Bolero Flooring #2

22 DAYS TO HANDOVER

Swung by the house today and while there were some guys working on site, I managed to have a quick browse around and was surprised to see that our flooring as gone in so quickly! (partially) another PD WIN here! The flooring really adds greater contrast and colour to the entire house - blending the kitchen / carpeted areas quite well. The rangehood had also been installed, stairs stained and glossed, painting has been retouched, mirrors installed, shower screens  installed. When more of the appliances go in, like our toasters, our kettles, it'd add colour and life to the kitchen! 

When we were deciding on flooring, we weren't too sure whether the Bolero flooring was something we wanted to go for as there were not display homes installed with them. It was a new product then and was under a special promotion! We had Bolero as a standard feature as part of our promotion package. I had so much trouble trying to figure out how to match the flooring to the sofa set, to the dining table etc. But Im glad to say that the Rustic Coffee look is exactly the look we were going for! The floor is currently quite dusty, thus the final effect can't really be seen yet. I will update again when the house is cleaner.

Laminate flooring is one of the hardest wearing floor solutions on the market. No yukky grout so get discoloured as with tiles and no cold feet in winter. $4000 for Bolero Flooring AND evaporative cooling to the entire house. Apparently Bolero flooring is now a cat 2 upgrade! Consider us lucky! 

Bolero Laminate - Rustic Coffee

Kitchen with Bolero flooring

Family area

Rangehood - BRCG90BX 

We decided that we will go with this style rangehood because the slide out option (BRC90BX) would mean that we needed to have overhanging cabinets above our stove. I did some research and found out that this model issin't very strong in its suction power. Hence, having a slimline canopy rangehood would mean that if I ever get a replacement one in, I'd have to stick with a slimline one again. You want to keep your options open by going with something we have chosen, so that if you decide to upgrade the rangehood for whatever reason, you can install a stronger, much bigger unit to the enclosed space. Having overhead cabinets there will greatly reduce your options!

This model that we've chosen, does look quite small to me though....

Stained Glossed Stairs

Replaced glass panel due to chip on glass

The newly stained/glossed stairs really looks AMAZING! Worth every dollar spent on it! Anyone building a Sandringham 45 MUST have these stairs installed! The chipped glass on our stairs took almost 2 months to replace. I think it could have had a very long lead time. Good thing I pointed it out to my previous SS much earlier. I'm still sticking with not upgrading to have these panels at my void. Wasn't justified to spend almost $6000 on such a small area, where the stairs was almost $10000 and it a feature piece for the house. We are however well underway to have the exact same design at our void post-handover.
The paint work on the house has been touched up. Hopefully we won't find much defected from now onwards.

Garage wall cornices fixed 

Shower screens / mirrors installed 4-7 March 2013

Can anyone give me info about the model of showerscreens PD provide to its Prestige customers as a standard? We have Stegbar showerscreens, but are they the Grange series or the Softline series? This could be a prestige inclusion package as well. I just want to confirm that we are getting the right showerscreen installed.

Bathroom 1

Bathroom 1

Bathroom 2

Bathroom 2

Master Ensuite

Master Ensuite

All our bathrooms have been upgraded to have niches in the shower. 
If you notice carefully, you will see that the drainage pipes is a single metal grille that sits on top of the strip. Im not sure how this works, as there doesn't seem to be any slots cut into this metal grille. I don't know how we can clean them too. Its new to me as the display homes I've been to don't have this style of drainage for the showers. Hopefully it will turn out nice anyway.
We don't have any pop-up waste plugs to our Caroma Cube 500 undercounter basin. Strange as the other Kado Cirque Semi Inset Counter Basin and powder room Vallo Basin have them installed. Might need to buy some after handover. 

Shifted power points away from Tap - They were too close previously

Waterproofed concrete retainer wall on garage side

Samsung 65"

Leaning more towards a LED 65" TV at the moment. Did some intensive research and found out that there will be a NEWER model getting released sometime later this year. UN65F8000 - 2013. This will be released sometime in April in the US. Not sure when will it get to Australia. But I know that this model will have a quad core processor, much faster than its 2012 model dual core. In terms of pricing, the 2012 model sits around $4000 at the moment, but when it was released in Australia in July 2012, it was around $5600! It could be that when the 2013 model comes out in July 2013, it could stick to around the $5000 mark. I think I will settle for a 2012 model then. Also, Samsung has a new technology where you just plug in this device to the TV and it gets upgraded to the newest firmware AND hardware! Samsung evolution kit! 

A 2012 model tv can get the same hardware and firmware upgrades as the 2013 models, just by sticking in the Evolution Kit! 

Something none of the other brand/models promote.


I am happy with the build so far. Most of the things that had to be rectified have been. And generally the contractors that work on site know what they are doing. Only a few handful don't and they cause slight delays to the entire build. But I can't say that PD has done an absolute peace of mind job for us. I would say that there has been Ups and Down moments. But thats just with building your home. Many more Ups than Downs though.
But on a more serious note, I'm still waiting for contact from Team PD regarding my powder room tiles. One of the forum administrators from Homeone have apparently already escalated the matter to the appropriate manager and that I should be getting a call sometime soon. Still nothing... I really hope the tiles can be fixed...

Anyone else got a promise from the forums and haven't heard from them yet?

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

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. 

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!