Photos!

Main bathroom








Family room - looking across to our MASSIVE tele!!!!!











Dining area










Master Bedroom











Kitchen

Well it's been bedlam around here for the past week but we are slowly getting there! Not as quickly as we would like, but with Dave working full time and me chasing after the wee ones, unfortunately it's going to take a bit of time until we get it looking the way we want! Nevermind, we have loads of time!!!!! So here's some pics of the action so far!

xMel

We're in!!!!!

No pics yet though, 'cause the place looks like a bomb's hit!!!!! We are slowly getting through all the boxes but it is taking time because I only have small windows of opportunity when I'm not feeding or tending to the baby, Kobe or myself!

We moved in on Saturday, with the help of my dad, brothers and dad and mum-in-law. My Mum had all the grandkids!!!! My sisters-in-law came to help unpack boxes and one of them, Tracey, put on all our door stops and put up all our curtain rods and curtains. I must say I'm pretty excited that we've got curtains straightaway this time; it certainly didn't happen last time!!!!

We have also had to clean up the rental property we were living in, so we have been being pulled in two directions - hanging out to 'nest' here but knowing we have to get the other place back to its former glory. Thankfully Dave has done most of the work and we handed the keys back today, so there closes another chapter in the lives of the Marshalls!

So now we will just concentrate on settling in and setting everything up the way we want. I will take pics as the rooms become presentable!!!! We have a huge job ahead of us with the outside; we will be going for years me thinks!

So it took Rawdon Hill just under 6 months to build our Mansion and we are absolutely rapt with it! The quality of everything is fabulous and we are yet to find any faults (and hopefully won't)! We love our new house and look forward to enjoying it for many years to come!

xMel

Oohhh Yehhhhhh!

How beautiful is my portico???!!!!!!!! Celebratory pics of the house taken just minutes before HANDOVER!!!!!! YES!!!!! We have had handover!!!! So very excited and we are all set to move in tomorrow, along with, unfortunately, the rain I think! Nevermind!

So that's the end of the building of the Marshall Mansion! Next comes the 'beautifying' of it!, which will take time and money, none of which we have at the moment!!!!!!!


I will keep posting as we go!

xMadmel

Latest update!!

Well it's coming right down to the wire! Finally had our walk-through this morning. Our supervisor was great and picked up things we wouldn't have :) Very minor stuff; mainly paint scuffs etc. By late this afternoon, all these issues had been fixed :) Gotta be happy with that! The valuer from the Bank came (forgot about him and how we need him before they'll give us the money!), and by all accounts, and every finger and toe crossed, we should have the cheque in our hot little hands by tomorrow lunchtime. Handover will occur after that and then we move in on Saturday!!!!! Well, that is how it is meant to happen, and my god, I hope it does!

In hindsight, we should have allowed more time for the "behind-the-scenes" stuff but ah well, we can put that down as something we have learnt for next time! Because I reckon we will do it again one day; we've had a ball this time round and are so happy with our new Marshall Mansion!

So what else? The appliances are booked to go in tomorrow, as are the flyscreens and....da, da, da - our portico was painted today!!!! And I must say, it bloody well rocks!!!!! Can't believe I forgot to take a photo to put on here!!!! Will have to do it tomorrow! I was so worried about the colour I'd chosen but let's just say - you know the Colourbond Roof ad where the man is standing outside in his underwear admiring his roof??! That was me today admiring my portico! But not in my underwear of course!!!!! It looks SO ace and I am massively happy with it!

But still no red kettle :( I am trying to remain calm! I must have my red kettle! (See previous post if you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about!)

Anyway! Off to bed and hoping against hope that all falls into place tomorrow! And that the rain doesn't fall on the weekend like it did the last one! Now that would suck!

xMadmel

Just some random pics!

Our Spiderman boys!










Our sweet Lexi Rose who is now 10 weeks old and weighs 8pd 90z!












A dodgy shot of our carpet!

Are we in this weekend????!

No we're not! Luckily for us, our real estate agent has let us stay an extra week. God forbid if we haven't had handover by then! Unfortunately things haven't moved as quickly as expected. Carpet was put in yesterday and looks great (through the windows!!!!). The downpipes have been connected. Cleaning was done early in the week but will be done again next week. Portico still not painted but the weather is a bit unreliable at the moment! We are hoping to have our "walk through" either tomorrow or Monday, with handover following not far behind. We have had an "issue" crop up that needs to be rectified, which I won't discuss on here, but hopefully it can be fixed quickly and won't affect our handover or move-in date.

So really all we are waiting on are the painting of the portico, appliances to be put in, including the ducted heating and hot water units, another clean and a Certificate of Occupancy!!!!

Fingers crossed everybody!!!!!

xMel

P.S. My red kettle has already bloody died....:( So very sad and they have no more in stock and don't know if they will be getting any more.....:( So I have told them I will wait a while just in case, so I am currently boiling water on my stove every day!!! Worth the pain if it means I get my red kettle in the end! Note to self: Do not throw away old kettle if it is not broken!! (Or is that called hoarding?!!!!!)

Short and sweet! Today we discovered the shower screens, mirrors and the kitchen tiling has been re-done and looks great!

xMel

Move-in date???!

Dave spoke to our SS yesterday about what things were left to do and to get more of an idea of when we will be moving in. Saturday, November 22nd appears to be the lucky date at this stage, but that's not in writing, so we still don't really know!!!!

The dodgy kitchen tiles have been ripped off ready to be done again. The electrician has been back and put in the power points that are to go on that wall. The shower screens are being put in as I type!

Carpet has been booked to go in this week. Hmmm, what else? The plumber needs to come back and connect all the down pipes? Gas needs to be connected? Appliances need to be put in, but I think that gets done closer to when we move in. Oh and portico still needs to be painted.

SS said we will have "walk-through" sometime next week. And the cleaner will be there either this week or next! I cannot wait to move into a beautiful brand new, clean house! What a treat!

So that's about it for today!

xxMel

Portico!

Here's our rendered portico! As yet unpainted but very exciting all the same!

Also noticed that the cornices have been done and painted in the alfresco so that's all finished now too!

xMel

Look at our beautiful garage door!!!!

It's really sad to be so in love with a garage door, isn't it??!!!! But I'm having a bit of a love-fest at the moment - I am having the same relationship with the new toaster, kettle and microwave I bought - they are all bright red and black! Will look ACE in the new kitchen!!!!

The painter was at the house on Saturday! He painted the lintels above the garage, in the alfresco, under the eaves of the portico and the small section above the front door. I also noticed a bit of dodgy painting on the front door, so will need to speak to the SS about that. Also noted that all the chrome door furniture is on! Looks unreal!

Drove past today to see the heating vents getting put in! Yey! We'd forgotten about those! So as far as we can tell, all that needs doing now is replacement of the kitchen tiles, sparky to come back and do the powerpoints that go in those tiles, shower screens, carpets, cornices in the alfresco, render and painting of the portico and a good clean! Could that really be it? Doesn't seem much at all!

xMel

Odds and ends!

Very noice!!!! More external plastering has been done. Lintels?? (not sure if that is what they are called!) have been done in the garage, around the portico and the alfresco. I love our portico!

Two lots of steps got built in the garage. The garage door is in!! But it's up and I'm dying to see what it looks like down and over the past two days, a little digger has been scooting around, moving dirt and generally cleaning the place up!

Shower screens have been ordered, as have the replacement tiles for the kitchen. Taps have also been installed.

So things are definitely moving along!!! We gave notice to our landlord this week, so it HAS to be ready in four weeks now!!! God let's hope it is or we'll be lobbing on Mum's doorstep!!!!!

xMel

Loos and lights!

Well today brought the sparky and the plumber! I'm sure there are things that got done I didn't notice, but now the toilets are in, as well as all the downlights, power points and switches!

I've also finally measured the windows, so now I can order our blinds! Better late than never; the speed of the building caught us off guard - not that we're complaining!

xMel

Well hello Mr Site Supervisor!!!!!

We met our Site Supervisor for the first time today! Very nice bloke! The main purpose of our meeting was to discuss the kitchen wall tiles - the tiler was concerned they were from different batches - the 'whites' were different. And were they? "Ah, yes"! So they will be coming down and replaced with new ones! Kitchen cupboard handles will also be re-aligned.

Here's the bathroom with pic of the bath and the shower. Colours and border tiles are the same in the ensuite.

We discussed rough timings for the remainder of stuff to be done - estimated time of move-in date - 3-4 weeks!! Looks like we could be giving notice to our landlord very, very soon!!!!

We also confirmed our choice of render colour - we are going the Colorbond Manor Red!!! Yee haa!!!! Cross your fingers everyone!!!!!! God I hope it doesn't look crap!!!!!!

xMel

More tiles!

Kitchen tiles are stuck on and awaiting grout....!

Floor tiles are all stuck on and being grouted as we speak!

I actually went in and spoke to the tiler this morning, to ask him a few questions about sealing the tiles and what to use etc. We didn't do it with our last house - big mistake! He said there wasn't much point sealing the floor tiles because the grout is dark and a stain resistant one too, but highly recommended doing all the

bathroom wall and kitchen tiles because of the white grout. Good-oh!

Also there was our bricky - a really nice bloke - who had come back to brick the pier? in the alfresco! And that's all bricks done!

So the tiling should be finished today - what comes next?! Time will tell!

xMel

Tiles!

Tiles are being laid!!!!! Not a great shot but the best I could do - through the front door!!!!!

Looking good (I think!) - hard to tell until the grout is in and they've been cleaned!

The tiler called me this afternoon and talked to me about the grout and said they would be finished tomorrow! Fantastic! Lovin' it!

xMel

This and that!

Our funky front door!

So what's been going on??!!! Dave spoke to our SS on Friday, who told us we would be looking at moving in in the next 4-6 weeks!!! Very exciting news; but not in writing, so needless to say, we won't break out the champagne just yet!!!!!

The painters have been going great guns and have pretty much finished aside from some small bits they can't do because of some small things the plasterers haven't finished!



Our garage - all painted!


And on the floor of our bedroom, big piles of......TILES!!!!!! I must say it's a huge anti-climax not being able to walk through the house and take pics anymore :( Just not the same through the windows.

xMel

Painting!

Here's our painter!!!!! Working hard when I dropped past this arvo! I couldn't resist ducking my head around, because as I drove up, I saw that all the front windows were covered, and I thought, "That can only be a good thing!"!!! They were just finishing the ceiling and the first coat was on the walls. How exciting!!! I didn't go inside because I didn't want to annoy them, so can't wait to go up on the weekend and have a squiz through the windows!


And here's a pic of our groovy front door! Can't wait to see it in the right colour! Looking good!

xMel

Doors, architraves and ......?!

All sorts of little bits and pieces have been going on, unfortunately no pics 'cause we can't get in!

From what we can see through windows, all the doors have been hung and architraves done.

Fit-out of the wardrobes/cupboards are mostly finished.

The doors in the garage (through to laundry and study) have been fixed.

Plaster work in master bedroom has been finished (there was an issue with our power pole).

Plaster nearly finished in garage.

Which brings us up to today. I drove past this morning and there was a van parked out the front with a Bristol sticker on it. "Isn't that paint?" I said to myself. Rang Dave, just a tad excited. He suggested I go inside and have a chat and find out! Now that's big stuff to us, because until now, we haven't spoken to a single tradie on site because we don't want to get in the way! But now that we can't get in.....! So in I went and had a lovely chat with.....the painter!!!!!! Yee haa!!!!! How insane is that?!!!! Unreal! He was prepping, getting ready to start! Let's hope the colours I've picked are ok.....freaking out about that a bit because of the colour muck-up with the kitchen......

So there you go! Don't know what's next; we love the surprise of turning up and trying to work out what's been done! There's always something! Getting down to the pointy end now I think!

I've also made an executive decision to go with the 'Manor Red' render colour - fingers crossed it's not a decision that comes back to bite me on the bum!

Oh and our groovy front door is now on; albeit in that lovely aqua colour!!!!

xMel

Bricks are finished! They look fabulous if I do say so myself! I love the pillars at the front - now just have to decide what colour render to do - should we be practical and safe or take a risk?! The garage and front doors will be Woodland Grey. My "high risk" colour choice is "Colorbond Manor Red". Practical safe choice would probably be similar to the colour of the mortar - sandyish, I think! Might hop onto the HomeOne forums and ask for opinions!

Anyway, the carpenter was there today hanging all the doors (from what I could see - we are now officially locked up!).

Our sweet babe is three weeks old today and she is just gorgeous! Such an easy girl at the moment! Fingers crossed she stays this way!

xMel

I've been slack!....

Yep. Slack. No pics but I can tell you that the whole house is now bricked and the brickie was there today doing all the window sills, so it might even have been his last day today! I will take some pics tomorrow!

xMel