare bedroom

Master bedroom

Kody loves laying in this spot in the afternoon sunshine

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Our house, in the middle of the street...

We're in! 

We had a few dramas on the morning of handover, what with the gas bottles not being delivered on site, issues with the stove, and issues with the solar panel - but we got there in the end!


Keys!!
In addition to the keys, we also got a lovely hamper of welcome-stuff from Keogh:



It has been a very busy weekend of loading stuff, unloading stuff, and unpacking. Our storage lockers are basically empty, but there is still quite a bit to move from our bedroom at (our old) home.

Huge thanks goes to all of our friends and family who stopped by over the weekend to lend a hand. 

The house is not quite unpacked and picture-ready at the moment, but in the meantime we have put together a short video summary of the entire building process.

For those of you who view the blog on a mobile phone, please note that the video is about 142mb in size and runs for approximately 3 minutes. 


Thursday, November 1, 2012

2 big sleeps...

Today we had lots of excavators and bobcats and other machinery onsite to level of the backyard, re-cut the front yard ready for some gardens, and re-cut the driveway. We had originally cut in a big "S" shaped driveway, but after driving down it a few times and consultation with others, we decided to re-shape it into a straight sloping driveway. This should mean that it will be much easier for us to back the cars and trailer in and out. 



The plan for the front garden is to build in three separate levels with a pathway running down the middle. Apart from some lavender and English Box, we are not too sure on what exactly will be planted there yet. Time will tell...

We also had a visit from Keogh to start work on most of the list of defects we provided them. We also now have weatherstrips on the external doors, silver strips on the doorway to the bathroom and toilet, and a few other little bits and pieces.

The second visitor for the day was the bank valuer. Ben managed to have a good chat to him about our plans for the future (such as the deck and shed) and what impact these would have on the overall value of the house. The valuer must have found everything to be okay because tonight the loan money was in our account ready to be drawn down for the cheque on Friday. Got to love a bit of punctuality...