Housewatch: Drake Edition

[Toula92122]

Looking good. @Drakecula what are your landscaping plans? Are you doing it yourself or getting it done professionally?

 

[Drakecula]

Looking good. @Drakecula what are your landscaping plans? Are you doing it yourself or getting it done professionally?

Going to get professionals in. I have a black thumb and will need the pros to put in some nice easy care plants and to deal with the sloping block. We'll look at stepping it down and work with the slope. I do want to put some fruit trees in and a spot for some raised veggie gardens. But I know I will probably kill more than I can grow, but it's fun when it works. I had a bumper crop of corn and peas one year, and pumpkins out the wazoo. But can't for the life of me grow tomatoes or onions. I mostly know nothing and hope for the best, haha.

We'd like to build in a fire pit, and I want to keep a space aside for a chook pen

 

[Drakecula]

A few more updates:
~ We have received some preliminary information about a practical completion inspection - but no date yet. Tiling and painting has been completed however.
~ We met with the landscaper last week to walk through their design which sounds amazing. Work on that probably won't happen til well after we're moved in due to scheduling, and will most likely be done in stages.
~ We've got a flooring sample to take to the house and see what it looks like in various spots with different light. It's a vinyl laminate wood-look type thing. Grey in colour, not too dark, not too light, so hopefully it works. If it does, then the order will go in and as soon as we can after handover, that will happen.

So more pictures to come later, as we're visiting this afternoon.

 

[kookaburra75]

We'd like to build in a fire pit, and I want to keep a space aside for a chook pen

We went down this path for a fire pit, as we didn't want anything too big in the backyard. It also serves as a table during summer

30" Fire Pit Garden BBQ Table Fireplace Heater Brazier with Rain cover * 633071 | eBay

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[RooFlyer]

~ We've got a flooring sample to take to the house and see what it looks like in various spots with different light.

Does the supplier have an application where you can photograph the room in various lights and it puts the floor covering in?

 

[Drakecula]

We went down this path for a fire pit, as we didn't want anything too big in the backyard. It also serves as a table during summer

That's awesome - I'm going to file that away for the future when we get to it. I did have an idea in mind which was a square bucket thing, but each side was laser cut with an image that would show up with the flames inside the bucket. I really like the idea of a table that has a lid and can be functional in summer though.

Does the supplier have an application where you can photograph the room in various lights and it puts the floor covering in?

I don't believe so, but that would be handy. Maybe we can photoshop the sample in the photo and copy/paste it all over the floor to sort of replicate the same effect...

 

[love_the_life]

Hanging out for more photos. Sounding fabulous.

 

[Drakecula]

More pics! Still dusty and incomplete, but getting there. The floor sample we had was a bit too dark so we're going to swap it for a lighter version and try that tomorrow morning.

 

[love_the_life]

Is that a big double shower? Looks huge. The whole place is looking wonderful - not too long now.

 

[Drakecula]

Is that a big double shower? Looks huge. The whole place is looking wonderful - not too long now.

Yep, it's a double. It is huge. The ensuite was MrD's addition to the plans. We saw this layout in a different display home so he wanted to add it to ours. You can walk in to the shower from either side of the vanity.

 

[chelzmalee]

That kitchen.... heaven!

 

[love_the_life]

Time for another update please

 

[Drakecula]

Not much to update. The lighter sample worked best (I don't have any photos of it unfortunately) so we've gone ahead and set that up so that when we do handover we can get the floor sorted ASAP.
Otherwise, still waiting for any news. Trust me, I wish I had a more interesting update.

Back at home though we've been busy clearing out things, and I've been procrastinating boxing up my hundreds of books. We cleared off the DVD shelf and are only keeping some our favourites and collector sets.

 

[Drakecula]

Finally, some news! We have our pre-completion inspection booked in a couple of weeks! We're almost at the end. It had been ages since we'd heard so MrD sent a text and got a response almost straight away. So either they'd booked us in and were soon about to tell us, or they'd completely forgotten and figured they'd better book us in.
At any rate, progress!

 

[Drakecula]

The fence has come down, which I thought was odd, and there's still bricks and all sorts of stuff everywhere, so I'm not sure if they've done the site clean even though they say they have... We peered through windows and there's still a fine layer of dust on kitchen benches, so we are a bit confused.

At any rate, the inspection is this week so we'll get a closer look inside soon. We can see the dishwasher is in while the fridge is not, so clearly a few last minute things yet to happen. A friend of mine's husband is a building inspector, so we've hired him to join us and hopefully his expert eye will catch everything we miss.

 

[Drakecula]

Practical completion inspection done. It's looking good! Only minor cosmetic things that need fixing, some dings/scratches and that kind of thing. We went around putting blue and yellow painters tape on walls and doors and other things to highlight the imperfections that will need touching up. My friend's husband the building inspector was impressed and said we had nothing to worry about which was good to hear. So only minor things to sort out thankfully.

It was explained that the final clean will be done after the touch ups, so that fine layer of dust will be gone after that. Unfortunately some of the tradies are caught up in the Sydney lockdown so it might be a while before they can come fix stuff. The painters are local, but the stone benchtop guys are not. If the lockdown goes on too long it may be a case of handover so we can move in and they can fix later.

Handover may happen by the end of the month, though I'm still thinking the Move won't happen til August.

We also visited some curtain and blind places to get some ideas, and we have someone coming next week for a measure and quote. And we've got the ball rolling with our property managers to start looking at our current place so we can rent it out after we move. Insurance has been sought, the final payment from the bank is in train, we're still boxing up stuff and trying to offload things we won't need. So many things going on, it's not stressful at all.

 

[Drakecula]

Again another month goes by with not much happening until it's happening! Looks like the benchtop fixes will have to happen after we move in, but the other things have been patched up. Were told yesterday that once the final payment comes in from the bank (they have the paperwork as of last week) we can get the keys. So potentially keys this week! Maybe? I'm not holding my breath given the slow movements of the last few months.

We're booked in with the landscapers for January which is a lot later than they'd initially indicated (October) but I suspect with the lockdowns happening all over the place and what not there's been a flow on effect for demand on trades people. We will survive.

We're going to see if we can pencil in our flooring installation for next week in the hopes we get keys this week. And once we do get keys then we can commence moving things that can be stored in the garage temporarily. Slow and steady until we can get a removalist which we'll sort as soon as we have keys.

It's feeling like the pace is picking up so I'm confident the next update from me will be 'we have the keys!'

Any Canberra people want to come lug boxes? Kidding! (Mostly)

 

[kookaburra75]

Again another month goes by with not much happening until it's happening! Looks like the benchtop fixes will have to happen after we move in, but the other things have been patched up. Were told yesterday that once the final payment comes in from the bank (they have the paperwork as of last week) we can get the keys. So potentially keys this week! Maybe? I'm not holding my breath given the slow movements of the last few months.

We're booked in with the landscapers for January which is a lot later than they'd initially indicated (October) but I suspect with the lockdowns happening all over the place and what not there's been a flow on effect for demand on trades people. We will survive.

We're going to see if we can pencil in our flooring installation for next week in the hopes we get keys this week. And once we do get keys then we can commence moving things that can be stored in the garage temporarily. Slow and steady until we can get a removalist which we'll sort as soon as we have keys.

It's feeling like the pace is picking up so I'm confident the next update from me will be 'we have the keys!'

Any Canberra people want to come lug boxes? Kidding! (Mostly)

MrsK and I are happy to help out (MrsK in a supervisory capacity), given we live around the corner to you. Ping us if you need a hand.

 

[Drakecula]

MrsK and I are happy to help out (MrsK in a supervisory capacity), given we live around the corner to you. Ping us if you need a hand.

I will keep that in mind, though we should be right. Dad's hoping to come up (from a non-red zone) and help as well.

 

[RooFlyer]

We've got a flooring sample to take to the house and see what it looks like in various spots with different light. It's a vinyl laminate wood-look type thing. Grey in colour, not too dark, not too light, so hopefully it works. If it does, then the order will go in and as soon as we can after handover, that will happen.

Possiblity too late now, but if you have an iPhone, you can take a rotatable, 3D, 360 degree LIDAR image of the room and using the free app CANVAS, render it in 3D with the actual room colours and export it to CAD. This then may be able to be used to choose floor coverings.

Even without the CAD export you can take the 3-D coloured image on your phone to wherever the floor samples are and at least get a better idea there by just memory or photographs.