The house is finished!

Yesterday I got a house. 

My very own, brand new, house.

It's a bit dirty though.  Apparently builders don't know how to clean houses.  Will was complaining, as we went around the house making sure everything was done right, that he had never had to do so many touch ups in his life.  Pity I'm a perfectionist then!

I did my first pre-handover inspection a week ago, on the 1st, and they were only just beginning to do the touchups and there were blue stickers everywhere marking what needed to be fixed (mainly paintwork), so Will had agreed to do a second one.  My handover wasn't scheduled until Tuesday 13th.

I turned up for the second pre-handover inspection.  Will was holding a big white box with a ribbon around it, and after we walked inside he said "this is for you" and "congratulations" and handed me the keys.  I was shell-shocked.

It took us about three hours to go around the house making sure everything was OK.  I had vaguely wanted to pay for an actual handover inspection to be done by a professional, but had only got around to arranging it yesterday - for the 13th - so it turned out being too late, so I was just extra picky myself.  The builder did have to get an external building inspection done for certification, so that will have to do.  I now have six months to find defects - such as cracking in the corners from drying - and then at the six month mark they will fix it all.

We did write a few things down that Will didn't have time to fix.  He did lots of paint touch ups - such as the front left pillar where the driveway people had scraped it - and around power sockets and such like.  He put silicone under the mirrors in the bathrooms, knocked a little dent out of the sliding door track, and cleaned filler off lots of places.  He couldn't fix the warped laundry cupboard shelf, which the manufacturer has been contacted about, or re-tile the WC sink in time (that contractor comes today). 

I didn't even take any photos.  I think I literally just stood there, unsure of who to tell first, and wanting to dance on the spot.

It was 1400 by the time I left the house, and I hurried back to Zillmere, my mind in a whirl of what to do next.  Having messaged various friends, K&T were keen to go Christmas shopping with me and we headed to North Lakes to find me a Christmas tree (hurrah for Kmart).

We then went back to the new house and while K had to hurry to attend a party, T slept on the floor in the media room and Hayden and I dusted, vacuumed and mopped.  When K got back shortly after, we all put the Christmas tree up together.   For some reason, K thought it would be a good idea to put up an inflatable pool - she says it's for the Christmas party on the 23rd - so we put that in the spare bedroom and sat in it to eat mince pies and chocolate after all of our hard work.  It was such a fun evening.

And now, it's morning (after a very restless night of SO many random dreams about the house going wrong) and I should motivate myself to take another carload up to the house and start organising it!