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. :)

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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!!

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25.8.10

Render undercoat

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: ,

We knew the rendering would be most likely started this week, so when we drove up today there it was. I stress that what you're seeing is the 'undercoat', as it looks a little grey at the moment! The painted colour will be a more latte colour and will have white moulding at the top of it.


We were a little unsure of how it makes the house look, gives it a totally different look but I think it will grow on us especially when it's finished.

So I will update with more photos when they add the paint colour to the render.

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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!!

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28.7.10

The Facade!!

Posted by Cath Swan | Labels: , , , , ,


Well it's update Wednesday!

The bricking is coming along slowly, taking a bit longer than we think it should, but hopefully it's all on track.

They've at least almost finished the front of the house including the entrance and garage, and are gradually making their way around the whole house.

We are both a little concerned about the front of the house being the 'Oakland' facade. The original Camberwell 29 has the 'Balgowie' facade, the one we originally chose but had to change because of a neighbour with the same facade.


We went on to change ours to the Oakland, but this facade has a very prominent portico entrance, which given the style of our Camberwell doesn't seem to match.

Of course we are only realising this now, and after seeing the brickwork finished at the front of the house, we are thinking there is too much space above the front windows.





There will be render all around the bottom half of the front facade, so we hope this will make balance out the overall look.

It's always a gamble choosing your exterior style and colours, one you will have to live with for a very long time; hopefully ours will look okay!

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