Another cold wet Melbourne winter weekend, and we traveled up the Monash Highway to visit our new house (and check on what progress has been made during the week) only 1 way into the house still.

The easy thing to spot, the correct front door has been put in place (not too) close examination

shows the door is damaged and will need to be replaced (first problem we noticed today). The skirting boards (or walls) are not straight, this will need to be fixed (sooner rather than later I guess).

At least the guys doing the kitchen appear to be communicating with the other tradies leaving little notes about what they need to do to install the splashback. Still need to check on the position of the outside vent (height). We don't want the vent to be under the covered area so the smell of cooking gets trapped in the outside space. Lets hope they can drill the glass without breaking the splashback !

Hard to see in this photo, but somehow they have managed to break one of the double glazing units in the back bed room (another repair they need to make, sooner rather than later). But it wasn't broken on Tuesday when we where there with the site supervisor.

The wet areas are starting to be sealed, this blue colour has been painted around all the shower areas (and in the master bedroom) the bathtub (which is still a mess) hopefully not another problem they will need to fix if its all scratched up, they will have to take it out and replace it.

Not sure if the pump has been installed under the bath, lets hope so.

Corner unit window put in, does this look double glazed to you ? No it didn't look double glazed to us either. One more thing they are going to have to replace, ALL of our windows are to be double glazed, it is possible to have a corner unit which is double glazed (even in Australia). By the look of it they will have to get the scaffold out again.

This was the F-up that we noticed on Tuesday with the site supervisor they have painted the wooden stairs ? The banisters the treads (as though carpet would go up the middle) and the posts. Even if all of our documents show it should be stained :-? The only part of the stairs that should be painted according to the documents is the part that they have left as wood !!!! New staircase please.

Here you can see the true majesty of the painted staircase, that will cause some dameage when its taken out and the new staircase put in. But we wont be accepting (or paying for) a painted staircase, as it wont be possible to remove the paint.

This is sealed to the environment ? There needs to be some kind of seal in these gaps around the garage, how many mistakes are we upto now ? What ever the number, they need to be fixed/repaired before the final payment will be made.

Our tree outside the house looks dead, this could be due to the run off from the plaster board that has been around the tree almost since its been planted. A new tree from Porter Davis too (the soil will need to be removed and replaced too, as nothing will grow in it).

E-mail to the site supervisor later tonight, to let him know that at 2pm 3 'guys turned up at the house to do the plastering' when I asked them what they wanted, they spoke very little English and said they had to leave.... Real or looking to steal from the house ? Only time will tell.

But at least the supervisor should know if Tradie's should have been on site today or not.

We missed the chance to get down to the house on the weekend (I was working Saturday and Sunday we spent with friends. We had a meeting arranged with our site supervisor Lenny.

The garage now has a roof, and the door into the house has been painted, no back door has been installed as yet, and obviously the garage roller door is not on-site yet. Its a rainy day and the roof appears to be nicely sealed with no rain coming in through the sides.

We appear to be getting a porch over the front entrance, which will be covered in colour bond steel. everything is looking great so far (we should have known better). Lenny was still talking with the painter at this time.

Walls, skirting boards and door surrounds are now all painted. The ceiling appears to have been painted and many of the walls (although not yet finished off) as the painting is only i the middle of the walls (not yet to the ceiling or floor).

Rainy Pakenham day, the garage roof needs a bit more rain to clean all the crap off it (before it all get washed into the storm drain and that gets blocked with soil/silt.

The master bedroom has almost all been painted. We convinced the builders not to put the skirting on properly. This will make it easier for the guy laying the floor to remove the skirting

lay the floor and put the skirting back on with minimal fuss.

The bath in the master bedroom , again I hope they clean the bath and don't just wash the soil down into the pipes, thats going to cause us grief in the long run. Still no window in the bathroom, even if they are painting the walls! Kind of weird that they get all the plastering and painting done before the building is really sealed from the outside world.

Our main problem is .............

They have decided (on there own) to paint the wooden staircase the same colour as the walls. looking through all the documentation we can not find any notification that the solid wood staircase would be painted.

This may cause some delay as they will have to put a new staircase in (if they mess up, they have to fix it). If this causes them grief and they wont do it, then we will dig our feet in over the overhanging bricks (the only fix for this is pour extra slab that has to be tied into the existing slab).

Mails sent to the correct people, lets wait until tomorrow and see the replies......

Watch this space

Its getting harder and harder to get into the house so we can check on the status of the work.

Today when we arrive the front door was locked, both garage and laundry doors locked and all the doors at the back of the house have been installed. Lucky for us the double doors at the back where only closed using a piece of wood jammed in the handle hole, pull the wood out and 'hey presto' we where in. What will happen when this has a lock on too is anyones guess.

What we are wondering is, why it will take another couple of months to complete the house.

We only need tiles and paint and its all done, so fingers crossed we are ahead of the target date.

The kitchen island and pan draws are fitted with the contrasting aubergine against the green doors. The dishwasher and oven will be fitted just before hand over that way no-one can steal them from the house.

The cabinets are in place in the laundry, although the wall mounted cabinets are a little on the high side (I can reach, but not the top shelf, so you can imagine for Giorgia). The steel sink is not yet in place. The next image down is a view of the butlers pantry, all the cupboards are in with the shelves sink and hob still missing.

The staircase is in place, this makes the entrance much lighter now the ladder has been removed. Its great that the staircase is made in real wood (although the treads have got protection on them). Now we will need to get a stain that matches the wooden floor when its put down up-stairs. Now the stair case has been built we can see exactly how much space is 'wasted'. We will get someone in to put a door in so we can at least use it as storage space (pity we can not get the guys doing the building to put it in for us). We could phone and ask !

From the top of the stairs looking towards the rumpus room. We got the plain rods we wanted for the stair rails (other options included too much pattern for our taste).

The laundry chute has now been installed, so we can throw our everything that need to be washed straight down to the laundry room downstairs. Its in an 'odd' position as we expected it to be against the other wall. The doors have now all been hung (still awaiting the handles). We went for a nice simple doors on all the rooms.

The outside of the house is now almost complete with the structure in-place for the garage roof. On the plans/contract is says the garage roof will be tiled, but I suspect it will be in colour bond (we will wait and see). One more week and hopefully the garage is complete.

The cabinetry is now in-place in the bathrooms, master bathroom with 'his' and 'hers' sinks and the rest of the bathrooms a single sink. Taps and wastes, toilets and showers still to be put into place. The bathroom floors still need to be made waterproof before we can lay the ties.

A quick trip to the house today to move another 600 bricks to the back of the house.

Imagine our surprise to see the site has been 'cleaned' up a little. The builders have moved the bricks, but not to the back of the house :-(

So more carrying this time with gloves. The last of the external work (the roof structure for the garage can be seen on the garage floor. Giorgia is just mopping her forehead after moving all the bricks.

The side of the house is where we will be putting our vegetable garden (once everything else is done) even in the depths of Winter it still gets sunlight, so we should be able to grow veggies all year round. The second image is the back of the back garden looking towards the house , no more piles of broken bricks, but I think we will have to do something about the drainage on the clay soil.

Here we can see Giorgia climbing up the ladder to the second floor, and a view through the dining room into the back garden. Cornicing has now been put on both floors, skirting boards have now been delivered (although we had thought the tiles would be laid before the skirting boards where put in-place). The staircase should be put in this week (no more need to climb the ladder).

From the dining room into the kitchen area. (the hose reaching to the floor, is for the range

hood in the kitchen) at least the smell of cooking will be drawn out of the house. The door to the left is into the media room and to the right the mud room and laundry.

Upstairs in the master bedroom, with the walk in robes and bathroom through the door to the right. The balcony through the french doors still needs to have the railings and tiles laid.

The back garden (now tidied) from the balcony in the master bedroom. Here you can clearly see 5 piles of bricks (400 bricks per pile) with a smaller 280 brick pile. On the right of the picture you can see why we will have to do something about drainage in the garden.

Through to the master bedroom bathroom, not much of an upgrade from last week, no bath in place yet. The bathroom is still missing a window (before we move in hopefully) :-)

The view from the rumpus room to the stairwell. linen cupboard on the right, master bedroom straight ahead, with sunlight streaming through Giulio's bedroom door (the guest bedroom is to the right of the master bedroom). Amelia's room at the front of the house.