PCI Confirmed!

Hi everyone! PCI has been confirmed by our SS and booked for our independent inspector on the 8th of March 2013! The Final and most expensive inspection. haha! Funnily SS insists that our independent inspector does his inspections before he conducts one with us. I'm not sure if this is the standard procedures, but I definitely want to have a PCI with my SS, and not just rely on the report from my inspector.

As I was driving past today, I see people working on site and chiseling away our slab despite the crazy downpour in Melbourne. I think there must have been an over exposed slab, where the frame was sitting more in of the slab edge. 
They still hasn't rectified that steel rib sticking out...Its already started to rust away...

Rusting Steel Rib from Slab

Indoor and Outdoor taps and basins have been fitted out! Our Milli Edge wall mixers and taps are looking great! The Ensuite free-standing bath tub has also been connected. The only thing I am not too keen on is the shower rose that has been provided as standard. They look very cheap and poor in quality, looks like something that you buy from bunnings that would cost you $20. Probably something we will have to get changed later on after handover. Even our island bench vege spray has been installed! The plumber have also connected the downpipes to the storm water outlets - just in time for today's downpour!

Master Ensuite bath/mixer

Vege Spray on Island bench

Vege Spray

Outdoor Tap (too close to 20amps?)

Connected gutter pipes

Silt pit

I haven't been able to contact the SS regarding the lining board colours. But I will hope to be able to have a look in the house sometime this week. Probably will make an appointment with SS to do that. 

Garage doors were installed 25th Feb 13. I thought it was the wrong colour installed - from afar it looks like a surfmist colour bond, but in fact it is a dune colour bond - the right colour. 
Im also not sure if the garage door is suppose to have such a huge gap between it and the wall it's affixed to. I guess it would have to be picked up at our PCI.

Bnd Garage Panelmasta Contemporary Style

Colourbond Dune

Almost big enough to fit an entire finger through

Garage door gaps

Noticed that there had been some trucks from Stegbar parked out at the back yesterday, and a couple of guys cutting white laminate boards. Im guessing that the linen cabinets and the shelves for the walk in wardrobes have been fitted too. Im hoping the splashbacks and shower screens will go in tomorrow!

Im really excited to see the powder room. We paid the extra $852 (plus $102 extended mirror) to get the tiles to the higher height, just like how the display homes  has done theirs. We have 600mm x 600mm tiles too. I really hope the tiler has completed our powder room like the pictures below. I believe they add some kind of grandeur and style to the home. Just like our void :)

600mm tiles

Increased height of tiles

Nice workmanship

I also visited a LED wholesaler today. We decided to get baton holders installed in our entire house instead of getting the downlights installed by PD. PD was going to charge us quite a fair bit to have LED downlights. Our wholesaler insists that they can beat their price - so wholesaler is it. 

I picked out some 10w (for ground level) and 7w(for upper level) LED sample lights and I'm going to have to get an electrician to install them to the entire house. We will be rushing this immediately after handover.

Thinking of getting this for the activity room. Looks great and feels very sturdy. $880!

OH! and I received a letter in the mail from PD today advising me that the final payment is almost due! Oh PD... we haven't even had our PCI! come on! Well anyway, it states that we should get a bank cheque from our lending institution to exchange for our house keys on handover date. If we were to release the funds electronically, the keys wont be passed on to us until the funds have been cleared. I guess that will be fair. I also just hope that PD will be fair in keeping to their word when we find somethings to be rectified during our PCI. 

countdown should start soon

Met our SS on site today. We discussed about PCI and what the process of it will be like. I managed to book in our private inspector from Final Inspect and he will be doing his inspection on the 8th March 13 (1st week March). Our PCI will then be the week after our inspector does his. This way, whatever our inspector finds can be rectified immediately and our list shall be much shorter. I asked him if the contractors were going to be installing door stoppers. He says yes, and he showed them to me. They look CHEAP! haha. Im not going to complain, I didn't pay for any upgrades for them, so maybe I'll just have to change them after handover. As long as they don't install a door stopper on my $3000 pivot door I'm happy. I also told him not to install the door stoppers to some areas, especially the porcelain tiled areas, as they would tend to just mount the stoppers to the back of the doors instead of the skirting. Looks weird IMO.  SS says that the plumber will be out next week and he will be connecting the down-pipes to the stormwater outlets. Im guessing he will also be installing the sinks and mixer taps then. If Im correct, during the slab construction, there was a pipe that was broken and left aside towards the rear of our house. It looked like a storm water pipe and it was definitely used previously. Im not sure if it had been replaced of just left in the ground 'unconnected'! Glass-splash backs and mirrors should also be going in soon. He says that people do go around to sites and steal the expensive fixtures and he wants to avoid all of that, thus he's going to install all the appliances the week just before our handover.

Carpets are expected to go in after we have our PCI inspection (2nd week March). 
Final touches including our Bolero flooring will go in (3rd week March).
4th week of March is for any other unexpected hiccups that happen on the way. We should be in the house by 1st week April if all goes well. Or even earlier if everything falls in place quickly. 

I must say that our SS is really on the ball. Im very happy that he had the void fixed up so quickly. Props to him for running with us this far. I know of people who build with PD and they have had 3-4 SS in their entire build. Im glad to say that we have one and he is I believe the best one for our job! 
Maybe I shall buy him something big when the job is over. 

We met up with the planning department of our council early on in the week to talk about our fence problem. Because our house is on a corner block, there are special council requirements regarding fencing. 9m from the intersection, fence height allowed is only 1m. 
Our house sits right next to the corner because of our extended garage, and thus, we had to 'fill' up that entire area to get the house level. Now our problem is that, the house is sitting too high above the nature strip and we can't erect a fence 3m high at the intersection..
So back to drawings and building permits. Im meeting with a draftsman tomorrow to discuss about our landscaping and fencing requirements. Council want us to submit our proposal and hopefully they'll get give us an OK.
Furthermore, we have quite a steep slope running along side the entire laundry side of the house. I had a structural engineer design a retainer wall to run along it so that the area can be levelled off. But this wall is already 1.4m. The allowed fence without council approval is 1.8m! I can't have a 400mm fence along the side.
Anyway, its something we need to work on before we get our handover.

I bought these during the week.

Beacon lighting only provided us with the step lights. I find that their prices are not very competitive at all. Infect they are quite expensive.

Up/Down Feature light for the front pillar $50ea

Thomas Edison bulbs antique X2 $17ea

Tripod Lamp 
Activity Room Upper floor
$270

Feature Sky**r Floor Lamp
160cm H x 25cm W x 25cm D
Living Hall ground floor / Or under Stairs
$295
[d]co concepts

I went back to the showroom in Harcrest where we first saw the Sandringham 45 and fell in love with it. I was there to look at how their constructed the railings at the void and also just looking at the finishing of the workmanship for the display home, so that I can compare it to my own when we go through to do our PCI. Walking through the house makes me even more excited that ours will be ready so soon!

Im not sure if our balcony would have tiles on the facade like the ones in the display home. We didn't choose a tile facade for our horizontal portion of the balcony, its just cladding. It was too expensive for tiles. $12,000 expensive.

Tiles on the balcony horizontal facade

Nice deck, probably would be something we'll do too

Mixer tap on the wall. Looks weird to me.

Some work completed so far include: 

Front door/balcony door stained

Locks/bolts for internal doors delivered

Completed electrical, include switchbox

Painted horizontal lining boards on facade - could possibly be wrong colour used

Painted external of laundry door 

Painted meterbox - could possibly be wrong colour used.

Our Stained Pivot Door. Looking good ;)

Electrical Switchboard

I didn't actually realise that we will be getting a switchboard IN the garage. I've always been in a traditional house and the switchboard will be in the meterbox OUTSIDE of the house. This box in the garage will make it so much more bearable to get to during the winter when power outages/trips are so common.

Our extended garage. Painted 'around' switches

Close up of front facade

20th Feb 13

Excitement

I got great news!
Got a call from our SS last Friday informing me that the house will be ready in sometime early march - PCI! Right after that would be our handover. At first he said that we should have our PCI on the 2nd March 13, but when I informed him that we are getting our private inspector from Final Inspect, he suggested that we push back the PCI and make it the 8th March 13, just so that he can get everything ready and in place for the inspection; 3 weeks out!
I don't expect that we move in immediately after our Handover. I'm anticipating for the handover to be delayed by about 2 weeks after the PCI, probably sometime late March. Just because I know that there are a number of things outstanding which has to be fixed. One which is the motion sensors currently installed at the wrong locations (in the lounge room, where there is no openable doors).


Our SS has been really REALLY helpful over the whole course of the build. I really do believe that he is one of the BEST that PD has. Every little thing that we weren't sure or satisfied about, he looks into it and gets it fixed. Sometimes, he issin't willing to budge, but theres other times he's willing to go the extra mile. I guess he is a fair guy.


The whole of last week was tiling, and some plastering. All tiles completed! Even our facade ones. The house is really starting to look GREAT!

15th Feb 13 - Completed tiling facade

Facade Tiles - Brick layered

Completed powder room tiles

Large Bathroom Niche 

Master Ensuite Tiles to ceiling

Plasters were also on site to complete the garage area and also the void area which we weren't happy about the finishing.

Extended garage, for extra storage space

Kitchen/family area

15th Feb 13 - Fixed Void

Downpipes have finally been installed too! Im not sure why PD hasn't done this earlier in the build. Especially during the winter period. When water is not drained away from the slab, it can cause extra moisture around the area and the slab can be prone to cracking due to the excessive moist in the soil. This is very dangerous for the waffle slab is the soil is reactive. PD has had some litigation claims against it in the Northern and Western suburbs. If you refer to the earlier photos in our build, you see that they have connected plastic downpipes to address this problem. The issue is, when different tradies come on site, they just rip these plastic downpipes off the gutter and the solution is no longer applicable. Water from the roof and gutters will just flow out of the gutter outlets, onto the bricks/hebel walls, and onto the soil area directly under it.
Well anyway, our downpipes are still NOT connected to the stormwater outlets. But Im not too fussed about it, as we are still in the summer. The likelyhood of a storm coming through is quite low.

Downpipe behind garage wall

15th Feb 13 - Downpipes installed

Now that we have been informed that we could be moving into the house much sooner than expected, I have change the delivery dates for our fridge we ordered.
Appliances online were having a sale last month and I purchased a twin Pigeon pair fridge/freezer. We had to buy a joining kit $88, which will make the pair look like a large single unit.

451L Fisher & Paykel Fridge E450LXFD

389L Fisher & Paykel Freezer E388RXFD

The fridge has a 2 star energy rating; $1322

Freezer 1.5 star energy rating; $1430

Free delivery. Currently out of stock.
We have decided that the dedicated space PD has provided us for a fridge will be converted into a pantry space, and we will fit the pigeon pair in the WIP across the fridge space; refer to link. This will allow us to have a bigger fridge/freezer unit in the WIP.

I also purchased 5x step wall lights for the stairs. We opted for baton plugs for the stairs as I believe PD was going to charge some enormous amount for them. I paid $54ea from Beacon lighting.
They are currently out of stock too. But I should be getting them soon.

Maxx 50W Step Light Kit in Silver

We have also decided on our pendant lighting above our island bench. I just have to order them in now.

3x A**ika Pendants.

Dimensions: 420 mm H x 230 mm D

The void pendants

2x or 3x Pendants

Either 1 400 and 1 500 OR 2 500.

JU**A 400 Dimensions: 250 mm H x 400 mm D

JU**A 500 Dimensions: 260 mm H x 500 mm D

What do you think?

Our BC also called me to inform me that this whole week will be fittings week! Hopefully I will be giving you more updates about our basins and our toilet fixtures! We are really rolling ahead now. The countdown begins!

Things to do this week:
Quotes for retainer walls/fencing and finalise council dispensation application
Order in wholesale LED downlights for the entire house
Book our Sparkie
Call Telstra to confirm bigpond and telephone services
Get quotes for the front driveway

Steaming forward

NO SMOKING 

It has been another eventful week at our site! 

Exterior rendering completed.
Painting has been completed and tiles have been delivered and started on yesterday.
We even had the electrician come through and pulled out all the cables over the weekend!
Looks like we're steaming away to the finish line!

Exterior Rendering Completed 

Completed 8th Feb 13

7th Feb 13 Electricals for our Lounge room 

Powder Room

Island Bench

Kitchen/Dining area

Stairs

You may notice that most or if not ALL of our electrical fitting are just standard batons and even our stairs do not have wall lights installed. This is because the fittings charges PD has offered for electricals are too expensive. It wasn't justifiable. 

We have requested for PD to wire all the lighting for the ground level and only run single cables in the upper level. This is because we will be hiring a certified electrician after handover to run the remaining cables for the upper level at a much cheaper price compared to what PD was charging. 

Our downlights will be bulk bought at wholesale prices - saving us thousands!

I haven't been able to take many photos as we have been locked out of the house. The photos here are ones that I took when I was on site to meet with the tiler who wanted me to confirm that the tiles delivered were the exact ones we requested at our colour selection appointment. He even tells me that he was willing to come back to the house to tile our kitchen/dining area for a 'very good price'. Im not sure if PD knows that their contractors do offer their services to clients outside of their contract. Nevertheless I turned him down as we have Bolero Timber flooring for our ground level. 

8th Feb 13 - Tiles delivered 

Front Facade tiles - Brick Pattern
600x300
Stratos

MAXFL138 

All wet areas - Porcilen tiles
600x600
Majestic Ivory

MAXFL1540 

Balcony floor tiles
400x400
Portifino

MAXFL8011 

Thursday afternoon stopped by to Adriatic to purchase our dining set and our family area couch.

We have a very large family, thus we purchased a 2.4m x 1.2m Bravo dining table. The sales consultant was very helpful and assisted with the colour selections as well. Luckily I managed to get a sample of our Bolero flooring from UTF. It helped with colour matching the table and sofa set. 

Unfortunately I can't get a sample piece of our carpet. We will have to 'borrow' the sample to match our blinds/beds etc. 

Dining table + 8 Australian Made chairs

3 + 2.5 lounge suite Australian Made 

= $6150!

Includes delivery and installation and 5 years guarantee on all fabrics.

Dining table shape 

Dining table colour 

Dining table fabric 

I will be looking at Pendent lights for our void and our dining area.
SS has informed me that this whole week will just be tiling. I wonder whether PCI has been booked in yet. I spoke with our independent inspector and he's advised me that he usually does his inspections while PCI is conducted. He will do his own inspections and we will walk through the house with our SS. Not sure if thats enough time for our inspector to spot all the areas which need rectification.