Picture this

Hi everyone. One of the things about a home blog, is that once you've moved into the house, the number of blog entries slows down. One reason is that you are reluctant to publish lots of photos of the inside of the house as it's become very personal once you have moved in.

This entry is a little unusual then, as we are showing some picture of our home theatre, because we are finally finished with the furniture and setup. Do we use this room? You bet!

Posters were a birthday present for Bernadette

Closer View

Ok, the screen still needs to be tightened a little to remove the wrinkles

A reminder of the layout. The first photo looks as though the furniture is on one side of the room. Check the "Rumpus" in the plan above and you can see where the screen is positioned.

We chose a number of the components for various reasons - we were after a clean look to the room (no big floor standing speakers), and we wanted the electronics to be hidden away.

The speakers produce an amazing sound experience for their size,
So, for those who may be interested:

Projector: Epson TW3000, from a department store (discounted)
Screen: 94" from Selby Acoustics
AV Receiver: Yamaha RX-V661 from a department store (discounted - lots!)
Blu-ray player: Samsung BD-P1500 (bought new in box from a friend who already had one, and got a free one with a TV deal)
HDMI and Speaker Cabling: Academy TV, Newcomb (Geelong)
Speakers: Difinitive Technology ProCinema 60 (from the same place as the Yamaha, and discounted)
Home Theatre recliners: Furniture Galore (yep, and so far we are very happy with the quality)
Posters: A couple bought online, but most from Minotaur in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne
Cabinets: Modular cabinets from Ikea. There are drawers behind 2 of the doors to store discs.

Questions? Just ask us!

Spouting forth

Well, I guess you could say we had a small win. After 15 months of arguing with PD about our taps and spouts, they gave in and last Friday the plumber turned up with the new spouts.

To be honest, were expecting to see the wrong ones, but here they are - needless to say the most popular change is the swivel spout in the Laundry.

Laundry spout before

Laundry spout after

Ensuite spouts before

Ensuite spouts after

Build Gates

As promised, things have been busy around the place with the warmer weather, and here's an update.

Things have progressed on the back deck, but you don't get to see photos until the water feature is finished. Could be a while :-)

On the other hand, one of the things which we've been wanting to do from the start is to build some gates, and also secure the alleyway between the fence and garage. Both things have now been done.

Here's an updated photo of the place. Driveway on the right still needs to be sorted.

One of the gates after welding and painting

And after the colourbond cladding has been fixed

All the gates have been hung - 3 of them in total.
The left hand gate hides the meters, can can be easily opened.
Yup, we need some fence extensions now.

This is the stuff used to paint the steel gate frames and posts.
Looks terrific, but takes a while to dry.

From the back. You may recall from early pictures that the post on the left was put in about 12 months ago - before the fence went up.

Here's the catch for the meter gate, before paint and with the protective plastic still on the capping.

One of the challenges was to fix the tops to the gates to each other to help stop them moving in the wind. We used a long bolt, and made some brackets up. You can see half of the bolt here. The other half is under the capping on the other gate.

In this shot you can see the new side fence complete.

A big thanks to Dad for his hard work with the welder and angle grinder. Without his effort, the job would have taken a lot longer, and I'm sure would not have looked half as good.

Build Gates

As promised, things have been busy around the place, and here's an update.

Things have progressed on the back deck, but you don't get to see photos until the water feature is finished. Could be a while :-)

On the other hand, one of the things which we've been wanting to do from the start is to build some gates, and also secure the alleyway between the fence and garage. Both things have now been done.

Let there be (deck) light!

Finally got the deck lights working in the front deck. These were needed as the steps can be hard to see at night. The kit consists of a solar pane and four light, and the light come on automagically when it gets dark. Cool!


Mental note to self - next time you build a deck, leave some way to get access underneath, so you can run some wires through later!

Decked out

Well, the weather has been getting better and it's time to get stuck in to some of the outdoor activities again.

One of the things on the list was to put something on the front deck to make it look nicer. On the can, it says that the deck should weather for about 4-6 weeks to ensure that all the tannins have leached out of the timber. Being safe, we left it for ... ummm... 12 months :-)

After hitting it with the high pressure wash, and treatment solution.

And again. Looks quite good, but dries to look....

... like this.

Top level after 3 coats of Intergrain

This angle shows the before and after shot.

Job done.

Looks heaps better, even from further away.

Deck lights have gone in. Unfortunately, there's a small problem with them. They don't work. We need to get them sorted, as the step is hard to see at night.

Thanks to Mum for the "sticky uppy" plants :-)

Lots of things happening at the moment. Another update in a few days.

Maintenance Report - 12 months

In the last entry, we talked about how the next 12 months maintenance was coming up, and had a bit of a whinge about some of the things which have been outstanding.

As of today, the following items we mentioned in the last entry have been fixed:

• we have a new al fresco fan, which now works
• ceiling in the main family room has been redone
• some paint defects and plaster patching have been sorted
• the gap next to the upstairs window has been fixed

We received a call from the insulation people who will come out an fix the insulation in the home theatre room. That was a couple of weeks ago, and we are yet to hear back. It seems that the insulation people are less than impressed with the electricians for removing the insulation during fit-off, so I suspect there's some friendly discussion going on about who will pay. In the meantime, we have no insulation in one room - and it's been like that for over 12 months.

We are still waiting to see a plumber and painter. The plumber needs to sort out a problem with a spreader, and also fit some new tapware (finally agreed to at the last inspection). The painter needs to redo the stairs as we haven't been happy with them from day 1, and it's been on the maintenance list since the 3 monthly inspection.

It seems that it's hard to get some of the trades people back to do rectification at maintenance - so our advice to new home builders is to get as much as you can sorted out before you make that final payment.

On the positive note, our experience with the "maintenance men" - the sub contractors who come out to do the non-specialised maintenance work - is very positive. We have had a different person at 3 months and 12 months, and both of these guys are excellent. Workmanship is faultless, and the care taken to cover and clean up is first rate.

Here's something of interest (to us anyway). It seems that the satellite pictures from Google Maps have been updated for our area in the last 6 months. The picture shows our garden and driveway complete, and the fence is up.


Sorry, no news on the water feature or other works as everything was put on hold over winter. Weather is improving, so we will be back out there finishing the deck, water feature and garden very soon, so there should be more frequent updates.

We have some plans for a built in BBQ and pergola - after all, ideas cost nothing!