ourmonaco32

1 step forward, 1 step back

2010-06-28T22:03:00.003+10:00

We went down to see the house on the weekend.

Got a quote for concreting... Going to organise another one or two for later this week.

Also went searching for blinds... We are thinking that we may go for:
* Timber venetians with sheer eyelets over the top for the minor bedrooms
* Curtains for the main bedroom (or venetians with sheers)
* Panel glides for the sliding doors
* Possibly Romans in the living areas with some sort of sheer curtain/blind underneath

In the mean time we have brought a whole heap of redishades!

Not sure how some of this looks in real life... But it looks good in my head! Any pictures (especially of venetians with sheers) would be greatly appreciated!

Then we finally decided to look at the house. It was muddy outside and we were reluctant to get dirty! We could only see two things which had been completed from the inspection on 10th June. Firstly one of the outdoor powerpoints was moved (it was previously under a tap). Secondly, the splashback was installed... Would have been fantastic if it wasn't installed WRONG! It is about 200mm too short

On the upside I do like the colour!

It really seems as though no one is reading the plans!

When we spoke to the Construction Manager today he said that we should have our final inspection in 2 weeks and handover in 3... Don't know whether to get excited or not...

After the initial walkthrough...

2010-06-20T19:05:00.003+10:00

Last Thursday we had our initial PCI. Our SS is busy at the moment, so the Construction Manager ended up taking his place...

When we arrived we knew there was a lot of work still to be completed (major re-bricking etc), so we didn't feel we were in the position to sign the PCI document. Luckily the CM was fine with us doing another walk through at a later date and signing it then...

We received the results of the mortar test which was completed. Mortar FAILED due to NO lime!
Apparently the fix is to use an Alkaline spray treatment (http://www.mortarmend.com.au). However, there is a small note on this website saying that it bonds "with free Lime in the Cement or Lime components of the mortar". Not sure about this so we are doing some of our own research. The only other options are
* full render (which we do not want)
* grinding out all of the mortar and repointing (which could be very messy)...

Defect list had almost 100 items on it.. Some of the items which I can remember are:
* Rebricking 4 sections of the house (maybe 1/4 overall) due to bowed walls and poor quality brickwork.
* Fix mortar around entire house (see above)
* Install splashback
* Paint front door
* Paint render
* Find a fix to the "expansion joint" which is installed on the flooring. It sticks up about 5mm and is a massive trip hazard in the middle of the hallway! (see picture below)
* Many paint touchups, including cracked cornices (will end up repainting about half the house I would think)
* Fix a few tiles
* Replace some glass in the windows due to scratching and glass defects
* Repair plaster around the downlights
* Repair nails which have popped out of the plaster
* Fix sharp areas in carpet (where nails are sticking up)
* Replace section of garage door which is dented
* Seal around baths/sinks/shower screens

Hopefully we can still have handover in 4 weeks or so. It's been a long wait (site start 11th Nov last year)... The number of defects which we have picked up along the way has been disappointing. We are grateful that Carlisle has been easy to deal with in regards to fixing them so far. For us, it is more about how problems are dealt with, rather than if they occur in the first place...

Now for some pics! Most were taken after it was dark outside... Some with flash and some without so just ignore the different lighting!

Front Door, Feature Hobs and Entrance

Expansion joint...

Minor Bedroom

Bathroom

Powder Room

Master Bedroom

Ensuite

Home Theatre Room

Laundry

Lounge/Dining/Kitchen

Shopping

2010-03-27T16:37:00.000+11:00

Forgot to mention we have started shopping for the bigger ticket items!

Got an Asko dishwasher on sale a couple of weeks ago. Last weekend we visited the Asko run out sale and managed to pick up a washing machine and dryer for less than half price (we still spent about as much as we would have if we got a normal brand because they are so expensive!) It's nice to have some good quality stuff though.

Now on the lookout for some more sales! Maybe a fridge?

- Sarah

It's been a long time...

2010-03-27T16:19:00.001+11:00

So I am a Melbourne supporter. At the football. I think my time will be better spent updating the blog via my iPhone seeing we are almost 70 points down at the start of the 3rd! We have got one goal so far though. Here's proof! Haha

Back to the house. Firstly we had our full electrical fit out - optic fibre cabling, lighting, speaker cabling and powerpoints.

Dad came along one weekend and installed some noggins for us :) thanks dad!

Insulation was then installed. Thanks to our awesome SS who allowed us to install some extra soundproof insulation.

Plastering followed. No real issues apart from finding that one section had not been properly insulated. SS called them back to fix it up no problems.

In between all of the above the bricking was carried out. Looks to be a good job to me. Loving our choice of bricks (Boral Mocha). Bricks have now been completed, cleaned and feature locations rendered.

Only had one small issue with the bricking (or the wrapping to be precise). Part of the garage was bricked without wrapping or damp proof course in place. SS had them pull it down to install the wrapping and damp proof course, then rebrick.

Here are a load of photos below.

Some of the insulation and electricals.

Front entrance plastered. Looking though the family room at end.

Looking down hallway back towards front door.

Front door scratched. Hope they fix it!

Master bedroom

Master bedroom looking into ensuite

Looking at family area

Looking toward alfresco from same location as above

Looking toward kitchen from same location as above

Front of house with bricks all cleaned. (not rendered yet)

Along back of house towards alfresco

Close up of bricks

Another close up of bricks

Three quarter time and we are still only down by 71 points. Kicked 3 goals that quarter :)

Hopefully we get cabinetry before Easter!

- Sarah

House with a hat!!

2010-02-21T12:05:00.002+11:00

It's seem to have been a long time between updates because so much has happened!

Our wall frames finished, closely followed by roof trusses.

There was a few issues with the roof trusses which have now been resolved. Firstly, they forgot to add the eaves on the northern side of the house. This was resolved by adding timber onto the chord of the truss. The timber extension overlapped the truss by about 1.5m so as to reduce the cantilever forces caused by the weight of the tiles. The second problem (picked up by dad) was that the roof trusses were not blocked. Blocking has now been added :)

The next time I visited the block the roof tiles were up! In the 3 days between the gutters and fascia was installed, followed by the tiling. Some pics below from most recent visit on Friday.

From front of house

Looking towards back from front door

Looking up to roof. Can see some of the blocking in this pic too

Feature wall behind bed

From kitchen looking towards living area (alfresco on right)

Looks like we will need a small laundry basket. The door is about as wide as Glens shoulders!

Bricks have been delivered!! Love them!!! (Boral Mocha)

More bricks. There was about 18 pallets all up!!

On our way out to visit again. House was wrapped yesterday! :)

- Sarah

Frame walls done

2010-02-10T22:08:00.001+11:00

Just a quick post (using iPhone BlogPress - thanks Chris!).

Our frame walls are finished. Well they finished last Friday but I have been a bit lazy to update. Hopefully this app will improve my response time :P

Will post some pics later!

- Sarah

FRAME!

2010-02-01T22:40:00.004+11:00

First up is a pic from when the slab was put down last Wednesday. Definitely felt like a milestone was finally reached when the slab went down! Had been over 2.5 months since site scrape already.

Frame started today. Went past after work to find that the slab had been drawn out and plates had been put down along where the walls are to go. Nice to finally see the rooms in real size! The display we chose the house from was 36sq, whereas we went for the smaller version.

Builders seem to be very neat! The studs were all cut and perfectly lined up ready for making the frame (hopefully tomorrow!)

Seems to be a small mistake in the laying out of the pipes.... Our powder room basin pipe seems to be half in the home theatre room! Not sure how much use it would be in there.. haha

Received a call from the Carlisle Operatons Manager last week to explain the delays which we have experienced. Basically they were due to waiting for developers approval of grey water piping, and then waiting for concreters to come back from holidays. He mentioned that they were expecting our PCI to occur in early June for a mid June handover. Probably a bit earlier to give an accurate estimate though!

Following the call we were mailed a variation requesting 28 day extension to contract time due to delays with developer approval. This was fine with us as we were emailed when the delay started and were also notified when it ended.

Happy that we are finally seeing progress now though! So far no such holdups with our carpenters =D *touch wood!*

Slab Party!!

2010-01-27T22:57:00.002+11:00

WE HAVE A SLAB!!!

It's been a long time in the making... But we finally have one =D

Went past the block this morning before work and there were about 10 guys finishing off the footings and framework. At lunchtime the concrete truck was there still with about 10 guys...

Hope they can keep up the hard work!

Forgot to take camera and phone to the block... so no pics.. will get some tomorrow though!!

Concreters have appeared!

2010-01-25T20:45:00.004+11:00

I went for a drive past the block during my lunch break today absolutely expecting nothing to be happening. Afterall they have been AWOL for 2 weeks, so never would have expected them to arrive the day before a public holiday.... But there they were!! Three guys working away at our slab footings =D

A visit after work was in order to check out what had been done...

There is only a couple of bits and pieces to go to finish the slab footings... Missing some waffle pods at the edge of the garage and some of the framework... Hopefully this can be quickly finished up on Wednesday morning in time for the slab to be poured same day!

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!!!!

Where are our concreters?!?!

2010-01-22T20:09:00.002+11:00

Sooo... it's been 2 weeks since we got our drains.... 5 days since our waffle pods got delivered.... and STILL no sign of the concreters!

I just want my slab =(

When I visited the block yesterday the carpenter showed up as he thought he was going to be starting today... No such luck... At least I know I can rely on someone to show up!

Pipes!

2010-01-14T23:15:00.008+11:00

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Years!

We had our site scrape on 11th Nov, and then nothing until this week... Basically to cut a long story short there were some delays with getting approvals for our drains / pipes though City West Water as the Developers did not pass them on for approval earlier. Unfortunately this took approx 1 month to go through and by then Carlisle did not want to do anything else until after Christmas.

Ended up signing our final plans just before Christmas...

In the mean time we had a few small issues.
Firstly, our chosen timber laminate was discontinued. Went in and rechose another similar looking one... Although I think I like this one slightly better. Glen didn't come as he 'trusted' my choice!
Secondly, had to change a couple of kitchen door handles to the smaller size to fit smaller cupboard doors. Somehow this was not picked up on until the last minute and Carlisle tried to charge us a variation fee for it. Got ourselves out of that one though... It should have been picked up by the draftsmen!

Below are a few pics which have been taken since the last update...

Site scrape was carried out on 11th Nov. Here are some pics taken about 1 week later (clearly after some rain). I don't think I ordered any swimming pools... One for the porch

And in the background you might be able to see a super dooper one for the alfresco!

Visit to the block on the 10th Jan found a tap!

AND a water meter!!

We also found a nice pile of dirt in preparation for the drains. This green thing along the front of the block was called a "sediment barrier". Not many people in the estate have one though... so not sure why it is there?

Monday was 43degC, Tuesday night was the hottest night ever... and Tuesday morning (12th Jan) didn't drop below about 34degC... Some time during during that heat they put our pipes in!

Good work boys =D

Two days later (14th Jan) the land was flattened and we have a temp fence...

Had a call from CLE (a diff one as 'M' is on holidays)... Our slab is definitely going in on Saturday (16th Jan)! Things are moving so quickly now! (Clearly they want money.. But I want our house too!)

SITE START!!!!

2009-11-12T19:38:00.002+11:00

So today I visited the block in my lunch break... and found the scrape had started!!! Site start was officially 11th November.

So exciting to finally start building! Can only hope it all goes smoothly now =)

Sorry no pics yet as I forgot my camera and phone... ooops

Going on holidays for a few days.. Will try to get some pics middle of next week! Might even have some pipes by then!

Some more land pics...

2009-11-08T13:01:00.004+11:00

Just a couple of new pics from our visit to Alamanda on Friday afternoon.

First is from the back of our block looking towards the street (and my car.. lol)

Second is of the wetlands progressing down the back of the estate (a few houses down from me). They are really starting to come along and look great! I can't wait to see the finished product :)

Also noticed the other day that the block a few down from ours has a temporary fence already!! Quick starters, especially seeing as our land only titled 2 weeks ago!

Progress....

2009-10-29T22:10:00.003+11:00

There has been plenty of progress in the last couple of weeks!

First we learnt that the land had been titled, then 2 weeks later (Monday 26th) we had settlement. The land is now officially ours!!! Along with the ownership of the land came the mortgage...

Have been in contact with bank this week. Our loan manager has been fantastic. She is going to progress our home loan quickly to ensure we have no problems with the builders. Should be all organised within 2 weeks. Also learnt that she will be getting the keys to her Carlisle house next week! How exciting =D

We have also been speaking to our CLE, "M", a fair amount this week. She is also great! We now have our site scrape booked in for the 13th November!! Less than 3 weeks after settlement. I am impressed that they are going to get going so quickly! They are also going to stand by the original contract price we were given for an October site start even though we are a few weeks late... Thanks Carlisle!

Can't wait to see something happening on the block!!! (besides grass growing.. lol)

LAND TITLED!

2009-10-21T16:53:00.003+11:00

Our land titled on the 10th October! Was very excited to hear it had been titled, especially after so many months of waiting! *fingers crossed* we start building ASAP

Rang the council today and found out our street number! Was also happy to find that out... seems that small things make me happy.. Don't know what will happen once I actually see something on our land!

Settlement is booked for next Monday 24th. Then the land will be OURS!! =D

Waiting...

2009-09-21T20:23:00.003+10:00

A few dramas over the past month or two...

Firstly, our CLE "moved on" from Carlisle Homes. We were left without a CLE for a good month (in which we had to speak to various different people about getting things organised for the house). We have just been allocated a new CLE "J". She comes across as being a lot more helpful than previous CLE, so hopefully this is actually the case!

Our land has also been delayed even more. I think it was originally supposed to titled in May when we brought the block. That quickly went to June, then July, then August, then start of September and now the end of September! *Fingers crossed* we actually get our land by the end of September. We have been booked for an October site start with the builder and will possibly incur penalties if we don't start in October =(

On the plus side, we heard that our plans have been approved by Alamanda design panel. Hopefully they pass through council ok when the land gets titled so we can start building ASAP! Lucky we are not in a HUGE rush for the house to be built at this stage...

Can we start building already?? Land!

2009-08-01T22:41:00.005+10:00

Another update post for today.... Two in one day!

We have also been visiting our land quite often...

Most recently we found that our land is basically ready to build on!! Our land is all flattened and we have street signs, lamp posts, foot paths, driveways and asphalt roads! I think we should just start building now :)

Our land should title at the end of August however. There was a hold up in the previous section with laying a main sewer. This problem has been resolved and now the previous stage needs to catch up and be titled at the same time.

Now for some pics!!!

Our land - with our driveway!

A park nearby. This is going to be a prep - 9 school and have a main sports oval at the back. We are about 2 blocks away from this area.

Our street sign!! How exciting.. hehe

Looking down Tobago drive - near our street

Looking down our street :) Those aren't our tyre marks by the way! We are about halfway down

Looking over stage 7 land

Fire hydrant on our front nature strip :(... not happy! But we will have to deal with it. Lucky we have an 18m frontage so hopefully still some space for parking on nature strip if required.

Fingers crossed for settlement at end of August. Hopefully it all goes through without a hitch! Apparently our loan manager already has the loan papers for the land :)

Updates Galore! - Display Home Pics and Contract!!

2009-08-01T21:58:00.005+10:00

Plenty has happened since my last update.

Firstly, we signed our contract!!! Originally we were due to sign the contract in May, but managed to delay the signing until July to allow us to get an extra $6k in FHOG!! yay!

There were a few changes in the end
- changed colours for laundry - 'green tea' wall tiles with white over bench cupboards and benchtop, and burnished wood underbench cupboards. Inspiration for 'green tea' tiles came from Jo (doghouse on homeone). Her laundry looks fantastic with them!

- changed the window colour to black. This will look a lot better on the inside and should match the outside fine as the roof tiles are black.

Now for some pics of the display home to get an idea of layout :)

Back area - "Rumpus" in plan. Half wall in this photo is removed. Will have big family area in the right hand side of this picture and dining area to the left

Current dining area. This will be taken up by living area and just open space! lol

Kitchen - our colours are basically the same, except the island bench is also burnished wood. We have moved the oven to next to the pantry and the sink to the island bench.

Looking down the entrance passage. Minor bedrooms down passage to the left, feature niche either side of opening with lounge a bit further down. This will be enclosed and will become the home theatre room!

First thing you see when you look in the front door. Need to find something really nice for tthis feature hob. Any suggestions??

Ensuite - with awesome spa!

Laundry

Master Bedroom - love the niche again!

More colour selections pics...

2009-03-29T19:10:00.004+11:00

Have decided to add a few more pictures of colours...

Here are the laundry colours together.. the top 2 are the kitchen colours

Here is a real picture of the carpet and timber laminate together..

Here is a pic of the brick with the exterior colours and front door (red)

A pic of the bathroom/ensuite/powder room colours. The floor tile is on the left, with the white tiles at the top and bottom being the wall tiles. The feature tile is in the centre and the laminates on the right.
The feature tile contans 10cm (w) by 1.5cm (h) tiles alternating between opaque perspex, stone and shiny glass tiles (if you can understand what I mean!)

Colour Selection

2009-03-28T21:54:00.032+11:00

We completed colour selection on Friday 27/3. After our colour browse the previous weekend we thought we were fairly well prepared. Flew through the selections for everything... except the bathroom... it has been so hard to decide how to so the bathroom (partly due to the fact I don't really like beige... chocolate is alright and maybe a bit of cream... but not beige... ). Anyway it turns out I didn't really get my own way with the beige thing but I think it should look alright.

So now for the choices!

EXTERIOR

Bricks - Boral Mocha (*UPGRADE*)

Mortar - Offwhite (*UPGRADE)

Roof - Sambuca in Elabana profile (Basically black in the curvy profile)

Gutters/Fascia/Downpipes/Windows/Meter box - Jasper

Render to the BED2 robe projection feature wall - Dune
Garage Door - Dune (Madison profile)

(Jasper, Dune)

(Madison profile garage door)

Feature Stone to portico - Rock n' Roll Delhi Bronze (at the moment... subject to cost!)
(*UPGRADE)

Front Door - Manor Red

Front Door Style (1020mm wide)-

MISC
Carpet - Maybrook Villa 575

Timber laminate - Tru-loc Oak (*UPGRADE*)

Tiles for wet areas - Hampton Putty (light beige... I lost on this one... I didn't want white either!)

Paint (for walls, roof etc) - Cargo River 1/4 (slight offwhite... same as monaco display in Lyndhurst)

Door handles - Elena lever

KITCHEN

Benchtop - Ice Snow Caeserstone

Underbench Cupboards - Polar White

Pantry, Wine Rack, Island bench cupboards, Fridge Space, Overhead cupboards - Burnished Wood (this turns up black but is dark wood)

Door to overhead cupboard - Platinum Pearlescent Perspex

Oven - seperate Technika underbench oven and cooktop

Kickrail - Stainless steel

Glass splashback - Starfire (same colour as walls) (*UPGRADE*)

ENSUITE, BATHROOM, POWDER ROOM
Vanity, Bath wall tiles - 100 x 300 Icecream (offwhite) horizontal

Shower wall tiles - 200 x 300 Icecream horizontal

Feature tile - Mosaic Glasstone Tan Brown 15x100 laid in vertical strip in shower and above vanity (between vanity and mirror)

Vanity benchtop - Burnished wood laminate (see kitchen)

Vanity cupboards - Oyster linea laminate (no cupboards in powder room)

LAUNDRY

Underbench cupboards - Oyster Linea

Benchtop - Burnished Wood

Splashback - 100 x 300 Icecream (offwhite) horizontal tiles

Overhead cupboards - Polar white

I think I have posted everything? If I have missed anything just ask!

P.S. I will upload a photo of the feature tile and bathroom colours next time =)

From the beginning....

2009-03-27T22:23:00.011+11:00

A bit of background about ourselves. I am an engineer working in the oil and gas industry and Glen works for a small IT company installing software for various companies. We are both young (22/24) and have our whole lives ahead (I hope!). Thought it would be good to try and get a bit of a head start and build our own house before we have too many responsibilities/debts (that didn't last long!). We aren't what most people would call typical first home buyers. We have chosen a relatively large house and aren't going too easy on the upgrades... as you will see!

In December we began looking at different estates in the West and decided Point Cook was the place we wanted to live. We were lucky to find a cheap block of land up for resale in Alamanda estate, which we snapped up right away. The estate is fantastic with a few parks and open spaces as well as a residents club with a swimming pool, tennis courts and gym. It gives the estate a real community feel =)

We then began our search for the perfect home....

We signed an initial agreement with Carlisle Homes on the 7th Feb 2009 (a.k.a. "Black Saturday"). We were sitting in the Carlisle displays in Lyndhurst and could see a massive plume of smoke in the background as the Bunyip fire began... scary! Anyway on that day we put down a deposit to build the Monaco 32. Our sales consultant, "N", has been fantastic even with all of our silly questions and requests!

We love this plan mostly due to the open plan living area. The back of the house is completely open, with a beautiful kitchen looking out onto a corner alfresco.

We are making a few changes to the floorplan...
1. Delete the walls of the rumpus room to create one large open living area at the back of the house. We will probably move the dining to where the 'family' is in the plan and make a large family/lounge area where the rumpus room was.
2. Eextend the lounge room wall out to the line of the house. we will make this room a home theatre room (with sound insulation and double doors). Also moving the internal wall approx 1m towards the back of the house, in line with the ensuite shower.
3. Extend the garage out 1.5m to allow some extra storage/work space in the garage. We will also add a roller door at the back to provide rear access. We are lucky to have a wider block which allows this!
4. In the kitchen, we are moving around the appliances. Moving the sink to the island bench (in place of stovetop). The cooktop and underbench oven will go in next to the pantry.
5. Sliding door from meals to alfresco to allow the back corner to open up (can't afford to fork out for bifolds!)
6. Change the window in the home theatre to a long high light window.
7. 1020mm front door
8. Upgrade the island bench to the same as the display home (sink section is higher and slightly wider).
9. Add 450mm eaves

We were lucky to pick up a promo which included caeserstone benchtops, carpets and tiles for $2999. We are upgrading the tiles to timber laminate however.

We had our colour appointment today. I will post the colour selections soon, along with some elevations =)