Monday, February 18, 2013

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issue is, when different tradies come on site, they just rip these plastic downpipes off the gutter and the solution is no longer applicable.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

Monday, February 4, 2013

January & February Update

18th Jan 13

20th Jan 13Completed Hebel on Garage

23rd Jan 13 - Scaffolding for garage roof

Garage roof

24th Jan 13 Completed garage roof

Garage roof completed in 1 week! Tooo easy!

We had a call from our SS stating that the electrician were at the garage fixing up the electricals in it. He said that on our drawings, the garage was not an extended one. As such, we had an additional light on the front wall of the garage door (for flood lights) which may not be in the right location. We came down to the site and told the electricians where we wanted the lights to be, they were very willing to help us. One of them even told us that we should be watching out for the painters as they were washing down the foothpaths with white paint. Pretty sure the council didn't order white footpaths when they approved our building permit.

The garage roof tapers to the rear of the garage because of this design, we managed to get a credit back for our S flashing gutter box. You will use a S flashing gutter box when your garage is on the boundary line of your property, this flashing will prevent the gutter box from sitting on your neighbour's boundary line. Our BC initially assumed we needed this, but looking back at the design of the garage, we didn't have to. Saving ourselves close to $300. The gutter box will sit to the rear of the garage, not the side as initially planned.

We are in the midst of painting the interiors this week. The painters started their work late last week due to the Australian Day weekend and I believe they had the whole house under 1 coat in a single day. The guys there were dressed in a full suit and they had a machine which sucked paint and the painter would spray paint the entire wall.

Spray painter machine

End of 1st week of painting

Single coat on the architraves

The lounge room

Laundry Door

2nd Coat on laundry door

We wanted to leave the laundry door the timber look, just like how the showrooms have. We told our SS that it was our plan to have the door stained after handover. He says that he'll have the door completed as per our contract. We didn't get a chance to have the contract changed, and BAM! we have a whitedoor now. I looked on gumtree and we can get another door for about $130. Pretty cheap to replace, Im just not sure if we have the time and strength to do it all.

2nd Coat on internal garage door

2nd coat on internal doors

The 2nd coat of paint to the door really adds the gloss to the finish and make the door look really grand! I can't wait till the carpets and the flooring come in!

29th Jan 13 Our bathtubs! One for the upper floor and
another free standing alexander for the Ensuite

30 Jan 13 - Bathtub installed!

Master Ensuite Vanity - No conies to the ceiling
full tiling to the entire room

29th Jan 13 - Telstra trench dug and installed

A damaged steel rib from the slab
This seems to be quite concerning that
the slab is SO exposed

So our SS had a timber piece installed in-between our ground level and our upper level to 'join' the two.

If you look at the photos, you can see that this timber piece really is an eyesore to the void area. We went to the showrooms and one of the main reasons why the Sandringham 45 is such a beauty is because of the void that it had in the kitchen and family area. This entire area needs to be a straight flush/plumbed piece of wall. Our SS says that the timber can prevent future cracking and possibly add strength to the void. I say that I don't mind having it crack - I rather the grandeur look than a piece of timber. He even said that PD doesnt build as per showrooms! :0 I was so shocked! Its like saying, you're going to the supermarket to pick out a product but when you get home and you open the package, you find out that the product wasn't what it was advertised on the packaging! We didn't request for this timber 'upgrade', therefore we shouldn't have to put up with it.

In the end, we emailed the office and our SS, of which later he agreed to remove the timber for us, and finish the void the same way the showrooms have. I know for a fact that the frames were not plumb in the joining area of the upper and ground floor, as such the contracter may have just wanted an easy way out of making the frames plumb and use a piece of timber to cover up the area.