22.11.10

Home Sweet Home!

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels:

So, we are finally in our new home!!


We are absolutely ecstatic and loving everything about our home and the area we live in.

We still have a lot of landscaping to start on, boxes still to unpack, not to mention putting pictures up and toilet roll holders and towel racks. It is still early days.




In the next couple of weeks we will see our final fence go up, fill loaded into the back yard, all our blinds will go up and hopefully before Christmas our driveway will go in!


Lots more updates and photos in the following blogs, but I will give you a taste of our house as it is presently!! Thanks for reading!


comment (1)

22.10.10

Final inspection day!!

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: ,

We had our final appointment with the builder today. Yesterday our house passed inspection from the building inspector, and today we signed off on our house with just a few paint touch ups etc.


The Certificate of Occupancy will now be sent to us from Porter Davis, which we will then send to the bank. The bank then has 5-7 working days to pay Porter Davis and then Settlement happens and we get the keys!!

This will hopefully happen in about 2 weeks. Still a mind-numbingly long wait when we're this close, but really great that it's not too much longer.

Above is with our final render coat finished and all but the left down pipe to be painted. We love the final colour of the render with the white moulding. We're very happy with the final look of the house, which you really don't know if you got right until you see the finished product. :)

comment (0)

19.10.10

Rollercoaster..

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , , ,

Well this week has been a roller-coaster of emotion. The house is so nearly finished we could live there. But there are these annoying last things needed like 'plumbing' etc, that are stopping us from finalising things.


We were told yesterday by our Building Manager that because tradies aren't turning up to jobs, that it would be at least another 4 weeks until we could look at moving into the house. This threw everything out of whack and messed up our end date for our current rental, not to mention trying to plan time off work, trucks and finalising appointments.

We were both so frustrated yesterday and there was nothing we could do about it! After a couple of people's recommendations, today we started to rattle a few cages. We pressed with our Building Manager about our need to finish the house by the end date we gave notice on our rental. And after lots of back and forth, he is going to try and push it thru by the beginning of November. So we'll see if this happens.

This Friday we have the final inspection, and we're hoping the bank can then jump to it and everything will finalise within a couple of weeks.

Fortunately today, we went to look thru the windows of the house, and our Building Manager turned up. We were able to look through the house.

The final coat on the front doors was done,
looking so good. We were able to walk on our carpet, and experience the upgraded underlay to improve the life of our carpet! I recommend if you can afford to get the highest quality underlay then do it, its very nice to walk on; and it's meant to lengthen the life and durability of your carpet.

They have also taken away the wire bin and toilet, so the front of our house is looking great! In the next couple of days the render will be finished. Today they had painted the moulding on top of the render, and then they will finish the render with the last coat.

So it's looking great, and if our Building Manager can just get the tradies to return we will be enjoying our home very soon!!

comment (0)

7.10.10

Testing patience....

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , ,

Well after the last post where we were expecting to be moving in the next couple of weeks, we found out that Porter Davis had actually sent us the wrong email. So after giving notice on our current rental for a month ahead, we were a little concerned to find out the email sent to us was actually for someone else! Not exceedingly professional.


Thankfully, our final inspection date is scheduled for between the 15-19th October, settlement will then be in the next two or so weeks. We were informed that 'everything' has to be finished by the final inspection date, after that it's just getting final payment from the bank and any last minute fix up jobs. So we are now expecting to be in around the beginning of November.

Today our front doors are finally on with first coat of paint. The moulding on top of the render has gone on, all still to be painted but looks great.

They have done a whole house clean in preparation for putting the carpet down, so floors are clean, and all the windows were crystal clear.

We are now counting down the days!!

comment (0)

5.9.10

Moving slowly....

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: ,

Well things are happening painfully slowly!!


Everything has gone so fast since we started that we weren't expecting a couple of weeks of barely anything happening. My hope of being in early is slightly fading, but you never know it could still be beginning of October.

Porter Davis have until the middle of October to handover before the promised 20 week build is up and they have to start paying our rent!

When we visited on Saturday a couple of things had been finished. The Bench tops have all been installed with our lovely Caesar stone. This has been put in the kitchen and all the bathrooms.
They have also nearly finished all the eaves.

Apparently this week the painting starts, we will await to see if this goes ahead!! Still thinking we could be in in a month!!
:)

comment (0)

21.8.10

Coming along.....

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , , ,



This week the house is coasting along nicely.
They have installed all the cupboards and island bench for the kitchen. All the cabinets and drawers are in, and the kitchen sink has been delivered.

Not sure when the Caesar stone benches will arrive, but that and the appliances will finish off the kitchen.





The ensuite cupboards have been installed, notice they are also the same wood as the kitchen cupboards. We've kept the same look flowing through the house, with similar colours throughout.

This week the render will start on the front of the house, and the tiler will begin.

My husband finally met our Building Manager on Friday; he said they were flying along well. The Building Inspector came to survey the house and brickwork etc; apparently he was impressed with the quality of the house and immaculate brickwork and gave the big thumbs up!


The incorrect mortar colour has still been an issue. We have noticed that since the mortar has dried it looks a lot more grey which is unfortunate, but Porter Davis have agreed (after some haggling), to compensate us for their mistake. So we should be able to maybe get our driveway done at their expense!

The render will go from halfway up the window (in the picture above), down to the bottom, and then cover most of the portico.

Our Building Manager also informed us that because they are moving so quickly we could be in sooner than first thought. Our 20 week build guarantee from Porter Davis, put us as being in by mid October. It's now looking like we could be in around the end of September. That gives us a month! So today we started packing. Very exciting!!

comment (0)

11.8.10

Big week!

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , , ,

Well, we have had quite the big week as far as the house goes!


Yesterday morning we got a call from our Building Manager to tell us that the brickie had signed off on his brick work last night as it was all finished, and discovered that we had upgraded to 'off-white' mortar!! He
used the standard uncoloured mortar, which is a grey colour.

If you remember a few weeks ago when they first started the brick laying, I commented that I wondered if the mortar colour was right. The first time I saw it, I said to hubby - "The mortar colour is wrong!" He calmed me that it was just wet and appeared darker but it would lighten up. Well trust women's intuition, cause I was right!!

So because we paid to have the mortar colour upgraded, and they've done the entire house in a lovely 'grey'; we are waiting to hear from Porter Davis about what they will compensate us for.

Our quick trip out this arvo brought great excitement. They have started putting all the cabinets into the house. Laundry is all in, the ensuite is half in and bathroom all in. They have also put in half of the kitchen cabinets! Amazing!

They have added all the skirting boards throughout the house, and had put in all our internal doors. The difference this makes is amazing, everything looks very different.

It is beginning to feel a lot like our home, and like we are actually going to move into our own home very soon!

Everything is happening very quickly!!

comment (0)

8.8.10

Bricks done!

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , , ,

Greetings!! Busyness has overtaken me, so I haven't had a chance to update. But here is yesterdays offering.


We were very excited to see that they had almost totally finished all the bricks, all the way around the house. And it wasn't until my husband pointed out the portico pole finished that I realised they had finished the whole portico, (that is front entrance for you newbies)!
We now await to see what the render to the front post and bottom half of the front will look like.

Inside they have finished all the cornice for the ceiling, and
finished plastering all the ceiling areas. Including the doorway into the rumpus area, which is meant to actually be a 'doorway'! So tomorrow my husband will have to get the building manager to make sure that it is turned into a door frame.

They seem to be following the original plans and not the revised ones that we made, so we'll have to see why that keeps happening.

Other than a few niggly problems, everything is coming along very nicely!

comment (4)

23.6.10

Windows are in....

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , ,


I did a drive-by our house today to see if there were any new additions; and I found all the windows had been added.

Last Saturday when we walked through the frame the windows had all been delivered and were sitting waiting in the Alfresco area.

With all the windows in today the house looked surprisingly tidy; I guess it will look like that till the next lot of building materials are delivered.

To update from our last post, our building manager had no problem in correcting the fridge space to the correct side, next to the hallway. And he told my husband it will be corrected immediately.

Meanwhile Porter Davis were in a frenzy trying to work out how the wrong plans were given to the building manager instead of the modified ones we had previously signed off on.

Apparently someone within the borders of Porter Davis had got confused and sent the wrong plans to the builder.

Important as a customer to keep your eye on the building process and raise any issues as quickly as you can.

Because we found the incorrect fridge position early when only the frame for it was built, it has been very easy to change it at this early stage. Much easier than if they had gone as far as putting the kitchen cabinets in.




comment (0)

19.6.10

"We got frame!!"

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , ,

Well this is Saturday's offering!

Tuesday just gone I went out to take a peek at what they had done, and the builders were only just marking out the walls on the slab.

Four days later and this is what we find. Not only is the frame up, but also the roof trusses.

As we were driving up the hill today to take a look, I could see the frame and started getting excited, Jose was like, "no, that has to be the house next door!" But it was our house.

It's a beautiful sight sitting all nice on the corner!

The only issue we had after walking through the frame, is the kitchen. On the final plans Porter Davis sent to us, they had put the fridge hole next to the pantry instead of at the other end of the kitchen next to the hallway. We got them to change it back to the original plan, which they did.

But somewhere between the drafters and the builders, they have put the fridge hole on the wrong side. So we will have the fridge opening to the pantry door, and will block access to the pantry when open. This will be an almighty pain.

So Monday Jose will be calling to find out what they'll be doing about it!!

On the upside, our house is really taking shape! Exciting!!

comment (2)

29.5.10

An exciting afternoon

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , , ,

Two blog posts in one day is shocking I know. But I was so excited I had to do an update tonight after the last dismal post.


We got ourselves geared up to go out to the block this afternoon to start bludgeoning the dumped rubbish to bits. I had been to Bunnings and bought heavy duty gloves and plastic sheets to fill our car boots with rubbish. As it had also been raining and muddy, we were all dressed in old clothes and shoes.

Imagine our shock and surprise as we ascended our hill to
find our block cleared of rubbish, site scraped, and pink markers everywhere for the slab.

The rubbish had been bulldozed to the side, and neatly put out of the way so building can begin.

We will have to remove whats left of it at some point, but such a pleasant surprise to find that site start has begun and the rubbish can go at a later time.

They have even delivered a porta-loo, cut out the driveway and garage, and put down wooden slats in our driveway for easy access.

What a difference a week can make. As we live about 10-15 minutes from our block and both work all week we only get out there every weekend, so I'm thinking every Saturday is going to be a treat seeing what else has happened in our new home.

So we're underway, and because were building with Porter Davis we have a 20 week build guarantee, so stay tuned for lots more photos and updates!!

comment (4)

29.5.10

frustration....

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , ,


The great thing about this week is that now Porter Davis are ready to go, site manager is locked in and ready to start, the bank are ready to go, and we're ready to go. Just one little problem.... the land is not ready to go!


As explained 2 posts ago, we have had a whole lot of building rubbish dumped on our block from other builders, (shame on them)..... and everyone is ready to start, but we as the land owners have to have the block cleared before they can start.

'Shouldn't be a problem', I hear you say! Well, do you think we can pay anyone to come and take the rubbish away? No! Everyone is either too busy, too far away, or doesn't want to deal with that kind of rubbish. I've emailed, my husband has called all these different businesses that deal with rubbish, but they won't return our calls or emails.

We had one guy respond and he went out yesterday to have a look at our rubbish. His only offer was to pick it up with his truck and charge us $500, he said we would be better to do it ourselves.

You would think someone would be happy to get paid to take rubbish away, but nooooo that apparently is too hard.

So we are resigned to getting out there this afternoon with a sledge hammer and attempting to break up dumped concrete ourselves, and try and load it all into our cars and take it to the tip!

Maybe we'll pay ourselves and take us out for a nice coffee!!

Word to the wise: - make sure if you're block is standing alone for any length of time, that you either get your builder to put fencing up, or make your block hostile to possible dumping. Maybe buy a doberman and chain him to your land, or install floodlights and sirens for anyone who trespasses.

The banks and builders take ever so long to sort through their own redtape, the last thing you want is for things within your control to halt building. (not that you can control the actions of rogue builders).

stay tuned......

comment (2)

15.5.10

Being the last block on the block.....

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , ,


You may have mistaken this picture to be of a random rubbish dump. You would be forgiven for thinking that! But imagine if your beloved, expensive block of land turned into a rubbish dump.


This is the result of being one of the last blocks to start in the new estate of Laurimar. Apparently this is common practice for new estates, and commonly done amongst builders.

I mean where else are you going to dump your dregs of cement from the mixer, that annoying tree stump you just pulled out of your front yard. Broken bricks and half cut-off roof trusses. Even that broken pram you had filling the back of your ute. "Ahh theres an empty block that's not being used, and look there's already a pile of rubbish!"

Every week we've been out to our block, we've noticed more rubbish collecting. It seem the builders have a strict code of disposing of their cans and wrappers on someone else's block!!!

So boo to the care-less and selfish builders that grace our lovely estate! We will have to fork out around the $1000 mark to have our block cleared before building starts in a week.

But the beautiful thing about building with Porter Davis, is that unlike many builders, one of the first things they do is put up a fence around the entire block. So hopefully short of someone scaling our fence, we will be done with the rubbish dump!

comment (0)

19.4.10

Great news!!

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , ,


We're back!!


If you read my last post which was in January, we faced the devastation of having our finance with the Commonwealth bank rejected, and losing our January start date with Porter Davis. We were informed in January that the earliest start date we could hope for if we got our finance sorted would be maybe June or July.

The Commonwealth Bank did everything to help us, but the low down was getting rid of some excess credit card debt was going to be the only way to build our home.

About a month later we were given the name of a mortgage broker by a friend. We were a little sceptical that anyone could help us, but this woman came highly recommended.

Kerryn Feder visited us one Saturday afternoon and breezed in with her portable office in a suitcase. After a few hours of going over our complicated finances, she bravely gave us some hope that maybe she could work at getting the loan through in two parts. She then left us to go and work on a solution.

Kerryn came back to us in a week or so with a couple of solutions. She could put the first loan through and consolidate our credit card debt with the equity that had already grown from our land. Once that loan was approved she would then apply for the 'construction' loan. It looked like a great plan on paper, but would the bank be willing to give us that much money given every lending institution was tightening up its lending options?

To cut a long story short, the first loan to consolidate debt was approved with no problems. Kerryn then got busy preparing the second loan for us. Ironically, she found the best option for both loans was with the Commonwealth.

We signed all the papers for the second loan, and after a couple of weeks passed, we found out this week that the construction loan is finally approved.

Kerryn was absolutely thorough with all our finances and honestly and professionally handled the whole process. She saved our home and made a miracle happen. We are very grateful for all the effort she has put into helping us get these loans! Highly recommended!!

We are now in the process of getting a start date with Porter Davis, and the best thing is that it's looking like we'll have a June start date. This means we should be in our new home by Christmas.

More to come......

comment (4)

6.1.10

Disappointment

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , ,

Well we've had an unfortunate halt on our building. Site start was meant to be in a week, but we had an unwelcome call from the bank on Christmas Eve telling us that our home loan had been rejected!


We thought that it was all through and approved and getting the final contract was just a formality, well apparently the Commonwealth Bank had a dodgy loan guy and approval shouldn't have been guaranteed due to some of the previous debt we have.

So we still have our block of land, and Porter Davis are still ready to go when we are. It's looking like we may be able to apply again in the middle of the year.

Very disappointing given we were planning to be in by the middle of the year.

I will continue updating this blog when things are moving again, and then there will be the building progress... so stay tuned.....

comment (2)

26.10.09

Contract signing!!!

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , ,

PORTER DAVIS CAMBERWELL 29


Last Wednesday we had our final contract signing. It took about 3 hours, but was great for getting a bucket load of info.

As the plans were all drawn up for final checking we found a few alterations that had happened at the drafters discretion that we hadn't asked for, so it was a good thing we could go over everything like a scene from CSI.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that the Bi-fold doors that were an upgrade with the package we got, were actually added onto our family area. We had thought that they would replace the standard sliding door off the meals area, but it turns out that we could have the sliding door off the meals 'as well as' the bi-fold doors. Meaning that our whole living area could be opened up on a nice day or if we had a party!

As we only found out about this at the contract appointment, we opted to keep things as we thought they were; but after having a night to think about it, we both decided having 2 doors would be a better option that would give us more flexible living space.

So where you see the couch in the family room, will now have bi-fold doors across that wall!

We also had to check door openings, a couple were opening the wrong way, and on the draft they gave us, the garage internal door was opening into the foyer. We have asked for an internal door to open into the mud room(off the laundry).

Overall we were very happy with our final plans, a few changes had to be made but generally all is looking good. We are now on the home run to our house being started.

Very exciting!

comment (5)

14.10.09

Colour & Electrical appointment

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , ,


Monday we had the arduous task of choosing all our colours for our Porter Davis home inside and out, as well as our electrical appointment.


Electrical first was interesting. Who would have thought that we would pick where every light switch and power point would go, which ones would be on the same switch etc. We made sure with power points that we had plenty in the kitchen, and also put 2 separate power points in each of the kids bedrooms. You can never have too many power points!!

The colour appointment took a few hours as expected. We finally got a very nice look through the house with neutral colours of chocolates and coffee.

The outside we have gone with a red/brown brick called 'Ripponlea' with light render to the bottom of the house with casing above it. We have also picked the colour of 'Ironstone' for our colorbond roof, gutters & downpipes, and also our panel lift garage door.

I fought to have a red entry door, my husband wasn't so sure but with the designer on my side and agreeing that it would look good, we have a nice red double entry door!

Overall we are very happy with the final look we have chosen, and now with that all locked in the only things left to do is pick our floor tiles and sign the contract. January being the start date is not all that far away!

comment (0)

27.9.09

Hopetoun Interiors

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , ,


To Hopetoun Interiors we ventured to on Saturday. For anyone who doesn't know what this is, it's the showroom for all Porter Davis colour choices, from bricks right through to your choice of toilet bowl!!


We had been for a quick browse once before, but once we took a look we realised we would need some dedicated time to choose.

This time we had all three kids with us, but thankfully Hopetoun has a kids room with movies, toys and nice couch so they were occupied for most of the 2 hours.

As Tender is this Tuesday for our beautiful Camberwell 29 home, we had to have some decisions locked in on how the house will look. (Tender (1) A complete signed proposal to perform work for a nominated amount of money. A tender is submitted in accordance with the tender documents. (2) An offer showing a willingness to buy or sell at a specific price and under specific conditions).

Picking the bricks have been a most difficult choice, because that really sets the scene for the whole look of the house. When we found the brick we liked, we then had to match it with the Colorbond roof, render, and gutters and downpipes. Not to mention the garage door and even window frames! Scary stuff when you realise what you pick you will have to live with!

We're going with a lighter latte-ish coloured brick, and a dark grey/blue colorbond roof, and we're still boxing over the render colour. We would love to find a house that we can look at that has those colours so we can get an overall look at the finished product.

It's a mix of excitement and apprehension as we finalise how our home will look. We have spent hours pouring over websites, magazines, and display homes, so hopefully our research will pay off when we see the final look of our home!

comment (0)

20.8.09

Facade-ing away!!

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , ,


We were a little saddened to have to change our facade yesterday. My husband got a call from our Porter Davis rep to say that where we're building in Laurimar, you can apparently only have 1 in every 5 houses with the same facade.


It just so happens that one of our neighbours (across the road, and 3 houses down) has already built with the facade we had chosen which was the Balgowie facade.

I drove down to have a look at this other house. And yes it had the same facade, but it was built down the hill, and you could only see from the windows up. But I guess rules are rules (even if they're dumb ones)!

So we are back to picking facades. Annoying given we really liked the Balgowie!

I want a portico! So we're trying to find a facade that includes a portico, (not a port-a-loo)!!

comment (0)

15.8.09

Those Batts in your roof!!

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , , ,


Two days ago we went and signed our contracts with Porter Davis and went over the inclusions built into the contract.

A very interesting process!

When the inclusions say that they include carpet and tiles etc, you think 'great' something we don't need to pay extra for! Well how wrong I was.
The inclusions allow only for the very bottom standard of carpet and tiles, and this goes for things like bricks, insulation, and the list goes on.

The standard insulation included for your roof, is the spray insulation which is just basically foam stuff that lies up there. But if you ever need someone to get up into your roof, this stuff moves, and if it's not placed back where it was insulation is useless.

The other scary thing is that if you have downlights, they put some cardboard around each light to stop this foam reaching it, but it doesn't take much for it to move. So if it gets on your downlights it can be quite flammable.

We have opted for the Category 3 insulation batts, that are solidly fixed to the beams, and there's no way they can move.

This is important stuff to know, but unfortunately unless you ask, they don't offer you this information. It was only because my husband had talked to a builder friend and he said "don't get the standard foamy stuff in your roof".

So ask lots of questions about what 'inclusions' actually include!!

comment (7)

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Subscribe