Well, we thought 2 months ago, it'd only be a month to go. Well, we were wrong.
It took a while to get around to getting the south concrete apron done - includes 2 drains like the 4 on the north side - and then get things organised to drill the extra depth holes and start the fencing. We had to wait for the builder of the south side house to finish up with their rendering so that they could move the temp fencing off our land and the apron works could commence. Of course, as we're learning, co-ordinating tradies is aiken to herding cats. The weather affects different tradies differently.
The fencing should hopefully finish this week, and then I've got a little bit of landscaping to do myself - get some scoria in, then stones down the side and bark at the front.
Inside, all the furniture has been delivered and I've managed to sort out the garage 95% and it'll soon be ready for the intended purpose! A car! Yes, just one... standard garages here in Australia aren't as wide as in South Africa, so if you have shelves or anything other than a car stored in the garage, there's just not enough space. Not quite like the good old SA garages that had space for 2 large cars, workbenches, fridge/freezers and then all the rafter space.
The lawn is amazing. I have to say that the landscaper chose well. It's an amazing green, and boy does it grow. I have to mow it every two weeks or it becomes a little jungle for the girls. Will post some photos of that too. Strathyr's RTF is the name.
They've started building on the site behind us, so within 6 months or so we'll hopefully have all our neighbours in - possibly the first block in our stage to be completely surrounded by completed houses. We look forward to getting to know all our neighbours better once everyone's houses are complete and we can all get on with enjoying our estate/stage without worrying about or dealing with any building issues.
UEH is busy fixing various things around the house and we're waiting to hear what Beaumont Tiles finds out about our polished porcelain tiles - several appear to have absorbed water and become 'stained'. Which from what I've been told and read, should never happen with polished porcelain tiles. Let's wait and see.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
End in sight?
Or is that end in Site. :)
Well, we've completed the landscaping for 90% of the area of our lot; basically 3 of the 4 sides of the house are done. All 3 are just pending the completion of the fence after the grass has had a chance to settle and take root.
The last remaining side is a different beast. We'll be putting in a retaining wall to protect/support the concrete apron and then after the apron is in, it'll be time to drill extra depth holes - due to the lot next door cutting their site right to the boundary. Their retaining wall is 200mm off the boundary and 600mm high, so a standard fence post depth wouldn't have a hope in hell of standing up against the wind and would just be pushed over in a few days or weeks. That fence will also only be 1.8m from the natural lay of the land, unlike it's northern counterpart which is extra height - I think the difference between the tops of the two fences will be around a meter. Doesn't really bother us, as we're on the high side of the fence and the owner next door is happy with us having +-1.4m of fence height against our house height.
Anyway, if all goes according to plan, in a month all the landscaping/fencing will be done. Finally. Hopefully never to be worried about again.
Once that is complete I promise I'll post photos of the before and after. :)
Well, we've completed the landscaping for 90% of the area of our lot; basically 3 of the 4 sides of the house are done. All 3 are just pending the completion of the fence after the grass has had a chance to settle and take root.
The last remaining side is a different beast. We'll be putting in a retaining wall to protect/support the concrete apron and then after the apron is in, it'll be time to drill extra depth holes - due to the lot next door cutting their site right to the boundary. Their retaining wall is 200mm off the boundary and 600mm high, so a standard fence post depth wouldn't have a hope in hell of standing up against the wind and would just be pushed over in a few days or weeks. That fence will also only be 1.8m from the natural lay of the land, unlike it's northern counterpart which is extra height - I think the difference between the tops of the two fences will be around a meter. Doesn't really bother us, as we're on the high side of the fence and the owner next door is happy with us having +-1.4m of fence height against our house height.
Anyway, if all goes according to plan, in a month all the landscaping/fencing will be done. Finally. Hopefully never to be worried about again.
Once that is complete I promise I'll post photos of the before and after. :)
Friday, July 19, 2013
And we thought building the house was the stressful part...
Well... it wasn't. Sure, it go a bit frustrating with the builder, but they built our house in the end, and I still smile at the little things we did differently with them.
Right now though, it's the outside of the house that I never prepared myself mentally for. Oh sure, I planned financially, mostly...but there are always things you don't think of, and the budget got blown a while ago...
We're trying to get 2/3 of the fence done, and the whole of the front of the house... and boy is it stressful. Also going to be around 2 months before the shutters are in...
Living each day without TV, or 'real' (i.e. FTTH) internet has proven interesting. We basically try stream recorded programs from the likes of 7...and on the dodgy 3G tethering, it stops working all the time...
But... look to the future and in 2 months it'll all be behind us. The pics will come...in time. :)
Soon, we might actually get some furniture for the theater room!
Almost every pair of shoes I have has mud on them...
Right now though, it's the outside of the house that I never prepared myself mentally for. Oh sure, I planned financially, mostly...but there are always things you don't think of, and the budget got blown a while ago...
We're trying to get 2/3 of the fence done, and the whole of the front of the house... and boy is it stressful. Also going to be around 2 months before the shutters are in...
Living each day without TV, or 'real' (i.e. FTTH) internet has proven interesting. We basically try stream recorded programs from the likes of 7...and on the dodgy 3G tethering, it stops working all the time...
But... look to the future and in 2 months it'll all be behind us. The pics will come...in time. :)
Soon, we might actually get some furniture for the theater room!
Almost every pair of shoes I have has mud on them...
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Trying to settle in
Well, it's been crazy. We finally handed over our rental property today, with a tremendous amount of work by my wife to get it sorted.
We're now in the 'setting up the home' stage... which means, concrete, driveway, landscaping, fencing, windows, furniture... oh boy...
I'll post pictures once everything is sorted out... I must say, the guys from New Look Concrete are doing an amazing job of landscaping and concreting... with some additional drainage to boot. I can't wait to see how well they'll do our front retaining wall. A lot of hard work, but they're doing great.
We can't fence or concrete the south side of the house as it's not safe to do so yet until that house has its garage wall up. Hoping there's enough space for their drainage and the fence on the boundary.
The north side is where NLC are doing lots of work putting in a retaining wall to help level out the ground for the fence and drainage.
Watch this space for the finished products and in about 8 weeks, the inside of the house once the plantation shutters are in.
We're now in the 'setting up the home' stage... which means, concrete, driveway, landscaping, fencing, windows, furniture... oh boy...
I'll post pictures once everything is sorted out... I must say, the guys from New Look Concrete are doing an amazing job of landscaping and concreting... with some additional drainage to boot. I can't wait to see how well they'll do our front retaining wall. A lot of hard work, but they're doing great.
We can't fence or concrete the south side of the house as it's not safe to do so yet until that house has its garage wall up. Hoping there's enough space for their drainage and the fence on the boundary.
The north side is where NLC are doing lots of work putting in a retaining wall to help level out the ground for the fence and drainage.
Watch this space for the finished products and in about 8 weeks, the inside of the house once the plantation shutters are in.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Time Blurred.
Last Sunday morning I woke up feeling ill. Physically ill. I had not slept well (baby sick, so up half the night) and had woken before 06H00 concerned about the house.
We then made the decision to contact both PODS and our removalists to see if they come move the dates forward. In the mean time, we went into overdrive and started packing the PODS in the off chance that they could.
They could.
Monday was a blur at work and at home and on Tuesday morning the PODS guy came to pick up the PODS and drop it off at the house. Then it was a made dash back to the rental property to pack as much stuff as we possibly could for the movers that were now coming 10 days early.
Wednesday started with me finding our eldest child had left her car door open the night before (my car) and the battery was dead enough to stop the car starting... then finding out that when I had added my (second) car to my RACV portfolio, nobody had gone about asking if I wanted roadside assist on that vehicle (too). So I took out roadside assist over the phone and waited the 90 minutes for the guy to arrive (he got there early as was there for like 2 minutes...).
We then found out that the booking alteration hadn't been 'locked in' with the removalists...and we started to...worry. They said they were putting together a team and they'd be there about 4 hours late. Eep.
Well... what a pleasure. The team lead from Metro Movers was damn good. I've moved house well over 30 times in my life... and it is not often that I've seen a guy go that little bit further in service. Sorting out the balance of the fridge... holding the sideboard up so that my wife could fit protection to the base - after actually asking us if we wanted to put something on it to protect the wooden floors! They put down blankets everywhere and did a good job.
So now we're in... trying to survive without taps in half the house. We finally got a quote from UEH on Friday for the damage and stolen items, but now we have to get approval from the group insurer before UEH will do the work... so even more delays.
And then there's the fencing saga...but I'll leave that for another day.
This week has us deal with Telstra and FTTH...
We then made the decision to contact both PODS and our removalists to see if they come move the dates forward. In the mean time, we went into overdrive and started packing the PODS in the off chance that they could.
They could.
Monday was a blur at work and at home and on Tuesday morning the PODS guy came to pick up the PODS and drop it off at the house. Then it was a made dash back to the rental property to pack as much stuff as we possibly could for the movers that were now coming 10 days early.
Wednesday started with me finding our eldest child had left her car door open the night before (my car) and the battery was dead enough to stop the car starting... then finding out that when I had added my (second) car to my RACV portfolio, nobody had gone about asking if I wanted roadside assist on that vehicle (too). So I took out roadside assist over the phone and waited the 90 minutes for the guy to arrive (he got there early as was there for like 2 minutes...).
We then found out that the booking alteration hadn't been 'locked in' with the removalists...and we started to...worry. They said they were putting together a team and they'd be there about 4 hours late. Eep.
Well... what a pleasure. The team lead from Metro Movers was damn good. I've moved house well over 30 times in my life... and it is not often that I've seen a guy go that little bit further in service. Sorting out the balance of the fridge... holding the sideboard up so that my wife could fit protection to the base - after actually asking us if we wanted to put something on it to protect the wooden floors! They put down blankets everywhere and did a good job.
So now we're in... trying to survive without taps in half the house. We finally got a quote from UEH on Friday for the damage and stolen items, but now we have to get approval from the group insurer before UEH will do the work... so even more delays.
And then there's the fencing saga...but I'll leave that for another day.
This week has us deal with Telstra and FTTH...
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Day 1... ruined.
So we did handover on Friday afternoon, and before we'd even had a chance to move a thing in, someone had relieved us of several fittings. Fittings that had been on site for several weeks...
Anyway... police, locksmith, insurance...all been done or being processed.
I'll post some photos once everything is repaired and in...
The monetary 'loss' is irrelevant really. But the irony of moving to Australia to avoid crime...well... I'm sure it has many people in South Africa chuckling.
Anyway... police, locksmith, insurance...all been done or being processed.
I'll post some photos once everything is repaired and in...
The monetary 'loss' is irrelevant really. But the irony of moving to Australia to avoid crime...well... I'm sure it has many people in South Africa chuckling.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Not quite...
Hmm. Apprehension was well founded. I have my doubts that AL Windows could have performed the below poor quality of ... work?
Herewith a set of photos taken a week apart (sorry for the layout...), during which time it was claimed an AL Windows technician had repaired ALL the windows.
In Summary, the person that worked on some of the windows:
1) Didn't protect the glass and has sprayed the windows in several places;
2) Didn't sand down the cuts;
3) Sprayed so much paint (guessing in an attempt to fill the cuts?) that the matt finish is now gloss in those areas and the paint has run in several spots.
The Before photos:
The After photos:
Herewith a set of photos taken a week apart (sorry for the layout...), during which time it was claimed an AL Windows technician had repaired ALL the windows.
In Summary, the person that worked on some of the windows:
1) Didn't protect the glass and has sprayed the windows in several places;
2) Didn't sand down the cuts;
3) Sprayed so much paint (guessing in an attempt to fill the cuts?) that the matt finish is now gloss in those areas and the paint has run in several spots.
The Before photos:
The After photos:
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