30-08-08 Lights, render and bobcat

Another week has passed and they have been getting a lot done. Our plumbing has been connected with all the toilets installed.


The 'bobcat man' has been out and tidied up the yard and removed all the plaster and other building materials, which has made a vast improvment across the site.

The moulding has been installed across the front facade...


...and the Render has also been applied to the balcony and looks Fantastic. We LOVE the colour. They have done a very neat job too.


Looking at the house from the outside now, it looks almost complete!


We have however run into a few more issues with the sparky. Things like the installation of downlights as mentioned last week and the one shown below. They seem to have made the hole too large and patched around it and the light fitting itself has sunk into the bog/ceiling. They have now fitted the downlights in the kitchen cabinets (previously in the ceiling) and also fitted the ranghood.


It appears they had some major problems with the wiring of the house too. Speaking with 'F', he said it would appear that someone has messed with the wiring and helped themsevles to some of it. As you'll see below, the Sparky has had to cut multiple sections out of the upstairs flooring to access the wiring to make repairs. Not happy Jan :-(
Here you can see that they have had to cut a hole in the plaster to access a junction box near the front door.


This is the section they had to remove in the Games room.


This is looking into the cut away section.


Here you can see the sections removed in the Master bedroom...


...and more in the same.


This is the area near the stairs.

And this is in one of the cherubs' bedrooms.


Yet again we have come across issues which exist beacuse of poor communications between the builder and the tradesmen. We spcified in the contract that we wanted 3 light fittings in the stairwell, each 300mm of the stair treads for us to install low voltage lights to illuminate the stairs at night. It seems that the tradesmen just get a plan diagram to work off and that's it. It merely shows a location from a plan view with no description of height and subsequently they mounted the light around 6 foot off the floor. After bringing this to 'Fs' attention, they have relocated the 3 fittings. I have indicated in the photo where the original holes were placed.


The rumpus room has finaly been finshed off, after they ripped down the wall and bulkhead, and the paint looks pretty good.


Our gas meter has also been installed and when we arrived today there were three blokes installing our ceiling insulation (2.5 batts). Chatting to one of them he was saying how tight it was in the ceiling due to all of the heating and cooling ducts. I don't think I'm gonna have much storage space up there. The tiling has not progressed at all this week but I assume they will be back next week to finish it off. I can't wait till the cleaner comes and gives the place a once over. As everything is covered an a layer of dust, nothing looks new.

23-08-08 Splashback, vents and wires

We went up to the house over the weekend and met up with the concreter, 'A', to plan the driveway. We have decided on exposed aggregate for the drive, path & will also have this at the front entrance which will include a step up. While 'A' was there, we also talked landscaping ideas with him. Haven't discussed prices yet, but just thought we'd suss it all out. Where possible we would like to have someone do the landscaping for us this time. Yeah I know there is the whole thing of feeling satisfied & a sense of accomplishment if you are doing it yourself, yarda, yarda, yarda, but we really have achieved that with the house that we are currently in & I basically have busted my kahoonas always building this & fixing that & quite frankly, I need a bl@@dy rest! We figure that if we can get someone to do it for us ‘where our bank account allows us of course’, then why not? We have 2 beautiful little cherubs & we really want to enjoy this precious time as a family while we can.

Upon inspecting the house we found that the Sparky had returned and the electrical fit-off has commenced. Shown below are the 'Chinaman Hats' that come standard with PD light fittings (unless otherwise specified). These have been fitted on the lights upstairs and in the rumpus as these are the areas where we will be getting our own sparky to install the downlights post handover.


Our heating and cooling vents have also been installed across all the rooms. In the photo below you can see the larger vent used for the cooling and the smaller one for the heating. The square heating vents are used in the larger areas and the small round vents (not shown) are used in the smaller rooms like the bedrooms.


And here is couple of photos of the infamous bronze mirror splashback, now installed to every one's surprise, even PDs!! Mummy will be able to see all now!!

You'll notice there are a couple of wires hanging down in front of the overhead cupboards in the kitchen. We had asked for downlights to be fitted in the overhead cabinets to shine down onto the benches. Seems like the sparky has misread the plans and thought they were to go in the ceiling - whoops. More patching to be done for the plasterer. They're gonna have a devil of a time wiring the lights into the cabinets from there....

Here is shot of the ensuite vanity at the correct height AND with the correct basins - YEA!!


They have also installed all the exhaust fans above the showers and in the powder room. These include a self closing system with retractable blades to stop warm air escaping or smells/cold air coming back in.


Some of the wall switches have been installed as well, including the powerpoint and aerial outlets.



PCI has been set for the 12th of September with H/over on the 19th - one week later. Hmmm, things that make you go hmmmmmmmm....... Happy to take any bets?? Offering good odds ;-) Finger's crossed!!

Last but not least...
We were very happy, excited & intrigued to have contact from our neighbours on lot 716. Wow - how strange, (like you said) to have found us through our blog & not at the front of the house. J & S, thanks for making contact with us & we look forward to meeting you ‘& the assorted hangers on’ sometime soon ;-) Must mention that we were also contacted by another nearby neighbour Kirsty, who had found our blog & we will be introducing ourselves to her also, (thanks)! J & S - Good luck with your new building ventures too. :-)

20-08-08 Shower screens, roller doors and knobs

Sorry for the late post (Petal ;-)), we've had lots on with our current place on the market.
The work seems to be going pretty slow of late and we have now almost reached the 22 week mark, which btw was the time that M&M and Andy had handover of their Cremorne41. We have been told that we should have handover in around four weeks which means that PCI (Practical Completion Inspection) will be in three weeks. Need to get onto 'K' to book him for the inspection too!

They have now added the door knobs to all the doors and cupboards. All std fittings but none the less all very nice looking. Here is a pic of the cupboard knobs.


And here is a pic of the door handles.


They had also installed the roller door to the rear of the garage and the sectional overhead door to the front, but due to the crappy Melbourne weather I hadn't been able to get any photos, so here they are. Both are in 'paperbark' colour.




Here is a current shot of the house as it stands. We're still waiting for the coloured render to be applied to the balcony. I also can't wait for the Bobcat to come in and clean up all the mess! It should be interesting to see what the ground levels will be left like too, in terms of the landscaping. We were told they would create flat areas alongside the house, as part of the site costs, due to the slope of the land. May need to remind 'F' of this ;-)

Our shower screens have also been installed along with the mirrors for both the ensuite and bathroom. At the time of publishing this post they had also the day before, replaced the vanity basins in the ensuite (finally) to the correct ones. They had to install 'another' new bench top as the hole sizes were different. The old one now taking pride and place on top of the scrap heap out the front.




All the heating and cooling ducts have been added and once again no pics as yet as they were only installed yesterday. The tilers still need to come back and finish off the grouting and a few tiles in both the kitchen and bathrooms, and the painters need to do a fair bit off touching up and finish repainting the rumpus room where they pulled down the adjoining family room wall and bulkhead.

***LATE BREAKING NEWS***

Got a phone call from 'F' two days ago advising us that the tinted mirror splashback which we had been told could no longer be provided, had been INSTALLED!! What the (insert expletive - sounds like duck)!

He said it was news to him, as he had been advised that they would not be producing that version anymore due to maintenance issues and hence why we had to source our own (see previous posts). 'F' asked us to go round and check it out and make sure we were happy with it so that they could continue with the tiling of the originally selected tiles for the alcove bench. We popped over and checked it out and it looks great. Originally, when we decided to source our own mirrored splashback, we told 'H' to advise 'F' (who was away sick) to proceed with the original tiles for the alcove as they would match anyway. Seems that once again the the PD communication train failed to meet its destination. Come on people, communication in a business like this is so vital and we have had so many issues as a result which has really marred the experience.

As yet we don't have any photos of the splashback but rest assured they will be in the next post.

10-08-08 More tiles laid

On the weekend we decided to go out for a picnic with Lou's Mum, Step Dad and Grandma from Port Macquarie, and of course the cherubs.
When we arrived we found that the tiling was about 95% complete.

The Laundry wall tiles have been done,


and so has the WIP,

the toilet floor,

and most of the bathroom.

Here is a pic of the floor tiles. As other bloggers have noticed, photos never do the colour any justice - we noted the same.

Here is a shot of the Ensuite shower with the border tiles we chose.

And here is a close-up of the border tile.

Below is the powder room with the wall tiles laid. You'll note that there are no pipes poking out of the wall. That's because we are having an extended flick mixer tap located next to the basin.

Here is the Bathroom shower almost complete.

We were contacted on Thursday by 'H' and told that the tiling would be finished by the end of the week (not) and that by the end of this week, that we would have a handover date - woohoo!! Lou and I are taking bets on how long it will be till we get the keys. Lou seems to think it will be a few more weeks after my proposed date - we'll have to wait and see ;-)

Ohhh, and they've painted our front doors as well (the colour is actually a little darker than this in real life)


And finally, as Britney says, "Oops... I did it again" - yep, you guessed it, the Cabinet maker has stuffed up AGAIN! They rectified the height issue of the ensuite vanity unit, but inserted the wrong basins!!

5-8-08 Tiles arrived and walls repaired

Caution: Long post and lots of pics - enjoy!

Not a great deal has happened in the last week - we were told the Tiler had been lined up for last Tuesday, but it appears he may have had a better offer (?) The tiles have arrived as you can see from the images below. Lots and lots of tiles....

The shot below is of the floor tiles. These will cover all of the lower level (bar the study, lounge and rumpus) The tile is exactly what we hoped for and we are very happy!


Here's a peak at the tiles for the alcove bench splashback. We think these will match the glass splashback and kitchen perfectly as they have flecks of silver, brown and white throughout.


Just on the Splashback, we have decided to source our own splashback after handover through Lou’s step Dad (who is in the glazing industry). He has been able to get the price down to less than half of what PD wanted to charge us - Thanks VERY much. We will receive a rebate from PD for the additional cost of the mirrored version we originally requested, so it may work out well after all :-)

It would appear that 'SS' has been busy checking the walls for accuracy and 'plumbness' as there has been an awful lot of repairs going on. When your 'Chippy' tells you that "this has been the fastest house he has built!", don't be happy that the build schedule will be shortened and that you will be in sooner; be concerned as the time it takes to rectify his errors may far outweigh the time he saved. It seems like almost every room has to be repaired in some way. All the built in robe doors along with the Master, study and rumpus double doors don't close, so they are going to have to skim some off the edges, which will mean that they will need to be re-painted again.

As can be seen below in the family room, they have had to re-screw the plaster to the wall in an attempt to bring them in a little.


Along with the skirting being removed.


In the rumpus, they have ripped down the entire bulkhead and wall, reframed one of the bulkhead corners and then replastered it.


The nib wall in the kitchen has also been attacked and new edging and plaster added.


This shot shows the side view.


The hole in the laundry wall has now been patched up (this is where the taps used to live for the washing machine - these are now in the cupboard out of view)


The entry to the foyer has also had some additional work done..


...as has the entry to mater WIR.


The games room didn't escape unscathed either. Here they have had to chop out and patch a section which was bulging over the skirting boards - possibly due to the plumbing for the ensuite vanity.


A section of the games room cornice as also been removed - no idea on this one?!


On the bright side, Lou went out last week and paid for our Carpet - all 62.8 meters!! Here are some pics of the cherubs with the 2 rolls. One they are laying on... ("yeah this is cool mum")


and the other they are standing on each side of...


And here is a shot of the colour. The colour looks a little lighter here, because the loops have all been squashed, it gives a different representation here.

We are rapt with it though!

Here's a thought...
"it's not what you get that makes you valuable, it's what you become along the way"