First home build with MainVue - Amalfi 532

The speeds have been good...last time i checked on our 100/40 connection we were getting 65/25mbps speeds. No more buffering on youtube, Yay!

beats my current 10mbps on adsl2 lol.....awesome .....are u a usenet user?

lol, that's pretty good too as compared to ADSL2+
I've been a loyal Exetel customer for over 5 yrs now, their download limits don't count uploads
check them out...http://www.exetel.com.au/residential-fibre-overview.php

Getting back to the house after a brief hiatus

On the 8th of October, our SS, his boss and us met at the house for a final tour of the house and iron out the last outstanding issues. in meantime the floorboard is going hammer and tongs to complete the job. We were meant to settle that day but instead settled on 9th October at the Henley office, as the bank had transferred the monies to another account!, in a way this helped us meet all the people who assisted us in building process at various stages.

10th October the floorboards was still going on with at-least 25% still remaining. by the time he finished it was the 11th, Our SS was was due to check-in on how we have settled. The 2 days of cutting and grinding the floorboards the house was full of dust and wood clippings. looking at state in which the house was our SS immediately rung up the cleaners to come and re clean the entire house. (he's been a top man throughout the building process). They came in and completely turned the house sparkling clean in 4 hours, without them we would have been at it for at-least a week. Thank you Joe for arranging that.

Im not sure if wrote about the trade person (Wayne Daniels - aka Blitz Outdoor Solutions - STAY AWAY) who was meant to do our fencing and concreting and landscaping before we moved in had siphoned off with half the deposit of $10k never to show up again (we are still chasing this at VCAT now). This meant we were without a fence and a driveway for weeks before we could arrange new trades (& money) to complete these tasks. What a nightmare those few weeks were. Not to mention the Misus was close to 9 months by then.

Finally our concreter - Nathan Porter Concreting who had jobs lined up for the next few weeks mentioned he had a slot opened up they got cracking with the driveway. We got the front the driveway and the front apron in exposed agg (F19 mix from NPC's website.) and plain concrete for the side of the house. They were perhaps the best tradespeople we've ever come across. I'd highly recommend them. check them out here



Closeup of the driveway exposed agg colour.




Finally here are some pics of the house, we're only putting up a few and the last of them. If you'd like to see some more, please contact us privately and we'll see what we can do.


















If you'll are still reading...let me know if you like to see about our landscaping updates here!

That all looks great! Congrats I'd still love to see updates!

Thanks MrsT, all and all its been a great experience building a house from scratch. looking forward to reading about your progress now.

Just caught up on the thread as I haven't had a chance to for a while. Looks great. Would definitely like to see landscaping progress!

Hey CW, good to see that you were able to get the driveway done at least. Would love to see the landscaping pics as they happen. Are congratulations in order for you and Mrs CW? It must have been a very trying time for you both.

Thanks Metroid, love the look of the facade of your house and the kitchen area.
Thanks Backpocket we've been flat-out with tiny CW taking up all our time! The post handover exterior work really pushed us to the edge, but i'm glad we managed to cope somehow then.

The front landscaping is being completed as i speak, so there i'll post an update soon.

I will need a concretor later, will try them. Thanks for the info

Trambay, from memory they primarily service the western suburbs, so if u are buying I the area they are definitely worth considering.

Hi wacky, looking super!

May i ask where you get the decor hanging on the hallway wall? Love them!

Also, could you give me some insight regarding flooring. As i understand, you put the skirting after the floorboard was installed, no? If so, did the carpet go under the skirting as well? Because i notice where your carpet and floorboard join, the skirting is flush (has no height difference) which looks really really good!
Thanks!

cheers mtz...ive been following your thread closely and am looking forward to seeing th final pics of your house.

Our flooring dint require quading, instead we got them to caulk the sides of the floorboards to water proof them where the floorboards meet the skirting, even though it wast required. Where the flooboards meet the carpet our installer had a 'Y' shaped aluminum strip, where the floorboards were inserted in the 'U' portion of the groove and the 'tail portion of the Y' was hammered down on the carpet to make it flush with the floorboards. I hope my explanation makes sense?

Its an original WW2 aeroplane rotor sourced from an antique shop in Malvern.

thanks wacky

i can picture how they installed your floorboards.

we have settled the house, we are now in the process of installing the flooring. so much stuffs to do, i am overwhelmed. haha.
i'll post up some pictures when i got the time.

oh wow, that is an antique item! i'll check out an antique shop...

Wow looks fantastic! I just read through your thread start to finish. Definitely would love to see the landscaping updates too.

mtz08 its amazing the amount of work required after handover. The one thing i'd advise all of them who are building is to get the blinds order in, the moment the plaster goes on. Those lazy blinds companies take at least 4 weeks to install. ditto for fencing too.

Thank you KGsGirl....glad to learn that you'll have started building this early in your life...it will really set you'll up very well for later...congrats on the loan approval too! ..... our landscaping is progress as we speak, will post updates soon.

it takes me at least 12 months to decide on blinds though! I just have no idea.

Oh blinds... I have no idea what to do about those things!

Unless you know exactly what u want it sure is overwhelming. First the type, then style, then colour by the end of it I couldn't care whether Co. 1's Venetian blinds were 2mm thicker than the Co.2

Hi guys

Wife and I are going through our quote for the Amalfi 532 and were wondering if it's worth getting refrigerated cooling through Mainvue? Would it be cheaper to get those split systems (master, living room, a bedroom) after hand over? Would I need one in the home theater room too?

What are your thoughts?

Does anyone have evaporative cooling? How is it on a day like this (or week in Melbourne 40+ degrees)?