Showing posts with label Laundry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laundry. Show all posts

Tuesday, 16 October 2012

PCI

Yesterday we finally had our Practical Completion Inspection (PCI).  It went reasonably well; our private inspector also attended and found no major problems.  I have made a separate post which details the progress since the last time we were in the house here.

The inspector's list of defaults (summarised):
  • Concrete floor of the garage dirty (paint stains, blobs of mortar and plaster etc)
  • No draught weather seals to the front door
  • Door handles on the bi-fold doors scratched and acid stained
  • Outer edge of the timber door sill between the garage and house was chipped
  • East side of the capping at the top of the rendered column at the front porch was not fully painted
  • Paint on the aluminium in-fill above the bi-fold doors was scratched
  • Paint on the glass panels of the front door
  • Down pipe on the south-east corner is dented
  • Surplus mortar on the brick sills on the west side of the house
  • Holes around waste pipes in the ensuite vanity were not completely covered
  • Gap between laundry trough cabinet has not been caulked
  • Dents in laminate of laundry cabinet
  • Laundry cabinet doors not flush
  • Sliding wardrobe doors not fitted
  • Mark in vanity shelf in ensuite
  • Joins in largest pantry shelf not flush
  • Interface between toilet and floor tiles in the ensuite has not been caulked
  • Painting: general paint touch ups required
Additional things that we spotted:
  • Missing power point for alarm box
  • Alarm keypad in the wrong place
  • Missing roller bolt from front door*
  • Missing solar panel
  • Kitchen drawers out of alignment
  • Bedroom wardrobe door runner needs replacing (this is why the inspector had cause to note that the wardrobe door was not fitted)
  • Lots of paint touch ups
  • Meter box wrong colour
All of the above are going to be addressed.  Estimated handover is next Wednesday, the 24th of October!  The site supervisor expects that everything will be done by Monday except for the bifold door hande (which will need to be replaced) as the manufacturer's maintenance department is typically a bit slow.

*We were pretty keen on the roller bolt for the front door; basically we wanted something to hold the door shut if we just run out to the letterbox without having to lock the door, as there is no latch (just a pull handle and a deadbolt).  We pushed for it at contract, and were told that we were definitely getting something to that effect, but it was written into the contract for our peace of mind.  At the time we were skeptical that the person we were dealing with really understood what we meant or what was involved, but as long as it was in the contract we were happy.  Of course, there is no roller bolt on the door, but as it is written in the contract they need to work something out for us.

Part two of what we wanted for the door was a hydraulic closer, as it is a very heavy door and we have little fingers in the house.  We were told that although the door supplier does make one for our door, it was not an option with Porter Davis.  We resigned ourselves to adding something after handover, which won't look as nice as the integrated option (and we'll have to organise it ourselves) but will have the same effect.    What does this have to do with PCI?

Our supervisor says that a roller bolt isn't a good option for us, as it will need a large striker plate that will extend past the edge of the door.  However, a hydraulic closer may provide the resistence we are after for the door.  So the supervisor is going to look in to our options in that regard.

Monday, 10 September 2012

Tiles

We're at the business end now!

Tiles


On Saturday we arrived at the site to find the tilers working.  It looked like they had just started, with a couple of dozen tiles laid in the ensuite and laundry.  We didn't stick around long because we had the little guy with us and we didn't want to get in their way but did get a peek at the tiles.

Piles of tiles
Tiles waiting...

The tiles had been distributed through the house.

Laundry from outside
Laundry from inside
There were two guys working, one in the ensuite and one in the laundry.  We were actually lucky they were there, as for the first time our 'secret' entrance was locked (presumably to protect the tiles which would have been conveniently packaged for a thief to make off with).  It was also nice to see them working on a Saturday, as it gives me the impression they are keen to get the job finished.

Waterproofing


The showers and bath have been waterproofed in preparation for tiling.

Bathroom Shower
Bath

Painting


Obviously, to get to this point the internal painting has been completed.

Painting finished

With the tiling underway, we hope that our site supervisor will be able to give us an estimated completion date soon.  When we met with him a few weeks ago he told us that once the tilers give an indication of how long they will take he books in the rest of the trades and have a good idea of our 'best case scenario' completion.  So we're hanging out to hear from him this week.

Sunday, 29 July 2012

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

Sunday, 24 June 2012

Completed Frame

We were invoiced for our frame on Wednesday, so we took that as an indication that it was done.  Yesterday we drove out to check it out, and it was very exciting!  Windows, sliding doors and (glassless) bifolds were in, which we weren't expecting, so that was a bonus too.

Our independent inspector had been out in the morning.  We haven't seen his report yet, but we did notice some pink paint indicating some issues.  We'll know more once we see the report, but hopefully they are not difficult fixes.

We noticed an issue too, many of the door frames are the standard size, not the increased height that we had upgraded to.  This is a bit disappointing, as we noticed that the plans only showed some of the door frames at the increased height, and we questioned it at our final drawings meeting where we were told it didn't matter that it wasn't on the drawings.  Well, apparently it did matter, because only the marked doors have been upgraded.  We have checked the contract and we have definitely paid for the upgrade so we will raise it with them tomorrow.

I took a billion photos, so here is a pictorial tour of sorts.

The front



Front
Front (master bedroom/WIR)
Front (garage)
Garage

Portico

Internal

 

Master bedroom

 

Master bedroom
Master bedroom
WIR
Ensuite
Ensuite (shower niche)
Ensuite (WC)

Theatre

 

Theatre

Study

 

Study
 

Family

 

Family (Living)
Family (Kitchen)
Family (Living)
Family (Kitchen)
Family
Family (Meals)
Pantry

Bathroom/WC

 

Bathroom (from family)
Bathroom
Bathroom (shower niche)
WC

 

Rumpus

 

Rumpus
Rumpus
Rumpus

Bedrooms

 

Bed 2
Bed 3
Bed 4

 

Laundry 

 

Laundry
Laundry

External

 

Rear

 

Rear
Rear
Rear
Alfresco