The end of this week will mark 11 weeks since moving into our new home!!! Can you believe it?  11 weeks during the build felt long, 11 weeks during planning permits felt like a life time and yet 11 weeks in the actual house feels like a blink of the eye.

The list of wants and things to do is still never ending, and I need to remind myself that this project will take a few years.  When we first moved in I found it really overwhelming.  I was emotional and exhausted.  I wanted everything done, and by yesterday!  My gorgeous hubby had to kindly remind me that I needed to enjoy the process, and also remind me that it was going to take a while to do everything.  To be honest – I had pictured a display home in my mind and it just wasn’t.  We had old crappy furniture mixed in with the new (or it will mix once it arrived, but that’s another story) and the shopping list was growing by the day.  I wanted to go and buy everything now, but as our build costs had blown out it had reduced my spending amounts and I had to prioritise.  First world problems hey!

Anyway, now we are in and getting more comfortable – I love the house!  It is everything we imagined and more.  The spaces are working really well and the kids are happy.  I can watch the news while cooking dinner as the kids are busy in the toy room, pottering in their bedrooms or watching the box in the kids retreat upstairs.

The kitchen is by far my favourite area – the huge island bench is fantastic. I love having so much space to cook, and it has quickly become the hub of the home.  The bright white feels fresh and the pops of black give it a modern look.  The pantry is another happy place – I’ve been hanging out to have my organised space and organised it is.  Now I have always had an organised kitchen but now with so much space it is easy for everyone to keep it that way.  I just need some more oxo canisters – love them.  Oh and having the fruit displayed seperately has been great – the kids can reach it and see what we have and are happily picking fruit as their snack.

I also love my walk in robe!!!  I hope to one day fit it out properly, but for now it works.  I can see all my clothes and it makes dressing in the morning so much easier.  The children having walk in robes is great also.  While they don’t appreciate it, I find it easier to put their stuff away and they can see what they have.

We did have some teething issues – blocked pipes was a major one… Insert crap, literally running through the back yard. Yuk!!!  The heater/aircon wasn’t connected properly. The gas on the stove was weak – that was a quick fix – it was a simple kink in the tube.  There are still a few paint spots I’m not completely happy with. The solar hot water was faulty – this took a number of visits before the fault was found. The stone around the sink in the pantry still needs to be trimmed back so the accessories can fit in. The chopping board for the Pete Evans sink in the island bench still needs to be replaced (another pantry one was sent – wrong sink)

Our current battle is with Telstra.  OMG this is painful.  As we are a knockdown re-build council requires us to have underground services.  That is, no overhead cables.  So Telstra need to connect the house under the road, and with all their communications sorted out via overseas workers they just don’t understand the requirements.  They keep telling us it’s connected, but what they see on their computer is the previous house.  I can see the conduit out the front.  So my advice – if you are heading down the knockdown re-build path, start this process early.  It was so simple for the electricity with Jemena – don’t understand the issues with Telstra.  All I know is that I have wasted countless days waiting for them at home to still not solve the issue – and my mobile phone bill is huge with data usage.  Come on Telstra – sort your game out!!!

So I was planning on showing some pictures here, but they won’t load – dam Telstra again!!!  This dongle internet set up is so slow. So in the mean time if you want to see some pictures head on over to Instagram – @donovansdaily.  I have plenty on my page.  Oh and I really will try and blog more.

Has anyone else experienced the pain of their new home not looking the way you planned it in your mind?

OMG – I can’t believe I haven’t blogged for 8 WEEKS!!!  I’m so sorry – I don’t actually know how it got to this point.  So be prepared – this is going to be long…

WEEK 23 – Monday 21st December – Sun 27th December 2015:  So this was the week of Christmas.  I didn’t notice anybody on site this week, but I think the door handles were put on.  I also hit the shops on Boxing Day, and ordered a new bed and couch among others things.  I will have to blog about my shopping too.

WEEK 24 – Monday 28th December 2015 – Sunday 3rd January 2016:  I was away on holidays but I’m pretty certain nothing would have happened this week.

WEEK 25 – Monday 4th January 2016 – Sunday 10th January 2016:  Another week where I’m not sure if anything actually happened.  The stone for all bench tops was booked for Wednesday the 6th, but that didn’t happen.

WEEK 26 – Monday January 11 – Sunday January 17th 2016:  The first week in a long time (or so it felt) that anything actually happened. The plumbing fit off was booked for the Monday, but I didn’t notice anyone on site, or on the Tuesday for that matter.  (There is a possibility that I missed them, but as I live around the corner I drive past often)  On Wednesday I did see the plumber on site.

We got a loo

The cyclone fence went down and the porta-loo disappeared. A sign of forward moving I think.

Fence and ports-loo be gone. Love my white house.

On Thursday the bench tops went in – and the kitchen stone in Frosty Carrina is just stunning. I am in love and really can’t wait to use the kitchen.

Frosty Carrina stone bench tops in – love them

Another view of the new stone benches

I was a bit disappointed with the choice of Urban in the bathrooms (excluding our master ensuite) I thought it was grey in colour, but it is really quite brown.  I could almost say I hate it.  I’m a little devo about it, but not much I can do.  I remember at colours planning white everything, but hubby felt I was choosing too much white.  So I compromised with the grey.  As this was a last minute decision I didn’t even think to look up the ceaserstone  website and check a description.  Apparently it says it is a brown – grey colour, our pieces are certainly on the brown not grey side.  Not much we can do (other than change it in a few years if it still annoys me. lol) Hubby thinks I won’t notice so much once we move in.

The Urban stone I don’t like

On Friday the shower screens went it – Love them!!!

Shower screen in

The gas meter also went in this week.  On the Sunday we started building the rain garden. (insert annoyed angry face here.) This is a council requirement, and don’t even start me on it. Boutique have been great in allowing us to start this – but they have too.  It has to be done to get our certificate of occupancy.  If you require Water Sensitive Urban Design features – run to the hills as fast as you can.

rain garden has started

More raingarden pics

WEEK 27 – Monday 18th January – Sunday 24th January 2016:  I was away this week again but from what I could see the privacy film was added to the three back bedrooms, and the mirror sliding doors were added to the robe in the master room.

Privacy film up – bye bye view

Mirror sliders on robe

WEEK 28 – Monday 25th January – Sunday 31st January 2016:  The cleaner was on-site on the Monday, but she wouldn’t let us in. (insert sad face)  I wasn’t expecting anyone to be in on Australia Day (Tuesday) as it’s public holiday – but amazingly there was!!!  The timber floor guys were on site early and pumped it out in a day.  (minus a small section, where they just ran out)  It really changed the space and I love what we chose.  Spotted Gum with matt finish.  Just stunning.

Just a small amount missing

Our stunning Spotted Gum floor

I didn’t see anyone on Wednesday or Thursday.  Friday saw the carpet laid – and I love it.  Could only see through the windows and the excess they left outside as a path over the mud.  There was a bit of rain this week and the house turned into a mud pitt.

Carpet through the window

Path of carpet to the house over the mud

Up close – love the carpet

The plumber was also on site this day.

Taps on (not sure if this was actually this week, but an example of the plumbing fit off)

WEEK 29 – Monday 1st February – Sunday 7th February 2016:  Hubby had a meeting with the SS (site supervisor) Thursday saw the splash backs go in – OMG, they have totally completed the kitchen.  It’s amazing how a small piece of black glass has made such a dramatic impact. Love love love the kitchen – have I told you that???

Black splash backs in

Pantry

Sadly though my excitement about the splash backs turned to tears when I went upstairs…  We found upstairs flooded.  It wasn’t the whole of upstairs, but enough to shatter me.  Looks as though the air conditioner wasn’t installed properly (how that can happen is beyond me), but water flowed from the void/roof down through the ceiling, down walls, in the linen cupboard and absolutely saturated the brand new carpet, the brand new expensive upgraded carpet. There are water stains on the walls and some paint has bubbled.  It was a our first real hiccup in the whole build.  To look at the positive side – it happened  now, and not once we moved in. (which happened to friends who built with another volume builder)  Needless to say, whoever installed it, or rather failed to install it, is copping that bill.  And we are getting new, new carpet to fix it.

some of the damage

In the linen press

Friday and Saturday saw the painters back, and my daughter got her pink room – the photo is hard to see due the light, but it’s a beautiful soft pink.

Hard to see, but it’s pink.

The stairs were stained

The stair stain was one of those decisions in the colour appointment that I hadn’t thought about.  None of the stain options matched the spotted gum so we decided to go a complete contrast rather than try to match it.  The dark stain is lovely, and hopefully it looks ok.

WEEK 30 – Monday 8th February – Sunday 14th (Happy Valentines Day) February 2016 – So the splash backs were booked for Monday, but they were already in – yeah!!!  I saw the plumber there briefly also.  The painters were on site Tuesday.  Didn’t see anyone there on Wednesday.  Thursday I met with the SS to discuss a new problem…  The integrated dishwasher.  As my hubby is very tall he wanted a little more height on the bench tops, so we raised them slightly.  Raising them and having the integrated panel caused a problem… the extra length in the door cover/panel then hits the dishwasher itself and the door can’t open fully – in fact it couldn’t open much at all.  Anyway, I came up with a solution – hopefully it works… I won’t bore you with the details – I’ll wait for a photo – I think that will explain it better.  I really want it integrated!!! I love the look of the panels all matching.  Friday saw Boutique complete their quality assurance (QA).  I’m not sure how it went, but should find out this week.

So this week the new new carpet and underlay should go in, and anything the QA noted should get fixed. We are also hopeful for our walk through at the end of this week, and hopefully keys soon after – OMG, it scares me that this beautiful house might actually be ours soon.  Wow, I can’t wait.

Has anybody else got an update?  Again, I’m so sorry for the delay, i think I kept putting it off as I knew it was going to be a big one…

So the scaffold was collected from the nature strip on Monday, and the site looks nice and clean now.  Driving past on Tuesday morning I didn’t notice anyone but on the way home later that night I noticed some simple scaffold around the garage, so I am assuming the remaining roof will be going on this week – and I think we must be officially at lock up???  So exciting.

Scaffold on the garage ready for the remaining roof