Landscaping

We have been in the house for about 5 weeks now.  The various unfinished items are gradually being fixed, a little slower than we would like.  So far we have had the spa bath tap installed and the tv antenna fixed only.  Things are supposed to start happening this week, but they were supposed to happen last week as well and didn't.  Today we have a backyard cleanup scheduled again, to remove all the bricks and tiles that were buried underground.

On the positive side, we now have a professionally landscaped front yard, done by Herlihy and Chan Landscaping.

Landscaping!

From standing on the driveway.

All that's missing is the stones in the lower pond.  I have also overheard plans for more plants..

My mum bought a lemon tree for us.  It survived BDO day at 40 degrees.

The weeding that me and Gisele have done.  That cardboarded area used to have weeds as thick as the ones on the left.

We finally have a tap for our spa bath!  Lesley bravely volunteered to test it.

Our piano.  You can also see the stained steps and staircase railing.

Staircase rail staining, by Lesley.

The most expensive item in our house - a chair donated by Jaccy.

The guest bedroom.

And Gisele's spartan bedroom.  She doesn't know that kids are supposed to have a flat screen tv, PC, laptop and  bar fridge in their bedroom.

We're in!

Handover happened on Thursday 23rd December!  ANZ handled the final payment very well, having the final cheque available for collection at a branch on Thursday morning, after being requested Wednesday afternoon.  I was impressed.

No pictures of the house yet - we have been so busy moving!  Luckily my parents have helped out, and special thanks also to Pete and Bridget who lent their trailer and effort to get the larger items moved over.  We are now settled in, it's looking very much like a home now.  Still a long list of maintenance issues to sort out with the builder, but all are relatively minor.  The biggest issues being our TV wall sockets don't seem to provide any usable signal and the faucet for the spa bath is missing!  The spa bath was installed on the day of handover.

On Tuesday night before handover, someone took the oven, rangehood, intercom unit and also one of the draws (?).  Not sure what the draw was for, but Metricon had everything except the draw replaced the next day.  The site supervisor said there was no sign of forced entry and the doors were all locked the next day.  Presumably an inside job, but it's not worth the builder's time to catch them I suppose.

Overall things went pretty well.  And the Nawkawed bricks at the front are looking good too.  The previously huge difference in colour is now reduced to a slight difference that's only noticeable to us because we knew what it was like before.