And it begins again

After a having no activity at all for the whole of last week. Our site started to buzz with activity again from Monday this week. No recorded activity from the 8th - 12th October 12. We were advised last Friday by our SS that Electrical will be coming in, then Hebel will go up on the ground level by this week, followed on by 2nd storey in the subsequent week. Plasterboards will go up the following week.

Final Inspect came out to the site to inspect the frames stage on the 5th October 12. Our inspector managed to pick up some minor defects which I forwarded immediately to our SS and BC. He said the lock-up carpenter will get them rectified.

Plasterboards were delivered on the 4th October. SS probably thought it would be a good idea to keep them indoors now as it could be tricky to get them on the 2nd storey later on. They take up the entire kitchen area at the moment. Quite a hassle to get around. 

Hebel delivered on Monday 15th October 12

Our Hebel wall panels which will replace Bricks

The main reason why we decided that Hebel would be suitable for us was because of the promotion offer Porter Davis was having. $3999 FULL render to the house. Hebel has its pros and its cons. We decided that instead of going with bricks and having to pay close to $15,000 to get the whole house rendered, Hebel would be the better cost effective option. Furthermore, it is a much faster and quicker process then if we were to go with bricks. Also, having the issue of 'wrong colours' and delayed bricks was not an option we were keen on.

One of the issues with Hebel is that we have a column at the front of our house. At the showrooms, this column was left as bricks and the rest of the house rendered. We requested that PD maintained this for us. However at our contract signing, we were told that because we were building Hebel, the ENTIRE house needs to be Hebel. They were not willing to budge and let us have a brick column. So I'm thinking of having this column stacked stoned later on.

Finally, a concern we had was "is Hebel a way PD was comfortable to build with?" Knowing that the tradies that come in could vary in workmanship this was quite a significant debate we had to overcome. FInally we decided that if we weren't happy with the job they did, we will bring it up with the SS.

Black bundle cable - TV 

Electrical was fitted for the 2nd storey on the 15th October 12. The electricians left quite early and no other work was done for the rest of the day. 

Electrical ground floor - 16 Oct 12

I went out to site on the 16 Oct 12 and met the electrician working on the ground level. He advised me that they were aiming to have the whole ground floor wired up by the end of the day as Hebel was going to come in tomorrow! But one of the issues he brought up was that due to the incorrect drawing Argus Technologies had when we did our electrical selection appointment (Argus had a drawing of the house that was BEFORE any upgrades were put in. Such as standard window sizes etc). 

Electrician's problem in family room

As you can see in the above picture. The electrical drawings showed that the rear family windows were much smaller in width and as such we were able to allocate a double GPO at that corner. However, because we have upgraded our structural (windows), PD had forgotten to pass that information to Argus Tech and we made our selections on electricals based on wrong drawings. SS called and told me to speak to the sparkie if possible. So I went down and asked him to shift the plug to our laundry wall, allowing me to plug in for ironing in the future. The sparkie was such a nice bloke who was happy to help with anything. 

Wrong Plumbing in Laundry

Another error for PD due to not updating drawings. As you can see in the above picture, I have managed to ask our BC and SS to go back and look at our drawings as during our final construction drawing sign-off, we've requested to have our taps for the washing machine mounted UNDER the trough and IN the cabinets. This will allow us to have the washing machine and dryer flush against the wall and against the cabinets. There will be a small hole on the side of the cabinet which will service the pipes etc. SS was adamant on not changing the pipes as 'it has already been constructed. And the drawings say that the taps are there'. Despite me telling him that the drawings he has are old and I even brought the new one down to let him have a look. He said that I needed to get it in writing from office before he can do anything. So I sent an email to our BC (who was the original one that told us this was possible. And was the one who made the drawing changes for us) and asked her if she could have a chat with our SS. It turned out that she was either sick or on holidays as the whole of last week while there wasn't any activity, I didn't hear from her until the Friday when SS called. Luckily there was no work during that period, or else I fear that we would've missed our chance for the plumbers to come and fix it. Anyway, SS and BC worked everything out and now we have our taps moved!
HOWEVER....our electrical drawings, are INCORRECT. The double GPO is mounted at 1100 and not under the cabinet. I tried asking the electrician to move it for me, he agreed. But when I went to the site and checked, it wasn't done and his reason was because SS didn't allow. Based on the drawings it had to be there and PD was not ready to budge.
I guess..at the end of the day. We win one and we lose one. Nothing we can do about it. Doesn't fuss me - could be a good thing that electricity are not in the same vicinity as pipes/water. Haha!

Hebel started today. 17 Oct 12.

The day's work. 17 Oct 12

I watched the guys install these panels and I'm glad we went with it. Its so FAST and quick. They had 3 men. 2 carrying the panels and 1 screwing them onto the frame. The panels are about 80kg each. And I'm assuming that they only completed 1/4 of the ground level today and left quite early because they have been tired out. Hopefully we will see more of the house completed tomorrow. 

Shower bases have been prepared.
Bathroom 2

There has been some vandalism at our site. Its such a shame but I guess we can't do much about it, other than maybe setting up surveillance cameras like some other owners have. Melbourne is not longer as safe as we think it is. Our site is literally 3mins drive from the police station and yet some people have the guts to enter an unknown site and vandalise. We live in Metro Melbourne and we see this happening! They should get caught and taught a lesson.

As you can see, there are footprints IN the shower base.
That area has been sectioned off and told to Keep Off.
Clearly someone didn't have eyes to see the sign
or must've done it purposely. 

Graffiti on our plaster boards on the 2nd storey.

17th Oct 12

Thats all for today. I look forward to bring even more better news by the weekend!