Sunday 22/2/09. Handover plus 10 weeks

Sun 22/1/09. Hi all. Apologies for being sooo missing in action of late. To cut a long story short, the demands of work has been unbelievable since Christmas, and then there is the never ending amount of tasks to be done on any new home.

Add to this, I have had minimal internet access, (let alone time to use it when I have had it) and then lost my PC to a very nasty virus......!!! Other than that, all has been great....

I have been following most of your blogs on my Blackberry, but those of you who have a blackberry will support me in saying that they have a specific use, and reading and responding to blogs is NOT one of them..! Great to see that so many of you (with the exception of perhaps one) have progressed in your builds, and some of you are very close to completion.

My priority very shortly after taking delivery of our house was to address the horrific amount of dust and general grime that was coming into the house every time someone went outside and came in again..!! Our new flooring and carpet copped a battering for weeks, and our trusty $120 vacuum cleaner just didn't cut it. (error no. 352 - Why did we not find more $$ for ducted vacuuming?) An expensive trip to the Good Guys has now resolved this (below).

We now have paths around at least 2/3 of the house, including to the clothes line, and let me tell you that while concrete can be rather bland and boring, we now have a fresh new admiration for it. Those of you about to take delivery of your lovely new homes, do yourself a favour and bump your paths up the priority list of things to do....

Thanks to some terrific help from brother Brian and good mate Tony, our decking to the alfresco was completed last week, and I have to say that this has come up a real treat. With the bi-folds open, this area is every bit as cosy as we anticipated.

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Next important project is side gates to each side of house for privacy, then front and rear landscaping.

Alfresco. Merbau is not yet stained

Theatre room. Posters $10ea, delivery $18ea and frames $40ea

New dust control system. Nice little beast.

Still here - Sunday 11/1/09

Hi all, and a very happy 09 to all of you.

We have been missing in action for a few weeks, as we have had to come to grips with taking delivery of a new home, and the stress and demands that come with it. Moving home is a massive task that simply cant be taken lightly, particularly when you have collected 22 years worth from the previous house...!! (Touchy subject....!!)

We officially moved into our house on Saturday 27th Dec. The move took 3 days. The first 2 days of deliveries saw the mighty Cremorne swallow up all before it, with everything finding a place. The 3rd day however was "junk day", and this is where the Cremorne burst at the seams............followed by the editor of this blog....!!

Anyway, 2 weeks on and we have become soooo happy with our house. Most items have now found homes, which has resulted in most rooms looking neat and uncluttered. There are still some rooms that are home to minor temporary storage, but this is short term.

We had our first "formal" dinner guests tonight, and the house passed the test with flying colours. Entertaining, cooking, layout, ambience etc.

We have found a few minor issues to raise with PD at 3 month inspection, but most are small quick fixes. The exception to this being our ceiling, which at night under lights looks totally crap...!! The kitchen and family room resemble the surface of the moon. We will be swapping out our current chinaman light fittings for downlights within the next 2 weeks, so I will be interested to see what these do to the appearance.

Anyway, some pics of a real-life Cremorne. .


This is where I sit.
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Formal lounge.
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Home Theatre. Love this room. Still housing our outside Alfresco suite, but will soon be transformed into our very own Gold Class.

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Coffee stop
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Food stop. Our fear during our build was that the pantry (while being big) wouldn't have enough shelf space. This fear dispelled.
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Dining
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Ok, for those thinking that we were never going to cook on our BBBB, here is the big boy in action. Beef stir-fry. Mrs G at the controls.

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gggrrrr... Not happy Jan.....!! Not happy with PD allowing a cupboard door to spring open directly under a halogen downlight, and not happy with me falling for it. 1st night, and nearly had our first fire.

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Upstairs Games room

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Master suite.

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My other fear during our build,. Would the two cars fit with room to move? Very happy and relieved with result.
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Side fence up. Rapt with the space we have here. Certainly not an acreage, but enough room for ...... something. Still getting our ideas together.

Ready for living - Tue 23/12/08

Tue 23/12/08. Quick update.
I am now living at our house. The rest of the family will join me this weekend, which is our big move (may the force be with us).

Our carpet was completed today, and despite the boys bolting without doing an expected vacuum, it looks terrific.
Since taking over the keys 11 days ago, the house has looked pretty average from laying and cutting laminate (dust and grime), tools everywhere, and new furniture stacked up on each other awaiting carpet laying.

Tonight, the house got a full vacuum and furniture was deployed. The entire house has now taken on a warmly feel and is now ready for the family to join me.
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Downstairs Living Room. New lounge suite and panel slides to sliding doors ....not so new TV..!!
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HT Room. Really happy with this room. It's just screaming for those red theatre chairs to be brought around. (furniture in above shot will be for alfresco)
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Dining. Panel slides to bifolds and roller blinds to dining window.
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Editors room
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Master suite. More panel glides to balcony sliding door, as well as white shutter blinds.

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So, our big weekend approaches. Will surely be one of stress, sweat and emotion, and I just know that come Monday, our house may not look as neat and clean as above.......!!. I'm going to keep focused on the end result. Next blog update next week.

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So, to all my blogger friends, a warm and happy Christmas to you all.

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Christmas has arrived early - Fri 19/12/08

Fri 19/12/08.



ok ................. It's definitely time to expand my cooking expertise beyond an omelet and 4 min Tortellini....!! This is my "Big Bad Bastard Blanco". (BBBB). I reckon it's got a touch of attitude about it.

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Driveway yesterday

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Driveway today ...sealed. Interesting opinions between concreters as to how quick a driveway should be sealed after it is poured and stenciled. I've heard some concreters like to wait for a number of weeks before sealing (due to salt rise). My guy however likes to seal his driveways straight away. Will watch result with interest.
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Flooring edge to Home Theatre Room. HT will be carpeted. Note the aluminium edge that boarders the timber from the carpet.

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For the guys. This is the tool used for undercutting the door jams so that the laminate flooring can be laid underneath.

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Why do Porter Davis do this??? Of all the materials to load up at the entries, sand is by far the worst...!! Turns the entries into no-go zones.

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Another appliance with attitude. I like it.

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And finally, a special congrats to the Neil's who now have the jingle of new keys. Well done guys. The next phase now begins. Looking forward to hearing your progress.

Busy busy days....Tue 16/12/108

Tue 16/12/08. You know, I think I was more relaxed and care free PRIOR to taking delivery of our house. Life has been a bit of a blurr since Friday. Predominantly taken up with laying 99 square meters of laminate, which has meant me going straight from work to site, and then getting home around 11pm..! We are 95% complete, with just the under stairwell area, and one or two intricate cuts still to do. Will then need to apply 19mm stained quad around all edges.

Today our driveway has started, with excavation and boarders completed. Tomorrow they will pour the concrete, Thursday complete the stencil pattern and Friday apply the sealant.
No driving on it for approx 5 days after that. In the meantime, I will be painting the garage floor.

Security was also installed today. A Bosch System16. Pretty impressive features, and will be wired back to Sanctuary Lakes security centre when our phone lines are in. If it goes off while we are out, security come around, open the house, inspect it for illegal entry, reset it, and call us advising of such. The system also includes 3 smoke detectors (in addition to normal legal ones), also wired back to the security centre. Not a bad service (well sounds good anyway).
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Ok. stencil will be large squares at 45deg. (perhaps called diamonds....?)

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Laminate. I cleaned a small section for this photo, but needless to say, there is quite a bit of dust about the house at the moment.

Bosch control panel. This thing even sends/receives emails from the control centre.
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Ok, this for "Team Windsor". Our neighbours had their PCI last Friday. Not sure when their handover is. Despite my crappy night photo, this is a smart looking Windsor. Liana, I will try to get some day snaps and also the staircase. It looks terrific. I think owned by Chinese.

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Next update will show completed driveway, appliances and completed (and cleaned) floor.

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Perry. Forgot to take photos of the undercut door jams. Sorry.....next time.

Toni. 3 more sleeps. Can you hear the jingle of those keys in your sleep..?

Petal. No more blog....?

House owners at last - Sun 14/12/008

Sun 14/12/08


New addition to the key ring.

A short story...........

Around 15 months ago, we made the decision to upgrade our home. This decision was with some apprehension and emotion, as we had built our current 18sq home 23 years prior.
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Current house

For weeks, we battled with the decision between building a Henley Riviera 33 or Porta Davis Cremorne41. Despite it never being our original intention to go to 41sq, the Cremorne won out in the end, for reasons stated on my blog home page.

Just prior to our build start back in June, I stumbled across Perry and Bernadette's blog one night when I was googling Cremornes. I contacted Perry the next day to discuss his experience, and he suggested I create my own blog. I hadn't contemplated this for a minute.

Perry, for this suggestion, I owe you a mighty thanks. You provided me not only the means of adding an interest to our pending build, but also a gateway to a group of people who have made our build so much more enjoyable and knowledgeable than I could ever have anticipated.

To all you bloggers who have contributed to our build, to those that have passed on such valuable knowledge, and to those who have had me in fits of laughter, I thank you all so much.

Not only do we now have a beautiful new home, but we have also gained some terrific new friends. Particular mention to Toni and Andy. The frequent support from you guys during what is normally a stressful process, has been so welcoming. And Liana........ well....who can EVER be stressed when you have Liana's updates just a click away.
Thanks also to G&V, Petal, R&C and Bellebeau. Been great fun bantering with you guys.


Our time line
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Friday was such a massive day for us. Our handover went exceptionally smooth. A quick check of PCI issues with Scott (ALL completed) and a dash to Deer Park to hand over cheque and pick up keys.

Then, in the blink of an eye, I went from "building a house" to "owning a house", and my world went mad...!! Now I know why bloggers go quite on their blogs after receiving their keys. Quite suddenly, you realise the work ahead of you, and the keys in your hand scream at you to get started..!!

Laminate first. Started Friday night. Got a little bit done, then returned on Saturday on my own and plugged on. Progress was slow due to my "Click and Lock" flooring doing everything BUT "Click and Lock"..! There is a real knack to this stuff, which took me til late Saturday to master.

Today, I was inundated with brothers and friends who weren't going to take "no" for an answer in helping me. I couldn't believe the progress with the extra hands. What was I thinking in wanting to do this alone?
So... a mighty thanks to mate Brian, brothers John and Brian, and son Jeff. You guys have been fantastic today. BBQ and beers soon.


Our new, but dusty floor. Cabin Oak from Fowles


Brother Brian and Son Jeff. This photo at 10pm...!! Still going. Laminate about 80% complete
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This week - Security system, Appliances, Driveway and Fence.

Next week - New furniture

Official move in - By 31st Dec.