New House & New Career

In other news, I have taken a leap of faith and have 'stepped out' of Education and have decided to try my hand at Mortgage Broking. Over the last month, I have completed a Diploma of Finance & Mortgage Broking and gained accreditation with all of Aussie's lenders and as of tomorrow, I can start my new career!

For those who know me, this is something that I have always had a passion for and where possible, I have assisted friends, family and colleagues through the home buying process. Having purchased numerous properties myself, I feel I have a deep understanding of the ways to help those also trying to enter the property market - either for the first time or fiftieth!

In recent weeks, I have seen my the total visits of my blog exceed 16000 - this is amazing and certainly makes me happy to think people are visiting and hopefully getting some benefit from the information I have been posting.

I have set up a Facebook page for client updates. I also have a Twitter account and a LinkedIn profile. If you know of anyone who needs home loan help, please contact me through anyone of these channels!

Handover is in sight - But still so much to do!

TUESDAY 14 JULY - It's booked in and it's happening (I hope).

As the title to this blog suggests, I have a fairly lengthy list of jobs not finished yet, not to mention my own jobs like getting the driveway cut, retained and sealed (just waiting on council approval to get rid of a tree in the middle of the proposed driveway).

At our Practical Completion Inspection, the house was still full of rubbish and dust, many of the defects that had been raised throughout the project had not been touched from the major (such as the dishwasher not being installed and the front door still not being completely sealed - you can still see the blue house wrap above the front door) through to the minor such as paint touch ups, screw holes in plaster board, handles on some cupboards and pendant lights not quite level.

On Thursday last week my patience ran out when I was informed that the brick in-fills over the back stacker door were not being done even though they had knocked out all of the bricks to lower the steel only to put bricks back at the same level. Further to my frustration, the deck (done separately by an awesome builder) had been thoroughly stained by careless workers. In contacting Metricon I was told that the Construction Manager would come and see me the next day. After meeting with him, I have at least some comfort in knowing that (hopefully) things are going to be done by Handover. Fingers crossed!

To qualify my rant above - we are very happy with the work done by Metricon as a whole - the house is amazing, it is everything that we had planned and then some! It has just been frustrating (as I am sure it is for most people building a house) watching next to nothing happening only to see one job get done and then the next tradesperson come in and wreck someone else's work with their carelessness. But again, all of that will seem trivial once we move in as (I'm sure) all will be forgotten!

Here are some of the latest photos, most of the deck.



Our Ensuite now with Mirror!

 The start of the deck.

Start of deck.

Looking good!

This will be a great place to be in Summer.

From the other side!

 Bringing the outside in!

 View from inside 

 Inside panorama.

 Outside panorama

 Deck with hand rails (minus balustrade)

 This bit over to the side was a last second add on - I'm so glad we included it!

 Our amazing deck!

 What a view off the back!