First weekend

The tiling didn't start the weekend just gone as planned, but looks like it is going ahead today. I went out with my Mum and we took some stuff over, mainly cleaning products, toilet paper, and tea and coffee supplies so when the tradies are there they can use the facilities and maybe clean-up after themselves.

The toilet is hysterical. The fan comes on with the light and is fairly loud but with the door shut sounds like you are in a wind tunnel, or maybe even the sound a toilet on a plane or train sounds like when you flush - Welcome to flight SF2570 to Darwin, this is your Captain speaking. We are expecting a smooth flight with some occasional rain. Please sit back, relax and enjoy your time with us... hahaha.

Note to all - never have a door from the garage swing into the house which blocks the end of the hall to the living space or kitchen because it will irritate you no end as you have to open, enter, close and move forward. I am thinking if it would open out into the garage would be awesome but even hung to the opoosite side would be better.

Also not happy as I have a hatch with an antenna fitted to the roof and it gets caught going in and out under the roller door and swings something shocking so I hear it banging on the roof. I am wondering if this can be classified as a defect because no way a 4WD fits under.

The mud is atrocious after the rain and I have tracked much into the garage, but we couldn't find any loose fibro on people's rubbish piles, so I hope the tiler has a better time of it today. I'd say he should park in the garage but I don't know the van would make it.

Paint and Powerpoints!

Well the house is coming together, hopefully in time to be handed over on Wednesday. The panel above the roller doors has been painted.


The front door has been painted and the mortice lock installed. Inside the painting of the walls, ceilings, trims and doors has been finished and the door handles are on. The powerpoints and light fittings are in.


The meter box has been painted, although it has a dusty handprint on it.


The eaves and downpipes have been painted. The security alarm and the hot water system installed.


And the rainwater tap sign has been put up.


I met the other neighbour today, and saw that the people in Number 15 have moved in. So it looks like I'm going to be the fourth household moved in.

Garage photos

Got out of a meeting on time and made it back home whilst the sun was still up so I kept going as I am so in love with getting photos. My new Nokia E72 has a 5mp camera and a 4gb memory and since it is my first mobile of this capability I having fun with it.

The panel above the doors is going to be painted to match the scheme. I'm kind of getting used to the wood look but not a fan of the tone as a permanent feature so I guess I'll just have to wait and see how it turns out.


I know it isn't a picture of the house but it is evidence that the remote controlled door device was also installed.


The rubbish pile is also growing. Another house has been tiling because there are tiles that don't belong, heaps of leftover aluminium strips that are often seen in showers and other various items plus a whole heap of unused concrete.

Both the front and back door thresholds were tiled this morning I think because both of them had a note in place saying "KEEP OFF WET TILES GO AROUND".

Roller doors on!

Tonight's visit proved valuable as I saw that the garage doors have been installed. I chose to have the included roller doors in Dune to match the fascia and watertank. I chose these instead of the panel lift because when I drove around I saw a few of them and was happy that the newer models have a cleaner look. This also saves some space in the garage as they open by rolling in and not onto tracks in the space near the ceiling.

Not happy with Allworth customer service though as I queried about limiting tradies smoking indoors to which I was told that it is impossible to police and that as it isn't my home yet I can't make any demands about it. Also when I queried how much guttering there is, as I am planning to buy gutter-guard in the near future, I was questioned in a rather rude tone how was he (the construction manager) to know and that was the roofing contractors responsibility. I asked how was I to know this and when he replied "what do you mean?" I said since nobody has ever told me who the roofing contractor was how could I be expected to know. Rude pig of a man, and I apologise to all pigs out there who may find this comparison offensive.

New layout and carpet and tile selection

Went and met SC today as I received the siting plan yesterday. How many times can these people make a mistake. So rather than try to communicate it by fax, I went in for an appointment.

Lets add a bit of width up front please, as it was lost from the length to abide be setbacks. The double door linen, too. But lose the colonial bar front window. Prove that the backyard is 4m deep. And I'm sick of paying for extras so forget the panel-lift garage doors, when I went for a drive around Spring Farm this morning I noticed other people have roller doors and they look fine. What I can't understand is the SC gave the Planners the same info that he gave us previously with a layout indicating the changes, figure it out folks, how the hell did they think they were going to fit a door double linen in the front hall unless the made the space wider (yes folks as we come into the Great Room I'll just ask you to turn side on and breath in as much as you can).

On a good note however I went and picked the living area tiles and carpets. All five bedrooms (well four beds plus study/guest room) are carpet and all living spaces and halls tiles. Went with a carpet called Green Beige, and a tile called Hayman, both in fact appearing like soft mushroom-beige type colours. The tile was difficult because originally I was going with laminate floorboards, but since the design comes with carpet and tiles inclusive, it doesn't make sense to pass that opportunity up. No pics as I forgot to take the camera, but once this house gets underway there will be pics. Not happy though as I also paid for my cruise today and am away two weeks in the middle of April, so I won't be around to crack the whip.