Better Late than never

Better late than never but here are the photos.

From this

To this

 Kids play room

 Lounge Room

 Dining room

 Family Room

Main Bathroom

Kitchen

 Garden

(yuccas, Pink Cordalines & Baby Panda Bamboo)

and the newest member of the family

Albert the Jack Russell

We have now been in the house for almost 4 months. Time has flown by so quickly and we have achieved a lot. It really feels like home now

 

sorry still no photos

So it has been a long time since we have done a post and that is thanks to the complete lack of Internet available to us. An issue that I find very annoying but have put on the back burner until we get ourselves settled. Therefore still no photos to share.

Anyways. We have been in our house for 6 weeks and things have happened so quickly thanks entirely to my very hardworking husband. Our house is finished. Outside the list of duties which have been completed includes one 15m trench, one 15 retaining wall, 6 tonnes of gravel, 1 tonnes of top soil, 1 tonne of garden mix, 1 tonne of rocks and half a tonne of bark chips, 115 square meters of lovely Sir Walter, 2 gates, once fence, one mail box and a clothes line. All done by wonderful husband and almost completely on his own. Inside the furniture has all been delivered and appliances have all been installed and it is looking even better than expected. Best of all 5 months earlier and thousands of dollars cheaper due to doing all the work ourselves. I wish I had the photos to share.

Now that the work is done we are starting to enjoy our new home and all that our new suburb has to offer. Beautiful walks to the beach, parks and duck ponds and a shop full of lollies for our little ones. The opportunities to fill our day are endless and very much appreciated and we have been lucky enough to have a street full of amazing neighbours (not said just because they read our blog - hi Jay!). We love our new home and would not change a thing.

Although this post has been entirely positive until now, i still can not go past the issue of the disappointment we still feel about our builder and the process they inflicted upon us. Nothing that was identified in handover has been addressed, including our missing bins and the hole in the bathroom ceiling. This is certainly not surprising and really we did not expect anything different. We are aware these issues did not just relate to our build and Can't help but feel we escaped a sinking ship just in time.

We love our home because of what we have made of it Some things still really bother me and probably always will but for the most part we are happy. Our home has become our lifestyle and because of this i will always be satisfied.

It's Ours!!!!!

As the headline suggests we finally have our keys. Our handover went well on Wednesday, only a few problems were identified and the SS informs us that most of these issues will be rectified prior to Christmas.

We got the Keys on Wednesday and moved on Thursday. We are both so lacking in time at the moment that it was all done in a mad rush. By 12pm Thursday afternoon, we were done. 3 days later and the house is completely unpacked. Only a big pile of empty boxes remains. Inside the only thing left to do is hang some art work, photos and a mirror and outside the work has begun.

The excavator came on Saturday to dig out the driveway and remove an incredible amount of concrete that had been poured all over the front yard (another gift from One Three). We set up our camp chairs and a little picnic in the garage and our boys watched with delight as the digger scrapped and smashed his way through our yard and we all enjoyed a little laugh when the beach toys we left in the pile of dirt, were gobbled up by the digger and at that moment I realised how good it felt to be home.

We are also making some progress out the back. For such a tiny yard the work seems endless. We have began levelling out the yard to our desired height and digging a trench to erect a retaining wall inside the fence. As we will be doing all the work ourselves progress will be slow but we will get there. It is very hard living in a white house with 2 small kids and a whole lot of dirt so we are counting down the seconds until the driveway and grass arrive.

This has been a very long process for us, one that until now, has provided us with very little joy. The quality is not what we were expecting but we can not change that now. The design suits our needs perfectly and we are enjoying being in the house but if we could make the decision over we would not have Built with One Three. The drama we experienced throughout this build was stressful and unnecessary. We are both very glad to be moving on from building and turning this house into a home full of happy memories.

No photos for now as we are still lacking phone and Internet connections but We will post some very soon.

On the countdown again.

As the title suggests Our inspection was postponed not once, not twice but yes 3 times. We are now looking at Wednesday 7th December as our new Handover date, 8 days post contract.
Since that initial inspection was cancelled we have learnt that One Three do things a little differently. Our final inspection is also the day we get the keys. So providing things go to plan (for the 3rd attempt) we will be getting our keys in 3 days.

The house is basically finished and the only thing that is really holding us up is a missing shower screen (which is very frustrating because this really should not be an issue) and after what seemed like a million phone calls we managed to get the gas connected in only 3 days (huge thank you for the awesome guys at Carmine services for that one).

Media room finished.

Just some furniture and plantation shutters to go

600 x 600 porcelain tiles

Through to the alfresco

The Moroka is on and while it looks OK, It is hard to see past the disappointment that has come with it. It is not that I think it looks bad but to me it just seems so obvious that it was an afterthought, it looks a little mismatched and at this point I just don't like it, hopefully that will change as time goes by and I get used to seeing our house it's new form. My ever passive husband is a little more positive so hopefully i will come around too.

Getting ready for the Moroka.

Unfortunately we do not have a photo of the finished product 

Driveway has been booked to start next week and the retaining wall will also be getting started in our incredibly tiny backyard so fingers crossed it all goes to plan this time.

PCI Tuesday

PCI has been booked for Tuesday. With what appeared to be a list of jobs a mile long to complete, we were holding little hope the inspection would even go ahead. Today I am feeling a little more optimistic.

A chat with the tiler has calmed my frustration about the continuous delays and confirmed that tiling will definitely be complete by tomorrow lunch time . The sun has been shining and we are also hoping to see the Moroka go on Tomorrow. The only outstanding issue that our SS admits may hold things up is the shower screen. Yes you heard correctly, a shower screen. After all the drama this house has given us, it will be a shower screen that stands between us and our keys!!! Frustration times a million at this point.

We are also having an issue with the fact that we have no gas connection. For all you builders out there a gas connection takes 40 days to come through. It would have been nice for our builder to tell us this. Without gas we can not cook, clean, shower or most importantly test our appliances. Another possible hold up.

We have snuck a look inside the house and we are really loving what we see. Especially now the tiles have gone down. There are a few things that we are already wishing we had done differently but for those we have only ourselves to blame and i guess we will live and learn.

For now we just have our fingers crossed that the bad weather holds off long enough to apply the Moroka and my phone call to AGL can bring a resolution to the gas issue.

Wish us luck in our countdown to handover because I think we need it.

5 days from handover?????

We called past the site a couple of days ago to find the place swarming with tradies. After some initial excitement of seeing someone on site after a few days of absolutely nothing, it occoured to us that all the work that was being done, was resulting in no new progress.

The brick layers were there to pull down and re lay some dodgy bricks, the chippy was there to remove and re install the vanity, the plumbers were there to remove all the drain pipes and and the water tank so the Moroka can be done. While it is a good thing these tasks are being complete, the sight of things that we thought were finished being torn down was once again heartbreaking.

Not an Ideal place for a water tank

At present on site we are still awaiting the elusive tiler. 5 weeks since he began we have 2 partially complete bathrooms, one splash back needing grout, and not a single floor tile laid (they are waiting patiently in the garage) We are forever told that it will be happening and as the day continuously comes and goes we have the feeling that we are never going to get these keys.

Recess in the ensuite

600 x 600 tiled Kitchen splashback

It is not all doom and gloom there has been some exciting things happening. The garage door is now on, as are all the internal door handles. Vanity mirrors are in, the toilets and taps have all been installed, the main bathroom basin is in and looks great. Fans, lights and power points have all been installed. Internally the only significant job to be done is the tiling.

Taps all installed and looking good

Ensuite Vanity

Appliances on site and ready to be installed

Looking at the house Moroka is still to be started, there is a significant amount of lack of tiling, mess everywhere and no drain pipes or water tank, it has become very clear that November 29th was never going to happen. Our only thought is how much over will we actually go.

An unexpected direction

It has been a eventful week on the housing front and some big decisions were made. It looks as though the house we started with at the beginning of this week, will hardly be recognisable by the end of the next. If you have not guessed it already, I am on about the bricks again.

A site meeting with our SS on Monday was my absolute melting point. We were at the point where a walk around the exterior of the house had become painful and it felt as though this company were just not listening to us. The bricks are in bad shape and we could see no way that they could all be fixed. After a mini meltdown at the SS, which I do feel a bit bad about, as the poor guy has only been with the company a few weeks, We walked through the house and pointed out both the bricks and a few minor issues. We left with the knowledge that the bricks would be addressed with the owner.

The following day we were called into the office to discuss our brick problem. They offered to have the house rendered, using a product called Moroka (bag and paint) at no additional cost. This is not what we wanted. We had always imagined building a brick home and we love the bricks we chose, we watched the house grow from the ground up and loved the way it looked from a distance.

Unfortunately the reality is, the bricks up close were terrible and it was at the point that we could not even look at the house without a few curse words coming to mind. So with that mind we made the decision to accept the offer and go ahead with the Moroka. There are still a few brick repairs to be done but they are relatively minor and should not take too long to rectify we are told. Moroka will hopefully begin on the weekend.

We are still wary of the work to be completed and really hope that they do it a higher standard than we received from the brickie, we are also nervous that our final bill will be excessive as a way to recoup the cost of the Moroka. I guess it is a risk that we just have to take.

We are appreciative that One Three have finally listened to our complaints and have taken action to end this headache once and for all. We never expected that our house would be rendered, especially only weeks away from handover but such is life and now we can move on.