Timber look Floor finished. Mini steps closer.

Sunday the TermGuard guy was on site finishing the TermGuard pipes and access points. Luckiy for us I mention the deck will be over one guard and he moved it on the spot or we would have had to make a hole in deck for it!

Has to be topped up at 1yr, 3yrs and repeating years after that. I wonder if that's included in build cost. 

Laminate floor is finished, looks great through the windows. 

Driveway colour choice now causing me dramas, seriously never knew there were so many options let alone a need to pick, a driveway is a driveway. 

Bought outdoor lights for junction boxes outside, didn't get trapped into sales pitch for top marine grade steel light. 

Yet to confirm colours for blinds, tomorrow... 

Need ideas now for security cameras and alarms, anyone got recommendations? 

End of May & lots done

Electrical done, well most if it. A few lights yet to go in, some don't work, a few points damaged, a noted one bathroom had a 4 switch installed but only meant to be a 3 switch (no point having a blanket switch when they could follow plans and out a 3 in). Smoke detectors in but unsure what type as we have 3 smoke ones and one photoelectric one, also meant to be on their own electrical circuit. Dimmer switch and lights missing from guest room.  Point not centered in rooms, heights need adjusting. One light switch on wrong side of wall in wrong room!

Stone bench tops all in and look great.

Massive island has a join and they located it perfectly away from sink area and it's hard to even find it is so subtle. 

Mirrors, all but one installed. 

Wardrobe fitouts done in all rooms but ours we will do ours after handover so they just put in this which I wish we had said don't install. Await now doors to arrive. 

Tiling mostly done, minus all the broken bits missing grout and seals. Facade tiling was a challenge for them but they got there eventually. 

Plumbers have been in and out moving pipes and installing most things. Kids bath is wrong size but I can see we aren't going to get what we wanted 1700 and have to settle for 1500 due to space issue. They've missed all our push plugs and have ugly plastic plugs in bath. Wrong kitchen tap installed. Sinks look good but hope they come with cover like we paid for. Shower hoses are correct heights. Love our mixers and taps for bath as goose neck heads move out of way. 

Carpet on stairs yet to come as need staining first. Carpet is so nice to walk on, it was worth getting the thick underlay and the thick plush carpet. Just bought a vacuum today too, cordless and has DustBuster thing for stairs. Kids can easily use it so help clean the house. My 21 mth old successfully tried it!

Floor boards start tomorrow and tonight we could see they had leveled the slab in areas needed. 

Got access to measure curtains this week. Totally overwhelmed about choosing blinds curtain materials. Brilliant company found to make blinds way out near dandenong. 

Landscaping quotes also doing my head in, some prices are extreme going over the $100k mark. Waaaaay over our budget. Picking pool coping and paving hard but easy thinking about decking, garden and layout which i have thoroughly thought through. 

Enough for today. 

Busy week. Count down soon to start.

The waterproofer came yesterday finished upstairs toilet area. 

Tilers there from 6am today finishing laying it all. Grout to be done today or tomorrow. 

Internal chippy putting in handles today on all internal doors. Also covering the exposed beams I. Alfresco area which were going to be just left exposed or painted. So we are paying a bit of cash on side for them to cover beam with plaster and render them so they look completed. 

The heating ducts and evaporative cooling guys installing vents today too. 

Concrete repairs done and now await render outside to be completed. 

Wardrobe guys to come soon. 

Electrician starts tomorrow. 

Plumbers started next week. 

Essentially within a few weeks it will be all finished. Wow. 

Inspection & clarification of issues

Our private inspector came yesterday and reviewed our slab concerns and checked a few other areas. Not a full inspection this time just a review. Report mentioned the following:

- He wasn't too concerned about most areas despite them not looking too pretty at the moment. The exposed steel part of the slab (reinforced mesh frame) in my basic terminology will be sanded back treated and then sealed before finally being covered pre the remaining render applied to lower part of slab. The issue remains that pre slab pour concreters were told the cracker bars in this section needed to be lifted up and they said it was done. During pour it must have dropped back down as it isn't in the top 1/3 of slab as agreed on the day. Solution, nothing can be done re its position in slab and we've been reassured this bar once corrected sealed treated and properly covered still keeps the slab integrity high.

- Alfresco – the aluminium sliding door frame bottom sill section is showing a bow  downwards of about 10 mm. Supervisor has had a go at his internal chippy once again as this is yet another thing he "forgot" to do. Seriously if the SS wasn't friends with the internal chippy I think he would have been put into line a long time ago. Door to be packed and sealed soon.

- Guest bedroom – the wall outside the ensuite is showing misalignment of about 10 mm. Wall needs re working.

- Fascia & guttering not aligned yet.

- Garage Hebel overhang by 50mm, I was worried this now in neighbours land now but told our slab was 80mm short of boundary line so we still have 30mm. Lucky for that or I might have had a fit. Whether or not the slab was actually on the boundary line or not I will never know as impossible to check as front boundary dot on footpath disappeared when United Energy dug the underground electrical pit.

- Entry door frame completely needs working as margin of 7mm gap in door to frame and also a 7mm out of plum in the whole frame too. Apparently they haven't replaced the hinges which will correct the gap but the frame needs reworking too.

- Various bowed skirtings and plastered walls were marked and should have been picked up pre paint by builders.

- Roof space – the pipe is running through the manhole opening and inhibiting clear access through the manhole. Plumbers will correct this when they come and correct other issues and pipes.

- Lounge – I was able to detect an out of square skirting that exceeded the allowance of 4 mm tolerance over 2.0m.

- Kitchen – the bulkhead is showing out of level from front to rear by about 10mm. This is very evident at the overhead cupboard end panels

- Missing waterproofing to wet areas as per BV which we paid extra to do. Still not done. Tiler now going to be delayed as they now have to come back and do this.

Tiles are all onsite and are correct ones. I just hope they put the correct ones in the correct location! Also I confirmed the tiles we selected are the 15mm grout line. The tiles/grouting needs to be sealed post handover as PD don't do this, must add that to my list of jobs and quotes.

Today we met with site supervisor which was great as many issues can be instantly resolved or noted in person rather via phone or emails etc. Also helps me feel a connection to the process along with supervisor rather than just a painful customer noting or complaining about every tiny issue. 

I felt reassured all issues have been acknowledged and fixes are coming. Others new to SS will be fixed now rather than wait for pre completion inspection. 

Excitingly he think house will be finished by end of June. That's a 7 month build including a large break over Xmas nye period. Wow.
Now I better start with landscapers...

This is where the kitchen piping was altered due to a design fault but luckily the plumbers could correct it so I can still have my corner cupboards.

A quick kitchen shot

My little one already loves going up and down the stairs

Here is some of the waterproofing in master ensuite

Tiles galore. Confirmed we will be given leftovers approx 1 box per tile type. 

Painters will leave approx 2L of paint per colour. 

A biggie I ask SS where our line will be in kitchen bench and he confirmed it won't be near the sink. Also asked if we can have cut outs of bench for chopping boards or hot plates. Super excited if this eventuates, nice bonus. 

SS is a good man and had a leftover plaster sheet and put it under our stairs which wasn't in plasterers plans. Lucky me understairs looks really clean and finished now.  

I believe they are doing their best to make a high quality home for us. There are hiccups along the way but overall standards will be high when complete. Even the paint finishes on doors is really good with a minimum of 3 coats which is great for my kids will test them once they arrive. 

Painting in progress & current issues incl slab

Current issues on our minds:

Slab, slab and slab. The same issues remain, with poor repairs and patch jobs done. All goes back to these images. Oh and the repairs they have done are crumbling already and incomplete. AND we have now exposed steel frame/wire from the slab on one wall that looks rusted already. They have done a grout filler on sections where overhang was but in some areas that is crumbling away too. The rain water tank slab ok but not great workmanship.

  

- Down pipe above garage (outside bedroom2) & one on west side of house are flapping back and forth with the wind constantly; looks like their bracing brackets have detached from the wall and swinging.
- The WIP cabinetry issue. The corner cupboard can't be opened or used because the mini wall containing the plumbing stack has been made too big. The cascading problem is now we can't use that corner cupboard because the wall is 470mm and too long. Taking measurements from the cupboard side of this wall (containing plumbing stack) it should measure 320 but instead onsite it measures 470.  The pipe sits out of the way up until 2000mm then angles at 45 deg pitch towards the right and then up into the ceiling. Plumbers were onsite today fixing this, hopefully the wall will be reduced soon too. 

- Full area waterproofing to all wet areas both levels still not done as per contract (to be done post painting)
- The wall corner entering the lounge is clearly not at 90 degrees on the skirting

- Garage roller door does not close fully to a vertical angle.

- The right side plumbing waste pipe in the guest ensuite was not moved to the right as it was meant to be. Now the cabinets have been installed the pipe now under draws. It still needs to be moved 300-400mm to the right. Plumbers didn't fix this today despite being onsite!

- Cabinetry fine tuning & fixing open/close of a few doors I'm sure this gets reviewed pre handover so wont mention. I know every door and mechanism that doesn't work already and so glad I could review this at my own pace pre front door being replaced and hence now locked. Master Ensuite shelves are not level as they've drilled holes wrong, looks very odd (just like the front door lock). 


- New front door now installed at last and hurray for chippy who put lock and handle in correct location this time.
- Awaiting wardrobe fit outs & new correct robe doors to arrive- Alfresco sliding door frame is bowed
- Excessive concrete removal on neighbours garden.

Painters are in and I think busy doing what they do. I hope they do the 3 layered paint as required, no way to check if they are actually doing this. We have chosen white all over the house as mark up costs to custom do feature walls too much, might to post handover. Haha yeah right, temporary is permanent in our house!

Felt pushed aside by SS lately and know he is really working hard as 3 other supervisors have resigned and he has been looking after over 20 buildings concurrently for a period of time (hopefully no more). Excessive workload is unacceptable and reflects badly on Porter Davis. Luckily they have new guys all starting and hopefully our SS not so strung out and can supervise our job more. I have locked in an site inspection with SS next week and bringing backup so I stop getting wishy washy answers and fixes (husband is better at being direct).

Pre paint visit.

Painters start tomorrow so can't visit for a week. 

Front facade yet to be tiled and rendered, so curious how this will look as Ive forgotten what the tile looks like.

 

Garage door closed, I don't think this is acceptable, what do you think?

Bathroom cabinets in

Laundry in

Figured out cupboard won't open because wall is too big not because cabinetry wrong. Wall with a plumbing pipe in it is 15cm too long into room!! 

Seriously who thinks this is level, my kids could drill a few holes more level than this. 

Water tank in. Hmm how are they going to render that section of hebel now that is installed? The "fixed" section of slab looks unpleasant and the patch work grout they have put all along the wall under hebel because of overhang pre render is flaking off where rain landing on it from down pipe above. Not good.

Looking forward to fireplace as our rental house is freezing. 

Happy days. Let's see if they fix all the issues I noted in email to them today. Painter starts tomorrow after preparing walls doors etc today. 

Cabinets, doors, robes and stairs.

All doors and stairs in place now. Cabinetry installed in most areas but far from complete.

Why oh why is perfection not expected by tradies? Walls not squared to 90degrees, doors can't open properly due to plaster out and kitchen cupboards not right. One cupboard can't even open because they've designed the hinge against a wall, unsure how they can solve that one as they haven't followed their designs. Also the colours aren't correct in one section of tower with upper colour being in lower area (i might let this pass if no one else notices). The cupboards on bar stool side of bench look really random and hoping once protective covers removed they are the same colour as each other. 

Bedroom robes have wrong mirrored doors & they completely forgot about our wardrobe fitouts that were not even ordered. Lucky I had the hard copy of invoice for that to prove we did ask for fully mirrored doors, not window frame mirror doors and we did have draws and shelves in cupboards.
Everything looks so much smaller now the plaster is installed and doors in, Im so used to looking through the frame it comes as a shock to see the rooms walled.
Hoping for a good week ahead, painters are meant to start on Thursday.
Waterproofing in bathrooms still not completed and front door still yet to be replaced.
Garage door installed but looks like it can't close fully, I hope this is a temporary issue and not permanent.

Free stair upgrade & delays to cabinets & painting.

I got a call from SS and he offered me a free upgrade worth $6-7,000 to have the open floating stairs. I don't want it as that's wasted storage space in my opinion for our busy household and we want carpet on stairs. Turns out stair company made wrong stairs for us and didn't want to remake the ones we ordered. Oh well, they are now delaying their other jobs to build ours which should have been installed today and then get it from QLD to Vic.

Not to worry about the delay too much,  cabinetry and painting delayed 2 weeks, has allowed me to go on holidays semi stress free knowing not much happening until stairs are in. 

House looks good with lots of lovely natural light. 

A point of note our SS is now managing 21 house builds due to 3 supervisors leaving PD recently and they're waiting for new guys to train up in next month. I guess my micro supervision from a distance (ie sneaky site visits) helps reduce my stress. 

Our place is now officially at lockup now with all windows and doors in. However that said they are waiting on new front door to come from Sydney so can't actually lock front door yet. 

Roof flashing done but final tile yet to be set in place. 

Window winders are not all fixed yet, Stegbar to return pre completion for full service and adjustments. A few dont shut evenly and some are very loose. 

Wet area waterproofing done to standard plan but we paid extra to have entire floors and tiled areas done. This was noted today and SS will rectify. 

The rain water tank slab was meant to have ableflex joint between it on engineering plans but not done. Concreter reviewed site with engineering after he questioned need for ableflex joint prior to pour and said having it joined to house slab will make it more stable. Why didn't we get told this earlier or have plans altered? So that's all done. 

I have to kill weed forest tomorrow as site should be cleared soon of all debris and can't see most of it at the moment due to weeds. SS will spray it if I leave the poison for him but I will do it myself to make sure its done fully.

Post Handover things to start thinking about - only 16 weeks away (maybe)

I've always thought the house will be finished around September which allows a 38 week build period then add 3-4 weeks for christmas/NYE break and a few days for weather and illness. Despite the past month nothing happening and delays in getting plaster started its still in on track to finish 2 months early. They are suggesting mid July we will have our keys, super happy with that (a little bit of me still is planning for at least August finish). So time to think about post handover tasks and things I need to buy, here's my list so far:

Post Handover Tasks & things to buy

Ø  Spare set of keys

Ø  Council

·         Crossover repair & widening (get deposit back from council)

·         Order 2^nd recycling bin from council

·         Car permits for street

Ø  Organise connections/contracts for

·         Internet/cable & voip (new modem), must arrange connection from street to house(<$300)

·         Electricity

·         Gas

·         Water

·         Insurance

Ø  Window tinting in bathrooms upstairs

Ø  Window furnishings – blinds, curtains, shutters etc in bedrooms & tv room.

Ø  Pool Company

·         Complete/connect plumbing & electrical equipment

·         Tile

·         Lay copers (must supply for them) confirm quantity

·         Solar panel installation

Ø  Landscapers

·         Driveway – exposed aggregate (~$100/m)

·         Front entrance decking or paving

·         Front pathway & side pathways (west side pavers, east side pavers or concrete)

·         Front Fence, letterbox & manual gate

·         Clothesline install (I supply)

·         Garden beds, grass, DIY raised veg patches in front

·         Alfresco decking area

·         Outdoor shower plumbing under side path but install later

·         Pool glass fence & pavers & equipment storage box

·         Plants front/back/sides

·         Bin screen

·         Paint boundary fences (DIY myself)

·         Ensure boundary fencing unclimbable for safety near pool & check height >2m

Ø  Cat flap door

Ø  House sign/number

Ø   Electrical jobs

·         Alarm

·         Intercom

·         Install dining pendant lights (already purchase)

·         Install external lights

·         Shabbat timer

·         Alfresco fan/light

Plumber/Handman - sealing of the wet area tiles and garage floor.

Ø   Jetmaster – install hearth (black marble flat stone ) must buy at stone mason  

Ø  Things to purchase

·         Condenser dryer

·         10kg front loader washing machine

·         Cordless vacuum for stairs

·         TV & TV wall mount

·         Couches, coffee table, lamp & rug for family room (ebay, grays)

·         Dining chairs – Freedom

·         Barstools (5)

·         Dining side board table/cupboard - Dare

·         TV room – tv cabinet & storage unit for toys downstairs

·         IKEA

§  Study – Billy bookcases (5), wooden kitchen bench top to convert to desk top, cabinet draws & filing draws, lamp, desk chair

§  Master bedroom WIR – Wardrobe setup, mirror, lamps

§  Child 1 & 2 – Lego storage unit and table for slot cars

§  Child 3 - Bedside table, lamp & bookcase

§  Child 4 – Bedside table, lamp & Toy boxes for current bookshelf

§  Clothes hanging rod for under laundry top cupboards

§  Kitchen cutlery draw dividers

·         Hardware store

§  Garage shelving & bike hanging

§  Lawn mower

§  Letterbox, clothesline

Ø  Wish list

            Outdoor/alfresco couch, furniture & bean bags

·         BBQ

·        

        Ø  Discounts/offers to think about

·         Use Qantas FF points - $100 harvey norman 14100 points, Mitre 10 $100 14600points, BBQ galore $100 15100 points

·         PD partners/discounts

§  Bowens card

§  Melbourne Brick – 10% off pavers, lawn etc

§  Plantmarks trade markets – trade prices for plants

Slab fixes (sort of) & plaster done

Plasterers "fixed" slab issues apparently as per SS, so I went & looked for myself and they must have only just left as it was still wet. As long as it's structurally fine as they assured me and it's just cosmetic I have to accept these repairs that will be covered with render in weeks to come anyway. They put steel at angel under one section and then filled it to satisfy our Inspector they said they normally wouldn't do this. 

The plasterers were meant to start on Friday. We had a sneak peak on Sunday morning and the entire house is done! Apparently they worked until 9pm Saturday night as per my neighbour; love my neighbourhood watch team. Time to deliver some thank you choc brownies again to them. 

Upstairs activity area

Upstairs master bedroom

Kitchen & dining room

I had to submit a building objection to council on Friday because our next door neighbours are developers dividing block next to us. Never done one before and feel bad but don't like the idea they are planting a tree agsinst our backyard fence that could grow to 12m high in their building plans. Hopefully they will move it to other side of their yard. Also they are building 2 town houses and building on boundary line in several areas with an underground car park which means a massive 3.4m deep crater will be dug 1.2m away from our new house. I'm nervous they are going to damage our slab when they dig the piers & excavate their site in the next few months. Will see what council have to say.