Thursday, 24 July 2014

A Month In, Carlisle After Sales Service & Blinds

Hi All!

It has been little more than a month since we move it and to be honest, we still madly in love with the house. Carlisle has been pretty good as well. The SS and CLE still response to my email and call with any questions with the house

The fence is now up, all the blinds goes in!

Panel Glide & Blinds


Blackout Close Up

We decided to go with double roller (black out and sun screen) around the house and panel glide on the living - alfresco and dining - alfresco door. Simply because the modern look and budget.

We had a bit of a drama with the fencing guys. We have a light colored concrete path around the house that was up before the fencing. When they put their post in, they decided to let the some of the cement dried on my concrete (instead of just simply washing it off when it still wet) and not it leave marks on my concrete path!

I complained and they send a concrete cleaner to wash it off, however some of the have been left for a week and more that pushing the pressure washer and more acid on the concrete will clean the mark but also damage it! So I decided to leave it and let it wash off by itself with time. In the end, these all can be avoided just by washing it off in the first place so I will not recommend this fencing people (Fenceable Fencing) to anyone!

There are much more than the pictures below :(

Cement Mark on Concrete

Cement Mark on Concrete

We did decided not to go with Carlisle's wardrobe and create our own, we actually bought our from IKEA (PAX System) which we spend the weekend to build! Some of the part is pretty heavy (30kg+) and you definitely need two people to do this but in the end which actually looks very good!

We spend 1k to do it on the current state and we will add more drawers to it in the future. I believe Carlisle charge close to that just to add a tower. With this setting we got 6.5m of hanging rails in total, multiple drawers and shelf as well





If you still building or on the process and you decide to add niche on your shower I suggest you add some height to the niche because if you like me and buy the largest sizes shampoo and shower gel, you won't get it fit!

Fit, but need to press the nozzle half way

Not Fit :(


The next thing to do will be landscaping, I will be doing the back and side myself! Thinking about pebbles and some herbs garden on sides and just a simple small garden on the back with a lot of grass!

As for the front, I will hire a landscaper to make a retaining wall (left over bricks) because our house is actually pretty tall (60cm above footpath) we will make a retaining wall up to 40cm to 50cm and use fake grass and some merbau plantation box for easy maintenance. The project is on the way so there will be updates when it is done!!


Sunday, 22 June 2014

Driveway Sealed & Decking

Hi All,

Our driveway can finally be used after final sealing and decking for front porch and back porch is done :)

A bit disappointed with the concrete because the variation of colors that can be seen. looks like there was a bit miss when mixing the concrete but we can live with it. Will be talking with the concreter to make sure this is fixed.

Driveway view from garage

From front
Front decking
Close up front decking - notice discoloration in concrete next to the decking

Front decking from side - notice discoloration in concrete next to the decking

Alfresco decking

Alfresco decking





Wednesday, 11 June 2014

Quick Driveway & Concrete Path Update

Hi All!

Concrete path and driveway has now finished. Can't wait until the landscape and porch been done!







Monday, 9 June 2014

Settled, Driveway, Night Photos & Bathroom Funiture

Hi All!!

We have now settled the house with Carlisle. I can now say overall experience is excellent! All staff has been very helpful from start to end and I will recommend them to anyone.

The house is now officially ours and we have start to complete it. There are so many things to buy since we basically don't have any furniture (currently living in a fully furnished place) Thankfully it is a good time to buy with all the end of financial year sale :)

After settlement Carlisle will book another day to install the appliances, the day will be the day we suppose to move in because it is dangerous to leave this appliances when we are not move in as yet.

Our driveway has started to build, it will be exposed aggregate (white / brownish) in the front and colored (sand stone) around the house. We decided to put concrete a round the house as recommended by our private inspector and Carlisle Homes since we are building in a P soil area it is really important to keep our stab stable and avoid as much water as possible.

My SS also recommend grout sealing. Basically to avoid water get into the grout. So we went to Bunnings and get some Dunlop branded one. We went trough all the tiles and seal them one by one (took the whole day) it is a painful process but important to the longevity of the tiles

Fencing & Blinds will be done very soon as well!

Now photos :)

Welcome Pack!


Aggregate Driveway Preparation


Right side Concrete Pathways at 900mm

Left Side Concrete Pathways at 900mm

Front Aggregate Pathways & Drivway

Love Those Lights!!

Kitchen (Correct Tap) and Prespex Doors Just Missing Oven & Exhaust Fan

Painful Grout Sealing :(
Hallway

Temporary Blinds =p


Ensuite Shower with Rainhead

Mondela Tower Rail @ Ensuite

Mondela Toilet Roll Holder @ Toilet & Ensuite




Tuesday, 20 May 2014

PCI & Pre-Handover Private Inspection

Hi All!

It has been a while :) I have just came back from holiday and have the PCI inspection with my SS on the next day. The house has been finished and overall we are happy with the colors.

During the PCI, we had a lot of points (50+) to be fixed and rectified which most of them related to paints touch ups. However there are a lot more than that as well e.g marked windows, uneven drawer, uneven door handle, uneven power points, incorrect shower head on ensuite, incorrect switch allocation in laundry, incorrect kitchen taps (still), broken walls, etc etc...

And you think that is it? Nope... today we have a private inspection (which I am now sure that it is very important to have especially at this stage) to attend the house and he picked up another 44 points to be rectified including missing insulation bats, uneven ceiling (which is hard to fix), missing concrete tiles (which I called the SS straight away to be fixed because it is raining today), uncleaned return air (the tradies put empty bottles and woods scraps are not cleaned) etc etc...

Very disappointed with the inspection result :( but was expecting to have things that is not right at this point of time, however still not expecting it to be this much to fix. Hopefully Carlisle will be able to fully fixed and won't have to many excuses not to fix them.

Anyway now time for current photos :)

Front

Ensuite sinks

Ensuite - incorrect shower head meant to be rain head shower

Ensuite - toilet

Master bedroom

Master bedroom

Garage

Lounge

Living

Pantry

Kitchen - Still missing prespex doors and appliances

Hallway
Entrance


Laundry

Dining

Rumpus

Carpet meets timber

Rooms hallway


Bathtub


Bathroom shower

Bedroom
  
I will never know if the private inspector did not open it...