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.

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?