I Feel Like Being Sick!

I haven't written for a while, because to be honest, not a lot has been happening. Two weeks ago we came up with a list of items, that would supposedly take a week or so to fix and make things much faster come out walk through appointment. So tomorrow is supposed to be our walk through appointment. Even though not a lot has been happening, I have given them the benefit of the doubt, because in theory they have until the appointment to get the house ready to present to us. Anyway, I just had a phone call saying that it will be another week before our walk-through presentation (and up to two weeks after that before we move in).... 

I was told that this appointment was originally booked for 11th Feb, so adding two weeks onto that for touch-ups etc takes us to about now... I added on another week for things going wrong/ delays etc and stupidly assumed we'd be moving around the Labor Day weekend. Mum's taken a week off work to help with the move. I've booked her flights. Got furniture on order to be delivered (no sorry, we can't store it here.....) and plus removalists, cleaners etc.

That's the least of our worries really... our lease is up in 2 weeks time. So now I am considering packing up, putting things in storage and staying in a hotel for a week, or possibly with family on the other side of the state. Right now that seems to be the best option because I am so upset about it that i don't even want to see the house... I don't want to drive past every day as I have been and see that there is nobody there. 

Of course they are very apologetic and the site supervisor said that I have no idea how bad he feels about it. Well I am sorry if I have made him feel bad, but we are the paying clients that are waiting for a job that keeps dragging on and on. It's his job to manage the project and deal with the shit when things go wrong. It's great that they care so much about quality control, but I'd like to see people there doing something about it, rather than just talking about it. 

I haven't been sleeping because I have been so worried and now I just feel sick thinking about the house. Up to this point everything has been wonderful. It's turning into a nightmare. 

I guess what happens in the next 2-3 weeks and how this situation is handled will determine whether or not I recommend Carlisle to my friends who are looking at building. 

Finally!!

I went past yesterday and saw what I had been waiting for... the liquid copper doors! They didn't look all that metallic, but it was nearly dark. I can imagine in the daylight they'd be stunning!

They have also started boarding up some of the facade for render. The facade is taking sooooo long, but I think they are doing a very thorough job. The tiles for the large pillar  have arrived, but I think this is another 'last minute' job because they don't want them to get damaged. 

They also painted the meter box and the al-fresco beam. It looks totally revolting. I hope and trust there will be another coat.... I am sure there will be. It's true the colour matches one of our main render colours on the facade, but they looked so much better with just the timber stain. Then we could have matched our decking timber to that colour and it would have looked lovely. I am fairly sure that there was no option in our colour selection to say how we wanted them and we over looked it and they went with their standard idea. Oh well. 

More Shopping!

We had our first walk-through with our site supervisor on Friday and I am so pleased to say that hardly anything needs fixing! They really have done a sensational job. A few doors need resetting, paint needs touching up, they need to add a row of tiles to the bathroom and ensuite, fix the render and add a couple of powerpoints that were missed. Most of these things won't take long at all. The facade also needs to be finished (which is taking a very long time, but it is a lot of work) and the last minute things (roller door, cooker etc) need to so in/ on. 

We went shopping yesterday as this will probably be the last free weekend we have without packing, moving etc. We bought all of our bathroom, ensuite and powder room accessories. We also got a heated towel rail for our bathroom and the lights for above the bench in the kitchen.

While all of this is very exciting, I now have a very, very long list of things that we still really need to get fairly soon. Paint for feature walls, door mats, all the other light fittings, curtains etc... then there's the big things like the driveway, garden paths, water tanks, garden irrigation, lawn and the fences.

Finishing Touches

We have our walk through appointment tomorrow, but I couldn't resist going past today and having a look! Hopefully tomorrow we will have a completion date. We are hoping for 2 weeks. We have been getting quotes for the driveway and paths and will get some for the fencing in the next few days. We need to organise insurance, removalists etc... the start packing! 

The carpets went down today. I'm a bit disappointed with them. They are a  bit lighter than we though and they were supposed to have reddish tinge to them, but don't seem to. They look a bit cheap and nasty too, but its our fault because we chose not to upgrade and went with the basic ones.... at the time it seemed sensible given we have very young children and pets. We will look at replacing them in 10 years or so....

The mirrored doors have gone onto the wardrobes in our room. They look great. The shower fittings have been added, as have the mirrors in the 3 bathrooms. 

The kitchen is looking pretty fab. The splashback went in today too. I like the silver colour, but I wish it were a slightly darker, and more bold. It goes well with the cupboard handles though. They have put the downlights into the cupboards. I think it will look stunning in the evenings. 

Shopping!

We went shopping today and bought our dining table and chairs and matching coffee table. This is a picture from the website. Ours is a bit different. For starters its a bit bigger 2.4 x 1.2m and comes with 8 chairs (you can seat 12 if you squish in... bring on the dinner parties!). We have an orange and gold thread through the fabric and will look stunning with the copper cupboards in the kitchen. I got a  great prices on the dining/ coffee combo... saved about $1500... weeeee!!

We ordered our sofa a few weeks back and will also look for some large copper coloured cushions to go on it. It is soooooo comfy! 

The coffee table matches the dinner table and has a drawer where we can store remotes etc. 

Nearly There!

We returned from holidays yesterday to see that they have started on the facade and also cleaned up the site considerably. It looks so different! We are still waiting for the coloured render under the bedroom windows and also to finish the al-fresco area off. I have a feeling that the render colour they have used in there is incorrect and it still needs to wrap around the corner on one side. I am not sure how they managed to leave that out when they did the first coat! The door handles have also been placed, as have the shower screens. The windows have been cleaned and the marks on the walls have been highlighted with stickers ready for re-painting. There are still a lot of little things to do, which apparently have to wait until the last minute. I think we are getting close to the last minute, so they should be done in the next week or so. We have our walk-through appointment towards the end of next week, I believe.