Moving In

Moving in day was rather stressful, we rolled out the left over floor insulation over the floor and advised the removalists to "stick to the yellow brick road" however they seemed more interested in getting the job done as quick as possible than protecting our floorboards (which is something I don't understand as we were paying them per hour)! Despite our best efforts to keep the floors covered up we did end up with a few scratches, thankfully the guys from carpet court were able to come out and repair them quite easily.

 Hubby taking a well deserved break on the "yellow brick road"

Not long after we had moved in I was at work and received a phone call from my dad. I immediately wondered what was wrong as he never calls me during the day, he was just calling to let me know he had arranged for our driveway to be poured AND PAID FOR!! Thank you so much Dad! We selected Boral Brown Rock Exposed Aggregate concrete.

Merbu Portico Deck

Built by Flawless Landscaping

Entry, this is a better representation of the colour of our Bamboo Floor boards. 

We were planning to buy all new furniture and have it delivered before we moved in but we hadn't found what we were looking for so we ended up moving all of our existing furniture (bits and pieces that we have collected over the years). 

We have since selected some beautiful furniture in a local shop that we both love (the feature, a 10 seater extension dining table), we are just waiting for it to go on sale. 

You will use your imagination and picture our house with nice modern furniture, here are are a few photos of our house being lived in for the mean time :)

Meals & Family

Family Room

Beautiful bush views and furry visitors, the view from inside our family room.

A cheeky visitor checking out the new veggie patch! 

The Uber Nerd Study and my wonderful Husband (thrilled about having his photo taken!). We have ordered timber plantation shutters (painted white) to section the study off from the main living area, mostly to hide our messy desks and reduce some of the noise between the rooms. 

We bought these paintings while travelling around Egypt 4 years ago and have only just had them framed. They fit perfectly in this space. 

Laundry - We will keep my old washing machine until it gives up the ghost and then replace it with a front loading washing machine with a timer so we can take advantage of the free power from our solar panels during the day.  We love the finish of the 600 x 600 tiles. 

Laundry Art, because everyone needs something pretty to look at while doing the washing!

Master bedroom.

My husband and I both work in IT and neither of us are very "handy" but we attempted a DIY curtain rod installation to get us by until our drapes are professionally installed. We failed to secure it to the timber so now it's just hanging there by the plaster. We will need to get the plaster repaired and repainted before our curtains are installed (within the next few weeks I hope as I expect it to come crashing down at any given moment!).

DIY Fail

Bedroom 2  "The Ironing room" This room receives the most afternoon sun (west facing), it's toasty and warm so we usually hang our washing in here to dry. 

Bedroom 4 - Bedroom 3 is next door and is exactly the same layout. 

Now that we are all settled in and Spring has arrived, it's time to start the landscaping!  Check back over the next couple of months for more photos, I'll also write a blog about our curtain choices and post some photos once they have been installed. 

Hand Over

It took around 3 weeks from the completion of building to handover, I think this stage would have dragged on for another week except I had booked our floor installation a week early to hurry things along.

Entry
For the entry, kitchen, family and meals area we selected Genesis Bamboo floor boards in colour "Carbonised". We arranged with the builder for the skirt boards to be laid after the floorboards for a more professional finish (to avoid running scotia around the skirt boards).

Family
The photo does not represent the actual colour of the floor boards, they are much lighter in real life.

Kitchen

We ordered a Meile 5500 SCU CS dishwasher, I have wanted to own another Meile since selling my previous house 10 years ago. 

Kitchen & Meals

Study to the left, we plan to install plantation shutters to section the rooms off. 

Ensuite

We absolutely love the finish of the 600 x 600 porcelain tiles. 

Bedroom 4 (Carpet still being installed)

We selected Quest Aurora solution died nylon carpet with Air Stepmax underlay for the 4 bedrooms and study. 

Fixing Stage

Sorry to anyone that was reading but it appears I abandoned this blog prior to fixing stage. In the name of finishing all things I start here are some photos from the fixing stage (January-February).

Meals & Family

Kitchen  - We love the feature benchtop with 100mm ceaserstone to the rear.

 Study

Main Bathroom

Master Bedroom

WIR Fitout

Entry

Cat 6 termination in walk in linen press. 

Bricks and Lockup

I'm a bit behind in updating this blog, Chrismas / New Years / Life got busy!

Here are some pics from Lockup Stage (December)

Slab & Frame

We have a lot of progress but not much to say...other than "wow". We have visited 4 times this week and the progress each time has been amazing.

Monday - Day 1

Tuesday - Day 2

Thursday - Day 4

Saturday - Day 6

The Waiting Game

When we first started thinking about building with Dennis Family Homes I had read about how ridiculously slow they were to get the contract and paperwork organised. We discussed it and thought that it was possible that the people writing the reviews just had bad experiences. WRONG.

In their defence, DFH were up front about how long it would take (12 weeks to prepare the contract and site start 6 weeks after that) so we were never under any pretence that it was going to happen quickly. We paid our initial deposit in June but it was another couple of weeks before we signed the estimate (due to us being indecisive about the double glazed windows). I contacted DFH in August to make sure we were still on track and was advised that the contract was not going to be ready until November!! This caused us quite a few issues so we had our case escalated and they were able to prepare our contract by the first week of September.

Selecting our colours and signing of the contract was all very exciting. The 6 weeks from contract signing to site start turned into 8 weeks because we ended up needing to get approval from our neighbours to set our house back 6 meters as theirs was set back 7 meters.

Last week we received the call from our Site Supervisor who advised us that we were officially onsite YAY! Our site cut was done on last Friday, it should all start happening pretty quickly from now on :) DFH estimate 4-5 months until handover.

Here is an outline of our timeline to date.

Deposit on Land 20/05/2013
Land Settlement 03/06/2013
Paid Deposit to DFH 03/06/2013
Signed Estimate to go to tender 23/06/2013
Received Contract 05/09/2013
Signed Contract 09/09/2013
Colour Appointment 09/09/2013
Received final Working Drawings and variations 01/10/2013
Site Cut 01/11/2013

Extra Special

My DH actually said "You can get whatever extras will make you happy", love him! These are the upgrades we selected to make our home extra special :)

External
Colourbond Roof with Sarking and Whirley Bird
Brickwork above all windows
Brickwork instead of Scyon Matric to front of façade.
External Natural Gas point to East (alfresco).

Garage
Garage automatic opener with 2 remote controls
Additional 1 meter to Garage

Insulation
High Performance R2.7 Gold Batts to external walls
High Performance R6.0 Glasswool Batts to Celing

Internal
Increase Ceiling Height to 8ft 6in
"Step look 3" cornice to Kitchen, Meals and Family
Upgrade to Studio Profile Architraves and Skirting
Smooth Skin Cavity Doors to 3 doors (Ensuite, WIR, WC)
Hume HAG9 Internal Doors throughout

Windows
Double glazed windows throughout (except laundry, WIR and front door sidelights).
Cathedral glazed glass to Bathrooms and WC
Translucent Glaze to door sidelights
External Entertainer sliding door to Family and Meals

Bedrooms
Extended BIR in all bedrooms.
Mirrored sliding doors to all BIR
Privacy lock to master bedroom.
WIR fitout, 4 x open shelves & 4 x Draws.

Kitchen
Kitchen Window option with glass spashback
Ceaserstone Benchtop with waterfall ends and 100mm stone to rear or island bench
Soft Close Pot Drawers
900mm Underbench Oven & 900mm Gas Cooktop.
Kitchen Tower option with Pot drawers
Raised Pantry Shelf Spacing.

Bathroom & Ensuite
Ceaserstone Benchtop
Tiled Niches to both showers
Alder Moda Shower Rail to both showers
40mm high polymarble shower bases to both showers
Liano inset vanity basins
Alder Alto basin mixers
Alter Aldo Mixer taps to both showers
Decina Carina bath (main bathroom only)
Alter Aldo Mixer tap with swivel spout to bat
Upgrade to 2 x basin in main bathroom.
Extra heating outlets
Add draws to ensuite vanity.

Heating & Cooling
Evaporative Cooling
Upgrade to Bonair MB5 (5.0 Star) ducted heating with 3 zones, and 2 extra outlets (in bathroom and ensuite).

Flooring
600 x 600 Porcelain tiles to ensuite, bathroom and landry.
Bamboo to Entry, Kitchen, Meals & Family
Eco Plus Native Design Carpet  to Bedrooms & Study.

Electrical
LED Down lights throughout (with dimmer switches to master bedroom, family, meals and study.)
Ceiling Fans to master bedroom, family and meals.
2 x Telephone Ports.
CAT 6 cabling throughout (16 ports in total).
TV points to bedrooms and alfresco.
Upgrade to 4 Outlet power points.
1 Internal Double Powerpoint to Pantry.
2 External Lights to North (front portico).
3 External Lights to East (alfresco).
2 External Double Power Points to East (alfresco)
5Kw Solar Panel System