Slowly But Surely

It's amazing how fast time flies after you have moved into a house. Yet when you are building it seems like time goes so.. s l o w ! Now here we are almost at the end of 2007 and four months at our new house and we still haven't done much.

But...

Slowly and surely we are getting things done. Kind of. A lot of discussion and not so much action. As in we have been talking about building the side gates and decking but it hasn't started. Purely because the bank still haven't finalised all our paperwork regarding the 'missing money'. We were so close to it being sorted but then they found another mistake. Their fault of course. So, we still wait and wait and get on with the rest of our life. No point stressing right? I don't think I could make them move any faster, anyway.

Now, for a change of topic.

Below is a pic of the most used room in the house - the family room. A few weeks ago it would've come equal par with the study room as the most used room in the house. But then we got our new LCD Tv and F.oxtel and well, all I can say is this is the first time I've turned my computer on other than two days ago to pay bills. :P



The family room is far from being finished but it's currently serving it's purpose and accommodating us (and the occasional visitor/s) very well. It might seem weird to only have two armchairs but there is a reasoning behind it all! These two armchairs are only a few months old and the matching three seater is about two years old now. We're really just wanting to wear the armchairs in so that it doesn't look too new or different when it eventually ends up in the same room as the three seater. Gets?

I've tried to make the family room more user friendly and versatile by adding in a couple of square ottomans and beanbags and floor pillows. It's working out great 'cos sometimes you kind of just want to relax and lounge and these items help you do that. The ottoman works out great as we can also use it as a footstool, coffee table and extra seating for the dining table when we have visitors.

Other plans we have for this room is to add a stacked stone feature to the wall behind the tv in an attempt to add texture to the house and carry through some of the stone element that is on the kitchen bench. There will also be a new colour to the adjacent walls. The floor rug will remain so the stacked stone and the new wall colour (as well as another set of couches/sofas and other furniture) will all have to co-ordinate together. I finally found a floor lamp that will live in this room and that should arrive next week so more pics then! We also have plans for the wall voids but still working out exactly what those plans will be! Hehe

And this is the lounge room. Or living room. Or formal living room. Or whatever you want to call it. As the bf says, "What's this room called again and what is it for?" To which I say, "It's the living room and you put couches there and you sit on them."



This room used to look so empty and bland. It still does, actually, but the throw pillows have helped make it look a little more 'lived in' and comfortable. Not the greatest photo (as I took it at night) but there is a nice mix of textures, patterns and colours to the different pillows. The best thing about it is that I got them all at bargain prices.

Other than adding a feature wall to this room and adding some curtains to the windows to soften them up, I don't know what else to do. I have a few ideas but it's deciding which one to go with that is the problem!

Slowly and surely, right?

That Time of the Year

Is It That Time Already?

Would you believe we had our 3 month maintenance last Friday? Yup, we did! Not quite exactly 3 months but pretty close. We're booked in for stuff to get fixed at the end of the month.

*sigh*

How time flies! And how sad as I haven't done anything to the house other than unpack! Hehe

The House By Day

The last external pics of the house was rather dodgy so here's some in the late afternoon light...

Standing Tall

Fence is now fixed and standing tall once again.



Wood was delivered late Tuesday arvo. The contractor came past on Wednesday to inspect the damage. On Thursday he put up new posts about a foot away from the first lot of posts. Then he finished the job on Saturday.

The Bf and I were under the impression that the entire fence would be constructed using the new wood that was delivered. This is what Boss-man told us. But the contractor ended up just reusing the original panels as they were still in good condition. But there is now a whole lot of wood on the neighbours block still bundled up as it hasn't been used. We're also missing capping to one panel. I wonder if they are going to pick up the extra wood. I'm surprised no one has come to steal it in the middle of the night. Hehe

Anyway, other than that we're all glad we now have our privacy back again. We did resort to putting up some of our own bracing methods as we felt the way they had braced it (putting extra bits of wood on either side of the posts) wasn't going to be sufficient. Especially when we got another round of very strong winds the day after the finished putting up the fence! It shouldn't be too long now until our neighbours start building. Then I'm sure it won't be very long after they start that there will be some bricks or something to help block that naked side. Let's just hope there's no more strong winds until then! Hehe

The Joys of It All (Part 2)

Our fence is pretty much...well...not a fence anymore. It's just pieces of wood hanging via other pieces of wood that has snapped either at the base or in the middle of what is supposed to be it's support posts.

This is the north-side fence at approximately lunch time today:





You think that's bad? It's a lot worse now.

I initially freaked out then I calmed down. Then I freaked out. Then I calmed down. Then I stressed out. And now, I'm just laughing. Kind of. Because, really, there's nothing I can do but laugh. And add it to experience. And the list of mishaps we have faced and experienced since moving into our beloved home. :D

The imporant thing (other than cancelling the cheque for payment which I mailed off yesterday) is that they are going to fix it. It wasn't me conversing with them so I can't say exactly what they said. All they said was someone was coming out this arvo to fix it. But nobody came. So, i'm guessing (and hoping) they will most likely come tomorrow.

On the way home from work our neighbours from the west-side called me to say that our fence had fallen down. I was a bit puzzled and thought that the north-side had flopped so much that it had brought down the west-side fence. West-side being our shared fence. He said that it was just the one side but was calling to inform us so that we didn't get a nasty surpise when we got home. I thought that was quite lovely of him and thanked him for informing me. But, as you can probably guess, I already knew. My lovely boarder (AKA younger sister) had done her sisterly and boarder-ly duty by informing me the moment she got up. I swear, that fence was still vertical when we left the house for work.


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We officially took posession of our house on a Friday. Five days later (a very early Tuesday morning) we experienced our first 'panic attack'. Now, no need for lectures and 'You should not have done that line' because...well...just because. At the moment it was logical. At hindsight it wasn't the smartest thing.

Anyway, the Bf started digging the phone trench around lunchtime on the Monday before the said Tuesday morning. He underestimated how long it would take and he over estimated how deep he should be digging. So, a comibantion of the two brought us to 10pm that Monday night and only about 3/4 done with the digging. We (after I did an hour of helping) collectively decided that he would get up before the crack of dawn to finish off the trench before the phone-cable-people arrived at 7am.

So, he got up and I was dead to the world. Because that's what unpacking and moving house does to you. Then I awoke at 4.30am with the Bf pacing up and down the hallway talking very fast to someone on the phone and I could hear a large hissing sound outside our bedroom window. Then I heard words I never want to hear ever again.

"I think I hit the gas pipe! It's making a very loud hissing sound!"

And boy, did that send me jumping out of bed with my heart pounding at a million miles an hour. I had all sorts of thoughts running through my head.

Oh my gosh, we're going to die! We're going to explode! The house is going to burn down! We're going to be homeless! The puppy? Where is the puppy?! Oh my gosh...why, me?!

Then 10 mins later I heard the sirens of the fire trucks coming nearer and nearer. At first they told the Bf off (in a polite way) for doing what he was doing at such a ridiculous time. I felt stupid for letting him get up so early to do this and me sleeping in bed so I didn't go outside to talk to the fire people. That plus I was afraid of blowing up because the hissing sound was so loud and strong! LOL I think the Bf was just so in shock he couldn't say anything back.

The fire people ended up calling some gas people to come fix the burst gas pipe. Which, by the way, is very thin and not at all a hard pipe like I would've thought. They used some clamps to clamp the pipe while they waited for the gas person to come fix it. While they were waiting one of the fire people stood near the exposed pipe and held the water hose at its direction. They said it was just 'incase'.

The gas person came about half an hour later and all he did was temporarily fix it. He used two smaller clamps (similar to those clamsp you would find in any guys tool box) and clamped either side of the hole. He then said that someone else would be out at 8am to fix it properly. At around 6am the fire and gas people left.

At 7am the phone-cable-people arrived and made us feel at ease. He told us that we're not the first people to hit a gas pipe while digging a trench. He even said he's hit it himself a few times and that he can actually fix it for us. But we said there was already someone on his way out to fix it so the clamps will do for the time being. They were in and out within 15 mins. Or should that be out and out because they never went in?!

Anyway, another gas person arrived at around 8am to properly fix the gas pipe. He told us that the gas pipe was infact not deep enough which is why the Bf hit it while digging. The Bf didn't actually hit it per se. He just chipped it ever so slightly. Which is why it's hard to believe that something like that is encased in such a soft pipe. The gas pipe was meant to be 450mm down but it was just sitting at 400mm. Gas person said he would write in his report that the pipe wasn't deep enough so that we wouldn't get charged any fee for fixing it. But, whatever happens after the report is lodged is beyond his control. We may still get charged a fee.

So much for saving, ey? Well, the bill never came. And two weeks after the mishap some guys from the gas place rocked up to the house and started digging in our front yard. They did knock on the door first. They said they were there to check the gas pipe. What that actually meant I don't know. Point being that we didn't end up getting billed to have the pipe fixed. Guess they realised it wasn't all our fault. Outcome wasn't entirely bad after all.

It's just absolutely funny thinking back to that moment. I really thought the house was going to blow up. But it was just a momentary panick attack that sorted itself out in the end. Thanks to all heavens above!

Live and learn, ey? :D

If and when we build another house we have decided we will be paying someone to dig the trench for us. It's just not worth (even if we both laugh about it now) the heartache and stress if something goes wrong. Hehe

(Cue audience laughter.)

Part 3 coming soon. Along with updates on the fence.

Anyone reading my blog - please feel free to laugh at our expense. It's fine. I just hope you also learn from our mistakes. Albeit stupid and idiotic at times. :)

The Joys of It All (Part 1)

One of the perks of upping and moving from one side of town all the way to the other is that we ended up with a brand spankin' new house at a price we could afford. Almost exactly the way we wanted it. Building this exact house in our old part of town would've been pushing way over half a million. So, I think it was/is a good outcome.

Our car insurance policy is up for renewal in a couple of weeks. And this brings us another downside (of which there really are very few). Turns out that our car insurance policy will now double because of the area. Apparently our Ford Falcon is very popular around here.

Bleh! Oh, the joys of moving!

AND...I have even more 'joyful' stories. About electricity, gas and water.

To be continued...

A House Just Isn't a House...

...without a driveway and a fence. Or fences. At least in my opinion. Hence the lack of posts. After all, how many times do you really need to see (external) photos of the house just sitting on a mound of dirt that isslowly getting taken over by weeds?! Hehe

Anyhoo, driveway was laid a couple of weeks ago. We just have a plain concrete driveway in a sandstone colour. We both think the colour looks great and are really pleased with the outcome. I tossed and turned and was undecided about the colour for ages. I thought of using a light brown. Then a grey. Then a brown again. Then grey. Then dark brown. Then dark blue. Then, I dug deep and used the colour combination part of my brain and decided on sandstone. I was a bit hesitant on using a light colour for a driveway. What with driving over it so much I thought it would get dirty easily. But (so far) the sealer is doing it's job. And the light colour (which is pretty close to our off-white mortar) of the driveway has actually helped 'lift' the house and compliment and finish off the external colour scheme.

Is it stupid to love a driveway? LOL Oh, we still park the car on the driveway. Just because we still have heaps of crap in the garage. And a few boxes (books, magazines, papework etc) to unpack. And we have extra/spare bricks also sitting in the garage. Which we moved in there because one day my sister found an idiot walking around the perimeter of our house investigating what he could take. Namely the bricks. We paid for those bricks. And we would like to keep them to make a rendered fence, thank you very much!

We also payed some extra dollars to have the crossover extended. It's now ridiculously wide! LOL It was originally a double crossover (half for the neighbours) but now it's like a triple crossover. Haha I'll post better shots next time around. I think spending the extra dollars on the crossover extension was somewhat worth it. It's allowed us to have a straight driveway. But at the same time it's money spent on something we don't own. As in we can't up and take the crossover with us when we move. We can't do that with the driveway either, but ey, at least we own the driveway. Anything beyond our property boundary is the council's. So, to the council - enjoy my hard earned cash! Hehe



Oh, and I never thought I would be relieved to have a fence! I/we no longer feel like we are living in a fishbowl with people constantly watching us! They delivered the bits and pieces last Thursday and begun working on it on Friday. They added the railings on Sunday and then finished off the paling just today. It's uber high (1.95m) and I feel like a dwarf standing next to it. Fence at 1.95m. Me at just 1.6m. A whole 35cm taller than me. That's like a whole ruler, y'all!

But the height is great. I had thought that we might have to build one of those privacy screens to cover our alfresco and prevent the neighbours from being able to see through our sliding doors. Now, they would only be able to see through if they climbed the fence or were over 2m tall! Hehe Plus, neither of the neighbours on either side are building a two storey. So, woohoo to that!



But really, I feel like a dwarf next to it.

Window Treatments

As the title suggests this post is about our window treatments. :) Basically, we have three different kinds of window treatments in the house. Or you could say two if you don't include the wall voids. You could even say one as sliding doors aren't really windows. They're...well...sliding doors. The only common thing they have is that they're both made of glass. One you walk in and out of. And the other you just stare out of and occassionally open to let some air in. The dust and dirt enters with no invitation.

Anyhoo, as seen below, we opted for the double roller blinds for both sliding doors. We had originally planned to have a roman blind and roller blind combo. I thought the roman blind could hide the ugly 'holder bits' of the roller blinds. But, naturally, we had a problem. We couldn't mount the roller blinds inside the frame as I thought we could. This, therefore, created a problem with the roman blinds. If we mounted both roman and roller blinds on the outside of the frame the roman would sit and look funny because of the roller blind's 'holder bits'. Gets? Okay, great!

So, outside mounted double roller blinds it is. It's somewhat fiddly with the wider sliding door as there are chains hanging mid air. Luckily we don't have kids (yet) so that gives me plenty of time to make a pelmet to hide the 'holder bits'. Yet another thing to add on my list of things to do. I'm currently on the look out for an awesome fabric to make my padded pelmet from. What that fabric will be is currently undecided as I've not exactly decided on what colour feature walls we will have or the couch/sofa colour that will eventually live in the nearby family room. Oh, by the way, we avoid the fiddly chains (which we've accepted the fact that we cannot hide so instead have devised a solution that will ensure it's not in the reach of future littlies) on the wider sliding door by using the narrower sliding door. That plus the fact we don't actually have a reason to go out to the 'alfresco' because it's still currently just a pile of dirt.

Oh, the joys of moving into a brand new house!



As previously mentioned we have 'eco cedar thermal blinds' on all windows. I call them 'fake timber blinds' because, really, they are fake timber. But oh, how our bank account and credit card loved the total price! 17 windows for around 2k. Bargain, I reckon. And you can't even tell they're fake. Not really. But whatever. The colour turned out great and they totally match everything! Yes, yes, more pictures to come!



We also have a couple of cedar plantation shutters which we have put in the wall voids of our master bedroom/ensuite. It looks great. Although in hindsight I should've picked the medium-dark colour as the light-medium turned out more light than medium. I also didn't realise they were going to put the wood frame around it as even though it technically is inside mounted I think the frame makes it look...derno...something else. But, still quite happy with it as the price was very reasonable.

For those who are curios we got all of them at this place. We ordered them about 5-6 weeks before handover. The fake timber blinds were ready before we even moved to the house. The shutters were installed the first week we moved in and the rollers took a little longer than expected as the colour of the blockout fabric (a mid-dark grey) was out of stock for awhile. I kind of got sick of having bed sheets up to cover the sliding doors so I was uber glad when the call came to say they were ready. Oh, and for those who are also curious, we got a off-white/creamy colour fabric for the see-through half of the blinds. I also think the colour ended up great and looks good from the outside. It's almost the colour of our mortar.

On other fronts, we are currently deciding what to do next on our 'list of things to do'. The driveway was laid yesterday (and yes pics of that are coming soon, too) and the concrete man is coming back tomorrow to put in his saw cuts and seal it. The fence is due to start in the next week or so. Other than fixing and clearing the garage (so that we can at least fit the car in there when the driveway is ready for use) we are in the talks of starting the decking infront of the front door and building side gates. We're also discussing and deciding (it's just me discussing with myself really) about paint effects, wall cladding and paint colours to go in various places of the house. There's also the study room to think about. Which is the first room we will totally fit out as I am absolutely sick of having crap and important paperwork laying around and not sitting in their proper folders and filing racks! LOL

Oh! So many things to do and don't know where to start!

I apologise for the extremely long post. But I thought it might be needed as I haven't blogged in yonks! Next post will either be about the light fittings or the driveway/external shots. But which one?! Mmm! See, so many things to decide! Ack!

The Big Move

It was almost 4 weeks ago. But it seemed like it was just yesterday.





It's hard to believe that (or maybe I'm in denial because the days are flying so fast) we have been living in this house for almost 4 weeks now. The first two weeks just seemed so surreal and having just gone back to work last week I'm still really adjusting to a new routine and pretty much everything else. But, you know, everything is great. While I know the real world is still outside my doors there's a calm and certain indescribable feeling that I possess. Maybe it's all new to me still but it's absolutely awesome to come home to my own house. Even after a hard day doing the daily grind. That all stays outside these walls of mine and I just put my feet up and relax. We've lived in our own place before. But it's REALLY different when you know it's yours.

Anyway, enough of that sentimental ish. Hehe

The Big Move pretty much happened the day after handover. I was physically not part of the 'moving' of things as I stayed at the house and...just...waited. Sort of housesitting as we were both paranoid that someone was going to break into the house. Not that there was anything to take. Except maybe the blinds. You never know, though, as they might steal the taps again like they did last time. So, I waited all day. The silence drove me crazy! I tried to occupy myself by trying to finish off the blinds we installed the night before. But when you have no one to talk to, no radio or tv to watch and can only hear the sounds of the trucks/cranes working away outside you will eventually go mental!

The Bf left the house at 8.30am. I thought they (the bf, the family and our stuff) would at least be here by mid afternoon. I was wrong. They didn't make it until the sun went down. *sigh* Turns out they tried their best to fit everything into the truck so that only one trip was done. They (the bf and my dad were the main muscles of the moving thing) must've spent too long thinking about it that they eventually ran out of time and just decided to do one more small load the next day. After seeing the second small load I still believe it could've been done in one load. And as my dad said - I kid you not as this is what he himself said to me - they did spend too long thinking and analysing the load and they probably would've done good if I was there to tell them what to lift and where to put it! Men!

No offence to the men out there reading this. I'm sure you would've all done a fine job. :) But my dear dad and my beloved Bf are so alike that sometimes I think they are two peas in a pod. Hehe Something about being with a man who is like your dad? Yes, yes, I hear y'all! Haha

The Big Day

We applied for our ADSL connection last Monday around lunchtime. By lunchtime that following Thursday we were all set to go. It was absolutely amazing how fast it all happened. Guess it helps that we're the only house on the street (so there were probably heaps of ports available) and that the exchange was just down the road. So the telephone man said. Anyway, having said that, you would think the first thing I would've done was blogged. But as you can tell, such wasn't the case. There were still things to do be done and things to buy, places to go and tv to watch. Hehe

The last couple of weeks have gone by in a blur. So many things happened and so many things to mention that I don't even know where to begin. I guess I will just start from the start and work my way from there. So please be patient as I get my head around actually being in this house, getting into a new routine, familiarising myself with a semi-new area and trying to make this house more 'homely' as at the moment it's pretty bare in some areas. Hehe And hey, what kind of a blogger would I be if I showed all the pics of the entire house?! There won't be any more surprises! It will all be revealed. Slowly. Hehe Plus, some rooms are still a work in progress as I try to decide on colours for furniture, feature walls and furnishings/decorations. But, i'm havin' an absolute blast and looking forward to at least trying to complete the house one room at a time.



The actual handover process went rather quickly. I could say smoothly but I won't as we were really only at the builder's office for 10 mins. That includes the 2 mins we waited for our CSR to get from her office to one of the meeting rooms. We basically gave her the final cheque, received some paperwork, got the keys and a little present. Nothing special. Just a set of bath towels and bathroom accessories. You know, soap holder, soap dispenser, toothbrush holder etc. After we got the keys, we headed to the house, went inside, did a little happy-happy-joy-joy dance with big smiles on our faces then unloaded some stuff we brought to get through the night. We then zipped off to the blinds place and picked up our order.

We spent the night eating chinese take-away, installing blinds and sleeping on an air mattress. So not sleeping on that damn thing again! Haha





But before the actual handover actually happened (mid-afternoon) we met up with D-Man at the house around 11am. We arrived at the house and found about a gazillion tradies working on the house and finishing it off. Gazillion is a slight exaggeration. There were two sets of two. Two plumbers installing the hot water system and two electricians finishing of the electrical fit-outs. We dashed off for some lunch then came back to meet with the...err...heating man. He finished off the installation to the ducted heating and showed us how to use it etc. There was some slight drama in that the sparkies had only put in one powerpoint for the heating system when it actually needed two. Luckily the sparkies were still there so they ended up fixing it before they left.

Other than that there isn't much else to say about The Big Day. The builder fixed most of the things but didn't touch the misaligned tiles. I only noticed after the fact that they ignored some paint touchups we asked to be fixed but then we also picked up some other stuff we didn't see before. But generally the house is in great condition. When you have 29sqs of space and start living in it you kind of start to not see that little bit of plaster-patching-thingy that was not sanded back or the tiny hole in the grout on the floor that's behind the toilet door. But then again, maybe it's just me. Hehe

Oh, for those wondering, the case of the missing money still hasn't been resolved. We rang THE broker (am no longer referring to him as OUR broker as he's an absolute jackass to me) to see if he followed up with the bank after I left that not so polite message on his voicemail. He said he called to make an appointment with his contact and is waiting for a return phone call. My ass. He couldn't call his own contact back within the one week timeframe we gave him? Bleh! Anyway, bf kindly told him (after I told him to use some bad words during their conversation - hehe) that we no longer wish to deal with him in relation to this matter and we will speak to the contact we have at the bank's complaints department ourselves. To which he happily agreed and said that we would probably get further by doing it ourselves. What a f*cknut. Guess it doesn't matter greatly at this point how little work he actually does as I sleep easy knowing we never paid him a cent from the very beginning. He actually paid us what we were supposed to pay him. Still, I'm not entirely a happy camper that he is still getting paid by the bank the longer we stay with the bank. But with the way interest rates are going at the moment I think we still stay put considering we have a fixed interest rate. Anyway, so this issue is still unresolved. Will update as it progresses. If it ever does.