M&Ms Cremorne

Mini has Arrived

2008-11-26T12:25:00.006+11:00

On Thursday the 20th at 6:18am, Lucy Isabel was born. She weighed in at 6lbs 11oz. Mum, Dad and Lucy are doing well and arrived home on Monday. So I guess we are now M&M&L...

Proud Grandma with her sixth grandchild. Grandpa is not too far away.

Lucy's big sister.

Aunty Kathleen and cousin Sally having a cuddle.

As far as the house goes there is lots to do. We are following everyones blogs and when time permits we will post some comments. Right now we are trying to get as much sleep as possible.

Front Deck

2008-09-14T22:44:00.006+10:00

Time for an update. We have had quite a number of people comment on our driveway. The concrete was done by Mark from Montrose Concreting. It is a Random pattern for all of those that wanted to know. The color is charcoal. We will seal it with a bluestone color in about 6 months when all the rough areas are worn.

I think we will need to do some landscaping...

This weekend I started to dig out the front area as this was bringing lots of dirt into the house. This was Friday - I took a day off work.

A trip down to Bunnings to buy the material and the making of the frame started.
Saturday was a great day weather wise. It looks a bit messy and was a bit tricky getting everything lined up but I got there eventually.
Sunday morning and I had the frame all bolted together. Some of the ground is concrete and the rest dirt so I needed different foundations for each area. I bought steel brackets and also concreted some posts into the ground.
The porch above is open deck so the area gets wet. I have added some water protection to the joists and bearers. We plan on changing the porch to stop water coming through later on.
Finally starting to lay the deck late Sunday afternoon.

Its not all nailed yet. I will try and finish off during the week. It makes a huge difference walking out the front door.
A little extra added to the Pantry. I've also added the door handles to the old cupboards we put in.
I cut down the blinds to fit the windows. It wasn't too hard. Just use a hack saw and take it slow. It's a lot cheaper than having them made to fit.
We've also put up the towel rails.

Just like a hotel.
Marita has also been busy assembling the cot and change table.

We just need to buy a mattress to fit.

Where did August Go?

2008-09-03T21:11:00.007+10:00

Hi All, I think we missed a month or so. We'll have to include a few blogs on what we have been doing over the past weeks. To sum it all up - Lots of work. Here's a few photos we took where the kitchen is reasonably clean. This weekend I will run around the house with the camera and provide a big update. We only just had the internet installed and today I am posting this while at work.

We need to buy a couple of couches
I need to cut down the small window blinds over the cooktop before I can put them up.
The table is actually for the Alfresco but is just fine for now in the house.
The upstand servery works well. The corner cabinet is a pain. It would be great to change it to be like Andy's...

The phone has been connected - just need something to put it on.
We have fitted the old kitchen cabinets into the pantry. Fit perfectly. We just need to buy some handles.
The carpet is great. We had no problems with Carpet Court installers.
I also added some drawers and shelves to our WIR which we kept from the old house.
Yes we have power too. This is another story which I'll go into detail later. Promise to update again soon.

Timber Carpet Driveway

2008-07-30T21:13:00.006+10:00

Today is Day 168 but who's counting... It's also our 60th post. We missed the 50th so I thought I would mention it now. It has been another busy, interesting and expensive week. I think the pictures explain most of what has been happening.

Below is our wood heater which we kept from the old house. We had the plumber out to install last week, but typically had a problem with the roof trusses. He will be back tomorrow as I have reinforced the roof and cut out the support.

The redgum is coming along beautifully.

Neally made it to the wall.

Made it and the last plank fit perfectly.

Carpet has been installed. The house seems so much more livable. We have a bit of vacuuming to do.

The driveway made a start yersterday.
I love all the big toys these guys have...
I'm sure the concreter wont mind this picture. The drive sweeps down really well and is not as steep as we expected.

The concrete was poured today. Due to the expected weather over the next few days the rest will be done next week hopefully.

The stamping patterns.
The curve in the drive was tricky so I have been told. It has come up really well.

Final touches.

Flooring

2008-07-23T21:25:00.006+10:00

Well I'm now on holiday sitting back and relaxing in our new house. Hardly - too much to do. I think this is a record number of photos in this post. There's still a few items which need attention and a few new ones which we found on the weekend. All small and easy to fix\touch up.

Below a beautiful Congratulations from the 'Childs' and matching photo. Also a bunch of flowers from close friends.

The stereo - the single most important item to bring into the house first.

The first job on Monday morning was to scrap the rubbish off the floor where the flooring is going to be. I had kneepads on and still have sore knees. Lots of vacuuming. Dust everywhere. The timber flooring was delivered on Friday. This stuff is heavy. We are installing solid 125 x 19mm Redgum Multi-Plank flooring.
Next step was to lay plastic over the area that will have timber flooring. This acts is a moisture barrier.

More up the hall way. Attractive don't you think.
The next day I finished laying the plastic and started on the 3mm underlay which is even heavier than the wood.
Covering the living room was quick. You can see the feature wall all finished. Took the painters heaps of coats to get it right.
Progressing through the hallway. I have skipped the pantry and under the stairs.
Made it to the front door.

After a long day I just started to seal the underlay with sealing tape to further protect the timber from moisture. So far so good. I am enjoying actually doing the work rather than watching someone else do the work.
Wednesday morning, finishing off the underlay and sealing it together.
Now where to start. We have the carpet guys coming on Monday so I need to make sure that they can butt the carpet upto the wood. So I need to have the timber layed to the lounge below, study door and rumpus doors.
Working out the spacing and measurements.

More spacing and getting the first few planks nice and straight.

Making more progress.
Study doors. I have cutout the bottom of the doorjams so the timber will slide under.
Time to go home. Today was shorter than the first two.
I really love opening the packets of wood to discover the different patterns. The ones I like the best are being set aside . A few nice pieces will be placed in areas as a feature.

Monday

2008-07-21T10:46:00.004+10:00

Hi Everyone,
Sorry, there are no photos to show you today. Nothing much has changed over the weekend. We have some Canadians visiting at the moment so we have not spent a lot of time at the house.
I did manage to finish cleaning the kitchen cupboards last night and emptied the boxes that Mike brought back from storage but there are so many boxes with kitchen things still in storage that it was difficult to know where to put anything, so I have left most of it out on the benches :-)
Mike left very early this morning to continue cleaning the concrete floor so that he can start the underlay for the timber floor. I am hoping he gets a lot done before next Monday as we have booked the carpet people for Monday-Tuesday next week.

2008-07-18T21:46:00.000+10:00

Driveway, Roller door, Inspection

2008-07-12T18:40:00.004+10:00

We learnt something from our SS yesterday. It is possible to shut the garage door even without power so we took a photo for you. This photo also shows the mud which we are trying to replace with a concrete driveway. We had 3 concreters organised to do quotes today. The first guy turned up late but he did ring, the second guy was so late we could only talk to him for 5 mintues and one didn't show at all. We had a different one ring before lunch to arrange a time and he showed up, just a few minutes late. So now we have 2 written quotes and 2 guys going to ring us on Monday or Tuesday with the quotes. The 2 quotes we have so far are $3,500 different!!!!
Here we have Teagan discussing the sink with our SS. She loves the vegie sprayer tap.
Marita and Mini are checking out the pantry sink. I'm sure we will have to teach Mini not to use the vegie sprayer to "get" people.
A picture of the toilet in the powder room just for you Homeoners! We know how you love pictures :-)
The tiles in the powder room have been cleaned again, they look much nicer now.
There is still an orange tag from the BSS inspector on the laundry wall, SS has advised the painter will be fixing this next week.

This is one squeaky stair! Teagan is whispering into Mike's ear that SS is too heavy for the stairs. Mike is quickly telling her to behave herself.
This is the view out of Teagan's bedroom window (Bed 2). Mike still wants to have a flying fox out the window to the tree!!
I get the feeling Mini is going to be a little Monkey, we will have to teach him/her not to swing on the rails! B&P, this photo is for you, we were surprised that we have different rails to you in the wardrobes.

SS and Mike are discussing a couple of spots in the bathroom, only needed 2 blue dots in here.

Here is Boy Mini checking out the view from his room (Bed 4). The house next door is still being painted so you can just see a pink wall at the moment if you climb up and look out, at least you can see trees and sky normally.
SS is explaining to the whole M&M family that the cabinet doors in the ensuite just need to be adjusted so they line up properly, they are actually the right size.
Mike and SS are having a private word outside...
Looks like there was a slight disagreement...

Practical Completion Inspection

2008-07-11T20:26:00.005+10:00

Apologies Everyone, Mike has been very busy with work, being a taxi driver to the airport for me and the weather has been awful so there hasn't been much to update recently. Mike has promised to take lots of photos tomorrow and update again.

The temporary fencing disappeared about Monday, the toilet and rubbish cage the next day and then the site was cleaned the following day.

Here is the front of our nice clean house :-) The front door has had another coat but it seems it still needs another coat, doesn't look quite right yet.

It is going to be a big job to get the driveway done. We are in the process of getting quotes at the moment. The driveway is approximately 22m, which works out to 110sqm. Not looking forward to paying for this but we think it is one job that will have to be done before we move in due to all the mud. We are thinking that Bluestone colour concrete will look nice to tie in with the roof, the front door and the specks of blue/grey in the bricks.

The ensuite is now finished. All mixer taps are in and the shower screens have been completed. The sealant around the tiles has also been done.

Feature walls!!!!! These were started on Thursday. The painter has to come back to complete them, they are still a bit pinky at the moment. The colour is seductress, the same as the splashback in the kitchen. This corner is where we are installing our Ultimate Wood Heater. We met a plumber at the house at 8am today for a quote, shouldn't cost much to install. We kept the wood heater from our old house, it is only 2 years old. It is obviously single story in the rumpus which makes it possible to install and the sliding door will make it easy to bring in firewood. Today we had the practical completion inspection. We met our SS on site at 9am. It was very cold and we all had very muddy feet. Our SS was very nice and let the carpet guy do a proper measure while we were doing the inspection. It all went very well. There was nothing much to complain about as SS had already done his mark up earlier and lots of paint marks had already been fixed. However we did have fun putting lots of little blue dots everywhere for the marks that were left. The painter is going to have fun trying to find them all next week!! There were a couple of minor things that need adjusting, such as door handles that weren't quite straight and a couple of windows weren't cleaned properly. SS is confident these can be fixed in the next week.

The biggest problem is that we don't have power yet. This is because the power company took so long to send us the paperwork for the underground pit. Mike and SS had been hassling them but they still took a long time. They have 20 working days from when they received our cheque (which was hopefully today) to install the pit. Obviously we are hoping that they come out much quicker.

So all in all, our SS has done a brilliant job to get the house completed in 149 days with just very minor things to be completed in the next week. We thought we were going to just beat B&P but it looks like the only way to do that is to move in without electricity...

T-Shirt up for Grabs

2008-07-01T22:00:00.003+10:00

As many people are aware, we are neck and neck with B&P. In the Homeone forum, Perry started a thread on who would finish first titled 'The Race is On'. There were discussions on what the prize would be. Proudly displayed below, Teagan is modelling the M&Ms T-Shirt which will goto B&P in the event that they collect the keys before us. With this T-Shirt in their hands, it will be a constant reminder of their triumph over the M&Ms. Good Luck.
Oh Yeah a few other things were added today.

Thats right - flyscreens. We almost missed them. Also a few other pictures around the house.

Cleaned Up

2008-06-30T20:36:00.005+10:00

Well today we were pleasently surprised to find the window tape had been removed. All the windows have been cleaned. It appears that the clean is just a sweep of the floors and all the glass cleaned (splashbacks, windows, shower screens). It is still quite dusty, I'm sure we will be doing a thorough clean before we start moving in.

The rumpus doors - all nice & clean.
Pantry sink with the tiles looking much better. Some form of gap sealer still needs to be done. A better photo of the splashback.

The balcony door and the piano window. It's amazing what a difference clean windows make to the room.
Master bedroom windows
The ensuite cabinet.Laundry with all standard taps.

Catching up now

2008-06-25T21:01:00.006+10:00

I managed to get some photos today. PD have been busy today.
The gas pipe has been installed from the street to the meter next to the house. All the plumbing has been completed. What a difference a few taps make to the house. Below the ensuite and the mirror. The rooms look bigger with the mirrors. It will look so much better when the place is cleaned up. I'm so tempted to clean it now...

The screen door is still in the WIR and I guess that somebody forgot that this is 1500mm instead of 1200mm.
Bathroom view from the door.

These are the standard taps which I wanted changed to the other side so we don't reach across the vanity.
Our straight toilet with a toilet. It's so exciting and it even works!

The WC with all that extra cupboard space.
Splashbacks. The colour changes from a deep red to a brighter red depending on how bright the light is.

The sides below the windows are yet to be installed. The rangehood was installed last week.
This is the space between the fridge and pantry. The other photos are all blurry unfortunately.

Mini girls bedroom. The extra cupboard.

The sliding door locks have been changed to be a dead lock. The idea is that a small child can't just push the lever down and walk out onto the balcony. Yes there will be a fire plan. Keys kept close by and the balcony according to Marita is going to have a slide running down to safety. When I said we also needed a flying fox from the windows, I received that disapproving look. I just don't get it....

Getting closer

2008-06-23T20:13:00.007+10:00

Since we started this blog we have always been chasing Perry & Bernadette. I would just like to note that our start date - which is when the site was scrapped was the 14th of Feb - Valentines Day. B&P's start was on the 8th of Feb, 6 days before us according to the blog.
When we look at B&Ps blog it's like looking into a crystal ball.

The garage door has been installed and we didn't see this coming in the crystal ball...

The shower screen has been installed in the bathroom. Ensuite screen has been delivered but not installed.

There were a couple of heating vents which were missed are now finished.

Practical Completion

2008-06-22T20:00:00.008+10:00

Well we have hit Practical Completion and the inspection is booked in for the 11th of July. There is still a great deal to be completed before then. As you can see below on our 24/7.
So let me tell you what's left to complete.

Plumbing and taps.
Shower screens and mirrors
Toilets - better not forget those.
Splashbacks
Feature walls - SS leaves them to do last...
Roof insulation - thought this would have been done earlier
Garage - Roller Door and Back door.
Water Tank
Underground power
Brickies to come back and fix up a few areas
Appliances to be installed which happens on the day of handover.
Clean up the piles of rubbish and fast food wrappers - I think the birds are going to starve when we are finished.
The chippy needs to finish off underneath the balcony.
Final painting
Balcony sliding door lock to be replaced - B&P, we will take a photo.
The stair feature trim did not line up and will need to be redone.

The niches have been completed.

The sparky has been through. We didn't realise that you get plastic light shades. We just thought we would get a batten and light globe. We will change all the lights down the track.
Heating, Cooling and Vacuum vents have been completed.
The rumpus room doors. The chippy was installing all the door handles, door stops and BIR & WIR rails on Saturday.
Three doors - bathroom, toilet and girl mini's room. We added the privacy locks to the bathroom and toilet.
Boy mini's room. It makes a big difference when the door handles are done.

Master Bedroom door. We also added a privacy lock to keep the Minis away from us!!! You can see the hole in the wall. We had moved the light switch over because the electrician had put it behind the door. We let our SS know and we marked the floor. The sparky realised what we had done after he put the hole in the wall. So much for communication.
The WIR rails. Note the support which BSS requested to be included. None of the display homes have these. Maybe it's because our WIR is longer.
Below is a sample length of the timber which I will be installing. Originally we were going to install Jarah which is a darker red. We changed our mind when we saw the Redgum layed out on the floor. The floor is going to be a major feature of the house running from the front door right through to the dining and kitchen. The study, lounge and rumpus will be carpeted.

The timber is MultiPlank which uses an underlay and steel clips. No glue or nails. It requires a gap around the edges of the walls to allow for expansion. This is covered with quad which some people dislike. I personally don't mind. You can also remove the skirts instead. Too much messing around if you ask me. You can also re-sand and seal if required.

We also ordered the decking for the alfresco and front door. This will be mixed reds to match in with the inside flooring. Hopefully I will have time to do this soon because the place is very muddy outside!

The carpet has taken ages to decide. It seems that every carpet store has a different brand, different name and different colour. We are almost decided on the below colour and type.

This is Godfrey-Hirst Plush Pile Angelique 80% wool -20% nylon 48oz carpet in Cocoa colour. Depending on the light it looks a different colour.

Tiles Tiles Tiles

2008-06-12T22:56:00.005+10:00

Day 120 - The Tilers have been through and almost finished. Should be finished tomorrow. The painters have almost finished too.
The downpipes have been painted and under the eaves. Anyway picture tell the story.

We have a busy weekend coming up as we really need to sort out the carpet. Oh and we did mitre 10 last weekend so Bunnings is going to be a big challenge this weekend....

We arranged to meet the tiler at the house to go through the tiling plans. We had heaps of the small glass tiles below so he suggested to add an additional row. So now we have 3 instead of 2. Happy about that.
The laundry tiles were to go up to the overhead cupboards, but the tiler suggested we take it two tiles high and go right accross the wall. We're not complaining. :-)
The shower bases have been layed diagonally. I think the display homes are square. What do you all think? It seperates the two areas.

Since the tiles are seperate to the shower the tiles have been centred with the bath and the maroon tiles. This picture doesn't show the maroon very well. The tiles on the left were removed due the the mirror which goes above the vanity wall.
We explained to the tiler that he needed to randomly mix the tiles up for the toilet. This is the outcome.
The shower niches will have the maroon tiles. Once again Diagonally layed tiles for the base.
Here you can see the wall tiles meet up with the window. The 1500mm shower fits in just right.

And the pantry tiles also with the maroon tile. They were short on tiles so another box has been delivered. We may have a few spare tiles left over....

It seems weeks ago when B&P started their tiling. It's been really exciting to see paint and tiles go in as this is the final look.

True Colors

2008-06-10T20:52:00.004+10:00

Day 116 - Lots of painting to do in a double story house!!! All the internal doors were hung back up today, all nice and glossy. The front doors are looking good too. This should match perfectly with the 'pink' garage door...

I'm so tempted to remove the black tape from the windows to see how it will look. We have also noted that other cremornes have green plastic covering the windows. I'll be checking for any scratches as I assume that the plastic protects the glass.

Anyway, everything is progressing well. I'm meeting the tiler tomorrow to ensure we all understand what needs to be tiled.

Nice glossy front door.
The high study doors.
Boy mini's BIR. Looking forward to some handles around the place.
Study with the corner. T&L you did well to have it removed.
Servery all plastered and painted.

The showers have had their third coat of sealer which is a gray color. Very disappointed - should be red.
The stair case needs a few more coats.
The old outdoor table has certainly done the rounds. The chairs have wood, cement, plaster and now paint all over them. At least the paint is in the lounge room instead of the kitchen bench.
This picture of me was taken around the 3 week mark. Its now week 16. Big difference since then.

Paint

2008-06-01T21:32:00.003+10:00

We're up to the painting stage and we have completely confused the painters. They thought they were painting any old house. Not the M&Ms. Checkout some of our colors so far. The doors have come up great, wait until the second coat is finished.

We have also had the drainers guys digging trenches all around the house. The water meter has been fixed up also. Now we just need the phone and power run. Oh and the Bigpond cable. I hope we can have the phone and cable done at the same time.
One of the silt pits. We have lost our moat around the front of the house. We were getting use to jumping over it each day.

The BSS inspector has been again and the report was on the kitchen bench. Half of the items listed have been fixed. The plasterers need to come back and redo some areas. It's amazing what you can see when the paint is on the walls. Every mark dint, scratch etc shows up. We have pencil marks all over the place where the plaster will need to be fixed. Below is some cornice which was not straight and has been removed.

When we are at the house again we will take some pictures of the bedrooms....

Showers Sealed

2008-05-28T21:00:00.004+10:00

Here's a few recent pictures of the house. The painters were there yesterday preparing the walls and cleaning up. The tiler has also been and sealed the showers. The site has been cleaned up too.

This is a picture taken on the weekend when there was lots of light.
Looks like we have some weird curtains? All the doors have been taken off. There is still some plaster missing from some areas.

The window has been fixed.
Strange looking paint in the showers. Now the sign says not to stand on the shower. Can we make a bet that we will find foot prints in there. I think we will. I will let you all know.

Quantum Quartz Benchtops

2008-05-24T20:16:00.003+10:00

Our benchtops were installed on Friday. Very happy to have this as part of the promotion at the time. We expected the QQ to be install at a much later time. The splashback needs to be measured up after the QQ is installed. Apparently the splashback has a long turnaround time from when being ordered.

The plasterers were working Friday night and were back today finishing and fixing all the items from the BSS inspection. I must admit that there has been quite a numbers of items found by BSS. This is an important inspection prior to the painting. The more issues found now the less issues later on.

There is MDF covering the QQ, We took some of it off just for these photos.

The Quantum Quartz is New Diamond White.
The pantry sink.

The extra shelf has been added.
The Alfresco eaves have been done.
The extra wood above the doors when painted will finish the area.
Picture taken from the far corner of the block.

M&M Family House Inspection

2008-05-22T21:51:00.004+10:00

We have had a bit of progress this week and had a meeting with our SS this morning. This seems to be a busy time for him, ensuring a lot of tradies are scheduled for the right time to keep the job running smoothly.

Most of the architraves have been done now, only missing the staircase window. The skirting boards are almost complete, just missing the lounge and the study. Fix is due to be finished at the end of this week. Plasterers are supposed to be coming back soon to finish off the little bits they have missed.

There are several steps involved before the tiles can be laid in showers. The bases have been done and they will come back and do the first waterproofing next. SS has advised the painting is definitely starting next week and the tilers will come after that.

The deadlocks have now been fitted to the sliding doors (there goes our access to the house).

The timber decking has been done on the top of the balcony, looks quite good with only 3 joins in the whole area. New timber to be delivered for the underside. Mike is planning on changing this to be more waterproof down the track as we decided this was one upgrade we coud do ourselves later on.

Our SS was quite surprised to see the whole M&M family taking part in the inspection.
Marita and Mike checking out their ensuite sinks...

Checking the plans to make sure everything is in the right spot. So far only the door to the master bedroom is out of place but we will probably leave it where it is. It is only about 500mm too far down the wall. Teagan checking out her new shower. She said it looks good but a bit small.
Time for a swim for Teagan and Mini.
M&M family counting the shelves in the pantry. There appears to be one shelf missing from the top, our SS has said he will fix this up.

Teagan playing hide and seek in her WIR.

Which cupboard is Mini in?
Family portrait...
Mike offered to cook dinner but we couldn't find the stove...
The drawers seem pretty sturdy :-)

Kitchen Servery

2008-05-19T20:26:00.006+10:00

Below I have put some pictures of the Kitchen Servery. This is one item which PD came back to us which we instantly said 'YES'. We asked for many different modifications to the house. Some changes were refused by PD and others too expensive. I must also add that some changes were very cheap. I guess we just picked the items that were important to us and worth spending the extra dollars. Below is one change which we will be very happy with. When seated at the dining table we will not be able to see the kitchen sink. The top of the servery will also be Quantum Quartz, the same as the benchtop. We asked to also have the Pantry bench in Quantum Quartz. This was too much money and made us realise that the promotion was a good deal. We also added a splashback to the servery instead of tiles for a couple hundred dollars extra to match the rest of the kitchen. We have chosen seductress as the colour for the splashback. This is a deep Red\Burgandy. This will be the colour theme for the house as we will also have the feature walls in the same colour.

A few pieces of wood.
Frame complete, and very strong. It didn't move much when pushed.
On goes some plaster so the guys can install the rest of the cabinets.
Plaster added and we decided that this was going to look great. Thanks Marita for this idea. We actually asked for this during the tender process. G from PD disappeared for awhile, came back with the cost and details. We were sold.
We think this will look good when the benchtops are on and the splash back is installed.

Anyway today most of the doors were installed and the shower bases have been done. We were not expecting this. Below is the ensuite 1500mm.

Bathroom shower. You can also see some writing on the floor. This area is where the flooring meets and moves. It doesn't have any supports. I will be interested to see how this is fixed. Will let you all know the outcome.
This is Bed 3 where we added in the extra cupboard due to the change in the toilet. Toni, I have no idea why PD wont change your house to be the same.
Bed 4 cupboard.
The whole house is really taking shape. We are still a fair way behind B&P who have probably had the painting finished by now. We have a site meeting this Thursday - so I better pop down to Dan Murphys and see what is on Special..... :-)

Fix Start

2008-05-18T19:05:00.008+10:00

We've hit the 3 month mark now and the house looks like a house - funny about that. Over the past week we have had the garage roof finished (sorry no photo), cabinets installed and the Fix has started. We also have had a few items revisited like the Niches below which were missed by the plasterers. The yellow tongue floorboard has also been sanded back along all the joins. We also have a bath.

The chippy started on Friday from the rumpus and was working his way through the kitchen on Saturday.

Kitchen cabinets complete and the frame around the windows and pantry door.

The Pantry shelves don't match the plans so we will have a chat to our SS this week.
Opps, I think the nail gun missed the wood.
The high doors as per the promotion. These were put on the study. Unfortunately they could not go on the Rumpus.

This is what we ended up doing on the Rumpus room. These doors are more solid than the others. Looks like the chippy had to add in the top section.
If you are all wondering why our blog has gone a little quiet this week, its because we have been busy telling everyone that a Mini M&M is on the way. Mini is due in December before Christmas. I wonder what color Mini will be????

Garage and Balcony Frame

2008-05-09T18:17:00.004+10:00

Just a quick update to show that the Garage and Balcony frame has been installed. There has been no work done inside today. The gutter has also been delivered for the garage. The house is really taking shape now.

Cabinets

2008-05-08T22:09:00.004+10:00

Look out Perry and Bernadette, we're catching up. Today progress has been made with almost all of the cabinets being installed. All that is left to do is the island bench.

The fancy brick thingy has been put up today. On the weekend we will take a good photo of the outside in the daylight.
Here are the kitchen cabinets and you can just see into the pantry where the sink will be.
The powder room with the cupboards instead of the standard bench.
The laundry looks a little odd without the additional cupboard on the left to fill in the space. We looked into the cost of the extra cupboard and it was not worth it.
We choose not to have the shadowline style vanities. These cost us a bit extra to have the extra cupboard space.
Here is the ensuite with the additional drawers in the centre. A bathroom isn't complete without drawers.

Stairs and Cabinets

2008-05-07T19:47:00.004+10:00

Today the garage roof frame had been delivered and also the cabinets. Yes the cabinets too! The only problem is it was too dark to check them out. We took a few photos in the dark and when we got home loaded them up to see what they looked like. We discovered that the vanity basins were also there. So what color are the cabinets you ask.

The kitchen cabinets are 'Moleskin' which is a white and the bathrooms and laundry are in 'Swiss pear'.

Here is the frame for the roof below and the rubbish next to it. The scaffolding was taken away today and tomorrow the site might be cleaned up. There has been a lot of rain and the place has turned to mud.
And I was so use to going up and down the temporary ladder...

The cabinets fill the kitchen and dining area. We could hardly move in there.
All the plaster has been sanded and the PD 24\7 has it marked as complete. There is still a few areas which still need to be plastered like the stairs and also the niches have been missed.

Bricks Cleaned

2008-05-05T20:17:00.007+10:00

Day 82 - The bricks have been cleaned today. The plaster cornice has also been put in. We are looking forward to the scaffolding being removed and the site cleaned this week. It looks like the staircase will be installed soon.

The master room ensuite and WIR which we changed from the plan.
The chipy did the front eave on Saturday morning and he pulled the extra wiring through for us. It was a case of being there at the right time.
There was more plaster on the brickwork below than there was on the walls. All the rubbish was thrown down the balcony.
It a good job that the bricks get cleaned. This was taken tonight with a flash because it was dark.

Back wall.
The stairs to be assembled. No upgrade for the stairs. They will be covered in carpet anyway.

Time for a BIG update

2008-04-29T22:49:00.008+10:00

Well its about time I updated our Blog. We have been very busy over the past two weekends. Going back to work was like going on a holiday. So what has been happening? First of all we would like to thank Dean our family sparky for spending the weekend wiring up the whole house. We now have wiring for all the down lights in all the downstairs rooms, more power points than clipsal – outside flood lights and sensors, more two way switches, stair lights, future cameras, data comms everywhere and coax cabling. So lets have a run through the pictures.

Here is the study with the black electrical cable we put in. The builder's is white - can't see any, thats because we only get 1 power point in each room. I can probably put 15 in if I wanted too. This room will have all the PC gear in it and I hate having all the plugs lying around. You can also see some Cat 5e which is throughout the house.
This is looking through the Rumpus room wall. All the speaker wire is in place. I have setup wiring for a 7.1 setup.
The house has Bradfords Soundscreen Plus R 3.0 insulation in between the floor. We hope that this reduces the noise from upstairs when all the M&Ms are running around. ;-)
Closer look at the rumpus room or Theatre to be. The purple cable is Cat 7. We have added in Bradfords Soundscreen Plus R2.0 in this wall. The builder added in Bradfords Soundscreen Plus R1.6 to other rooms like WC, bathroom and Ensuites.

All the wires run back to Bed 4 - the same as Perry and Bernadette's. Originally I wanted to run it all back under the stairs. Running them back to Bed 4 was a lot easier.
How much cable did we use? More than I thought. At a rough guess - over 250m of power cable and that again for the lights. 600m of Cat 5e, 300m Cat 7, 400m of RG6 Coax and 300m of speaker wire.
The taps have been changed to mixer taps.
The roof on the back has been finished.

The brick work is almost complete. Just the balcony to go and under some of the windows.
The chippies worked on Anzac day to finish the back wall. They have also straightened all the walls. They were also finishing that off the previous Saturday. Very messy process - wood everywhere. I spent an awfully long time installing extra insulation. We bought extra to do a few rooms and the builder left quite a few bags left over. I had to use them all up. Kept me busy all weekend. Oh it gets very itchy. Below is the Games room which we are going to put a desk with a spare PC.
Looking at the entrance to the ensuite and WIR. We changed this on the plan to give us more room in the WIR.
What is that??? Yep its plaster. Plaster is up. This is the view towards the stairs yesterday.

Ensuite insulated.
Ensuite plastered.
The plaster bulkhead were delivered on Saturday. The Plasterers (if that is how it is spelt) started on Monday and I could not believe how much was done. There was 6 blokes going crazy...

Looking from Bed 4 at Bed 3 and 2.
Master WIR with Vacuum outlet cutout.

Um, well I had a little accident late on Sunday. When I was drilling through a beam near the stairs, to add some speaker wire, I drilled right into the water pipe. Water everywhere. You sould of seen how fast I ran to the water meter!!! I was dreading ringing our SS to explain what happened. I rang first thing Monday morning and left a message. SS rang soon after from the house asking about what happened. The plaster guys were there putting up the ceiling plaster. SS was very calm and has had it repaired today. I expect that we will have to pay for the damage.

Dining room has been transformed.
Rumpus bulkhead. We didn't want to have one. There was plaster here on Monday and now it has been removed. The bulkhead has been made for where one is supposed to be but there is no frame. I spoke to the plaster guys who will fix it up.
If you think you should give the place a bit of a clean up - like we did. Forget it. The floor looks trashed after the plaster goes up.

View from dining towards the front door.

It is very hard to get good photos after work because it's almost dark. We hope that we will still be able to get in the house before we get locked out.

I'm looking forward to having a weekend. Oh boy almost midnight, better go to bed.

Insulation

2008-04-24T15:12:00.005+10:00

Day 71 - Here are a few pictures from during the week. I have been busy since the weekend installing all the extra electrical and data cables. I will explain what we did later. It took three days and I have a few more cables to fix up tomorrow. I will take lots of photos over the weekend before the plaster starts.
The brick work is almost finished. Uh Oh - Here comes the big bill!

On Monday the insulation was delivered. Below is the rumpus which was full. There was more in the kitchen area. We are have had the lower floor insulated as well as the walls and ceiling. Also area such as the rumpus, laundry, toilet and bathrooms will have the Bradford Soundscreen Plus. On the weekend I will add more to the bedrooms.

Lots of progress

2008-04-18T21:54:00.004+10:00

There has been a heap of progress this week. We have had the heating, evaporative cooling and the vacuum installed. The rear alfresco\rumpus roof almost finished. The walls upstairs have been straightened. The electrical work, including the phone and tv points are complete. Many more bricks have been laid. We now even have a couple of doors. It wont be long before lockup.....

This might be the next area to be bricked.
The aircon is pretty big.
Looking good.
The fridge voids have been modified to be different heights. Our SS is very helpful. We didn't pay for the upgraded stairs, so it looks like the ladder is all we are going to get.......

Laundry door. One of the first jobs moving into the house after the flooring is to install a cat door. Nothing worse than letting the cat in and out 20 times a day.
The additional garage access door.
Not much space left in the roof...
Looks like this is where the bath will be.

Garage Wall

2008-04-16T20:23:00.004+10:00

The boys had a conveyor to lift all the bricks up the scaffolding today. There was a further 10 packets of bricks delivered and most has been moved ready for the second floor.

The electrical has also been done.

The Rumpus \ Alfresco has had the guttering put in place also. Lets hope that the rest of the roof will be finished this week.
And here is the promised picture of the tradies lunch room. This all started when we had the really hot weather. The chippies moved the table and some chairs, we had against the fence and moved them under the tree. When the frame was up we cleaned them down and moved them into the living room. Since then we have added a rubbish bag which sometimes is used. I should probably add an ashtray. Today they have left the newspaper.
Oh the bottom corner is plaster. Its been there since last week all wrapped up in plastic.
I'm always getting picked on for my spelling. Fixed up chippies and wrapped. You know what I mean.

Garage Bricks

2008-04-15T09:43:00.002+10:00

Slowly progressing with the brick work. All the scaffolding is up and some of the garage wall has been built. If the rain keeps away we may see some real progress. I'm hoping that upstairs gets wrapped up today to keep the rain out.

Scaffolding

2008-04-10T21:19:00.003+10:00

Just a quick update today to show what the brickies did today. They also cleaned up a bit, I guess for the scaffolding below.

Just more Bricks

2008-04-09T19:34:00.004+10:00

Here are the latest photos taken on Wednesday. The brickies have completed their second lap of the house. You can see that they are getting ready to start the garage.
We are going to be pushing it to make it to the house before it gets too dark after work.
I'm getting excited about the garage because it is one area of the house that we have not really been in. All the display homes garages are locked or have the sales people in the garage.

As for the internals - nothing has happened. We keep checking and find the same old dirt. The boys are using the table and chairs in the living room that we put in. There is even a plastic bag hanging on the wall with rubbish in it.

The balcony beams were put in place today also.
This was taken on Tuesday.
This was taken on Monday.

Working on Saturday???

2008-04-05T21:27:00.004+11:00

Well there was no progress on Thursday and I suspect that there was no power due to the storm on Wednesday. The first three pictures below were taken on Friday. You can see the additional bricks by the different color mortar. The garage and front are up to the first level. So the brickies have done their first lap of the house. This has taken one week. The two below are pictures taken on Saturday. Yes Saturday! We just missed the brickies who spent the morning there. It was a neighbour who mentioned that the boys were busy this morning. What -- Really? We went around the side and realised that the kitchen side was also complete. Its amazing how much you can miss. Also the rubbish from the cage has been taken away.

Plumbing and Wind

2008-04-03T11:49:00.002+11:00

What a windy day. I hope everyone escaped the damage. We just had part of the Temp fence blown over. A heap of sticks and leaves everywhere. More bricks were layed yesterday and the plumbers have finished off all the pipes. They have also connected the mains water to them. I guess this is the testing of them.

It's interesting how the water is put through the to island bench.
A picture taken down the road from us. Wasn't it a weird looking day!!

Windows and Bricks

2008-04-02T14:51:00.001+11:00

Well we all love photos, so here are a few. The rest of the windows have been put in and more brickwork complete.

More Bricks and No Scaffolding

2008-03-31T20:59:00.002+11:00

The scaffolding has been removed. The house looks heaps better without it. The brickies have reached just past the laundry door. I guess this week we will be going round and round. There has also been another 10 packets of bricks delivered.

We went to the home show on the weekend courtesy of the home forum. I picked up a pioneer brochure as you can see below in the rumpus. This is the same size as a 50" Plasma TV. Marita thinks this is too small. Oh well I guess that we will have to go for a projector and screen!!!

More Bricks

2008-03-29T22:22:00.004+11:00

Day 44 - More bricks were laid today. As you can see the garage is 5 rows higher and the bricks extend right around to the alfresco. We also have had the lintels delivered.

I have counted up the bricks. Each packet has 480 bricks. So far we have had 10 packets delivered. I wonder how many we will need.

Roof, Gas, Water and Bricks - MUD

2008-03-27T21:02:00.004+11:00

Well today there has been lots of activity even with all the rain. We arranged to meet our site supervisor today on site. We went through a number of things we wanted to talk about and we are happy with our S/S.

When we arrived, we even saw some of the tradies busy working.

To our surprise the roof has been finished, the water and gas pipes have been done. Also the brickies have started. Oh and the mud is right through the house now.

The rest of the roof over the rumpus will be done at a later date when the scaffolding comes down.
Nice roof!
We also have a spinny thingy on the roof. As far as I know this will be soon blocked out by the evaporative cooler.
This picture is to show that we have put in an extra window in the master room which looks out over the garage.

Bricks and Colorbond

2008-03-26T21:26:00.003+11:00

Day 42 Bricks Delivered. This brick is the Boral - Jarah style. It has been raining heaps today as you can see from the puddles.
Great View of the Deep Ocean Blue colorbond roof.

It is very wet inside the house tonight. There is also some sisalation around the house.

Trees and Guttering

2008-03-26T21:11:00.002+11:00

On the Easter Weekend we planted some trees to keep the council happy. Due to the removal of an existing tree, we were required to replace it with 2 canopy trees. These are Lemon Scented Gums. This should help block out the nursing home behind us.
Tuesday the boys have almost finished the guttering and started preparing for the colorbond roof.

The site has been cleaned up too probably because the bricks are due to be delivered.

Trusses, Windows

2008-03-26T20:22:00.007+11:00

Well, I'm having problem with the pictures linking so I will post a couple tonight to catch up. Quite a lot has happened over the past week. With a few thing happening each day it all adds up.
On Thursday all the trusses were up and some of the windows were put in. This includes the Front, Laundry and Garage doors. The rest of the windows have scaffolding in the way.

This is the upstairs toilet. Can anyone tell me what is different about ours?????
Shower niches in the master bedroom.

Roof Trusses Up

2008-03-20T11:33:00.002+11:00

The top roof trusses were completed yesterday. Alfresco & Rumpus still to go.
From across the road
Back
Games Room

Scaffolding

2008-03-18T20:26:00.002+11:00

The scaffolding has been put up today. Here are the front and back shots.

More Frame and Trusses

2008-03-18T15:07:00.004+11:00

Most of the frame has been completed upstairs now and the roof trusses have been delivered.
This will be Teagan's Room. You can see the temporary ladder.
This will be the master room. The extention to the WIR was a good idea. We have added doors to the WIR and Ensuite. These door will all line up with each other.

Second Floor

2008-03-14T20:15:00.003+11:00

Day 30 – Second Floor
The outside walls on the second floor have been completed today. Considering that it was 39 degrees today I expect that the chippies went to the pub early.

Floor

2008-03-11T21:28:00.003+11:00

The floor beams have been put in place. The rumpus and part of the dining need to be completed.

The steel beams have been put in place. They are very heavy. I don't know how they got them up there.
Alfresco post and beams completed.

First Floor

2008-03-08T20:26:00.011+11:00

Friday the first floor was completed. Here is the Rumpus room which is going to be the theatre room. The back of the house has been extended by half a metre which will give us more alfresco and theatre room.
Photo from the front
This is the theatre room entrance, which will have two solid doors. Originally the promotion was to have high doors to the master room. We were told after that we could not do this on this house so we asked for them to be on the theatre room. Down the track we were once again told that there is plumbing in the area above the doors so we ended up having them on the study instead.
This is the living room windows

Frame, Study, Lounge, Laundry, Powder

2008-03-07T13:11:00.003+11:00

Half of the ground floor has been completed.

Happy Birthday

2008-03-06T09:00:00.003+11:00

A special post today not related to the house.

Happy 30th Birthday Marita

Windows, Doors and Beams

2008-03-05T21:26:00.003+11:00

Before we went past the house today, we made our usual bet on whether anything had been done. Another delivery. We found all the windows, door frames and the steel beams. Also, the chippies have started putting together the base plates to all the rooms. With Monday a public holiday and the following weekend Easter, will the frame be up before Easter.......

Here is a couple of pics.

Timber Timber

2008-03-03T19:21:00.003+11:00

Day 18 - Well timber was delivered today and as you can see, it's all in seperate pieces. It's not made in a factory and delivered pre-constructed as everyone thinks. Does this mean we will see people putting it together tomorrow. I hope so!

Site Cleaned Up

2008-03-02T21:14:00.002+11:00

Well there has not been any activity since the slab was poured on Monday. The neighbours mentioned that there was a guy down the on Saturday with a Bobcat. So today we went down for a look and found that the soil has been moved up to the side of the slab. He has cleaned up and leveled out the site. Looks heaps better.

When I took this photo I suddenly realised that the fence was different. The neighbour has extended the fence to block us out. Excellent! I think we will extend this further down the track.

Slab

2008-02-25T20:32:00.003+11:00

Day 11 the boys were busy first thing in the morning pumping cement.
Over half way there and it was only 10:30 in the morning.
I ask the guys how many cement trucks were needed. There were 7 trucks each with 5 cubic metres of cement. There was definitely a lot of cement. I'm all cemented out!
Starting to smooth out the slab and remove the timber framing.
All done.

Waffle Pods

2008-02-23T16:58:00.003+11:00

Day 8 we came home to see that the waffle pods have been installed. These guys have been busy. We went down on Saturday just to see if there was anyone there and no. Looks like the concrete may be poured on Monday.
Picture from the alfresco area.

The extra bit for the water tank. This will have additional bricks on top to raise the tank higher for the stormwater.

Balcony and Alfresco Tenches

2008-02-23T16:54:00.002+11:00

Well day 7 we saw some trenches dug around the balcony and the alfresco area. Gravel now covers the site and we were even there to see the delivery of the re-enforcing and plastic bits and pieces.
The balcony area or front door.

Temporary Fence Up

2008-02-21T10:37:00.003+11:00

Day 7, It rained yesterday and the dusty block is now a slippery mud pit. The temporary fence has been put in place and there is also a pole where the electricity box will be. It was Teagan's first visit yesterday and she is very excited. It's been all talk for months and months and now she can see that something is happening.

Teagan is pointing up to where her room will be.

Now that's a big smile. Temporary fence behind.

Waste Pipes

2008-02-20T06:34:00.004+11:00

Day 6 has seen more soil moved, trenches dug and waste pipes installed. We can acually see where rooms are going to be. The site is very dusty. It could do with a bit of rain to settle it down. When we go there our shoes need a clean everytime.

Remember that you can click on the pictures to see them larger.

This is where the Powder Room and Laundry will be. The large pipe on the right will be the toilet.

There has been additional soil removed from the fence side. The stormwater will be run along here.
The has also been a toilet and cage delivered today.

Piering Completed

2008-02-18T20:57:00.003+11:00

Today the concrete piering has been completed. There are 36 of them. The house is going to be closer to the fence than expected.

This corner is going to be the theatre room.

Site Scraped and Leveled

2008-02-18T12:34:00.004+11:00

Well the 14th of February 2008 - Valentine’s Day will be one to remember. We drove up the court hoping that some work had been done. When we pulled up we started giggling, amazed at how much soil had been moved. We knew that the cut into the block would be quite significant, but when you see it for real, its a different story. It looks like there will be a fair amount of landscaping to be done when the house is complete.

This is the before view from the back corner of the block.

This is the view after the site was leveled.

This is the view from the other back corner. The house will be 3.5 metres from the fence.

There is quite a drop in front of where the study will be.

This is where the driveway will be.

Power Pole

2008-02-18T09:38:00.011+11:00

On Australia Day, we cleaned up the block. I saw a surveyor parked out the front who was finalising the position of the house. The following day we had pink markers around the block.

Two days after this PD rang to inform us that the Site Survey noted that there were 'Significant Fencing Discrepancies'. As it turns out two of the fences are in the wrong place. This will need to be discussed with the neighbours at a later date. This won't stop the start date.

On the 11\02\2008, we dropped in to see that a power pole had been placed out the front. We were also told the the site start is schedule for the 14\02\2008.

Tree Removal

2008-02-17T15:24:00.009+11:00

A requirement of the building permit was to have a tree removed, which would have been very close to the new alfresco. It also happens that Marita is extremely allergic to this tree so we were happy to remove it. The tree removal was completed on the 12\11\2007.

Picture of the Grevilla Robusta in September. You can see the stakes in the ground where we think the alfresco will be.

Here are the guys taking down the tree...

A year ago

2008-02-14T14:37:00.026+11:00

About a year ago the idea was to demolish the current house and rebuild in the same area. This proved difficult due to council rules with minimum setbacks etc. The block is in a court and is approx 1100sqm. To maximise the block, we wanted to build as close to the front as possible. We soon realised that this was not possible as we wanted to build a double story which requires further distance from the back fence. After months of discussion we agreed on a suitable position, which is in a reasonably flat area of the block.

When we first started looking at new homes to build we knew it would take awhile before building would start. We first needed to demolish the existing 2 bedroom house. This involved moving all our belongings into storage and moving in with the in-laws. What was going through my mind?!!! --- Just joking!!!

This was the old house.

We chose the Cremorne because the Kitchen\Living and Alfresco will look out to where the garden area will be. We are dreaming of a pool in the future but lets not get ahead of ourselves. The main drawback is that the garage would have been better on the other side so there would not be as much land wasted on driveway. Other reasons we liked this house are that the upstairs games room is big and there is not a lot of wasted space. Oh, and the pantry...

On to the house later. First thing was to demolish the existing house. Well, I wanted to set it on fire but apparently you are not allowed to do that so we had to pay for someone to demolish it instead. The house had a fair bit of asbestos so that was an extra cost. The demolition was finally completed late October, earlier than expected.

House with asbestos removed...

Shed without asbestos...
House tiles being removed... 26\10\2007

Tiles all gone...

Most of roof gone...

Here is the shed...

And now it's gone...

House pretty much destroyed...

Almost gone. The floorboards are recycled also.

Now the house is almost gone apart from some rubbish and the septic tank. The demolition company argued that the septic tank was not part of the quote. Why would anyone want to leave it in the middle of the block??!! We rang them and they agreed to smash the tank in and cover it up.