Stairway to... heaven!?

...nah. It's just the stairs from the lounge door of the man cave. This is another project hubby completed, he is so talented. Anyone want to hire him ;) LOL

I'm thinking of painting the side of the staircase in Monument, which is the same colour as the door. I figure it would look better than the naked pine but I'm not too sure whether Monument would look weird :-/ I'm open to suggestions here. 

Here is what the guts of it looked like before he nailed the merbau down. This thing is so damn solid it ain't moving anywhere!! 

Well gated

Hubby finished building the side gate!! I think it looks amazing and a very good job by someone who hasn't welded in a very long time, nor ever made a gate in their life.

The actual gate door is 1 metre wide and is locked by a keypad. We even have a remote control to unlock the gate. He's so clever :)

He used 140mm wide merbau decking for the timber and steel for the posts and gate frame. 

Sealing: shower grout and concrete

This weekend hubby sealed the concrete floor in the garage. We also sealed the concrete slab in the man cave in preparation for floor coverings. The concrete sealer was easy enough to use, simply clean the floor and apply the sealer with a roller. After 30 minutes apply and second coat and you're done. In a couple of hours it's completely dry.

GroutPro came over on Saturday to colour seal the grout in the ensuite shower. We had this done at our old house and it was awesome, the grout always looked so good. Very happy with how this turned out. I have asked the guy to come back in a few weeks to seal the other shower too. 

A closer shot of the wall tile grout. You can't even see that it has a coating on it - bonus! 

We met with the head builder on Thursday night. We have now received our final invoice, minus all the appropriate adjustments. We are glad that that worry is finally over. 

Builder arguing the final invoice

Well, things are starting to get really interesting now! 

We received the final invoice from the builder last week - the full invoice! We are owed 22 weeks of damages and that wasn't deducted from this invoice. We have since spoken to the head builder who will meet with us later this week to discuss the adjustments... Apparently the builder has a list of "extras" that they did for us and are trying to use that as an argument to reduce the amount of damages they have to pay. It's amusing really because there is only one variation where we owed them extra money which we signed and agreed to (for the non standard tiles) which has already been paid in a prior progress payment. 

I really can't wait to see this alleged list of extras. There were a number of things the builder had to do but they were to cover up errors by his trades or things he offered to do, they weren't things which we requested. 

My husband and I are willing to take this matter to the Building Commission if they do not pay us our owed damages, as well as other reasonable things we are requesting. At this stage there are actually a lot of defects and incomplete work that we haven't even raised with them. If they want to go down the Building Commission path then we will raise every single grievance and defect with the commission.

Both my husband and I want this resolved quickly. In fact, we have already arranged for the bank valuer to come out and inspect the property so that once we receive an appropriately amended invoice we can arrange final payment ASAP. The only person delaying their final payment is the builder. 

To top it off we still have some items sitting here that belong to the builder. Not sure when he's planning to collect them. We have a wheelbarrow, ladder, hose and I think a few other things. Not to mention the skip bin that is still sitting on our nature strip which our neighbours have taken full advantage of! 

I guess by the weekend we will know whether we have to prepare a case for the Building Commission. 

Little happenings and disappointed

Downpipe at the front of the house was connected on Monday - finally! 

The concreters turned up today to form up the spa slab and another area we want concreted for the dogs. They left because they couldn't do it :(  They have recommended we engage a formwork company to form it up and then they can come and pour the concrete. Wasn't happy at all to hear this. I just wish they told us in the beginning as we would have organised it by now :(

We are still waiting on a few jobs to be finished by the builder. Hoping they arrange for these jobs to be finished shortly. 

Recipe: White Chocolate Pannacotta

I thought I'd share a beautifully creamy gluten free White Chocolate Pannacotta recipe with you. Visit here for the recipe.

In house related news Melbourne Stairs arrived this morning to repair the few squeaky steps between the garage and the house. At this stage we are unsure as to whether the fix worked as we can't walk on the steps until tomorrow. We were annoyed that they didn't phone first to confirm what day and time they could attend, as they previously advised they would. The repair guy arrived at 8am this morning and poor hubby had just finished nightshift and was woken up by their power tools :(

We are STILL waiting for the downpipe at the front of the house to be connected! Let's see if it happens early next week. Not holding my breath!

18000 page views!

Wow! This blog has hit 18000 page views!

I started this blog to document our home building journey, I didn't imagine that so many people would view it and follow our (long!) journey. Thank you to each and every one of you, from the silent followers, to the email subscribers and to the people who have offered supportive and encouraging comments throughout this process. 

Our home is not yet finished, there are still things the builder has to do. Then of course there is landscaping, finishing the Mancave and other bits and pieces we have to do. 

Stay tuned as there will be many more posts to come :)

Thank you to those who have already subscribed to receive my posts by email. If you haven't already you can enter your email address in the 'follow by email' field on the right hand side :)