Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Christmas Eve, Wednesday 24 December 2014

It's our first Christmas in our lovely new McDonald Jones Home and we're just so happy with the way everything has worked out.

We've had a frantic week moving-in during the week before Christmas.  It's been going gangbusters.

Last Wednesday, 17 December, Pete's brother, Mark, kindly drove down from the Central Coast in his Ute to help us move the larger items (that we decided to keep from the rental property) into the new home.  Enroute, Mark, kindly diverted to the nursery at Empire Bay and collected our 13 Grevillea 'Dorothy Gordons' for us.  They're just wonderful!  I can't wait to see them grow (quickly I hope).

On Wednesday 17 December, the lovely SMEG underbench oven, gas cooktop, microve oven and dishwasher were delivered.  Our Dux Sunpro gas-boosted Solar Hot Water tank was also delivered.  They stood standing in their crates in the middle of the open plan dining room and family room until they were installed the following day.  Pete and the kids and I slept on the floor on an inflatable mattress that night.  That was our first night in our lovely new home.

Early on Thursday morning, the plumbers arrived and spent a few hours connecting the SMEG kitchen appliances and the hot water tank.  Shortly afterwards, the electricians arrived and completed the work they needed to do with those installations.

We just love, love, love, love the SMEG appliances!  The SMEG dishwasher is fabulous.  It's so silent you don't even realise it's running.  It cleans everything magnificently and we're very happy with it.

On Friday morning, 19 December, our new furniture was delivered (the new leather sofas and reclining lounges) and dining suite.

At 6:00 a.m. on Saturday 20 December, our new pillow-topped mattresses were delivered.  We decided to keep our old/previous bed frames and just updated and upgraded the mattresses.  We've had perfect nights' sleep ever since!

We spent the weekend unpacking our belongings and setting-up the new furniture.  Within hours, the place was looking great and starting to feel really homely.  The Douglas 10M is a compact home but it doesn't feel small and pokey particularly with the raised ceilings, which create the feeling and illusion of spacious living areas.  We just love our new home.  For us, our problem was that we were restricted to building on a narrow site (it's only 12 metres wide but some 49.5 metres deep).  The Douglas 10M is just perfect for our block of land.  The home is perfectly suited for us and our lifestyle and we couldn't be happier!  McDonald Jones Homes have really built us a lovely, quality new home with plenty of WOW factors to live in and we're so grateful for that.

On Monday 22 December, Tony from Renocrete and his helper arrived at 7:00 a.m. to apply the slip-resistant coloured paintwork and stencilling to our driveway, paved areas and to the front steps, entry/patio area, and the Alfresco Cabana area at the rear.  It was a stinking hot day and they were here for most of the day completing the job.  They did a fantastic job and we're really happy with it.  The work is guaranteed for 7 years.  We were able to walk on the completed work within 2 hours but we cannot drive onto the driveway for a minimum period of 7 days - so the car stays out on the street blocking access to our driveway for now.  At some stage during demolition or construction, a section of the Council's cross over section of the driveway was damaged.  Roy will come back in the New Year for us to tear-up the damaged section and lay a simple concrete slab to replace the damaged section.  It's notable to mention that Holroyd City Council specifically probits us from colouring and stencilling any part of the driveway that extends across their cross over section.


Pete and I have often commented to each other about just how delightful, friendly, polite and professional all the tradesmen and delivery drivers have been.

We're now planning to host Christmas Day lunch in our new home tomorrow.  My mother, now 84, has been in hospital since 10 November and we're hoping she'll be well enough to be discharged on 29 December 2014.  My brothers will pick her up from hospital on Christmas Day and they will be joining Pete and I for a traditional Christmas lunch cooked to perfection in our new SMEG underbench oven (if I can finish reading the instruction manual in time!).


Pete and Buddy and Taz and I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!  Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all.  Cheers!

Here's some latest photos that we've taken over the past few days.

(Click on photos to view enlarged images)

Our finished driveway and paved areas

Our many sincere thanks to Roy and Tony at Renocrete for doing such a fabulous job on laying our new concrete driveway for us!  They've done an excellent job and they're very friendly and obliging guys.  The spray-on colour finish that we selected for painting all the concrete/paved areas is 'Blue Stone'.  We still have all the landscaping work to get stuck into, on the other side of Christmas now.

Front Entry area

St. Francis of Assisi, the Patron Saint of our new home

 Bedroom 2 (front of house)

 

Some of the new furniture deliveries

Our new kitchen

Above:  900mm SMEG electric underbench oven, 900mm gas cooktop & 900mm rangehood.

Below:  SMEG 900mm stainless steel gas (5 burner) cooktop. 

 

Merry Christmas!