My previous post was really just a brief photo journey of the front of the house to date. It has been difficult to find time to actually sit down, think about and write about the experience so far because so much has happened since moving in! But, now I have some time to recount the first few weeks after handover at least....
We received the keys to the new house on Mon 25 May 2015. This was a very busy day as I had to do an inspection at the new house prior to collecting the keys at Carlisle Homes head office. This meant an hours drive to the house at 8am, an hour back home (to the old house) and then another hours drive to head office at 1pm for the 2pm handover meeting, and then home again. Because handover was reliant on everything being completed at the new house, it was difficult to book in a definite handover date early on as we didn't know when everything would actually be completed until the Friday prior. This made things particularly difficult as it wasn't enough time for me to arrange time off from work, as such, I had to juggle inspections, handover meetings and go to work as well. Anyway, with keys in hand Monday afternoon, I trundled back to the new house (another 1.5 hrs drive from head office) to try and get a couple of hours sleep prior to going to work that night. I had decided early on to stay at the house (on a blow up mattress!) pretty much until we had moved in properly due to the fact that all of the appliances had been installed on the day of handover and without fences and blinds etc. the house was vulnerable security wise.
From hereon in, I have to say it was a hectic and very expensive couple of weeks. Firstly, we were getting new items delivered ie fridge & lounge suite. We also had to contact the air conditioner/heating people to come and 'commission' the heater (not totally sure what this is, but it had to be done before we could use the ducted heating apparently). Suffice to say, we had appointments & deliveries pretty much every day for the next week or so. Keep in mind that we were also trying to finalise packing up the old house, arrange removalists, keep delivery appointments and work full-time, all at the same time.
Prior to handover we had to organise a removalist. After doing a bit of research online we went with Red Carpet Removals as they seemed to have great feedback. Moving day was Sat 30 May 2015. The removal guys arrived on time and were very careful with our stuff. Neither of the 2 guys appeared to speak much english so there wasn't much conversation during the day but they got the job done. We also had to be back at the old house for a rental inspection appointment at 2pm that day as the real estate agent didn't have keys to the house. In the end, the removalists cost about $1100 which wasn't too bad considering our new house was an hour away and we were moving a piano as well as a very large & heavy safe. The only downfall was that not everything fit in the truck on the day, which meant that my poor son had to do 2 more trips that night with the trailer. I don't think he finally got home until well after midnight. A hectic day for both of us! For the record - I HATE MOVING HOUSE!!!! The job is always bigger than what you anticipate, and even though nothing went really wrong on the day, it felt never-ending and was just plain exhausting. Our big (55inch) tv 'broke' in transit though and whilst I don't think it was dropped at all, it was working at the old house and not working at the new house - no pwer going to unit. All I can think of is that in all the jostling in the back of a truck something has come loose and it no longer works. The disappointing thing is that the removalist wouldn't take any responsibility for it and neither would our insurance company. Some people said to just throw it out as it would be cheaper to buy a new one, however, that tv cost $1100 which I don't think is cheap! As such, it is still sitting broken in our theatre room (come store room atm!) and I am determined to get it fixed at some stage!
Another part of moving that I struggled with this time was all the left over boxes & cardboard packaging and 'stuff' that we had collected over the years. We have so much 'stuff' and sorting through it and finding a home for everything in a new home is an ongoing challenge - working out what storage we need etc. We still have one room left that still has a few bits and pieces in boxes that still don't have a home. I think I am waiting for the new bookshelf, or cupboard, or shed etc! Another issue we faced was all the left over packaging from the new fridge, lounge suite (would you believe every separate part came wrapped in cardboard?!), tv, sound system, bed, mattresses etc. etc. etc. etc. Our back yard was overflowing with cardboard! I felt like we were drowning in cardboard and dirt (due to the un-landscaped backyard!!) It took ages and ages to sort out the rubbish as our bins were obviously way too small to cope with such vast amounts and the local recycling centre cost too much $'s. We have eventually gotten rid of most of it now (but we may have a little bit left in the far back corner of the backyard!!) but essentially it is mostly gone.
During the following few weeks the chaos continued - I collected our new puppy (beautiful Caddie!), arranged for the driveway to be poured, NBN to be installed and a tv antenna to be installed as well as cleaned the old house ready to hand back the keys to the real estate agent. We also were waiting on some plantation shutters to arrive and had to make decisions about temporary window coverings in the interim. Oh, and we still had to unpack! My parents were also in town and were coming to stay....amongst all the chaos and boxes. It was great for them to see our new house, share in the chaos, and help with a few things around the house.
The driveway was a particularly big deal as they are so expensive and I still wasn't 100% sure on what I wanted! I didn't want to make a mistake! I ended up getting a referral for a concreter from the local landscaping place and we were very happy with the outcome. Paul (the concreter) came and had a look at the front of the house and gave me ideas and quotes. He was a very friendly guy who had been in the business for 12+ years and seemed to know what he was doing. I decided to go with an agregate mix and he ended up making up a 'custom' mix of stones so that we had the look that we wanted, without it looking like every other driveway in the street. Paul was awesome and I would recommend him to anyone as he did a great job (just message me if you want his details). The driveway ended up costing $4,400 inc gst which I felt for what we got was great value. Bear in mind, if you have to get a driveway done, ensure that there is enough room on either side to get out of cars or to walk past a parked car without falling into the garden. This is the sort of thing that prior to getting our own driveway I would never have thought of. Thank goodness Paul gave us good advice and was able to deliver a high quality, good looking product, as well as have a few laughs in between!
The next big thing to arrange was the fences. We are on a corner block and even though the other side of the house had been fenced prior to us starting the build, and the rear one had gone up already (without our approval!), we really only had the side fence to arrange. In saying that, this was still a fair amount of fence to do, being about 29 meters from the back of the block to the front. We also needed vehicle access to the back yard, which meant that we also needed a gate. Thankfully my son took on this responsibility and decided to build it himself. With a lot of hard work, sweat & frustration initially (with getting the fence posts in properly), he and a couple of mates, got the fence up and I must say that it's probably one of the best looking fences in the street! It is a wood paling fence, but with exposed posts which makes it a bit different from every other fence in the street. My son did an awesome job and the fence and gate both look amazing.
So, this was our experience for the first few weeks after handover - a very hectic time. Since then, we have started personalising the house (making curtains, painting walls, timber cladding walls, installing light fittings etc etc etc) as well as working on the landscaping, front and back. THERE IS STILL SOOOO MUCH TO DO!!!!! It seems never ending, particularly when we still have to go to work and can only work on the house/garden on our days off. Everything also costs a lot of money so we have to do one thing at a time at the moment - but we'll get there eventually. Will keep you posted :)
'STILL' TO DO LIST:
- renovate/repaint 2 x pots for front (under each pillar)
- finish the front yard - purchase & plant more plants in front garden, level left hand side, create more garden beds, plant lawn and eventually plant more plants (ongoing)
- finish curtains in master bedroom (have done 2 out of 3)
- renovate (with silver leaf/guild) an old mirror I bought off gumtree for the master bedroom
- stencil wall (behind bed) in master bedroom
- make curtains for theatre room (front lounge area)
- make 2 x roman blinds for living & dining rooms
- decide what window coverings to put across each sliding door in the living/dining areas (and eventually order & purchase)
- research & purchase fly screens for sliding doors - dining/living & laundry
- finish making cushions for J's room
- make 6 x cushions for living room
- level out the back yard and install storm water drains
- spray weeds & mulch (over area where the deck will eventually go)
- install turf in back yard
- install garden beds & sandpit/pool, area for the dog in the back yard
My son also plans on building a 'barn door' to go across the passage entry in the dining area. He is also planning on building a deck out the back at a later date. These are both quite big projects that will take a fair amount of time to complete. We also have to build a retaining wall out the back and a shed for all his 'man' stuff. Everything will happen as time and money permits. I will endeavour to update you with pics as it does!
Thanks for reading :)
