Day 159 - Settlement

THAT'S RIGHT!!!! Today we got the keys. Let's not get too excited though because not everything is finished yet. Due to the wedding and also my site supervisor's wife due to have a baby in the next week or two Metricon pushed the settlement a little forward to ensure we had the keys after we came back from our Honeymoon to move straight in.

In the meantime Metricon are going to keep working on the house, we're still waiting on the floorboards which are booked in to be installed next week. The light globes were fixed, painting touch-ups done, bolts installed..all be it one deadlock on the wrong door, but they are going to just keep that one there and put in another deadbolt on the external door.

Yesterday the deck was installed, the fences are in the process of being installed and everything has come up looking great. Now I just have to get the deck in at some point, hopefully before Christmas.

We're going to have a nice surprise after the wedding, coming back to find the floorboards in which will really finish off the house. Our site supervisor is also going to get the house cleaned again even though we have the keys etc, given there is still a bit of work for them to do.

This is the front of the house on the settlement day with the deck installed.

How much water they used....
The kitchen with the light globes all fixed.
The fence pretty much done.
I'll upload some pics of the floorboards once I have them........I'll also post a few more things up when I have time re the experience etc....how Metricon was, some tips etc.

Glad we can finally call the place ours!

Day 153 - Fence Started

Today I dropped by the house to check on the fence given that it is on the side of the house that there has been a little bit of an issue with in terms of the ground level. It was lucky I went by because I was basically going to lose about a square metre of my block because they were going to stop the fence at my garage instead of continuing it on meaning that I couldn't get into 1 section of my property that would only be big enough to store some wood or bricks or something given how narrow it is but my neighbours backyard would have been about a square metre bigger.

I've asked them to extend the fence down another metre and a half to my neighbours garage so we'll see how we go and if they do it...however they told me they would.

I also took a few photos of the front now the render is complete. I'm pretty happy with how it came up, there is a splash of colour without being over the top and all of the colours go together.

There hadn't appeared to be any progress work on the house, there were still red dots throughout. I didn't receive my normal update call today even though my site supervisor said he would give me an update today on when he would expect to settle.

Pictures from the completed facade are below....


From the driveway side....From the front of the house

Front again..
Front again...

Projection render.....the colour is Dulux DreyfusThe projection render...the colour is Dulux Bullring
The side of the house...this will have a fence up hopefully within the next week or two.

The fence between the neighbour going up...
The fence again....

I was also told by the estate that Metricon need to replace the footpath after the gas company dug it up to lay a pipe.


Hopefully we settle next week but given we've had no progress yet we'll see what happens.

Day 151 - Final Inspection

Today we had the final inspection and it all went pretty well. The flooring isn't in yet, it will be done after handover when the floorboards become available. The front deck will hopefully be done this week.

We had a couple of pages of items that need to be rectified but nothing major. Hopefully the items will be resolved by the end of this week or worst case early next week. I'm hoping to get a more specific date for handover on Wednesday.

The render was being finished off today while we were at the house, the colours looked great.

The front poritco render after it was finished.
the carpet is down in the master bedroom
The robe fitout has been installed
The carpet in the hallway..
All in all things are looking good and we're really happy, lets just hope now that we can get it over the line within the next week and a half.

Day 147 - To Be.....Inspection Date Booked

Somewhat good news today. The Quality Assurance guys from Metricon went through the house and the house managed to pass. We're booked in for next Monday to have our final inspection.

Metricon have advised us that they would rather not try and pull the floorboards out of the contract and they will install them for us. What I don't know is what this means to the handover date, I'll hopefully have that resolved in the next day or two.

Other than that...its all good! I'll post another update next week after the inspection, hopefully with some pictures.

Day 146 - To Be or Not To Be

I had my usual Wednesday catch up with my site supervisor today. Nothing has really happened at all last week since the driveway. The floors are now an unknown again if they will get pulled out of the contract or not. Tomorrow the Quality Assurance guys are booked in, so if they pass the house it looks like we might be a goer to pick up the keys before the end of this month, if it fails it will push out to the end of November.

I will be eagerly awaiting a call from my site supervisor or customer service coordinator tomorrow to advise me of the outcome.

The front portico still needs to be rendered underneath and then painted, they are hoping to have that done by the end of the week. All things going well, and fingers crossed we should have our inspection next Monday and we should pick up the keys the week after.

I'll post something when I know the outcome.

Day 140 - Driveway Complete

Today we drove by the house to check if they had finished the driveway given the weather was pretty good and they were meant to have dug it all out yesterday and layed the crushed rock.

We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived to find the driveway just completed. What we did notice first off though is that they did the driveway with the wrong finish. We picked a spotted type finish to be different to everyone else around. The only difference is instead of the brushed effect it was like a cleaner spotted effect but they did the brush and it came up ok so no big deal.

View from the front without the garbage bin as well.

View from the side....starting to look good, can't wait for the rendered section to be painted.
Near the garage door
Near the front door, the portico will be decked.
View from the portico.
All things going well hopefully the render will be done tomorrow. I have a meeting on Saturday to discuss the fences.

Over and out for now.

Day 139 - Is The End In Sight?

Today I had my usual Wednesday phone call from my SS. It had been roughly 2 weeks since our last chat due to my phone dropping out last week and me being in meetings when he called back earlier this week.

Things are still progressing, the floorboards has slowed things up a bit and caused the most delays however they should be installed next Monday and should take a couple of days to finish off. This week the driveway is meant to be started if not finished depending on the weather. Apparently the site was scheduled to be cutout for the driveway today.

The rendered section at the front of the house is also planned to be painted by the end of this week all things going well. There are a few other items that need attention including:

• Deadlock fitted to rear garage door
• Painting touch-ups
• Check plumbing to sinks
• Check mortar on one side of the house which looks discoloured
• Check expansions joints, there is one missing
• Install double glazed tri-stacker doors

Hopefully we'll have our inspection on Friday next week after Quality Assurance on Wednesday and we may even have the keys the following week all things going well assuming the bank can get their act together.

I'll see if I can get some updated pictures soon, at this stage it probably won't be until the weekend.