27-07-08 Paint and Feature walls

The painting is almost complete. We are SO happy with the wall colour that we have chosen (Chalk Beige 1/2 strength), and glad that we renegged on our original choice of 'Bone'. A few more coats of paint on the stairway handrail and other bits and pieces, and it should be done.

When we rocked up, we were surprised to see that they had cement bagged the balcony in preparation for the render to go on!

The feature walls have been done in the study as shown below. The colour is 'Donkey' in case you were wondering.

The two walls of the master bedroom have also been painted. This time we chose 'Ranch Mink'. A little dark at first glance but once you fill the room with furniture and and add some carpet, it will blend beautifully. We saw this colour at another two storey PD display (not a Cremorne 41) and loved it!

The rear facing wall of the house has also been painted, in 'Sandbank', a little darker than the paperbark gutters/windows for contrast.

Here is the Balcony from the side...

...and here it is from underneath. Not sure what they intend to do with the boards - whether they will stain/treat them with anything?

In the garage we have noticed some crappy timber work and will expect that they will fill and re-paint this section.

In the rumpus we discovered a gapping hole in the ceiling where the frame seems to have given way. I think the chippy may need to return.

Lou discovered something about our ensuite as well. Our ensuite cabinet is 700mm high as seen below...

...our plans say that it should be 865mm!! That's 160mm shorter than what the plans say. Maybe Ok if you're a midget....

It seems they haven't learnt from B&Ps experiences?

http://www.perryr.com/homeblog/2008_05_01_archive.html

24-07-08 Splashback woes

From reading the other blogs it appears a few PD customers are having to make new choices again as items become 'No Longer Available'. Got an email from 'H' our CSC yesterday, to advise us that the splashback we had chosen for the kitchen is no longer available and that we would need to select a different one. Isn't that just dandy!
We were going with a bronzed mirror splashback and had chosen tiles for the alcove bench area between the WIP and fridge to compliment them. After speaking with 'H', we have confirmed that we are allowed to source the same splashback elsewhere ourselves if we wish, but would not be able to install it until after handover, and PD would be installing cement sheets on the splashback in the meantime to achieve the Certificate of Occupancy.

We are now talking with a few contacts to see if we can source the same materials elsewhere. If we can't, then off to H/toun we go for more decisions. Not sure how this will affect our tile selection for the alcove area.....I wonder if they will allow us to alter them accordingly?

22-07-08 Painting & Cabinets

It appears to have been a busy week last week!

Both of our new doors have finally been installed...



and with the Tri-lock.


The garage ceiling has been painted...


...and so has the window surround.


The painters have also laid some coats of paint on all the internal walls, ceiling and doors too! The paint colour for the walls is half strength Chalk Beige and the architraves and skirting will be the same colour but in gloss.



Here is the Family room...


and here are the doors all lined up like dominoes all painted.


This is a shot of the Master Bedroom.


It would appear also that after the PD quality inspection they have had to rectify a few items. The entry to the WIR has been ripped off and replaced with new edging.

The holes in the corridor walls have been patched.


The Master bedroom cornice has also been ripped off one of the walls too.



Our replacement cabinets have also been installed as well...here is the ensuite unit.


And here is the bathroom unit.



Hang on, Did he say 'Replacement' cabinets?

Yes, ALL of our cabinets have been replaced.

Late last year when we were looking at what options we wanted to include, we had budgeted to get the 2mm ABS edging applied to all of the cabinets as this is a more durable surface than the standard laminate edge. As we have this in our current kitchen, we can appreciate its value and appearance, and wanted to make sure we had it in our new home as well. When we went out to Hopetoun we were told that it was standard and would be included on all cabinets - we thought 'Yippee' - a small saving our way!

When the cabinets were installed two weeks ago, we noticed that they did not have the ABS edging as expected. Several disgruntled phone calls and emails later, PD have come to the party and honoured their word and replaced ALL of the cabinets with the ABS edging including all the doors, drawers and end panels.

I have included some pictures below of the before and after cabinets showing the difference. Suffice to say we are much happier now :-)

This is without the ABS edging.

And these are the new cabinets with the ABS edging.

If you want more info on ABS edging you may like to check out this link:

http://www.thelaminexgroup.com.au/pdf/AustProductFactsheets/LaminexABSEdging.pdf

15-7-08 Shower hobs and Heaters

Well the last week has been a pretty slow one.
The only visible difference was that the shower hobs had been started....




...and the downpipes have been connected to the storm water drains.


A couple of holes have appeared in the corridor walls - the plasterers or maintenance folk are gonna have to fix this one up. (maybe someone spat the dummy?)


The piles of rubbish are mounting up slowly too. I can’t believe how much plaster they throw out!


As mentioned in previous posts we have not opted for additional heating vents in the Ensuite and bathrooms, so I recently went out and purchased a pair of wall mountable heaters. They are 'IXL Tempo’s' and here are the specs:
• Instant, fan-boosted heat
• 2 heat settings: 1000W and 2400W
• 2 over-temperature safety devices
• "A" rated energy saving economical operation
• Colorbond steel construction
• Portable or optional wall-mount
• Recessed carry handles
• Thermostat heat control
• Suits rooms up to 50m3
• 2 year warranty
• Australian made

For the room size they will be heating, these will be ideal, and this way when getting up at the crack of dawn to go to work I won’t need to heat the entire house to have a shower ;-). Oh, and the little feet on the base of the units screw off too when you wall mount them.

I also picked up an IXL Turbo model off eBay for a great price for the garage/workshop too!

8-07-08 Selecting Carpets

Over the past couple of months, in between sick cherubs and day-to-day activities, Louie has been trying her best to arrange to get laid. Well you'll be please to know she has now found the man to do the job (we’re talking getting 'carpet' laid of course - now get you mind out of the gutter ;-)

We have decided the man that we trust to do it, will be a lovely young guy who goes by the name - Andy.

He was recommended to us by Lou’s future B.I.L for both price and workmanship and to top it off he’s a good bloke – so, we were sold. He has also offered some great information and certainly knew his stuff, so we feel very confident he will do a great job. On the price matter, he quoted us more than a $2k saving on one carpet that we were looking at, so after we nearly fell backwards with our possible savings, we promptly booked him in for a ‘tentative’ date.

We had a bit of a chat to Andy at what we were looking at and after gaining insight and knowing what feel and quality we were now looking at, Andy offered for us to visit his Mum's house & look at her carpet, one that he believed we would really like. Of course we jumped at the chance as it’s a great advantage in seeing it in a bigger format and not something you really ever get the chance to do. Anyway, so a couple of weekends ago, we made the trip to Seville and met with Andy and his mum at her house - and yes indeed with loved this carpet very much. It's a Godfrey Hirst 100% nylon, heavy duty rated carpet with a 15 year guarantee, called Chocolate Fudge. I don’t have any pictures available, but the one below might give you a bit of an idea. It has a warm, soft chocolate feel to it – just like chocolate fudge does too – so rightly named :-)

We are having the carpet in the study, formal lounge, & rumpus on the lower level & also all areas upstairs (besides the wet areas of course) including the stairs. FYI: We’re also going to get mats made up and over locked for all entrances & a big rug for the family room.

If anyone is needing a carpet layer (Apparently he travels everywhere) – just email me on timde@optusnet.com.au and we can give you his details. I would prefer (& he would to I’m sure) to have only serious contenders calling him.





Whoops wrong picture.....

This is a better representation of the colour (but not the exact carpet). It has a light fleck through it which is a really nice effect.

6-7-08 Doors, Stairs, Shelves and Benchtops

Well its been a busy week in the house. The 'Fix' carpenter 'Steve' has been flat out installing stairs, fitting shelves, hanging door frames and doors, and installing the skirting and architraves.
The outside of the house hasn't really changed much apart from the front doors. One of the 'final' front doors has been installed, but I think he ran out of time before installing the second one.

On Friday morning I caught up with Steve and dropped off a Gainsborough 'Tri-lock' to replace the existing lock we had chosen for the front door. We were originally swaying to have a Tri-Lock as part of contract but the sales consultant at Hopetoun was not too savvy when it came to explaining the unit and we decided not to include it. Then later when we saw 'B&P's' comments we realised it would have the features we wanted so decided to ask 'F' if he could get it fitted for us which he kindly agreed to.

Shown below is one of the front doors fitted with the frosted glass to match the side lights.


The plasterers have finished the house and also included the Shower niches in both the Bathroom and ensuite.


The Plumber has also been back and rectified the issue with the washing machine taps. They have now been tucked inside the cabinet out of view. A bit of spak-filla over the hole and she'll be right mate! ;-)

Our stairs have now been installed and don't the kids love it! up and down, and up and down....

And here is a shot of the under-stairs storage area (AKA - the kids cubby)

Our balcony deck has been laid as well, and here we can see the cherubs conducting some stress testing. You'll also note how dusty they are? The place is a dust bowl - everything you touch has a layer of plaster dust on it.

As part of our variations we asked for the step height of the balcony deck to be raised up so that the cherubs wouldn't have to step off too deeply. You can see by the height in the picture below that the difference now is around 10mm or so - very happy with that.

All of the shelves have been added as well in all the cupboards, WIR and WIP as shown below.

And to our excitement so had our Quantum Quartz bench tops. The colour looks a little darker in this light but once all the paint is on and the place is cleaned up it should look beautiful. I have lifted off the protective chipboard for this shot.

Our kitchen sink has been dropped in place and the vanity units for the ensuite and B'room were both sitting in the family room waiting to be installed.

And finally here is the entrance to the rumpus room with the two doors added to minimise the sound. I may need to later update these to solid doors ;-)

30-06-08 Plaster and Cabinets

Well my claim that the the Plastering would not be complete by Fri was not far off the mark. All of the walls were up but they are still to complete all of the cornices and some of the garage panels around the lentils.
We caught up with some neighbours on the weekend who said that they saw plasterers in the house on Friday at 5am!!

There's lots of pics so Enjoy.

The image below shows the entry bulkhead all plastered up.


Here are our stairs already to be assembled on Wed. (I'd hate to see the instructions)


Here is our vanity unit with the additional cupboard doors we asked for. We are getting a flick-mixer, hence why you can't see any pipes sticking out from the wall.


Our Kitchen has now been installed - Yea! This is our walk-in-pantry with the additional cupboards and laminate bench top.

Here are some of the cabinets between the fridge alcove and the WIP. The depth of the overhead cupboard in this photo is too shallow. We asked for the top cupboards in this alcove to be an additional 100mm deeper (420mm instead of 320mm). Already been onto 'F' and he is going to have it rectified.

Here is the island bench minus the bench tops (they go on a lot later).

Here are the other wall cabinets and space for the oven and rangehood.

Our down pipes have also been installed.

Here are our laundry cabinets. You'll note that the washing machine stops have been plastered in and they are still in the wrong location!! Should be interesting to see how the plumbers fix this one.


Here is the additional bench and Overhead cupboards we included.

Oh, and here is the additional 'nib' wall we added to the end of the kitchen for those who are interested.