Counting Down

It's now less than two weeks until PCI, and with all the little things happening to finish the house off it would almost be easier to list what is yet to be done!  The outside is looking great, with the temporary fencing and port-a-loo gone we are just waiting on the external painting.

The taps have been moved to the front of the house as per the estate covenants, and the WIR window has been changed to obscured glass.  This window was an oversight on our part, thinking that we would just manage privacy with blinds, but once construction was underway we realised that without a door between the WIR and the ensuite this window was effectively a window from the street into the ensuite, and privacy became a whole lot more important!  Fortunately our site supervisor was very accommodating and arranged the change for us.

WIR window and taps

Carpet

The big change this week is that we have carpet!

Rumpus room

Master bedroom

In some ways I'm not thrilled with the carpet.  It matches the tiles quite well where they meet, but the carpet doesn't have the same depth as the tiles, which makes it look quite brown.  However, I'm not unhappy with it.  It works with our colour scheme, and although I would probably prefer something lighter, we specifically chose something darker on account of the little guy.

Electrical

The fibre hub has been installed, and the data points are in.  The pre-wiring for the TV wall mounts has also been started.

Data point and TV wall mount

Bathrooms 

The bathrooms are close to complete.  Both toilets are now installed (the one in the ensuite having been delayed due to a crack in the first one delivered.  Both shower screens are installed, and the plumbing appears to be complete.  There is a tile missing in the bathroom, which appears to be intentional to allow access to the bath pipes.  The bath itself is in but is not fixed.
 

Toilet

Bathroom Shower

Bathroom

Ensuite

Ensuite

Kitchen

There hasn't been much action in the kitchen for a little while now.  This week some preparation is underway for the glass splashback, which has been delivered.

Kitchen

Windows and Doors 

Most of the door handles have been fitted (I think it is the doors with privacy sets that are yet to be done.  Door stops have also been fitted throughout.  In the wet areas with tiled skirting the doorstops are attached to the door which makes perfect sense but was interesting as I had never seen that before!

Internal door handles

Linen cupboard

As mentioned above, the window in the WIR has been changed to obscure glass.

WIR

The windows have all been cleaned, and it appears that the broken window we identified early on has been fixed.  The gap above the sliding door in the alfresco has been covered, but the bifolds, bathroom and ensuite window are yet to be done.

Sliding door

Paint!

This week there wasn't a large number of changes, but we saw a big difference in the house.

Garage

 

Garage

Garage

Garage

The first thing we noticed was that the garage door has been installed, but that was nothing compared to the next change...

Paint

 

Living/Dining

Entry

Pantry

Painting is well underway and it has completely changed the look of the house (for the better, of course!).  We can now really see the finished product coming together.

You can also see in the picture of the entry that the cornice above the door has been fixed.

Benchtops

Kitchen

Ensuite

Bathroom

Laundry

All the stone benchtops are in and they are looking great.

Like I said, this doesn't seem like much of an update, but the difference in the house is incredible.  It feels like the end is in sight!

Fixing Stage Complete

On Friday, three weeks after we were told fixing stage would be complete, we got the call saying the fixing stage is complete!  There were only a couple of visible changes when we visited the site yesterday, but it was the most encouraging progress we've seen in a little while.

Architraves & Skirting

 

Architraves and Skirting

Finally, the architraves and skirting are complete (and correct!)

Wardrobes

 

Bed 4 Wardrobe

Bed 4 Wardrobe

All the wardrobe doors have been hung, meaning all internal doors are now hung.

Facade

 

Facade

Cladding

The cladding on the facade in now underway, the first change in the facade that we have seen in a little while.

Eaves

 

Eaves

Portico

The ceiling under the eaves and portico has been started.

Cornice

 

Cornice

 

We noticed that some of the cornice above the front door has been ripped off; we'll see what the site supervisor has to say about it.

What it's all about

 

Because I can't resist...

Loves the new house!

Who's there?

The little guy came with us on Saturday, and had a ball running around the house!

Our first meeting with the Site Supervisor

Last Friday we had our first meeting with our site supervisor (SS), at the house.  I'm a bit concerned I've left this update too long as I don't really remember the details, but the crux of it was that we are very happy with the site supervisor and the meeting renewed our waning confidence in the process.  A great outcome for everyone.

The SS was friendly, professional and helpful.  We had a few concerns to raise with him, and he patiently went through all the issues.  Most were 'standard' things that will be fixed up in time, but we weren't to know and he was never condescending.  Some of the things we were assured were:

• The roofer will be back to do a pre-handover service and will fix the piece of raised colorbond.
• The window supplier will provide matching aluminum strips to be fitted above the windows and doors that have a gap between the window and the brickwork.
• The missing plaster in the garage will be fixed up before painting.

The SS told us that we will be finished in October, but says he can give a better estimate once the tiling has started.  We'd be happy with October, but happier still with September!

The week's progress seemed slow again, but there were a few new bits and pieces for us to see.

Bathrooms

Ensuite Shower

Bathroom Shower

The shower bases are in in the bathroom and ensuite.

Internal doors

Pantry Door

All the internal doors have been hung.  The picture above shows the pantry door, which was the most interesting of the doors.  We had chosen the Balmoral 2 doors for all internal doors except the pantry, which was to be a flush panel door, but a Balmoral 2 has been delivered and hung.  We spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about it and have decided to stick with the 'wrong' door.  At least it will match all the other doors!

Architraves

 

Living/dining architraves and skirting

The architrave saga continues.  Despite calling the site supervisor at 8am Monday morning about the mistake, the carpenters didn't get word that they were using the wrong architraves/skirting until they had completed the architraves and were well underway with the skirting.  The correct materials have been delivered, and the SS tells us it should all be fixed up by the end of this week.

Front door

 

Front door (external)

Front door (internal)

Our front door has been hung and it looks great.  The wrong deadbolt has been put on it (it should be square), but apparently that is an easy fix.  The door is yet to be painted, but we are very happy with the look - we've been hanging out to see it hung and it didn't disappoint!

Kitchen

We heard from our building coordinator that our kitchen was scheduled to arrive during the week, and that fixing stage should be finished by next Wednesday, so we were pretty excited to head out to the site yesterday.

Kitchen

The kitchen cabinets have been installed, and they look great.  We had such a small kitchen in our last house that we won't know what to do with all this storage space!  There should be a bulkhead above the overhead cabinets which isn't in yet.  We thought perhaps that this would happen later, but the cornice has been fitted all the way around, which seems a little odd.  We will check with the site supervisor next week what is going on with that.

Kitchen

Kitchen

Pot drawers

Island bench

 

We were pleased to see that the overhead cupboards had a spring-loaded opening mechanism.  We had opted for no handles on these cabinets, and were told that it meant that the door would extend a little lower than the cabinet to provide something to grip on to to, but the push in gadget is great (something we probably would have done if wee weren't told it would cost extra!).

Overhead cabinets

We are very happy with how the kitchen is looking.  We noticed that one of the pot drawers is slightly out of alignment, but otherwise it is great.

Pot drawers out of alignment

 

Bathrooms

The bathroom vanities have also been installed.

Ensuite (double) vanity

Bathroom vanity

 

 Laundry 

The laundry cabinets have been installed.

Laundry cabinets

The laundry cupboard now has doors.

Laundry cupboard

 

Doors 

 

Internal

Some of the internal doors have been hung; the theatre and ensuite, as well as the master bedroom double doors.

Theatre door

Master bedroom doors

The sliding doors for the bedroom wardrobes have been delivered.

Wardrobe doors

 

Front door

The (beautiful!) front door has been delivered.

Front door

 

Cornice and architraves

The cornice has been fixed throughout the house.

Rumpus room (cornice)

Door and window architraves have been started.

Theatre architraves

Laundry window archtraves

 

Alfresco

The alfresco ceiling has been plastered.

Alfresco ceiling

 

Fence

The fence posts for the west side fence are up.  If the weather had been kind the whole fence may have been complete by now, but the weather has been most unkind.

Fence posts

 

Heating and cooling

The air conditioning unit has been installed.

Air conditioner