Landscaping nearly complete... Progress shots.

Our landscaper has been on site for just over a week, and it is now looking a big more like a garden I will enjoy. He has to come back tomorrow and finish the top of the letterbox, tidy up the pavers and do a general clean up. I can't wait to take more photos as the plants develop and grow and I add my own personal touches.

Front retaining wall and garden

Close up of garden bed with paver edge

Feature tree. Dwarf magnolia little gem. With feature lighting... It's the little silver light thing in front. The pipe behind it will be cut down to garden level. Its from the storm water, something or rather.

Lastly our clothesline is finally up, a slab for our shed in the corner, and some plants around the edges. I will take some photos of the paved areas later in the week.

Landscaping commenced!

I was so excited this time last week to see our landscaping supplies arrive, but it has taken a week of preparation to see them laid and the beginning of what our end result will look like.

Pallet of 400x400 Adbri European Prague pavers

Pallet of front retaining blocks

And here is what they look like laid out front with our letterbox in progress. I am  still deciding what goes  on top... Slate look tile or sandstone.

Driveway getting extended... We should now fit our cars comfortably on the driveway.

Our alfresco paved and extended...

NBN disaster

I feel my NBN was a big balls up with HSI.  There are cables in the garage connecting to the main hub located in my study. All other cabling runs from that point.

NBNco installed their equipment in the garage. The man who installed this equipment took out the cabling that the electricians installed for the connection to the street as it was not long enough. That was okay.

Telstra came and installed the home gateway in the garage as they install this with the NBN equipment.

We got Internet but not phone...so we organised a telstra technician to come out the next day as they thought it could be a fault as the light for phone wasn't lighting up. When we were trying to problem solve the fault, we plugged our phone into the phone socket directly with Telstra's home gateway and we had a phone dial tone. So Telstra deducted it wasn't a fault with their equipment but with our house wiring.

Now again, I will get on my bandwagon and shout...NBNco distributed a new information booklet in January 2013. I contacted HSI about this when I discovered that they prefer all equipment in the one spot. Ie. the house in an area out of the traffic zone, or like what HSI consult in the garage....but no! HSI have been told that NBNco want the equipment how they install it... NBNco equipment in the garage and everything else in the home. They want to know why I'm the only one of their clients who want it a different  setup. Can I add that masterton and jandson and Macquarie grove homes all in my street had it set up, the preferred NBNco way... My house is the only odd house... I called the after handover electricans to reconnect my wiring so that the data points and phone line in my home work. They werent talking to the telstra installed hime gateaway in my garage. They spent an hour and a half, reconnecting and checking connections in the house and the only way i can use my data and phone in my home is to move the home gateway unit into the study.  So in my study I have my home gateway from Telstra, with my phone connected to it, and four cables coming from this into the wall. It uses the only PowerPoint I have in that room. One that I dedicated for the use of my computer and printer... So it looks like along with these atrocious sight of wires coming out and into a box, I will have to have a Power board to go with this to use my computer. It wasn't my plan, and on the turnaround. The double power point in my garage that was included in the NBN upgrade for their equipment is left empty as there is no equipment there to plug in!  Can you tell I am not happy! I have sent off a strongly worded email to HSI and EB, as I raised some of these issues whilst in construction. What I can't fathom is M from HSI indicated having the NBN equipment would be untidy and unsightly in the home! Does the equipment I have in my study look better than the beige nicely compacted equipment I have in the upgraded comm box! Secondly, why do they say you are the only client who wants it a different way... I feel like they feel I am trying to cause them an inconvenience. As I said before my neighhbours all have it done the other way... It's just EB home builders who have it different! I will update my blog with a photo of the equipment in the house. Truly, I have been so annoyed about this since last Thursday when it was discovered that I needed the electricians back again cause Telstra's equipment wasn't talking to the upgrades we had made!

The untidy equipment in  my study using the only PowerPoint. All my neighbours have this in the included comm box in the garage!

Bathroom pics

We picked the same colours for bathroom and ensuite. Platinum micro for the benches and smoky sapelle for the cupboards. I love the standard inclusions with Eden brae.

Heater lights come standard as well as caroma basins, baths and toilets.

We upgrade our bath to the next length up... You can stretch out and soak... Best thing is we have two of them, one in the main bath and one in the ensuite. 

We also added the fluro bar light above the mirror to assist with shaving and applying make up.

We upgraded to floor to ceiling tiles in the shower. Niches are standard with Eden brae, and so is the hand held shower rail. We increased the height of the niche but not enough. I really wanted to put my pump size bottle of Pantene shampoo and conditioner in the 

Nearmap updated

Picture from last week

An older aerial pic of my estate! Look at the progress!

NBN working!

Woohoo! One week in our house and Telstra have connected  us to the NBN. It took 4 hours for it to come online... I checked it before dinner and we didn't have a signal. Picked up my iPad and saw a wifi network that was named something similar to the Telstra code we were given, and guess what?  It was ours!

Only thing is I can't get a telephone signal yet! They are booked to come out tomorrow morning. Hope it gets sorted then, my mobile phone usage is over $400 for two weeks. Mostly it is from ringing 13 numbers trying to organise Telstra. Lol.

Handover from Eden Brae

I have been so busy, I forgot to share with you our handover day.

We went through the house at 9am with our SS Paul, checking to see if all PCI items had been completed and any other niggling problems... All was good. Griffin air were in before our SS got there and since it was a brisk morning, we turned the air con onto heat. It warmed up the  place in under5 minutes and was super quiet I didn't even know it was on.

The appliances were due to get delivered in the morning and so went on our merry way up to Bella Vista to hand over our final cheque. When we got there our lovely CSA Katherine had us read and sign some documents. She explained the warranty process and our handover folder. Yes you get a folder full of information on everything!

We were given key rings and a big white box with a black ribbon bow.

We wandered to our little hideaway cafe that we visited each time we went up to the head office or HOG and enjoyed lunch before trying our new keys in the door. 

We received the final occupation certificate the day before in the mail from the Local group. So we decided to drive straight to the council and organize our bins. They arrived the next morning.

We didn't need to open our door with the key as when we pulled up, the house was busy with  electricians installing our antennae, plumbers connecting the hot water and dishwasher. More electricians doing the alarm adjustments,and fixing up our light fittings that we had them install. As the appliances didn't get there until lunchtime. The electricians were there until about 7pm, and they needed to come back the next day again as they didn't bring dimmable downlights as  per contract.

9am the next morning the electricians were in and out. I had my dad line my drawers and cupboards with the Ikea drawer liners. I initially bought 14, but needed back up support to go get 10 more rolls the next day. It took my dad about three days to measure and line the ensuite, kitchen, pantry and bathroom shelving. Gee it looks good and will keep everything looking like new.

So what's inside the box....

Two cotton bath sheets, a hand towel, washer and bath mat.