So close, but so far away!

Well, no handover on Friday (we never expected it anyway), however the past few days have seen a lot of activity around the place.

Plaster, paint, tiles and other things have all been worked on. The toilet has been removed, the Tri-lock installed and loads of other things.

Yesterday (Saturday) we picked up our timber laminate flooring from Fowles and took it to the house, as the painter was there and the place was open.

Broken tiles now replaced. Tiler had to bring some tiles over as the mongrel local kids had broken the ones I set aside

Left over roof tiles - now stored in the garage!

Tiler put the last (missing) tile into the bathroom. At the same time he also tiled the splashback in the pantry (picture coming next time)

Balcony has been sealed in preparation for tiles

Toilet and bin have gone

Gas meter now installed

Hand rail now installed - for the first time since painting...

... but the location of the light switch isn't ideal!

This cornice in bedroom 4 was replaced

Quad beading in place in the al fresco.
More painting needs doing here - or should we say, sanding back, then painting.

Drainage from retaining wall now tied into silt pit

Our flooring being delivered

All 47 boxes!

As the place was open for the past couple of days, we took the opportunity to terminate some wiring and put face plates in. More detail on this coming up on the LexCom Blog (see the link at right).

Tricky Tri-Lock

This entry is about locks. Yep - boring old locks that you put on the outside doors.

During our selection process at Hopetoun we were asked about locks, and chose the usual separate knob and deadlock for the laundry door. We intended to put something a little nicer on the front door as it's more of a feature.

During a chat with our Site Supervisor he suggested we look at the "Tri-lock" which provides a three in one lock (duh - you probably worked that out from the name). Three modes are passage, lockset and deadbolt all in the one unit. One of the nice features is that if the lock needs to be operated from outside using the key, the lock can be unlocked and the door opened all from the key - our previous home required two hands to open the deadlock and turn the knob at the same time.

Apparently they can be installed in place of most common door locks, but if you have the separate knob/lever and deadlock you may be stuck with them as they are fitted as separate locks.

Anyhow, these Trilocks ain't cheap - we picked one up at Bunnings for $175.

The one we went for was the "Contemporary Lever", pictured below:


They are available in different styles, and knobs as well as levers.

The link to the site is here: link thingy
The brochure can be found here: another link thingy

Thought this might be of interest to a few people who are in the process of building. Thanks to our Site Supervisor (again!).