Time Flies - Where do I start?????

Hi All, well it has now been 5 weeks since handover and I don't really know where to start with some updates.....Okay, perhaps Settlement/Handover.

It was all fairly non-eventful on the day.  Some little things being attended to and some things to be fixed in the few days following.  Still waiting for some things to be attended and making my list ready for 3 month inspection - nothing too major though.
Took about half an hour going round with SS checking everything.  Then headed to Narre Warren office for handover to get all the keys.  Also opportunity to discuss any feedback with Customer Service Manager, complete a survey and received a little gift with the keys....

Stove Installed - LOVE IT (just takes a while to warm up to temperature...)
PS - still totally in love with my splashback.  Soooo many positive comments from friends

Dishwasher - Super quiet (Eco cycle is over 2hrs though!)

Present from PD on Handover

We moved house over that first weekend as we had one week cross over with our rental, so it all worked out pretty well on that front.

Here are some tips on things to prepare for in preparation for Handover Day and the first few weeks to make them smooth:

Telephone/Internet
Work out which provider you will go with.  It is the owners responsibility to arrange the connection of your phone line from the street to your house (I wasn't quite aware of that).  You don't have to select Telstra to do that, you can go with other providers and they will arrange the connection for you through their company (cost is max $299 for this connection, maybe cheaper).  This connection can take 5-10 business days.  You then need to wait for this connection before you can then check the line and set up an internet connection - another 5-10 business days.  So try to arrange for the Line Connection to your house as close to Handover day as possible.

TV Antenna
Reminder that this is something you need to arrange.  I did lots of research as it seemed on doing reviews that there are some dodgy people out there.  Rough cost should be around $260 for installing digital antenna - we have 3 points, some people seem to be ripped off with $1700.  Once I made the phonecall, it was 3 days later we had the connection.  Remember this can be weather dependent, if you have colourbond roof and threat of rain, you installation will be delayed.

Utilities
Check all your providers.  I started to check, but ran out of time, so I just signed over to Energy Australia straight from PD, but am not locked in to any contract so I will now start to look into what is best for us.  

Other bits and pieces have happened, will post separately.

1 more sleep - Handover Day!

Well tomorrow marks 172 days, or 24.5 weeks since "Site Start".  Tomorrow is handover day.  All very surreal I have to say.  We started this journey with a contract end date of late Feb 2014.  My DH desperate to be in by Christmas.  I kept saying, if we can get the house by January, be happy with that, if by Christmas, we can celebrate later.  I didn't want him getting disappointed!  So who would believe that here we are with tomorrow being 11 October and the build is over 4 months early!  Now to be fair, we are building in Zone 4, so PD add on an extra 8 weeks for this to the build time and this therefore put our dates over Christmas, so they add on another 4 weeks for Christmas closures.  A normal build in Zone 1, 2 or 3 for a double storey home is 30 weeks, so if we look at that - 5 weeks early.  Still pretty good and exciting!

PCI was last Thursday and took us about 2.5 hours.  I had our Independent Inspection done a couple of days prior.  The SS started off going through all of the items on the inspection report and then we walked through the whole house.  There were some things on the report that the SS didn't agree with and some things that didn't worry us, so we agreed on what not to worry about and what needed to be attended to.

There are just a couple of things that may carry over.  With the wet weather they need to fix an area of render, but need to wait for it to be dry.  Carpet to be re-tightened in one area where some work was done underneath.

So the Port-a-loo and fencing disappeared today and the cleaners were there late in the day cleaning the outside of the windows.  Why are there stickers on the outsides of all the windows!!!

Bank cheque ready to go, meeting with SS in the morning then heading into office to meet with BC late morning.  Keys should be ours by Midday!

Bring on the Champagne!!!!!  Perhaps some fish and chips for dinner with the kids in an empty house. 

Now comes moving........