Our build with Express Two Storey (Ventura) in South West WA

We werent really too bothered about that and after 10k of upgrades in prestart I dont think we could afford it anyway haha

Aircon installed


Mirrors and showerscreens in (big 2.9m mirror must have been a pain to get up the stairs!)



Downstairs



Painting for the rest of the week and paving soon too!

Painting almost complete and paving done all in 1 day!

Paint colours Taubmans Silver Spoon and Cotton Sheet:


Really happy with how its come out, there was a bit of concern that silver spoon would be too dark inside but its perfect. Nice and warm.



So happy the pavers looked good too. When looking back at our selections and googling them some of the pictures that came up were terrible. This paver is Brikmakers Platinum and online it looks pink!


One thing we're not happy with is the downpipe on the front of the house. It was meant to be colourmatched to the bricks but its a lot darker. The other ones around the house dont bother us too much but this one on the front looks horrible.


Luckily the cladding panel has chips so it will be replaced; hopefully we can get them to paint the downpipe the same colour as the cladding while they're at it.

Garage door on today!



Still waiting for it to be cleaned up and ready for the flooring, getting there slowly, should be happening Monday

Flooring going in:

Vinyl plank is finished, carpets should have been started today but weren't




We've been told we are about 3-4 weeks away from getting the keys

Ensuite slider:



Front door:



Still waiting for the carpet to start ⏳

Love that barn style sliding door, and your vinyl planks look great, do you know if they are 5mm thickness and glue down or looselay?

Thanks! The barn track came from Richmond, its the "european" style one as opposed to the usual type with the long hangers.

Im not too sure on the planks, Im pretty sure they are glue down because I saw big tubs and trowels in there when they were installing. I dont think they are very thick, I remember when we saw the samples they were quite flexible which, if it were a 5mm would be a bit more rigid I'd imagine. Apparently they have a light commercial warranty so we'll see how they go 🙂

Blinds on, hopefully carpets are tomorrow

Laundry slider


Carpets going in


Nice to see the kitchen all finished up

Had PCI on Thursday, we got an independent inspector to go through the day before and he picked up around 45 defects, mostly cosmetic.

One weird thing to note about Ventura and all its offshoots is that they dont put exhaust fans in as standard. We were told at prestart that there would be a "vent" in the downstairs bathroom (upstairs we put a heat lamp exhaust combo) but nothing was put in. The inspector we had said he'd never seen a new house without a fan in a wet area and that just opening the window would not be sufficient ventilation. For the fancy things they offer as standard like soft close cabinets and stone benchtops it seems really weird that they wouldnt include something as basic as exhaust fans because its "not required technically".

The super said to us thats how they do things but when I told him there was nothing there he noted that there was no vent and they're going to put one in. We are going to get an exhaust fan installed after handover anyway because we can see it being a nightmare.

Overall pretty good, nothing major to fix and we should be in in about 2 weeks 😊

Ok so we have been in for a week! Its been crazy busy getting everything organised and set up, we dont have all the areas finished yet but here are some pics:

Living and dining area:


Downstairs bathroom:


Guest room:


Our boys getting used to the kitchen:


Landscaping for the front will be planned out next week, solar panels and robe fitout to come too 😊

Hey Aveley,

We have been in for a week, there is definately a difference in temperature from top to bottom. I would say it was quite noticeable on the weekend when we got to about 30 degrees. It didnt help that the aircon doesnt seem to be configured correctly and was blasting freezing cold air into the kitchen and barely a whisper of cool air into the master!

It wasnt as hot as outside temps but certainly warmer than downstairs obviously. We are getting solar panels so we dont have to worry about running the aircon up there too much in the summer as it will probably be quite warm for two or three months of the year.

They also have installed safetys on the window at the front which doesnt allow for a lot of air flow... we have 5 windows up the top and only two open... and one of those that does is small and high. The big one at the front I thought would open all the way but it only goes about 3 inches max which is annoying. We get a lovely evening breeze that could be put to use if that window would open more 🙄

Most of the fencing and landscaping done:



Shed in progress too: