10 more days!

10 DAYS TO HANDOVER

Just had our pre-handover inspection by our private inspector last thursday before the Easter weekend. 
Got the report this morning and theres nothing major to report! Hooraaayy!! 
These are some of the things to report:

Master Ensuite Vanity needs caulking

Excess motar on balcony facade

This is not a tiled facade balcony just like the display homes. This is just a standard James Hardie Axon Cladding. 400mm spacing. Apparently their first time installing it. Beware of workmanship standards if anyone is thinking of keeping the facade standard. Its mostly good, but make sure you follow up with the SS to ensure adequate weather sealing.

27th March 13
Painting to be finished on rendered internal garage wall

27th March 13
Fixing hole in garage wall

28th March 13
Completed garage wall fix

SS instructing on a door not to throw out excess building material

Finish on the garage access door

Peter Limburg stated in his report that the garage floor needs to be clean from all debris that includes excess mortar or colour stains. He suggested that maybe we need to get the floor professionally cleaned and even painted if necessary - all on the builder's cost. We should not be accepting 'defective' garage floors if they are damaged. This is as per the building regs.

We have our Master Ensuite on located on ground floor, and it had not been ducted externally. The moisture from the shower is now just going to flow into our floor joists above ground level. It must be vented as per Australian Building Code Paragraph 3.8.5.0. SS says that he will look into it and get back to us, he knows that it has to be vented externally. Not sure why it had not been factored into our drawings in the first place.

SS also confirms that he will get a thumb turn lock installed onto our Pivot door instead of our deadlock thumb lock. No deadlock on the door, but the reason why we wanted it was so that we don't have to use a key to lock the deadbolt. The thumb turn lock will allow us to do this. Another house that is currently building by PD has the exact locks and fixtures we initially wanted! But I figured that it will be too much of a hassle to get the SS to change the entire door.. Seems like this new SS had just been telling me stories about how they don't use the paradigm square lockwood deadbolts anymore due to faulty reasons....

22nd March 13 
Completed Bolero Flooring

Scotia had to be used for our flooring
Some don't like it, but I personally don't mind

Not sure what the process is with regard to the footpaths belonging to the council. They have been damaged during the construction of the house and PD office has told me that they will be fixing them after handover. I don't want to get caught in the horror of PD not coming out to fix them after they've received their final handover payment! I requested for a typed letterhead from the office stating that they will fix the footpaths, but they've refused this request. Will try again to get the letter on the day of handover. I got a letter from the council today stating that the Yellow marks on the footpath have been indicated by them. Seems like there has been extensive damage to it during the construction. PD better be paying for the repair... or I will lose my asset protection bond.

Our crossover application has been approved. We're going to request for a 4.5m wide crossover and re-instate the previous crossover on the property. It's currently located at the rear where our backyard is. Probably going to leave it on until we get our landscaping completed. Easier access for the bobcat and dingos, when they construct our retaining walls. 

Damaged council footpaths marked with yellow spray paint 

Dispensation application

We're still waiting from the council regarding our dispensation application for the retaining walls on the side of the property and also the fencing to the side of the property. Building regs don't allow for more than 1m high fence within 9m of an intersection. We have requested for a 1.4m high retaining wall to be built within this 9m zone as the slab is currently exposed... the retaining wall will prevent any undermining of the soil under the slab. Also, the current height of the house is quite high above the footpath, building regs only allow for a 1.8m fence to be constructed without a dispensation application, we need a 2.7m high fence at least to account for 1m retaining walls (so that we can have a small footpath on the side of the house) and fencing privacy. 

Hopefully the council allows our application!

Proposed fenced area

Since my previous post, I was finding out what shower screens the Porter Davis Prestige inclusions provide. My BS confirmed that the shower screens to the entire house as part of the prestige inclusions is Stegbar's Softline series shower screens. Stegbar Grange series is considered "frameless" for PD. Our prestige inclusions 2012 is a "semi-frameless" shower screen. 
Both display homes for the Sandringham 45 use "frameless" shower screens in the Master Ensuite. You will not be receiving this if you didn't upgrade the shower screen!

Grange Series

Softline Series

Our Softline Shower screen

Shower Grates in all bathrooms

Shower Grates in all bathrooms

Shower grate doesn't come with slots in the grate. Theres a tiny gap between the tiles and the metal strip when the strip is fitted, which water will flow through. Don't expect something like this:

The grates are already an upgrade...the display homes use a standard circular waste outlet in the center of the shower.

I was also looking into the sink pop-up waste plugs. This is what we have installed at the moment:

Undercounter sink

Caroma Cube 500 under counter waste plug

Bought waste plugs like these from Masters

For some odd reason the entire house came with pop-up sink waste plugs except for our Caroma Cube 500 undercounter sinks in our Master Ensuite. It just comes with a permanent stainless steel fixture which water can flow through to the waste outlet. Theres not pop-up sink plug that can stop water from flowing through - just a tiny silicone rubber plug that sits On Top of the steel fixture. Anyway, I can't be bothered to get the SS to change the the outlet for us into pop-up plugs, so I bought some from Masters for $14. They are larger than the normal ones and they look much better!! Will upload photos when I've installed them.   

Completed waterproofing of garage wall

This gutter waste outlet is too high in my opinion (white section)
Will be asking SS to have a look at it

The day the flooring guys were working on our Boleo floors only left the house at 7.30PM! It was almost dark and when I drove past, I saw that there was a van trying to get out of the property. It was stuck in this mud hole for almost an hour before RACV came to the rescue. Looks like this contractor has learnt his lesson - Do not park on areas which have not been designed for parking! 

No idea whats so hard about just parking on the street....Why do they have to park on the soft muddy area..Not only they may get their vehicles stuck in it. They bring along with them muddy shoes INTO the house.

Massive hole at the front of house

As of today:

28th March 2013

Got a call from our BC this morning informing us that a Building manager has gone onto our site to have a look at our powder room tiles situation. She wanted to confirm where had we seen the display home tiles. I told her Harcrest, and she says she'll call the building manager ASAP, and he's going to have a look at our house and then the display home.

Later in the afternoon, I got a call from a building manager I believe, and he says that they might be able to fix our tiles...but he will have to speak to the group manager tomorrow (Wednesdays - when PD have their weekly meetings) and will keep me updated. Looking positive... 

It doesn't make sense to go to a car dealership, fall in love with a display car, pick out the new car, upgrade all its features, order it, and when you receive it, find that they had installed 2 small windscreens onto the car instead of a 1 single entire piece. Then get the salesman tell you excuses that they don't make the cars like the ones on display...

Get it fixed for us, and we'll be raving to others about our entire build! Nothing else had been an issue for us until now (apart from the void issue). 
No fix and I'll definitely be telling potential PD customers my honest opinion that ALL is good except you might not be getting what you've upgraded for....sad but true. 

Fingers crossed we get the tiles fixed and we still move in next week! Will keep you guys updated!! 

Our PCI with SS is this Thursday! 4th April! 

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?

Delayed PCI

Disappointing news:

1. SS has informed us that our PCI has been delayed by a week. It will now be held on the 15th March 13. A week out from now. Our SS hasn't explained why there is the delay, but thankfully we are able to book in our inspector for the 15th March 13. 

2. SS has also resigned from PD. He has been such a great SS. Always very understanding and accommodating. He called today and expressed that he had been very happy with our house so far and that he was regretful that he couldn't finish the entire job. 

I guess it it true that PD's BC and SS seldom stay for the entire term of the build. Its a very sad thing, that we don't get the same person going through with the entire job. I've read many other blogs about how theres always been a change over of BC or SS. Props to my SS tho, he got us very close to the finishing line, too bad he couldn't get us over it! I would be very worried if he left during our frame stage or somewhere in the middle of our build. 
I just hope that our next SS would follow up with the issues I've brought up with our previous SS. 

One of which is the Powder room. In my last post I mentioned that we upgraded our tiles, and paid extra for the tiles in the room to extend up to the mirror height like how the display homes have done theirs. 
When I met with my SS early in the week, I was astound to see that the tiles in my powder room had not been installed the same way as the display homes. As you can see in the photo below, there are THREE cut tiles on the walls, x2 small pieces and x1 large piece. This is NOT how we envisaged the room to look like. We expected that the tiles will be installed like the display homes - x2 Large 600mm pieces. Its the only reason why we upgraded our tiles and paid extra money to have them extend to the mirror height. 

Brought the issue up with our SS and he said that he will get the tiler to call me. Long story short, I met up with the tiler on site, and he explained that different tilers install differently - poor excuse. I told him that I can't accept it and that I expect the tiles to be installed just like how the display homes have done it. It defeated the purpose of having extended tiles and mirror!
The contractors really need to pick their game up! Previous SS says that he will look into the matter for me. This will be a make it or break it deal for my recommendations of PD to others. I really hope the new SS will get it fixed. I know that it will be alot of work, but its a matter of whether PD prides themselves in the quality and assurance they promote themselves to have. 

tiling by contractor

Kitchen / Living area

2nd March 13 - Carpets installed, Door handles, stoppers and Locks installed.

Door Handles on Linen cabinet

Door stoppers are affixed onto the door in tiled areas!
I told the carpenter not to install them on the MAIN ENTRY
and the Powder room.

4th March 13 - Saw some Stegbar guys installing our Shower screens, Clear debris off site.

4th March 13 - cleared debris off site.
Our sloping corner. Dispensation from
council required for retaining/fencing requirements

5th March 13 - Fly screens had been put into all openable windows, and alarm system installed, Kitchen Splashback installed.

Fly Screens installed

Snuggle Pie Kitchen Splashback 

Got to wait for flooring to come in before it'd look great!

7th March 13 - Saw some contractors installing mirrors to the Bathrooms, Gas meter installed.

7th March 13 - Gas Meter installed

Outstanding contract errors:

On the day our SS told us to go see the carpenter to tell him where we wanted the privacy locks installed. We spotted that our Lockwood paradigm 005 square chrome deadbolt had been installed not on our ENTRY door (Pivot door) as per our contract, but rather onto our garage internal door. 

I thought it was rather odd. Spoke to the SS about it and he tells me that a thumb lock - Paradigm 005 cannot be installed on a pivot door. I was shocked! The reason why I paid extra money for the deadbolt is so that I can easily lock the main door without having to use a key. 

The carpenter says that we should just leave the keys on the main door at all times. NO thank you. 

Previous SS says that he will get it fixed for us!

Deadbolt on the garage internal door

Where the deadbolt is suppose to be,
Replacing the key knob

I opted to have internal motion sensors installed in the house. During the build, whenever I was on site with the SS, I noticed that some of the cabling had been left at different locations as per the drawings from our electrical appointment. Now that the detectors had been installed, some of them are in different locations from the drawings. I brought this up to the SS, and he explained that the people at the appointments don't know a thing about where is the best locations for these sensors, and that I should just trust the installers - that the new locations are perfect for the job. 

One of them is in a lounge room - no openable sliding door..Just windows. 

The original location was in the study room - openable sliding door. 

I wasn't happy initially. But I decided that its not worth the battle and hassle, and will just live with the sensor in the lounge room. 

Since our SS has left us with quite a number of things outstanding, I hope he has passed on the information to the subsequent guy taking over. I hope to see the new guy on site next week sometime after the labour day holiday. 


We're also currently trying to look for a washing machine and vented dryers? 
Anyone with recommendations? 
Almost settling with a bosch 7.5kg WAS24460AU front loader washing machine with a 7kg BOSCH WTV74100AU Dryer

Bosch Front Loader Washing Machine

Bosch Vented Dryer