TILING

Things are moving very slowly now as I think 95% of the payments have been made (and the last 5% probably is owed to tradies anyway).
The tiler is in residence at the moment and seems to be doing a good job. The painter has finished inside (we made sure he had the right colour by sticking a sample card to the wall)
We have been busy sorting out flooring and have booked them in for early October after consulting with our SS (I feel this date may be optimistic but we'll push to have the builder out by then)
Whats more after 2 weeks in the ground our 7000 litre tank is full to the top!!!

WATER TANK

After a lot of planning and with great relief our 7000L tank is now safely in the ground.

We'd had a shocking wet and windy week but Friday was a nice fine day.

We started at 7:00am digging the 3m deep hole in the front yard. The depth was at the limit of excavators reach.

After a lot of juggling stockpiles and a couple of trips to the tip we were ready for the concrete tank by about 12:30.

The truck backed across the kerb, up to the hole and craned the 9 tonnes of tank and lid straight in with absolute precision.

After back filling around the tank with crushed rock it was up to the plumber to connect up the inflow from the down pipes and the overflow out to the street.

We were all finished by about 4pm which just left me to clean up the street, naturestrip and footpath. We'll connect the pump, float and rainsaver closer to move in date to prevent them 'going missing'.

We previously plumbed the house with a seperate tankwater line feeding the downstairs toilets and the washing machine. For now they are charged from the mains.

It all ran smooth thanks to Dave and his excavator, Frankston Concrete Products who supplied, delivered and craned in the tank (and pump etc) and John from John Henderson Plumbing (Geelong) who ran the show.

CABINETS

This weeks addition to the house are the cabinets made by Harnett Cabinets who have been really good with their comunication and ensuring things run smoothly.

The first 2 photos are of the kitchen with a nice wide space between the wall bench and the big island bench.

The island bench is a 3.0m x 0.9m slab of ceaser stone which is as long as they make with no joins. It doesn't have the sink in it either and will have a 300mm over hang as a breakfast bar.

The other photo is of a typical bathroom cabinet, benchtop, basin. The basins replace the original display home basins. We found these at Tradelink and they were cheaper, bigger and deeper and don't require a tall tower mixer. The mixer comes out of the basin instead of from the bench top.

INSIDE & OUTSIDE STUFF

Last week and this week Rob the carpenter has been on-site hanging doors and preparing skirtings etc. It's amazing how many internal doors there are. The photo right is taken from the family room looking at kitchen left, fridge recess & hall centre, dining area right.

The big addition last week

were STAIRS!!!

There was more preparation for the under ground water tank last weekend. I'm a little concerned about the amount of ground water (as can be seen in the photo) and whether my tank will stay under ground or bob to the surface? Anyone know a good civil engineer?

No doubt the rain will stop as soon as the tank is installed and need to be filled.

PLASTERING

I've been a bit slack with the posts of late but here is an update.

Last week the plasterers spent the week 'walling in' and by the end of the week the external doors were hung and we were locked up (or locked out). The 'lock up' payment was actually made the week before as the contract definition of 'lock up' doesn't include doors?

Currently the renderers are working on the facade.

As you can see we haven't resolved our colour disagreement yet.

I have spent the last 2 weeks preparing the front 'set-back' so we can install an underground water tank which has involved moving a few things to make room.

NASTY NEIGHBOURS

First it was the bloke from down the street now we find that we are living next door to what may turn out to be the neighbour from hell.
Our neighbours son (30 -40 y.o.) yelled at me to stop hammering (inside my roof space) as he was trying to sleep at 4:45 Saturday afternoon. So I did.
This morning I got to the house at 10:15 and began moving the bricks in my front yard to make way for a in-ground water tank we plan to put in, next thing he leans over the fence yelling and screaming ordering me to stop making noise. I told him to calm down, stop swearing at which point he ripped the trellis off the top of the fence and stormed off.
It has sort of taken a bit of the shine off looking forward to moving in. We are a bit scared what he may do next.

TOWARDS LOCKUP

A week of wet weather stalled things at the house but things have started moving again. Since my last post the ducted heater and ducting has gone in along with the electrical wiring, ducted vacuum and most of the insulation. John and I put in all the data cable, surround sound cables, foxtel cable and extra phone and TV points over the weekend.
We also went out and bought a fire place and 8 ceiling fans so the credit card is maxed out.
We are still have a couple of issues with the builder that have yet to be resolved. (one being who is going to pay for the repaint).
The roofer has finally turned up to finish the roof on the single story parts of the house which will trigger the lock-up payment (a big one).