TomCat's new digs!

[Denali]

I am a tiles fan - have acres of them . No one puts slippery tiles on the floors anymore (well not if you have any brains ). In fact many bathroom ranges have a glossy tile for the wall and a matching matt, non slip one for the floor.

Ms FM is a wood fan and will put hard wood down in her new house. At the moment she must have something fairly cheap in the house they bought as it shows all the doggie scratches very easily.

We used a gray grout and it is pretty forgiving. Breakages are a problem - the first Christmas after we moved in, I lost quite a few Christmas tree ornaments until I learnt to be more careful. Not had any tile crack or show wear and that is after 17 years.

We have in slab heating, so thye are lovely and warm in winter and cool in summer. I just loved how easy they were to clean after children’s parties. I do love the look of wood, but we have a lot of wood in the house - doors, architraves etc and they are a fair bit of maintenance.

One of our dogs is funny when we take her to visit Ms FM she refuses to walk on the wooden floor, or if she is made to she looks like she is trying to walk on tippy toes . Why she should be like that I don’t know! I could understand it if she was only used to carpet, but she races over the tiles which you would think would be harder on her .

Call me crazy but one type of floor tile I really do like are the ones that look like wood, they even have a grain/raised tile texture.

Considering it for the bathroom but hubby likes shades of blue and we really havent looked at tiles because we're a couple of years off. We could have committed to a rebuild last year but I got cold feet and said lets wait a couple of years to prepare myself mentally for the trauma of it all.

 

[Pushka]

Call me crazy but one type of floor tile I really do like are the ones that look like wood, they even have a grain/raised tile texture.

Considering it for the bathroom but hubby likes shades of blue and we really havent looked at tiles because we're a couple of years off. We could have committed to a rebuild last year but I got cold feet and said lets wait a couple of years to prepare myself mentally for the trauma of it all.

We have white tiles in diamond lay out with black inserts. Dirt doesn’t show. Grey mortar.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Call me crazy but one type of floor tile I really do like are the ones that look like wood, they even have a grain/raised tile texture.

Considering it for the bathroom but hubby likes shades of blue and we really havent looked at tiles because we're a couple of years off. We could have committed to a rebuild last year but I got cold feet and said lets wait a couple of years to prepare myself mentally for the trauma of it all.

i like the wood tiles as well. Now that Mr Rabbit has died we need to turn his hutch (i.e. the outside courtyard), into something pretty and I thought the wood tiles could look nice. However I am not sure ....

 

[blackcat20]

The fence is finished (two coats of stained) and the entire block has been Zeroed. Should hopefully make it easier when we come to landscape.
Loving just how flat our block is.



Damage to the crossover has been marked up for repair, even bits I wouldn't have bothered with (such as smears of concrete). Pleased though as our crossover looks pretty ordinary.

 

[Denali]

A good neighbour would have painted the entire fence

 

[RB]

Rectified tiles can also overcome some of the worries people are expressing-dearer of course

 

[blackcat20]

Got a text today to say our water bill was overdue. Amusing given we've never received one. Turns out whoever set it up used our old address, the one we moved from a year ago

 

[Denali]

They must use the same data base at your credit card company.

 

[blackcat20]

They must use the same data base at your credit card company.

I'd say it was the hopeless conveyancer not updating things. The proof of settement letter also had our old address which I had to ask them to update. Still waiting for the stamp duty refund too.

Our building rep is trying to find out what is holding up our plans. They say two weeks for final plans and we're up to almost 6 weeks (of the 10 week pre build, so almost 9 weeks since settlement)

 

[Flying mermaid]

Frustrating isn’t it? I have been trying to warn Ms FM that she is going to have to be very patient when she starts hers. She also has the neighbour from hell and I am trying to talk them into (once they have plans and before they get submitted), going to see her with a box of chocs and have a courtesy chat with her about what they are doing. if they don’t she will lodge objections and although they won’t be upheld, it will delay them for months. Not having a lot of success at the moment as I think they are a bit scared of her, but I will have another go further down the track .

 

[Denali]

I would also suggest buying a prepaid burner phone and giving grumpy neighbour the phone number. That way she can call but Ms FM can choose when to respond/grumpy neighbour doesnt get her usual number. Keep the phone charged and current, just use to avoid contact via your normal number.

We're thinking of doing this.

 

[travelislife]

I would also suggest buying a prepaid burner phone and giving grumpy neighbour the phone number. That way she can call but Ms FM can choose when to respond/grumpy neighbour doesnt get her usual number. Keep the phone charged and current, just use to avoid contact via your normal number.

We're thinking of doing this.

Very smart idea!

 

[blackcat20]

Apparently we will be given a date for out plans tomorrow. I'd rather the plans, they've had them since October.

 

[travelislife]

Frustrating isn’t it? I have been trying to warn Ms FM that she is going to have to be very patient when she starts hers. She also has the neighbour from hell and I am trying to talk them into (once they have plans and before they get submitted), going to see her with a box of chocs and have a courtesy chat with her about what they are doing. if they don’t she will lodge objections and although they won’t be upheld, it will delay them for months. Not having a lot of success at the moment as I think they are a bit scared of her, but I will have another go further down the track .

It is such luck of the draw isn’t it? We were very lucky with no objections despite being beyond rescode in a number of areas. One person easily has the ability to hold a project up 12 months if they want to be a pain in the cough.

 

[Flying mermaid]

It is such luck of the draw isn’t it? We were very lucky with no objections despite being beyond rescode in a number of areas. One person easily has the ability to hold a project up 12 months if they want to be a pain in the cough.

i know - I think they are going to be 100% Ok with what they are doing - single story, big block (950 m2), so not pushing boundaries, but even a frivolous objection will hold them up for months, thus my suggestion

 

[travelislife]

i know - I think they are going to be 100% Ok with what they are doing - single story, big block (950 m2), so not pushing boundaries, but even a frivolous objection will hold them up for months, thus my suggestion

In Victoria if you are on a block >500m2 and comply with all of Rescode then it is pretty impossible for someone to object and slow you down.

Our block is inner city and only 280m2 so mandatory advertising and planning permit process, regardless if it complies with rescode or not (and it doesn’t comply which is common for small blocks). We were just lucky with no objections.

 

[Flying mermaid]

In Victoria if you are on a block >500m2 and comply with all of Rescode then it is pretty impossible for someone to object and slow you down.

Our block is inner city and only 280m2 so mandatory advertising and planning permit process, regardless if it complies with rescode or not (and it doesn’t comply which is common for small blocks). We were just lucky with no objections.

sounds like a good system. In the ACT anytime you do anything in an established area, it has to go out to all neighbours and they can lodge objections. Even if they are fairly frivolous (e.g when we built our house on a 1500 m2 block, one neighbour objected because we weren’t cutting down a tree. We had down everything possible to preserve as many trees as possible and she objected because she felt the roots would be compromised and it would be dangerous. We very quickly agreed to take it down!), it will slow you down, as it then has to be manually assessed and approved. If it something that requires them to come and look at the objection, then add on 3 to 4 months.

 

[Pushka]

sounds like a good system. In the ACT anytime you do anything in an established area, it has to go out to all neighbours and they can lodge objections. Even if they are fairly frivolous (e.g when we built our house on a 1500 m2 block, one neighbour objected because we weren’t cutting down a tree. We had down everything possible to preserve as many trees as possible and she objected because she felt the roots would be compromised and it would be dangerous. We very quickly agreed to take it down!), it will slow you down, as it then has to be manually assessed and approved. If it something that requires them to come and look at the objection, then add on 3 to 4 months.

Groan. They probably would have lodged an objection if you wanted to cut it down initially.

 

[blackcat20]

Thank goodness we don't have those issues in our Estate.

Really hoping the builder pulls their finger out this week, have had enough with the delay. The fact that others in our street have frames up just adds to the insult and I've told them that.

 

[Denali]

Think of it as being in the army, Hurry up and wait.