Week 14, tiling complete

There have been no opportunities for me to take any photos in the daylight. All I have managed to do is look through the windows with the torch.

The tiling has been completed and looks great! Can't wait to see it all in full daylight and the paint job too.

They are now moving on to what I would call the finishing touches. The Electricians come back next week to fit the powerpoints, light fittings, light switches and anything else electrical. Other things to happen next week or the week after are shower screens, final plumbing, paint touch-ups, garage door, glass splashback and probably more things that I don't know about.

We have a hand-over date early in July which would put the total construction time at 17 weeks. Amber gave me some good advice recently "start packing!", which we have started doing with great gusto. So far about 40 boxes and some furniture have gone into storage. I put our current home on the market before we were really ready. This has put the pressure on us to have it clean and presented well before our first open house this Saturday.

I will be in the house later next week and will take some photos of the kitchen, bathrooms and paintwork.

I am looking at getting concrete driveway quotes at the moment for exposed aggregate and researching flooring. The driveway has to be done within three months of moving in, but the sooner the better so we can actually use the garage. I still can't tell if the driveway angle is going to be a bit of a **** (swore there and then edited) or not and might get the concreters opinions.

The fences also have to be done within a certain timeframe after moving in, but I will have to look at the land contract as I can't remember. For the flooring, we were thinking of ceramic tiles but decided against this because of the chance of cracking. We will put in a floating floor and if the slab gets some fine cracks underneath it won't matter. Plus, the flooring looks better in our opinion. I wanted to save some money and thought tiles would be cheaper, but I found a bloke on eBay who has his own business importing this flooring. He also has a display at the Pipeworks Market and I went there to check it out. His flooring is the same as that I have been quoted $77 - $105 sqm, if you are interested click this link http://stores.ebay.com.au/kvl102420113_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZQ2d33QQftidZ2QQtZkm

We are very excited about how the new house is going, but right now the selling process of our current home is the focus. I was seriously considering doing the selling myself and pocketing any commission payable, but this post changed my mind http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=1848 as I realised I would be way too stubborn and not negotiate. I will let the Real Estate Agents do the negotiating for us.

See you in about a week with some pics! :-)