It's ours, let the mayhem of moving at Christmas time begin!

What a great Christmas present for us, to be moving into our new home, there are still a few things to be done but given the last minute rush to get it finished, I am surprised we had handover before Christmas.

Here are some photos taken today:

Landscapers laid some grass for us today, but the rain delayed the backyard being laid.

Front stairs and letterbox....

The brickies were in today to do the front stairs and our letterbox, we are still holding our breath for the occupancy certificate, without this our lender won't release the final payment. We also need this stupid rain to go away, so the external painting can be completed tomorrow!

Balcony columns.......

Here is a photo of the balcony columns that were installed on Monday, it looks so much better than before!

Still waiting for the site to be cleaned up, the front stairs to be installed and the external painting to happen, but today the inspection by Local Group was carried out, the left hand side retaining wall including stairs was pretty much completed and the painters were back to fix up the stairs.

FINAL INVOICE ISSUED TODAY......

Today our final invoice was issued and has now been sent on to our lender, the carpet was being installed today, the balcony columns and flooring were installed yesterday and just hoping for a break in the weather now so that our front stairs and external painting can begin. The end is near!

The best Christmas present of all........our house!!!

Met our SS on site today, went over the list of things still to be done, all will be completed in the next week with our SS assuring us it's all systems go for a handover before Christmas!

Full credit to him, our home is way ahead of schedule (given our slab was poured on 29/6) and I was not looking forward to waiting until February to get the house. Thank you to our SS for the great job done and for putting up with our constant moaning!

Let's hope now, that all work gets completed and our lender comes to the party also, fingers crossed, but it does make for a very hectic Christmas time!

Here are some photos of the main floor tiling, taken last weekend.

WALK IN PANTRY (which we created by moving our downstairs powder to the other side of the house)



Our balcony columns will finally go in on Wednesday, this will be a nice change from the match stick looking posts that are there at the moment!

Off to see Mary Poppins with my 5 year old daughter tomorrow, hoping we have a great time!

Driveway Part 2.....

Well that looks better now, can't wait for the big pile of rubbish to go.

Spoke to our SS today, the balcony columns will hopefully arrive tomorrow (fingers crossed), cleaners spent the day at the house today, roof service was carried out. Possible walk through on Friday, let's see what happens next.

Finally we have a driveway......

Given the recent crazy weather this has now been delayed by a few weeks but today (Tuesday) our driveway and path were laid, can't wait to see how it looks when they remove the stencil.

We are still waiting on a PCI, apparently there is a delay with the columns for our balcony and there are still a few things outstanding, not sure at this point when we will get the house, was wishing to have a very special Christmas in our new home, but this doesn't appear to be eventuating for us. It could be late January or early February after that! But we just don't know because our SS won't tell us!

Are Eden Brae Homes already on Christmas Holidays........

In the last week I've sent numerous emails chasing up bits and pieces that need to be sorted, the response is always, we'll get back to you (but they don't).

Sorry to have to say it, because after our site meeting with our SS less than a month ago, everything went full steam ahead and all was looking positive, the closer it's getting to Christmas, the less they are saying to us and the less responsive they are becoming, clearly this means we will NOT be getting the house before Christmas, I wish I could have faith in them to do it, because it would be possible, I just don't think their customers are important enough to them (they just have too many!)

I think Eden Brae have already clocked off for the year!

Good luck to all of you other bloggers who are building with other builders who WILL get you in by Christmas, may you all have a very Merry Christmas!!!

That's my bitch over with, thanks for listening!!!!

So close!!!!!! But when will we know the PCI????

In the last couple of weeks, the following has occured:

• Painting finished
• Front doors stained
• Taps, toilets and baths installed
• Door hardware installed
• Electrical completed
• Driveway excavation
• Front facade moulds being finished (today)

We had a meeting on site today with Outback Landscaping, to discuss our front stairs and other things we need to do around the outside, looks like the front stairs and driveway will be done next week, that is if the weather cooperates!

The painters finished last weekend, but unforunately the colours we had discussed with our SS for our staircase did not eventuate, they stained all of the staircase rather than just the handrail as we had discussed! I believe they have been booked to come back and paint the stairs, but I am concerned how this will look now the stain has gone on!

It actually looks pretty good with the stain, but I am conscious that we have chosen a dark carpet and floor tile and wanted to keep the entry area light and bright!

Very happy that I changed my choice of splashback tile in the kitchen, love the way the new ones have come up.

Bathrooms are looking good also now that the tapware and baths are in.

Ensuite bath......

Main bathroom bath......

RIP MY BUDDY BOY, TAKEN ONE YEAR AGO TODAY! WE MISS YOU!

Garage door and more....

On my way out to visit my family today, I decided to swing by the house to see if anyone had worked yesterday (Saturday) to my surprise we had a garage door installed (see pic below) a peek through the window suggests the painters had been back and another peek through the back windows I could see that the kitchen splashback had been tiled.

A quick peek through the window was all I had time for and a thunderstorm was looming overhead so I didn't want to stick around, but very happy with those few surprises anyway.

If our SS keeps up this pace, surely we are a chance for Christmas!

Photo update - tiling, vanities, benchtops and sink, go go go Eden Brae!

We met our SS on site on Friday, to discuss what is still left to be done. He is hoping by the end of next week he can schedule all remaining jobs and set our PCI date.

He will not guarantee that we'll be in by Christmas, but we are one of the close to completion that may just get there (please Angels, please!)

The error made with our skirting and architraves will now be left as is, we have decided it is not worth the delay to the build and given that we are so close, I will just have to grit my teeth and bare it in order to keep the work going!

Here are some photos taken on Friday during our visit:

My undermount kitchen sinks

Kitchen



Ensuite bath and niche

Ensuite shower

Ensuite vanity

Main bathroom

Main bathroom shower

View from our main bedroom (as taken by our 5 year old daughter) so a short person's view towards The Ponds

Skylight installed

Staircase installed

Houston we have a problem! Another issue.....

We went over to the house today to give our neighbour his money for our portion of the backfence and we thought we'd have a look around, all the doors were locked (which is good I suppose) but from the windows looking in we noticed that all of the skirting and architraves are wrong.

My brain then went into panic mode, had the colour consultant written the wrong code, had we missed this on our colour selection documents? I couldn't wait to get home and check and thankfully it says 67mm half splay skirting and architraves.

So now the problem will be another delay to the work and my concern is will they damage the walls trying to remove the ones they have installed?

There will be a call and email to our SS on Monday morning, I'll update the blog once a response is received.

Here is an updated photo of the front of the house, bricks cleaned but the site is still pretty messy.

Painting has commenced, bricks (finally) cleaned but what about those eaves????

This week didn't start out very positive with the news that we would not be in the house by Christmas or even anytime in January (due to the Christmas industry shutdown) and that we had no chance of moving the air conditioner motor from the back of the house to the side (without paying another $2K and delaying the build by another 3 weeks!). So we are really over the build this week!

I decided to take a drive past on Thursday after my daughters first School orientation (which went really well) to see what I could see and painting has most definately started, some empty boxes at the front indicated the toilets had also been installed and the bricks had only just been cleaned in the morning by the looks of things (very muddy on site).

It was starting to rain when I arrived and I noticed how wet the eaves under the garage roofing looked, see the following photo:

We have had some missing roof tiles from the lower level roofing for about a month now, our SS assures us that it's only over the eaves and will not cause any damage, but surely the eaves having the water damage you can see in this photo wouldn't be good for them!

It's fair to say that our building experience has not been the best and we may not do it again just based on this experience, but in the end our decision to build with Eden Brae Homes was done because we had seen some of the homes they had built (that were for sale) and decided the quality of their build was the best.

Now that we are nearing the final few months of the build and the outside of the house has many incomplete jobs we are beginning to wonder where the quality has gone on our build.

Absolutely shattered Eden Brae Homes......

Well what a difference a week can make, this time last week I was so happy our stairs had been installed and when I had driven by that evening I could see them in all their glory. Today I have been so down about the house, I am ready to walk away from it so it's pretty sad to be that frustrated with the whole process that you are willing to walk away from your dreams!

You are probably wondering what's got me down right?, after reading over our contract over the weekend, I emailed our CSO today to find out about the "industry" shutdown over Christmas. I wasn't sure how this would affect the build and given that we are getting quite close to completion I thought I would ask. So Eden Brae Homes will be shut down for 5 weeks from around 22 December 2011 and ofcourse this is covered under one of the many clauses you are supposed to read in your contract document.

Given that I work for an educational institution, I also need to submit my leave plans for December and January (as lots of staff take leave over this period) and figured if EBH can give me an approximate date of completion it would give me atleast something to advise my boss.

Our SS has been telling us, we are ahead of schedule, we are ahead of schedule, yet today when we question a possible finish before Christmas, Eden Brae pull out the old contract clause and then advise us that we have 18 delay days in our contract. So on one hand they are telling us they are ahead of schedule and on the other they are telling us we've had 18 days worth of rain delays! Go figure!

What makes me so angry is that other builders appear to be bending over backwards to push jobs through before Christmas and trying to get people into their new homes. Apparently Eden Brae Homes just see us as another $$ sign or just another job number on their books. Where is the personal service Eden Brae? Our near complete home will stand empty for 5 weeks over the Christmas period, I am disgusted that they would not try harder to finish the house rather than allowing it to sit there over Christmas. This delay wil also increase the already mounting financial pressures on us (sorry kids we can't afford Christmas) and will also cost us another $3K in rent "dead" money but most importantly, we won't be moved in and settled before our daughter starts Kindergarten in 2012.  Thanks for nothing Eden Brae!

Our back colorbond fence was installed last week, here's how that turned out:

Retaining wall, staircase and doors.....

Well we've started this week out really well, on Monday 17 October the staircase was installed and our SS has advised the internal doors and skirting is also scheduled for this week.

The waterproofing, kitchen and bathroom vanities are also booked in, my hubby also said the front doors were on today (Tuesday) when he drove past. So things are moving along nicely, thanks to our great SS!!

Our back retaining wall was completed last week, here are some photos:

Apparently our neighbour had the fencing started today, so very eager to see how that looks tomorrow!

Update time....

Things have been moving along nicely in the last few weeks, so here's an update on what's been happening:

28th September 2011 - electricals checked by hubby and SS

29th September 2011 - Tyrell's and Council inspections

4th October - downstairs eaves painted

5th October - backyard excavation done (and four truckloads of dirt removed!)

Unfortunately we don't have much backyard (as you can see!) but we've had the pressure put on us by our back neighbours who have now moved into their home and want fences done now, not the way we had planned to do things, but atleast EBH allowed us to have the excavation done in preparation for our retaining wall!

6 October 2011 - insulaton done

7 October 2011 - gyprocking commenced

8 October 2011 - gyprocking finished (at 7pm on a Saturday night, thank you to the very hard working tradies!)

12 October 2011 - back retaining wall commences

Upstairs cladding was also completed before the long weekend, it still needs to be painted (dark brown) but you get the idea.

Not sure about this loose roof tile, still a few loose and missing tiles around the downstairs level roofing!

Internal rough ins have begun.....

Hubby spoke with our SS on Tuesday and he advised the internal rough ins have begun, I drove past tonight after work and could see the duct work for the air conditioning.

Hopefully we can meet our SS on site soon to discuss some things and to check our electricals before the gyprocking starts.

Photo update - Our home is starting to take shape!

Received an update from our SS on Friday, downstairs roofing and eaves to be done, bricks cleaned and internal rough ins to begin. Gyprocking to start in about two weeks!

Here are some shots taken on Sunday September 11

Scaffolding is GONE!

Took the kids for a drive past the house after collecting them from childcare and to our delight, the scaffolding was dismantled and neatly packed on the side of the house!

The window trims and other mouldings painted, downpipes painted in monument black and the upstairs bricks were cleaned.

Can't wait to see the rest of the bricks cleaned now!

Eaves painted, downpipes and upstairs window trims installed....

This week, the upstairs window moulds (or trims - not sure what they are called) have been installed, the eaves painted in white and the downpipes installed.

Looks like all the little bits are getting done upstairs before the scaffolding can be removed.

Upstairs eaves done...

Went past site today, although there was no one on site, the upstairs eaves have been done (side and front) probably this morning, the downstairs roofing still remains to be done.

Can't wait for the scaffolding to go and the bricks to be cleaned!

This photo taken by our 5 year old daughter!

Roof commenced.....

A big thank you to our SS, true to his word, the roof was started today and the main portion of the house is covered.

The rear section of the house (family, alfresco and rumpus) are still to be done and also the small part that overhangs the garage.

Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon it will all be done!

Picture update later in the week.

Roof delayed until next week.....

Our SS emailed us yesterday to say that our roof tiles would be delayed until early next week as the last batch had some colour imperfections.

Our SS decided it would be better to wait until the new batch are ready next week. This is the sort of thing you want to hear from your SS, while of course it will delay the roof by a few more days, at least he is considering the qualtiy of what is going into our home!

He also mentioned that it had been brought to his attention that we had been visiting the site, I guess someone at EBH has the time on their hands to keep an eye on all our building blogs!

Finally some roof action!

Got an email from our SS today, he said the roof would be done this week.

I took a drive past the house after work on Monday to find the gutters and fascia were on, hopefully they are hard at work on Tuesday before the scheduled rain is due on Wednesday!

Brickwork complete, but still no sign of our roof!

Here are some shots of the brickwork (taken last weekend) it looks almost complete and when I checked our online status on EdenBraeConnect brickwork was completed 8/8.

Our site supervisor told my husband that he has been sending fortnightly updates to our email address, we haven't received any emails since the slab was poured, but that was OK because the house was going along so quickly we didn't need to contact him, now disappointingly the house has sat idle for about 2 weeks and we've had no updates!

I wonder if the new Eden Brae house and land packages that have sprung up on Riverbank Drive are to blame for the lack of work happening at our place? Those houses are steaming along!

I'm sure plenty of you have had your houses sitting idle for a week or more, but with all of these on and off showers, I just want to the roof to go on so the house is somewhat watertight.

Here are some shots of the brickwork at the half way mark: