Happenings at the house!

Its all been happening here at the house! Since my last post we have had furniture deliveries, our fridge and washing machine delivered, two new couches delivered, and the kitchen has finally been unpacked!

Today a friend started on the skirting on the lower floor which was left off for the installation of the bamboo boards which makes a difference to how 'finished' the house looks. He ran out of skirting (thanks Metricon!) so we need to order more and he can wrap it up in a few hours, then they need painting.

Our landscaping started yesterday with the clearing of the growth that has built up over the build, and some old existing plants that didn't make the cut. Tomorrow it should continue with more clearing and then its onto the construction of lots of retaining walls, levelling out the yard then the pouring of the driveway and path. Decking will follow which we are all looking forward to! That will be it for the first phase of landscaping - until the money tree gives up some more of the good stuff!

We've had a few dramas along the way.. Moving day was LONG. They started at 8am and finished at 6pm after one truck load from the inlaws place to here then two loads (one full, one half full) from our storage unit to the house. Our garage is full to the brim, but thats a job for another day! The weather wasn't too bad but the previous 3 days torrential rain had turned our front yard into a bog so the truck couldnt get as close as we wanted to the door and they had to traipse through mud to get to the house. A system of tarps and cardboard helped a lot but I do have some marks on the carpet to clean! The movers were fantastic - very fast, careful, friendly and efficient. Not a scratch or anything broken :)

Foxtel turned up on Thursday to install and the tech told me the foxtel and phone lines were on one side of the house and the feed in conduit from the street was on the other.. So unless we wanted conduit  run all the way up one side of the house, over the roof and back down the other side, or unless we wanted to dog a massive trench across our front yard he couldn't do it! He said Telstra would say the same when they showed up to connect our line..

We called Metricon's electrical contractor and spoke to a rather rude woman who had an appalling attitude when asked about why it was like that (basically useless and totally illogical) and what we could have done about it. I was basically told "I'm paid $80 by Metricon to do it like that". Really? What about the other thousands of dollars we paid in electrical upgrades to your business??

Needless to say we contacted our amazing Construction Manager who sorted it out and the following day it was rectified by midday. So, points to all for sorting that out.

We have also had visits from the painter, the silicon sealing guys and the kitchen guy. My overhead cupboard doors are being resprayed after they were scratched from being placed on the slab for weeks. They also installled a backing plate on my appliance cupboard and are sorting out an extra shelf for me so I'm happy about that!

The guy came to reglaze the glass in our front door but was supplied the wrong length beading to replace the stuff he had to take out so that didnt happen :(

Still waiting on our underfloor heating to be connected to controllers, our heated towel rail to be installed and a missing towel rail to be installed in the main bathroom, extra shelves in the pantry and linen cupboard along with a few other small issues..

This week sees foxtel and telstra here to connect, then we can get back to normal internet - yay! Landscaping will continue as will the mammoth job of unpacking :)

Its been exhausting but lovely to finally be home :) Waking up to the sound of birds, exploring our new space, remembering what it used to be like in our old house on this same block, thinking about all the things we need to do, seeing our son run around the place with a smile on his face...it's good to be home!

We are IN!

Just a quick post to let everyone know we moved in yesterday!

The truck arrived at 8am, and 3 trips (one from the in laws and two to our very full storage unit) later, left at 6pm!

Such a LONG day but it was wonderful to wake up in our own house today. Had a very full day today of deliveries, unpacking (have unpacked about 30 boxes so far..) and the odd small drama which I will fill you all in on later.

Pics soon hopefully - no internet here yet so uploading pics is painful ;)

YAY for the next stage of our journey beginning!

Busy days :)

Yesterday saw the completion of our downstairs flooring (apart from the living room which will be carpeted) and I am pretty happy with the way it has turned out. Love the colour, very happy I went with that one!

Today I was there all day continuing with the mammoth task of cleaning the place, and had a few visits from trades along the way. Terry, who owns the sealing/silicon business (he does all Metricon's places) popped by to finish off the sealing off the kitchen, after coming on Friday arvo and not being happy with the colours he had (none were a great match for our mosaics). So he bought the correct one and came back today. Lovely guy, very professional, friendly, respectful (and so were the two young guys who came on Friday), and did a great job. Thanks Terry!

A painter also dropped by to do a second coat on the timber step on the hallway and the bottom tread of the stairs. He still needs to come back to put a clear lacquer on and touch up a few spots around the house.

We also had an early morning visitor who managed to access the house, and set the alarm off in the process..
Apparently it was a tradie who had gone to the wrong job - and because we hadn't turned the lock on the laundry from the outside he was able to use his builders key to get in.. uh oh.

Our Construction Manager knew about it so obviously he called him and told him. Gave me a good scare when I arrived alone and heard the alarm telling me it had been going off, and seeing lights on I didn't leave on!!

Moral of the story? Make sure ALL your external locks are turned completely so as to render the builders key useless as soon as you move in :)

Tomorrow will see carpets and blinds and shutters installed - exciting!!

Still dirty!

Study

Dining Room

Dining, living, hallway to front door

Look Mum - the step looks great now!

On Sunday we cleared out the garage & I sealed the floor - so happy I did that, especially after all the torrential rain we had today.

Speaking of rain - our tank should be well on the way to full now ;)

Sneak peek..

Here is a sneak peek of what's been going on at the house today..

Looks good so far :)

Wasn't I happy when I arrived there at lunchtime (Jason met them there and let them in this morning) to find they had been using TWO saws IN MY HOUSE to cut the boards??!!

What the??

Not much common sense going on there I fear. Our (already dusty but not too bad) house is now completely covered in brown dust..urgh.

I spent the arvo cleaning upstairs as far away from the dust as I could get!

More to come tomorrow.

Its OURS!!!

Yep - you read right - the house is ALL OURS!!!

Handover took place this afternoon thanks to some serious activity this week, and with great thanks to our Construction Manager who seems to have lots of pull with trades and can get them there fast :)

There are still a few minor things to be done, but all are ordered/booked in and I have lots of relevant phone numbers so I can stay on top of things if our SS doesn't. We have the assurance of the Construction manager (who I must say put me at ease about handing over today after a long conversation yesterday ) that he will be personally on top of our SS and trades to ensure things are completed in a timely fashion. To be honest I am not all that concerned - just relieved right now.

I LOVE the feeling of being in control of what happens there now!

So after our SS left I spent ages figuring out all the keys (there are LOADS) and sorted out the alarm - and waited for the guys doing the final caulking to finish (LOL), then locked up and headed home, happy and exhausted.

No rest though - back there at the crack of dawn to meet the flooring guys - EXCITED!! - and I need to keep packing :)

Will keep updating over the weekend/next week as things are completed - the next part of the journey has now begun.

Yes - thats a brick cleaner finishing up while we were waiting for our SS :) The portico projection hasn't been acid washed as it is being rendered as soon as the driveway is done.

Looking forward to having real floors tomorrow!!

MY keys!

Now - back to the boxes!!

The wheels are a turnin'...

Firstly I want to thank all of you who have contacted me and commented on our current woes - it means a lot to me to have a place to vent, and come for support, and every comment helps!

So - after emails and phone calls yesterday, the powers that be at Metricon are coming through for us.

They first agreed that if we were prepared to pay the final invoice they were happy to handover the house to us (almost) in time for us to have all our scheduled trades come through on Saturday/Sunday/Monday - provided we understood there would still be a few outstanding items to be rectified. The front door reglazing is one of those - yes, those following closely will remember in February when I told our SS it was wrong he said it would be reglazed. Then at PCi he said he would order a new door. Now its back to a reglaze - got whiplash yet?

I am hesitant to handover with too many items outstanding as we all know Metricon are not getting really bad reviews for after handover service all over the place lately. So I asked them for a detailed breakdown of what/when everything would be fixed, and said I would only handover with a written assurance from management that outstanding items had been booked in and would be fixed in a timely manner (for what thats worth..)

Then Jason received a call from the head honcho of Metricon NSW, which was appreciated. He said our Construction Manager would go to the site today and would assess what was to be done and he would personally get back to us today.

The Construction Manager called from the house and has organised painters for tomorrow, brick cleaners today or tomorrow, cleaner tomorrow, carpenters tomorrow and is calling the GM of the window company to see if he can get the window/door service done tomorrow too.

F I N A L L Y.

Not sure why it was all so hard in the first place??

Anyway - now that I have re-shceduled all my flooring,carpet and blinds & shutter installation it looks like I might have to beg them to change dates again..

Time will tell..

I will update when I know more. Back to the boxes - I had my head wrapped around the idea that it would be two weeks until we move but it could be less now so I gotta get crackin'!

BEYOND FURIOUS.

Ok - so you all thought I had blown my stack previously in regard to the complete incompetence of our SS?

You ain't seen nothing yet.

Based on assurances from our SS on the day of presentation, I have our blinds and shutters booked in, bamboo floors booked in, carpets booked in, landscapers, electrician and solar guys ready to install.

I asked him, would it be safe to go ahead and book them all in two weeks after presentation. YES, he told me. I'm days away, he told me - I will be ready, he told me.

Guess what? LIES. Again. Why on earth should I have expected anything different?

AND despite NUMEROUS attempts to contact him last week to check on progress after noting very little had been happening at the house, and to confirm handover was this week - he did not answer our calls or emails. Getting our invoice was a HUGE drama and it simply should NOT be that hard.

FINALLY - tonight he emails back saying he is "trying but realistically no it will be next week".

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. "Trying?" Really? Hardly.

ABSOLUTELY FURIOUS.

As usual my question is this - WHY has it taken us chasing it up, and a week of almost no activity to get this guy to do his job efficiently?

Tomorrow this goes higher up. Enough is enough.

Look out Metricon. You have NO chance of us recommending you to anyone now. I'm done.

More wasted time, effort and a whole lot more stress thanks to someone who clearly cannot perform the job he is employed to do efficiently.

That house had better be PERFECT.