The Countdown...

After our visit today, all that was different was the external paintwork, now completed!! Apart from some minor touch ups here and there!

I do believe we are now on the countdown to take over!!! Three weeks to Christmas....bets are on that we are in for Christmas Eve!!! What a Christmas present that would be eh!!

Rear view of house, looking into the alfresco entertaining area, family, dining and downstairs bedroom, upstairs study with balcony...
South, facing West side of house, master/guest bedroom with ensuite and media room downstairs. Upstairs study with balcony, middle bedroom and master ensuite window...
Peaking through the trees....
Laundry door...with internal blind system!
Study with balcony and underneath is the master/guest bedroom...
Alfresco entertaining area...
Close up of ceiling fan in Alfresco entertaining area...
Close up of driveway paving...
The next step is to install the hot water system and air conditioning unit to the utility area and we are good to go!

The next phase will then be picking what window furnishings we want!!!!! Ahhhh the stress of it all :-)

We have already been shopping for beds and looking around for lounge suits and outdoor dining table and chairs. The bed shopping to date has been successful, but we are finding it hard to seek out the right lounge and outdoor furniture at this stage... We or I must be too fussy!!!

Driveway now done!

The driveway has now been done and the water tank has been installed, along with some of the outdoor lighting. We also now have a bath and glass paneling in the bathrooms. So were getting closer and closer!!! Majority of the painting outside is also complete, just the posts to do on the upstairs - they are not staying blue!! The project manager has said we should be in before Christmas:-)) that will be the best Christmas present ever to the both of us!!! Just in time for the Christmas sales too, as we need to buy beds, all new bed linen, a lounge suit and an outdoor furniture set......so not too much really!!!!! Plus all new kitchen wear!!! Were off to Peter's of Kensington to stock up!!!

Our sexy sleek water tank!Nice double bath for two :-) Just imagine the candles flickering in the corner!Shower for two anyone?All the inspections are taking place now, so once they are done, we should be getting our keys!! Then we have to tackle the landscaping and the pool. I imagine this will be done/complete early in the New Year. At least we will be able to sleep in the house:-)

We now have garage doors!

Were getting closer and closer to handover!! We are still keeping our fingers crossed that we get the keys prior to Christmas, though the kitchen units won't be installed until early/mid January, as were using an external company for this.

To date the tiler has done the bathrooms, the laundry and the upstairs balconies. The painters are in at present painting, and the plumber has hooked up the plumbing to the laundry, bathrooms and temporary kitchen island bench. The toilets and bath are still to be installed.

Oh and we now also have garage doors!

Tiles being installed!

Hi there again! We are another step closer....the tiler has been beavering away all of last week, and hopefully is continuing this week too! So far the bathrooms have been started on and the laundry floor done. Also, the staircase bannister's have been installed.

Staircase...
Upstairs Ensuite basins...

Laundry....

Downstairs Ensuite basin...

Downstairs walk-in shower...the niche still needs to be tiled...

We have an appointment with the kitchen designer and installer next Tuesday, this is to measure up for the cabinetry. The kitchen can't be installed though until the keys have been handed over to us!!!

Once the tiles have been done, then the painter starts....followed by the installation of the carpet. The outside of the house still needs to be painted and finished off, and the driveway is still to be installed too.

We are now working on getting quotes for the landscaping....and finishing off the swimming pool.

Still a bit to get done but mainly cosmetic finishes. Until the next update.

Cabinetry & Wet Areas Waterproofed

We took another drive up on Saturday, even though we now no longer can get access to our home...funny that eh!!! We were hoping there may have been someone working on Saturday morning, but unfortunately not. So we just had to cope with peering through the windows at what had been done. Dave took all these photos on his camera phone....pretty good if I say so myself! On some of them just putting his arm through the window and hoping for the best!!

During the week the carpenter had been doing his or her thing....the bathroom cabinet is in, well the downstairs one anyway, we presume they had done upstairs too. The laundry one was done, along with the temporary kitchen bench - this is going to be moved out and put into Dave's garage as a work bench - a very flash work bench I might add!!!

The balustrade on the staircase had also been installed.

The waterproofing had been done for the wet areas too.Cabinetry & sink in ensuite, downstairs...

The internal doors had also been hung too downstairs, and we guess upstairs as well.

The tiler will be present this week.

Yeah we have a staircase and extenal doors!

Today we arrived at our house and discovered that we had a front door, which was locked, along with an internal garage door, also locked, a laundry door, again locked and all the sliding doors were locked too - hmmm guess were not going to get access this weekend!!! So we proceeded to check out progress through the windows. Most of the cornice had been installed and the plastering was finished.

View through the alfresco doors down the hallway to our front door!!

We were getting a bit hungry so we walked up to the club house for a bite to eat, read the papers and had a chat to some of the residents. After lunch we did a drive by and discovered a truck outside the house, it was the waterproofer guy coming to do the bathrooms - so we managed to get access to check out our staircase, and the work done on the cornices.

We now have internal walls

We had another excursion on Saturday to view progress and to our amazement we have internal walls throughout the whole house! There were six guys busily working away at noon on Saturday plastering all the gyprock. It has taken them two and a half days to put all the walls up and plaster - totally amazing.

This is a collage of the entrance way through to the open plan kitchen, dining and lounge....top left is a view from the living area through to the kitchen on the left and dining on the right - then the right hand side picture is again from the living area looking into the walk in pantry.

Bottom left is the view from the front door through the hallway into the open plan area, and the bottom right view is of the living area and the kitchen on the right hand side.

Then we have the upstairs....top row views is of the master bedroom and en suite. Middle row is of the landing and open plan living area from one of the bedrooms through to the study and vice versa. The bottom row is of the open plan living area and the main bathroom.

This gives you an idea now what the rooms are starting to look like.

Here's a view of the roof finally complete too.

This week the skirting, cornice's and architraves will be put in place, then the painters will be through, followed by the tilers and carpet layers and then all the bathroom fittings will be installed.

Until the next update...

Nearly at lock up stage!!

We are very nearly approaching lock up stage!....at present the external brick work is being bag and painted. The electricians are inside wiring the house and the air-conditioning guys have put in the ducting throughout the roof space, oh and the drainage contractor is at present putting in the external drainage pipes.

Hopefully soon the front and garage doors will be installed. Then the next phase will be:

• lining the rooms;
• plastering;
• painting and trimming;
• inserting the bathroom cabinets;
• tiling; and
• carpet.

Then we will be getting the external kitchen company to install the kitchen and pantry.

Scaffolding gone & painting in progress!

On our visit this weekend we found that the scaffolding had disappeared, well 95 per cent of it anyhow and that the painting was underway. The balconies upstairs were nearly complete too, at least now you could walk out on to them! Our next door neighbours house is now also underway, this is really good timing for us and them as we hopefully might be moving in around the same time.



Our house, half painted, and in view, the neighbours concrete slab...

The project manager has advised us that the house will be at lock up stage in approximately two weeks time! Our estimate is a further 22 weeks left until the contract date + whatever rain delay days the builders have experienced, which we think should be less than two weeks. We are hopeful, based on progress, that they are ahead of schedule (not that they will commit), so you never know we might be in by Christmas:-)

Now we have cladding and drain pipes...

Well we now have cladding on the top half of the house, guttering and downpipes!! The scaffolding will soon be lowered once the cladding has been painted, then the rest of the roof can go on. They then bag and paint the brickwork and the scaffolding will disappear....yeah!!!

View of balcony off the study...
Front of the house, during early evening...

Inside the upstairs living area....can't see out side anymore!!

Side of house....check out the electrical box on the outside of the garage wall...

We had a good chat to the driveway contractor on Monday too, they are anticipating to get the driveway done around September, along with the paving around the utility area and the pool. We still have to choose the paving for the pool area!!

Until the next update...

Yeah we have a roof!!!!

We visited our site on Saturday to find two roofers beavering away, putting on the roof tiles. It was such an amazing sight!!!! The roofers have done approximately 70 percent so far. They experienced some delays during the week because of rain, hence they were there on Saturday morning finishing off the pointing.

Inside the roof space of the balcony off the study....

Inside the roof space above the landing and bedrooms...

The roof line of the balcony off the front bedroom...

We shouted the two roofers a couple of slabs of beer.!

The next phases are:

1. Lower the scaffolding

2. Carpentry under the eaves

3. Place the cladding on the upper level

4. Paint the upper area

5. Lower the scaffolding again

6. Roofers return to do the lower level

7. Finish the eaves on the lower level

8. Complete the downstairs painting

Until the next update...