One week to go

The house is progressing so well. Every time I turn up now there is something new to see, it's so exciting.
The external painting is really coming along fast, all plumbing fit off has been completed, lots more electrical done, cooktop and rangehood installed and today the window washers were doing their thing as well.
Hard to believe that this time next week we will have the keys to the house - and hopefully have already completed some unpacking.

Stainless yet to be added between the cooktop and the window
as a safety measure

kitchen tap...now with running water!!!

breakfast bar pendants

Busy busy busy

So much is happening it's all so very exciting.
The panel lift door did get installed on Saturday. At first the colour choice seemed wrong, but after getting used to it,  I think we have done the right thing.
Yesterday the tiler finished- at last- and the plumbers began their fit out. They got lots in, although there was a slight mishap with the kitchen tap - which is now sorted, and the ensuite toilet of course couldn't go in due to the tiles just being laid. They will be back on Thursday to finish up. I so want to run a tap, but don't want to waste any of our precious water.
The electricians were back again today, and have been fitting off the pre mounted lights and also lots of the power points. Also today the door handles have been put on, the shower screens installed and the remaining shelving for the WIP is also up.
I forgot to check the external painting, it's so easy to get distracted looking at what has been done!
Still no sign of the AC people hopefully they turn up soon. Electrical will be continuing on tomorrow, windows to be washed Friday, and carpet due to be laid on Monday. So so close now...

Bathroom shower

Bathroom 

WIP

ensuite

Garage door

2 weeks to go, countdown is on!

The tiling is almost finished. It would have been finished by now but the quantity of tiles required was underestimated so we have been waiting for more to come in. They finally did late this afternoon, but KB couldn't get on to the tiler so looks like they won't get finished until Monday which is a shame as the plumbers are coming on Monday to do their fit off. It is only the ensuite toilet that hasn't been finished, plus both the shower niches still require some waterproofing.

bathroom shower. More painting has been done since this was taken

Ensuite 

The painting is coming along and looking pretty good too. The final coat for the passageway will not be done until after most of the other trades are finished - which looks like happening at the start of the week. On Monday we have the heater people, the plumbers, the electricians and the painters on site! It's going to be madly busy there. Although the painters should be starting on the external rather then doing more internal.
The panel lift door for the garage is supposed to be installed tomorrow, and the last few minor touches for the cabinetry should be done next week too. All that is left there is some adjustment to the kitchen cupboards and drawers, and a strip from the benchtop in the walk in pantry needs to be added plus the extra  shelving in the pantry too.
We now have the inserts for all our cupboards and wardrobes and they have come up pretty good. My linen cupboard looks absolutely enormous!
Looks like handover will be occurring around 3:30 on the 31st. Can't believe we are only 2 weeks away from getting our house.  We still have so much we need to do, apart from landscaping we also really need to get going on installing a temporary fence to keep Ruby in the back yard. I'm also really looking forward to topping the driveway with some more rock, and can't wait to get a path to our front door sorted. Going to be a very busy few weeks that's for sure.
Stuart plans to be out there again this weekend, sorting some stuff out and fitting off the phone and data. Not that it looks like we will have phone connection out there for quite some time yet.

Electrical fit out started

The painting is going well despite only one person doing it all. The ceilings are now all finished and hopefully the interior will all be done by the end of this coming week, our painter will have someone working with him this week which will help speed things up.
The tiler has started and seems to be going pretty quick. He thinks he will be done by the end of Tuesday at the very latest. We couldn't quite put the feature tile where I had pictured it, but I think it should still look pretty good.
Most shelving for my walk in pantry has now been installed, as has the shelves above the fridge cavity. The handles have also been installed and I think they have come up pretty good!  Only waiting for the final shelves and the bench top in the pantry and the cupboard doors for the powder room then all cabinetry will be complete.
Electrical fit out started yesterday. Stuart worked along with our electrician, by doing some mounting of the lights which the electrician then connected. In a few hours they managed to do 11 lights completely. Stuart then went on later to mount 3 more, but these ones still require connection.        

ensuite - the line in the shower is for the feature tile

WIP shelving. Another wall unit for left  side still to come

lights in the passage

bathroom tiling

kitchen with upstand, handles and one pendant

So this week tiling, internal painting, A/C fit off all to be completed, and hopefully a bit more electrical fit off too. Builder believes that handover should happen on the 31st August.

Bricks on site

The first load of bricks were delivered yesterday and the rest are due to come after the brickwork starts.
Electricians ended up working all day yesterday and half of today as well, took a bit longer then we expected.
Stu has almost finished installing the wall insulation but due to the nice weather forecast for tomorrow he will probably get back on the kanga and dig the pit for the electrical cable to run from the garage to the shed, if it gets left much longer I doubt it could get done until next Summer with how boggy it is out there.
So Thursday together we will be doing the roof insulation. I had hoped that all the insulation would be done by then so we could take advantage of our child free day and go to Melbourne and check out some lighting shops, but not to be.
KB cleaned up the mess today (so my floor looks nice and clean again after all the mess from the various tradies, was strange seeing it dirty after always seeing it clean) and they finished installing the roof battens. They have also changed the book shelf/wall and it looks great now, much better being wider and higher.

Exciting to see some bricks arrive (18 pallets)

Frameworks beginning

The basics of the frameworks has been started. All the top and bottom plates are in place and the East wall of the house has studs but no noggings and is not yet standing up. Tomorrow is going to be a big day I've been informed, with lots of walls expected to be done. I can't wait to see it in the afternoon!

Going to look very different tomorrow..

If you look closely at the picture, you will see that Stu managed to get 2 more sheets up on the shed on Sunday afternoon, and he also did some repair work to the driveway at the entrance which had become pretty bad. We are hoping that the weather over Easter will be kind to us, and fingers crossed manage to get the shed done.
On Friday we got a lovely surprise in that our power finally got connected. Perfect timing for KB really.
Have I mentioned how excited I am about the frameworks going up tomorrow.....

Polished Concrete & Shed Update

The polishing didn't manage to get finished due to all the rain we had. Hopefully we will have a few fine days and then that can be done. I'm really hanging to see my completed floor!
We did have some progress on the shed this weekend though. Stu spent quite a few hours out there yesterday, and today we both spent the day out there. Although visually it doesn't look like we got a lot done, there were a lot of fiddly jobs involved - like getting the door space organised - and some challenges were had due to not having power connected yet.

Stu cleaning up at the end of the day.
We are emptying it out so it can be ground down  tomorrow by the polishers

Speaking of power - SP Ausnet installed the transformer on Friday!!! We are now just waiting for TRU to do their bit and we will be switched on. The paperwork and so on is all done, so hopefully they will get on to the job soon.

Polishing Begins

Concrete polishing finally began today. They had two machines going, and I met Glen from KB there to check out the progress this afternoon. Colour wise it's really hard to see as yet how it's going to turn out, but it was exciting to see some of the stone aggregate.
We have decided to return the air lock entry to polished concrete for a minimal extra charge, we originally had it polished, but had changed it to tiles to save some cash. I'm glad it's back to polished, it will look a lot better. The polishers are hoping to have the job done by the weekend too, so a bit quicker than expected.

Water poured on it to give us some idea of how the colour will look

The machines that do the work with the half finished shed in the background, the second machine actually has someone using it, you just can't see him behind it due to its size!

The electricians came out earlier in the week and did their bit, pretty exciting to see a Meter box there now. Fingers crossed that SP Ausnet do their bit as planned tomorrow.  Stu now has to fill the trench in. Poor shed, wonder when it will ever get done.

Meter box!

Trenching done at last!

What a chore the trenching ended up being. Stuart spent every night this week out there, straight after work until after dark trying to get the job completed. He also took Thursday off, and had some assistance from Matt & Alan one afternoon. With Matt's assistance again this morning, it has finally been finished, and is now waiting for the electrician to do their bit on Tuesday.
I don't want to complain about the weather, as thankfully we didn't get any flooding when so many have, but my goodness has our land absorbed a bit of water. To be blunt it's a boggy mess.  I was out there for a bit on Thursday with Stu - my main job seemed to be driving the Rodeo with the snatch strap attached to the Kanga to pull it out of yet another bog...

Bogged again. We have lost count of how many times this has happened.

Just to give you an idea of the state of the ground...

This afternoon he will be filling in the original trench we decided not to use, and after that it will be back to working on the shed again.
Due to the rain, the concrete polishing has been delayed again. It is now scheduled to begin next Wednesday. It is expected to take about a week and a half to complete.
We have also been advised that the transformer works are scheduled to be done on Friday 16th March, so we should have power organised when the time comes for KB to begin the frame.

Trenching begins

Stu finally started the trenching on Friday, and was working on it again over the weekend. He got about half way, then had great difficulties getting any grip with the kanga on the muddy fill. We've since realised that there may be a problem with where we will put the septic drains too, so he has now decided to fill in the trenching he has done, and start again with it on the other side of the driveway. Hopefully progress for this will be much quicker so we can get the electrician out then get on to the service connection so it can be ready and waiting once the transformer is installed.

The beginning of the trenching

He also worked on the shed on Sunday. All the top hat bracing is in place now, and he put a sheet up on one of the ends. Slow work when you are on your own in bad weather.