Countdown to settlement day begins...

Well, here's the exciting news ... our SS has casually mentioned that PCI will be around August 20, which means that we're in our last 2 weeks of finishing, then a week of fixing, and settlement should logically have no problem by being the start of September!

Here's Bay standing guard at the house last night. They've taken down the fences and done a minor site clean. But then I looked inside and screamed...

CARPET!!!

You'd think they'd clean the friggin floor before laying it, wouldn't you! I'll go off my rocker if there are marks on it. (highly unlikely though that i'll need to do that)

We're anticipating our outdoor colours showing up in the next week. They really only have to put taps in the benchtops, patch fix what they've stuffed, (they need to re-do the splashback where the rangehood is going as that is supposed to be tiled) and then complete the balcony, and just make sure that it's all correct and lovely.

In other news, I have the bestest hubby in the world. I got a new coffee machine today (tomorrow is my birthday) and I can honestly say I never ever dreamed that much money would be "justifiable" to my husband ... but well, he bought it without a worry in the world. I tell you now, I never saw THAT coming.

So now, when you come to my beautiful new house to visit, I don't have to stand there frothing milk for yonks. YIPPEE! (and yes, the coffee that comes out is stinking hot, as soon as we figured out that would be the case, we were happy to purchase the machine!)

Packing has begun. The house is currently littered with boxes.

We've decided we're not going to wait for a concreter to decide when they can do our driveway, we're just going to move in, stuff it. After all, we just want to move in. It will be easy enough not trampling mud in the house provided we have heaps of rock down.

And that of course has brought on a new reality ... we have to change the boys schools sooner rather than later. It has it's own advantages and disadvantages no matter which way we go, really.

Move them now, and Damo has a term of grade 6 at the new school, then goes to another new school for year 7... but move them later, and Jake is all alone at his new school, and all next term while they remain at Baden Powell, they are on either 3 buses home, or a bus and I pick them up from the plaza every night after work (but I know they'll get sick of this quickly)

Currently they are in their element of responsibility riding themselves to and from school - and I'm bummed that they didn't start it earlier. They are being FABULOUS with each other, protecting each other and making sure the other is safe. I am so proud of my babies.

So after we move, the boys are going to change schools very quickly, Bay will start at Werribee High on his own, and Damo and Jake will start at Werribee Primary. Even though it will only be 1 term, Jake will really do well adjusting if his big brother is there for a bit to help him settle in. Then next year, Damo will go to Werribee High with Bay. After school, the boys will all be able to ride home again - Bay can just collect Damo and Jake on the way.

I'm so looking forward to getting in to this gorgeous house, and starting my vegie garden. I now work upstairs (changed roles) and I'm sitting next to the farm chick of the century. She is vegie, chicken and plant queen and is currently offloading all her volumes of gardening books onto me (and they are gratefully received!)

Hubby is a bit concerned that i've gone from reading Cosmo to reading Gardening Australia but I assure you, it's all in the name of beautification. Yes I'm trying to psych myself up to overcome my fear of chickens, but I really don't think the dogs would tolerate them (read: I'm too wimpy to bother with that crap)

But all the same, I'm certainly loving the daydreaming that one day I'll be coming home from work to a garden abundant with fresh fruit and vegies that I can offload to family when they come to visit - just like Grandma and Grandpa used to do for us. Heck, who knows, the amount of time we're in this house, hopefully one day I can do that for my boys and their children too!

I FOUND THEM!!

I have just found the pictures of our basins and taps ...
These are all the colours (but you knew these anyway!)

This is a clearer pic of the colours of the tiles. I forgot I had this!

Tiling almost done ...

Insert dirty washing here ...

This is my kitchen, minus the splashback and decorative lighting (the chinaman hats are stressing me to no end ... can't wait to get rid of them!)

Wanna take a crap at my house? This is YOUR toilet! Just insert a full width mirror to this wall, and you're sitting to the left.

A couple of paint cans ... this is the wardrobe but not sure why i've put it here...

The TV points they've stuffed up (this is for reference)

Friday night wine and spa ... thank you very much!

This is my bathroom's basin (well this one is mine) Hubby took all these photos, not me. The basins are quite deep as they extend beyond the bottom of the bench (they look sooooooooooooo nice!)

No tap yet though. I reckon that will come this week. Still no mirror either.

This is the balcony I think. Not sure what happened here...

I still can't believe this unrealness is in MY PANTRY!!!

Just waiting on the tiling, and the bench, and i'll be hanging out in here when i don't want to be around people...

(that part is not a joke)

This is the floor in the ensuite toilet. Love it!

The house for the new fridge and freezer (because nobody seems to know anymore what a pigeon pair is!)

The dining area in the kitchen...

Tonight's view of the street from the balcony ... shortly this will be what I'm looking at with my husband in my pyjamas over morning coffee!

The dishwasher space (hubby was in a bit of a state wondering if the power point would be here but I've told him that it will be under the sink)

Tonight's view from outside...

Boys bathroom (upstairs) showing some of the tiling ...

Boys bathroom minus the shower screens (the colours are far more stunning in real life - this was taken after 5pm so is sort of dark and dull looking)

Another week down ...

View from peeking in the glass panelled front doors ...

Peeking through the glass window above my stove ...

Peeking through the window that is above my kitchen sink, looking into the pantry...

Peeking through the dining area window, all the way to the front of the house ...

Peeking through at the kitchen from the lounge room window ...

Peeking through one of my bedroom windows into the ensuite ...

Peeking through another of the bedroom windows into the ensuite ... (can't wait to get rid of those ugly chinaman hat lights and get some proper light fittings!)

I have a sink in the laundry! And benchtops!

And lots of cupboard space in this house!

Oh boy I am excited about filling these cupboards!

We have zoned ducted air con and ducted heating ... Bring on Summer!!!

Our blinds are getting made and will be done in 4 weeks. The guy that measured was majorly gay but i trust he will do a lovely job. Sometimes that can be a real advantage.

I have planned out the driveway and the front yard and we have looked into fencing to enclose (but the stupid fence shop was shut so I have to ring them tomorrow)

During the week I had a really big dream of making an outer building for the dogs. They eat their kennels, so I figured how hard would it be to make a slab, put up a frame, insulate and plaster and brick it, and then they have their own beautiful house?? People are telling me I'm crazy, but this could be a really nice addition with a meandering path (but given the dogs sleep inside, prob a total waste of my time and constructive energy! - lets just move back into the kitchen shall we hehe)

We went to bingo last night and didn't win. Which was a bummer because we have officially ordered our new pigeon pair to go in the kitchen fridge space (yippee!) and we are now debating our $3500 coffee machine ... (well, that is a game really, we switch sides all the time for who wants it and who doesn't and lately, i want it but i think it will be a waste of money!) but yeah it's just a game really to see how far hubby will stretch...

One day he'll prob come home with it and i'll be bummed i couldn't spend that much money on something else ... but oh well. It's not like it won't give us heaps of pleasure ... but first we will need to save for new couches for the rumpus, and the huge telly that Mick wants there.

I'm getting very very very excited because we're nearly there! From here, they finish the tiling, then put in the shower screens and toilets, benchtops, carpet, and that's pretty much about it!

Can't wait to get the keys!

(Mick is currently doing a chuckout of the filing cabinet to start the pre-move excitement of his own! - oh how he loves to chuck out stuff!)

Well, firstly, apologies to those that have had to nag me to make a post - yes, I've been rather busy.

The house is almost finished, the tiling has now officially commenced, and we're on the home stretch.

Our other house sold last week (yippee!) so now the planning begins... today I have gone and selected our new fridge and freezer (pigeon pair) that I originally didn't want but now figure, what the hell, so we're getting... a minor 4k but hey, I'm saving HEAPS as per usual :)

The microwave I wanted won't fit in the cavity in the kitchen under the bench, so I'm today tossing up whether to get it plus a smaller version (because we could really use 2 microwaves to save us time!) or whether to suck it up and just for a change not get the best of the best. It's traumatising me, having to make this decision.

The blinds have been quoted, and at just under 8k for double blinds to all windows, i'm happy with that, so the deposit has been paid and we're officially rolling with that.

I keep thinking that I'll have a daft moment and forget to organise the enclosing fencing so we won't be able to move the dogs in straight away ... honestly I know I won't be that dumb to forget THAT, but there will be something that I will overlook.

The house sale was subject to us being out on 1st October for settlement. We had to make sure it would be possible with not just a week to go inbetween getting keys and giving up the other house ... we just wanted a bit of time to move. I have been assured that it is very much going to be a reality. Whether or not the house is the quality we want it to be will be interesting ... but it's ok, we all know I"m a bitch and someone will come out and fix the problems if there are any... or there will be bucketloads of trouble.

So far though, we haven't had a problem with the builder. Turns out Mick knows the site supervisor - he went to school with him. That's quite funny. As big a place Werribee is, you always manage to bang into someone that you know from way back when.

Anyway, so this week the tiling will be done, and from there it really is just a case of finishing the benchtops, putting in the showers and toilets (and mirrors), and then the carpets. Electricals are all done.

I can't get over how quick this is going ... and can't wait to move so it's all over.

This is the first weekend we've spent not cleaning for an inspection in yonks - and yesterday we had all the nieces and nephews up for a visit with the rellos and had a party for Bailey's birthday ... I ended up asleep at around 8pm and slept for 12 solid hours ... that's a general indication of how exhausted I've become lately.

Just glad the house is sold, and the rest of the stuff is falling into place like clockwork...

Squeals of Excitement AGAIN

We have cupboards! I'm so excited, this is my beautiful kitchen ... massive bench for the boys to have their brekky at while i'm making their lunch.

My dork husband is checking out the slow-close cupboards to make sure that they are not slammable ...

View of kitchen from the adjacent lounge (god i love my window where the cooktop will be)

We have stairs!!

The laundry cabinets - I'm excited about these :)

Outside is looking lovely :)

So it was totally pouring with rain on Saturday night when we passed, but this is what we saw as this week's progress:

(Obviously I wasn't getting out the car and getting knee deep into mud!)

Haven't heard from the supervisor as to what's been done this week, but I can see the walls have been smoothed out ready for painting, so that's a good start :)
I can't wait to see my kitchen finished. The house we're in now, although it works really well, has so much less storage space in the kitchen, so I'm really looking forward to my slow-close drawers!
I bought new saucepans this week FINALLY as we've been needing them for so long - don't know why I"m writing this part but gee it makes a difference to your cooking when you don't need to use oil in your teflon saucepans! And they're very sexy.

Mick is still trying to convince ME that we need the new coffee machine ... I think it's a waste of money - I'd rather not get it and use the one we have. And put that money towards a new fridge as the double door fridge I currently have is the last remaining whitegood from the relationship I had with the boys' dad... we want to get new ones but not straight away.

I think the architraves will be around the windows, which means that very soon I will have to think about window colours... oh dear, now i've forgotten about the colors of the carpets and tiles, and the walls, I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO PICK!! Oh dear.
Perhaps I should just go wtih brown and be done with it ... but what if it's the wrong shade?? The house we're in now was so easy, all the shades matched perfectly - I'm really a bit concerned with this one as our paint colour that we wanted wasn't available and it's a totally different tone to the one that we have here ... and that's just really thrown me. I'm out of my comfort zone cos of the paint colour ... and I didn't want a brighter wall as such, I like the deep colour we have here - but I couldn't get one because the stupid builders wouldn't allow it ...
Oh well I may have to feature wall our rooms anyway. (Don't tell hubby but I have every intention of doing that anyway!)