The Neglected Blog

I have come to the realisation that I have been neglecting my blog.  Never seem to have enough hours in the day, preferring to spend more time on the homeone forum so I have finally decided to end the blog here.  I am enjoying the interaction with other new home builders on the homeone forum, so instead of doubling up all my posts, I will just be posting there from now on.

 

Final blog progress update, roof is complete, all electrical rough-ins have been done, plumbing has been done, fixes to the slab/frame after inspection report have been done, just waiting for the bricklayers to start which is any day now...

 

Thanks for reading!

 

If you still want to follow my progress you can find my build thread on the homeone forum here :

 

http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=75753

I was Framed and now I am Guttered! (not really gutted - our house is looking awesome!)

Happy to report our framing has been completed.  We had our inspector come through this week, some defects to be rectified but overall framing was of a pretty good standard.  The inspection report has gone to Henley and our site supervisor, together with the building manager, will be going through the items on the report.  Most of them are pretty easy fixes, the slab has a couple of uneven spots too so we need to make sure this is rectified so the laminate flooring goes down properly.

It took about three weeks for the framing to be done, as the head framer was not there for part of it due to a new arrival in the family.  Mostly his two workers were on site and there was someone on site every single day, including weekends and public holidays.  Great work ethic that is for sure.  The guttering and fascia has been installed and we are part way through the roofing which started today.

Can't believe how much timber goes into the house, don't think I would want to be a framer - so much involved.  Some of the remaining timber has started to go walkabout though. As part of our plans we have to put up a 50cm high, 5 metre long approx. fence extension on the boundary fence so we might do that this weekend.

The remaining bulk of the windows and doors have been delivered (though I have noticed damage to some of the window/door frames already), and I also noticed a new sign on the fence!  

Can't wait for the stairs to go in - though not sure at which point they start?

Anyway, here are some of the framing progress pics!  Please note all photos were taken by drone and I do not know who the tresspassers are ;)

My latest obsession. Houston, I think I have a problem.

So since everything has finally started happening with respect to the new house, I have rekindled my interest in homewares.  I like modern/contemp decorating styles, similar to what you may see in some of the renovations on The Block.  So for Christmas last year and my birthday early this year I received some presents for the new house from one of my sisters who has great style when it comes to all things decorating. 

The first is a gorgeous concrete pot with a cactus.  Pictured here with the light box I bought myself for Christmas! 

 

 

I discovered spare letters (I bought the coloured ones) on the weekend for the light box so bought those as well, I was restricted with what I could say with the original set - I really wanted to say cactus but there was no other "U"!

 

Anyway, my sister also bought me this towel for our powder room. 

 

 

 

I found myself in Geelong recently late one night with some time to kill so thought I could go shopping (I am sure there was something generic I needed to get), and one of the only places open was Krap-mart.  I have always called it Krap-Mart, just habit now.  So anyway I checked out the new Kmart (!) at Waurn Ponds Shopping Centre.  It is a new format store and it is huge.  A lot of people are not sure about the new layout but I loved it, seemed to have a big range, and a nice funky homewares section.  I did find myself going around in circles at one point though as it is not very clear when you are walking around where to get go if you are looking for a particular section.

 

Anyway, this caught my eye, sitting on a big shelf all lonely!  Bought it, and now my daughter is trying to claim it for her bathroom or bedroom. 

 

And the best part is - it was only $7.  Anyway, walking further around the store as you do when you have nowhere in particular to be, I discovered these trays, which are bamboo and "dipped" in gloss paint, found them in teal, and a firetruck type orange.  Very vibrant.  I could not decide which colour when I realised (when another customer picked up the pile of matching bowls) that they also come in yellow.  So after umming and aahing over colours for ages, I decided I wanted yellow which was out of stock so I thought I will check on my local Kmart one day. These trays are only $10.  Who does not love a bargain!

 

 

I had been to my local Kmart, no bamboo trays at all, but there were heaps of the geo pots (ps - the plant is artificial).  Picked myself up some more plastic hangers while I was there (I am sick of all the crappy wire hangers so am gradually replacing them all with black plastic cheap ones from Krap-Mart and Ikea).

 

Was with my sister during the week and showed her a pic of the pot plant and she asked me to get her one.  Went back to my local and they were all gone.  The following weekend went to another two different Krap-Marts in the course of my travel, still no geo pots.  But, I did find some other nice plants, nearly bought a large flat round pot with succulents but instead opted for this larger ceramic pot with fake palms, currently sitting on top of my fridge.  This was $15 though, gee my tastes are getting expensive ;)

 

 

Anyhou, went back to the original Waurn Ponds Kmart (none of the others have the full range, all have a different selection of products from the same range) looking for the geo pots, still none, but, found the yellow trays in stock!

 

 

 

Also, while walking around was looking for a pineapple door stopper which is quite quirky, I had seen it at some of the Kmarts at some point on my recent shopping expeditions, but now could not find one either and I must have one!  So will definitely be stopping by more Kmarts very soon. 

 

 

 

While I have your attention, am loving this indoor hanging planter.  Not from a cheap shop but a lovely homewares shop where the original concrete pot was from, nut sure if I will end up getting it or something similar.  Maintenance wise not sure if it will survive, and I can imagine making a big mess when watering it.   

 

 

Back to the light box, when I came home with the fake palm plant, my husband told me no more!  He did not want fake plants, he wanted real plants as they give out oxygen.  So when I unpacked my new letters for the light box and was thinking what I could write on it (besides "Captain Cranky Pants" which would not have gone down well!), my daughter and I, incredibly witty that we are, came up with this!

 

 

 

...and whilst we were out, my husband made a subtle change to this :

 

 

Apparently cacti don't produce oxygen as they have no leaves?  Well, I have just done my research and I have disproven this theory!  According to the internet ;) :

 

Cacti is the best in reducing radiation and bacteria.

 Cacti is very strong in eliminating bacteria.  In tackling pollution, cacti is also great at reducing radiation.  In addition, cacti absorbs carbon dioxide at night to release oxygen. Putting cacti in the room is helpful in sleeping and supplementing oxygen.

 

Sounds like I need to get some more ;)

 

Can't wait for the house to be finished, going to be tough to decide where to put everything....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Call Call Carpet Call... (and don't go into a shop!)

I finally dropped by my local Carpet Call to get a sample of our carpet, well just because I can!  The sales person at Carpet Call said they don't give out samples, that I needed to go to the builder, or can borrow samples if I needed to take to furniture places or wherever, which I found strange - I could not even buy a sample!  So that was a waste of a trip. 

I got home and called Carpet Call head office where I was transferred to the MainVue representative, who was more than happy to send out a sample no problems, which I should receive by the end of the week, too easy. 

Anyhou, here is a photo of our carpet selection, we have gone with Lasting Impressions "Autumn" which is Cat 3.  We also upgraded to the top underlay as it is the underlay that makes the carpet! 

Our last house was a dark Aubergine (eggplant) colour which showed up all the light bits of dirt, so we have gone a mid-range shade of brown, not too light (which shows the stains) and not too dark (which shows all the dirt on the top of the carpet). 

The Foundations

Here are some pics of the various stages of foundations.  Overall our building inspector was pretty happy with the foundations, however there were a few things that needed fixing before and during the slab pour.  The foundation contractors we there for a couple of hours after the inspection so I am confident they were fixing what was required, and Henley emailed saying that photos of the rectifications will be forwarded.  I have not seen these yet though.  The only thing we are not sure of is yesterday my son had noticed work had been done on the site, clearing the pile of dirt and spreading some gravel, and now we have bobcat tyre marks all over the slab.  My husband was wanting to put a clear seal on the garage floor so not sure what we are going to do there now?

 

In the meantime we have also had our dumpster delivered and information sign affixed to the fencing.  I am hoping we get a MainVue banner but it is not here yet.

 

the sewer pipe that is potentially in the way of the pool.  Whoops!

 

causing a bit of chaos in the street ;)

I have a good vantage point from my lounge by my front entrance

 

 

 

 



not a pretty slab anymore...

 

Colour Style - Part 4 (Master Ensuite)

For the master bathroom we are using beige square tiles, gloss on the walls, and matt on the floor.  The picture with the cabinet and benchtop has an old sample for example, as I do not have samples of the floor tiles, only a photograph. 

 

 

 

 

 

I am having coloured grout in all bathrooms, no white grout anywhere!  The cabinets are Sublime Teak, and the benchtop is Osprey. 

 

 

I have not upgraded anything in any of the bathrooms (except for adding in niches), everything is standard Cat 1, or included as part of the MainVue luxury inclusions. 

 

 

I think this is our sink!

 

 

All towel and toilet rolls holders are included, with the towel ladder to the master ensuite.  I have opted for the square profile (it was either square or round and just refers to section where it is fixed to the wall). 

 

 

This is the standard shower fittings for the master ensuite with large shower head and rail.  We have added in a niche in the shower (extra cost).

 

 

 

... and the standard toilet suite - no need to upgrade here!