About Me

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EDIT - Now a 'work at the local school' mum a few days a week while juggling the job of parenting 3 teenagers! I am a SAHM who does work from home occasionally, dedicated to raising 3 Godly, independent, healthy children. Loving the home building process though it is not without challenges. I have fairly free reign over the creative aspect of the project...just not the financial side!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Bank cheque


I am the amazed holder of a CBA bank cheque. This is our final payment to Eden Brae and gets handed over to them on a visit to the office next Monday when we pick up the keys. Fortunately the last payment was much easier than the very first payment - probably the most stressful time of the build. We sent off the invoice, a valuer came to the property, we picked up the bank cheque....ready for Monday. As a word of warning, some banks require other documentation (proof of insurance, interim occupancy certificate etc) but CBA only required the valuation.

Today was the final electrical fitoff - outside lights, appliances, aircon unit/control panel, doorbell, hot water service. They were still hard at work at 5pm when I turned up for some photos. I was able to get a riveting photo of the aircon & gas hot water service ;-)




I received a call today from Troy informing me that Baumatic (supplier of appliances) are going through some financial difficulties at the moment and therefore there are some issues with supply. The incorrect oven was delivered today (to be rectified) but our dishwasher could not be supplied. Troy offered us a Venini dishwasher which we accepted to get us over the line for Monday. From what I hear Baumatic and Venini are pretty much as bad as each other!
Tomorrow will see the cleaners come through again for a final clean before settlement and Friday, the site will be cleaned ready for the big day on Monday.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Photos from today










My birthday shopping spree

Yesterday was my birthday and I spent the day in a lovely way after a PT session and classroom help for Kindergarten - I went shopping with AJ from redo my space!! I decided to spend my birthday money (and more) on bedroom and bathroom items. We bought towels for the children, toilet brush holders, soap pumps and bed linen for our new King size bed. Oh, we managed to find bedside lamps too!

New bedroom furnishings

Flurry of activity


As I drove past this morning on my way to my favourite cafe to grab a coffee (Curl the Whisker), I was amazed at the scene. Two utes for Outback Landscaping & 3 for Abbey Blinds. Outback are fixing the council footpath out the front that had been mutilated! Pedestrians were a little put out on the way to school and cars found it hard to navigate when there were 2 in opposite directions. Oh well! It will all be over soon...until the house 2 doors down is knocked down, land subdivided and 2 houses rebuilt!


Thursday, October 10, 2013

We have a date...

....with Eden Brae Homes to make our final payment and collect our keys.

MONDAY OCTOBER 21 in the morning

A little disappointed that it couldn't be Friday afternoon to give us the weekend to 'play' in it. It probably comes down to availability to meet onsite too.

The last week has been full steam ahead with PCI, purchasing decorating items, loan settlement, insurances, tying up loose ends and creating other loose ends, on top of being sick and looking after other sick family members. A few more dates have been booked in to the schedule  - Shutter/blinds installation October 15 and appliance installation on October 16.

I received an email this morning from EBH informing me that our cooker is out of stock but that they are happy to offer us an upgrade. A Google search revealed nothing on this upgraded cooker so I rang Baumatic in VIC just to ensure we were getting at least a similar product. This cooker has extra capacity and triple rather than double glazed door. I approved the upgrade!

The private certifier has completed his inspection for the occupancy certificates. We have some items that need to be completed
 FOR INTERIM OCCUPATION CERTIFICATE
 1.       Provide a copy of the engineers certificate for glass balustrades confirming that the design complies with AS1170.1 & AS1288-2005
2.       Submit compliance certificates
3.       Site Cleanup
 FOR FINAL OCCUPATION CERTIFICATE
 1.       Comply with condition 23 with reference to retaining walls
2.       Comply with condition 21 with reference to vehicular crossing
3.       Comply with condition 20 with reference to driveway installation
4.       Repair/Reinstate damaged footpath 

None of these items seem to be an issue so the certificates should be fairly easy to access.

HnK Ryan has completed their re-inspection which marries up fairly nicely with our PCI inspection report. Troy has indicated that most items identified by the independent inspectors will be fixed anyway but I will use this report as the basis for our 90 day maintenance inspection.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

PCI completed

Today seemed to go remarkably smoothly despite feeling under the weather with a virus. I had spent the previous 24 hours in bed. I went armed with checklists for each & every room, a torch, charger to test power points, cloth to wipe surfaces, the contract, variation sheets etc and of course, I used none of it! Troy was so thorough in his checking of the work. Most of the work to be done is paint/plaster work. Tyrrells and Howard Ryan are both re-inspecting tomorrow. All items noted, together with the items of the independent inspectors will be rectified prior to settlement. At this stage, it should be by the end of next week (7-8 working days). It will be a great way to end my birthday week.




Kids study

Media

Laundry cupboard where they have fixed up shelving

2 VERY happy girls

A fuzzy powder room vanity

Laundry

Adults study

My lovely linen cupboard


Bedroom 1

Another angle - the walls look green?

Ensuite bathroom

Main bath

Main bath

Main bath

Main bath

Fuzzy upper hallway

Sunday, October 6, 2013

BULA!

We are home from a wonderful week in Fiji with 'gold' friends (all 27 of us). I am so excited to do a walk around the outside of the house this morning to see the progress that has been made.

This is where we hung out each day......