Fencing started

After 2 days of solid work from our brickies, our fence is about two thirds complete. It looks good, and progress has been fast. They'll only be working a half day new years eve, so my guess is that they won't finish it tomorrow. They are also bagging it, so with any luck, it'll be done early on after new year.

We're in

It's been a while since our last post. We've been in for a few weeks, and have had no net access. We've been busily getting quotes on fences, fly screens, blinds and other things that you don't really consider as much as you should when building.

We've had a fair bit of rain, which has tested the roof well, and unfortunately we had a failure in the garage, with water coming in through the roof. It seems to be some flashing that wasn't installed correctly. After this was fixed the first time, it again leaked in the next lot of rain we had. Hopefully we'lll get some more good rain to test the new fix out.

Our first fence quote came back at a whopping $29K. I nearly fainted. The second quote came back at 25K, which still seemed a little steep. Quote 3, which didn't include the wooden parts of the fence came in at just $9.5K. The wood part should be less than 5-6K, so it pays to shop around and get a few quotes. We should end up doing it for half the price of the first quote.

I'll post some pictures of the fence as it progresses. The footings are down, and thankfully no ruptured has or water lines in the digout.

Move in date, November 30th?

With a little bit left to do after the pci, our site supervisor believes that we will move in around the end of November. Time to book the moving truck, and start boxing things up.

PCI done

We were hoping for a nice dry day for the pci today. Alas the dry weather didn't hold, and we found ourselves wading through the mud as we did the pci. We picked up the usual expected issues. Plenty of spots of paint to be touched up, a few scratches on the window frames. A few bricks that need to be replaced. Some Maroka finish that needs to be refinished, a few leaking pipes. Nothing too major at this point it seems. It's good to see the final, or near final product. We are pretty happy overall with the colour selection.

PCI booked for Monday

The finish line is in sight with the pci booked this Monday. Fingers crossed there will not be too much to do after that. We are hoping for a move in date of late November. The bagging has been finished on the balconies and at the front. When the landscaping has been done, I think it will look quite good.

Splash backs grouted and tiling nearly done

Kate dropped in on the block today and saw that the tilers were there finishing off the floor tiles. Our kindly tradie managed to snap a few pics for us.

Our pendant lights are also installed.

Anyone know a good fencer in Western Sydney?

We received the first fence quote back today. I was a little shocked at the total figure. I can't imagine the cost of the great wall of China coming in at much more than that quote. I can't imagine that it is reasonable.

If anyone knows any good/reasonably priced fencers in Sydney's West, I'd be grateful for any recommendations.

I have posted a picture of the style that we need to meet the developer guidelines.

Drive completed. Tiling has begun

We drove out past the block today, and a team of tilers were there, getting stuck into the floor tiles. I asked one of the tilers if they wouldn't mind snapping a few internal shots for me. Judging by the pictures, the floor tiles are progressing well. The backsplash tiles are all done bar the grouting.
The driveway is finished. It's a pretty neutral colour, so it'll just blend in nicely. I can also see from the pics that the electrical work looks to be completed. We have switches and power points.

Door Colour

I'm guessing that this is the final front door colour. We picked it, but looking at it, I'm not convinced it looks that great. It's much whiter than i'd pictured. We'll have to wait and see what it looks like once the rest of the balconies are finished before we decide to go to Bunnings and buy a paint brush. I thought I'd cheat and photoshop the balconies to get us an idea of what the finished colours will look like. Still not convinced. I think I'd better check what time Bunnings shuts. I guess it's one of the limitations of deciding your colour selection with small sample swatches. It never quite looks how you'd pictured it.

Driveway Slab Layed

This week sees the driveway slab laid, and pavers delivered ready for the driveway paving. I could also see through the window that the balustrade has been stained.
It's a bit hard to see, but it looks like the painters may have done the final coat on the walls also.
The pavers aren't as light as I had feared. I think they will look ok.

More internal shots

And a few more internal shots. The kitchen cabinets are a little white than I'd thought, but all in all, I think they look pretty good.

Site visit

I took the day off from work today to meet the site supervisor so that I could take a look around at the progress. It looks like our early November move in date is now officially looking more like a late November move in date. It's very unlikely we'll be in on time. A little disapointing on a 34 week build, but I guess a week or 2 isn't too bad. The tilers were in again today, finishing off the ensuite. The kitchen looks good, but the breakfast bar is the wrong type and will have to be pulled back out and swapped over. The first layer of paint is on. All conrnices are done. The bathroom cabinets are all in. It's really starting to look like a house.

Kitchen and tiling

Good news. When we turned up at the block on Saturday, the tilers were there, busily working away. There was a team of about 5 of them, so, I'm expecting that the progress will be rapid. I managed to, with the assistance of my zoom, get a pretty decent, over the safety fence, shot of the kitchen. Looks like the cupboards and bench tops are in.

I also managed to get a picture over the back safety fence of the water tank. It's pretty big, but it seems to blend in pretty well, and it's well out of the way where it is.

Nearmap's latest update

Balcony rails

Went past the house today. The brick cleaners were there finishing off the bricks around the alfresco area. It looks like all the bricks have now been cleaned. The balcony hand rails have also been installed this week.

Garage Door

We have the garage door. Kate was disappointed when the developers said no to our first colour choice for the garage door. We were pretty much told that we had to have this colour to get developer approval. Looking at it, I think it turned out for the best. We are happy with the colour.

and more gyprock

The staircase looks great. We've added storage under ours. It's odd that the normal plan for the Cambridge does not have access to under stairs storage.