Cabinets, Carpets and More!

We went to "Western Distributors" this morning, and after looking at Carpet Call, Carpet Choice, Carpet Court and Floorworld (and then drove to Maceys), it was FANTASTIC. It is a big warehouse with rolls and rolls of carpet. You are free to look at all of the rolls and the guys with forklifts will pull out a roll in 5 seconds flat. They have a smallish showroom with displays (like the stores), but most of that carpet is "order only". We found a carpet in the showroom that we had gotten a quote for at Floorworld - $200/lm at Floorworld, $140/lm at WD. Now that's a BIG difference for the exact same carpet (Signature, Today series). They do have seconds carpets, some with shading, some "pile reversal" others are water damaged (they all say why they are seconds) and they start at about $39/lm - fantastic for if people are putting carpet into a rental property, or we did look at one with some minor shading that would have been ok as we don't have joins in the rooms, so if one end is slightly lighter/darker than the other you wouldn't be able to tell - but hubby didn't like the colour. We ended up putting a deposit on carpet that is perfect! It is an end of the line roll of first quality carpet by Redbook (100% nylon) called Interior Charm. It has a mixture of cut and loop pile in a fairly fine square-like pattern. Their regular price was $125/lm (which was cheap), but being last remaning carpet (they had 2 rolls, one was 19m, the other 16m) it was being sold for $99/lm. The colour was PERFECT! Also their laying charge was $20/lm, where as we had been quoted at some places $50/lm! And I think they are quite willing to travel a fair distance (but will add a surcharge). All up we have carpeted our sitting room, master, WIR, bed 2 and bed 3 for $2600 with the best foam underlay. This is compared to the cheapest quote from a store of $3400 for lesser quality carpet and underlay in a similar look. We are totally wrapped! We paid 1/3 deposit to hold it, another 1/3 is due when we book the laying, and balance due on the day of laying - and they said they could hold the carpet for up to 3 months (not that we - fingers crossed - need that long). In addition to carpet, they have a showroom for tiles and hard floorings, and their prices were the best I had seen for stack-stone @ $77/m2.

They are located at 234 McIntyre Road Sunshine North. Their hours are Mon - Fri - 8:00am to 5:30pm Sat - 8:00am to 1:00pm. Well worth a look!

On the home front, our plaster had been finished, the architraves and skirtings have been put on, the doors are hung (including our sikkens which look awesome), the kitchen and cabinetry has been installed (minus the ceasarstone top which is still being made), and the tiles may have been delivered yesterday (I didn't check). The porta-loo has also been taken away - without the toilets being installed so I pity the poor tradies that have to come there now!

Front as at 21/2:

Kitchen Cabinets - rear view:

Kitchen Cabinets - side view:

Kitchen Island Bench:

Butlers' Pantry Benchtops:

Bathroom Cupboard:

Ensuite Cupboard:

Kitchen (view in the Family room window) with skirtings, architraves and sikkens door to entry:

Master Bedroom Doors:

It's all coming together well. Now we just need to organise concreting (driveway and paths), curtains/blinds (which we have had a quote for $6000 for - no thanks!!!), fencing and after we move in - letterbox.

WOW - A lot has happened in the last 2 weeks!

I wasn't too sure I would ever utter those words after all the delays we've had, but things are really getting a move on! Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is yet to be decided... of course nothing goes smoothly!


First step was Jan 31 - our spa bath was installed! Looks great may I add. It came complete with warning sticker stating that trying to remove the spa will result in permanent structural damage - so theves be warned! There was also a HUGE pile of plaster board stacked in the kitchen/dining/family. I have never seen so much plaster in my life!









On Monday Feb 4th most of the plaster had been hung - including all of the ceiling throughout. This was great visually, but it posed a slight problem... our roof wasn't sealed! There were still "guard rails" up in 4 places around the house - above the garage on the boundary, above the laundry and bathroom, at the very rear of the house above the back wall of bedroom 3, and above the dining room door - amounting to 11 poles/missing tiles. The site supervisor was aware of the issue and had contacted the people responsible for removing it following our initial meeting on site, and again on Jan 30. There was also the remaining part of the roof tiles missing from behind the brickwork of the portico. We were desperately hoping for NO RAIN!!








I went around to the house on Tuesday (5th) and found that the remainder of the plaster board had been hung (basically all that was left the day before was the top half of most of the walls). Was looking good apart from a few spots that I took photos of so that I have reference later in case it doesn't come up to standard finish.


But Melbourne being Melbourne, it rained! Wednesday (6th) it rained for about an hour from about 9am. It wasn't particularly heavy, but it was drenching. I hoped that the guard rails were being taken down - or they had been there and already done it! After work (approx 4:30pm), I drove around and my heart sank as I drove up seeing the guard rails still there. I stopped outside to ring Matt, and as I did our site supervisor drove up, so I hopped out in the hope that he might get out and have a quick chat, and sure enough he offered to take me inside. When I went inside I was quite shocked at the amount of water that was pooled on the sitting room floor (in the front corner closest to the garage). It was equivalent to about 1/3 the size of the room, and it had obviously either ran down the walls or dripped from the ceiling. There was some lesser damage in the master bedroom in the corner closest to the front door - both locations being where there were missing tiled behind the portico brickwork. There didn't appear to be any visible signs of water in the locations below the guard rail poles (missing tiles), but this is no guarantee that there has been no damage.


Sitting room corner:



Master bedroom corner:

(evidently also a good spot to eat lunch?)



Following this visit, it showered rain at about 7:30pm for approx 30 mins, and by 10pm it was raining quite heavily again - for at least 30 mins, if not longer (I went to bed).


Today it rained AGAIN at about 12pm (midday) for approx 20 mins, and on my visit tonight I found that finally the guard rails had been removed (horray!) but that the tiles behind the portico were still missing (where most of the water had been coming in!). There were visible water run marks in both corners mentioned/shown above, with the sitting looking much the same, but the master with a lot more water today, so we will be insisting that the plaster work in those corners be pulled out and re-done. We would also like to have a written argeement upon settlement that if any future problems arise due to water damage in the "guard rail" areas, that they will rectify these also.

And now for the EXTREMELY humourous, but frustratingly annoying issue of our ensuite tap.


During the contract stage (following our "contract meeting", but before signing off) we asked if the ensuite spout/outlet could be moved from the front corner on the left (in front of the headrest), to the back corner (behind the headrest). On the final day that changes could be made (according to them) they emailed Matt the variations and drawings to say that it had been moved (which we overlooked the fact that they had moved both spout/outlet AND mixer tap to the rear) which had to be signed immediately and faxed back. So sure enough later that day we realised that they had moved both the mixer and the outlet and we contacted them but the response was "too bad, we can't change anything else". So, last week they installed the mixer tap on the wall (well, the capped point) and we could see that the location was just rediculous - I can't even reach it from the front of the bath, so would have to get into the spa to turn it on.


When I met with the site supervisor on the 6th (by accident) I mentioned the fact to him that we really wanted it changed to the closest side, and he then said "here is where the outlet will go" - pointing to the closest corner. I then said "No! That is where it was on the original plans, but we wanted it moved over to the back corner, but we wanted the mixer to stay here on this side" (or words to that effect). He then kind of said "oh" and said he would ask the plumbers/Metricon and do his best but no promises.



On going tonight they have infact installed the capped outlet on the closest corner of the spa - with the mixer on the rear side out of reach! Talk about stuffed up! They should be in the opposite places! If anything, according to the final variation we signed off on, they should both be on the rear/far side, so the outlet is now DEFINITELY in the wrong spot and they will have to move it to the far side, but whether they move the mixer or not will prove whether they are a reasonable, customer friendly company... stay tuned!





Oh, and lastly, it looked like our bricks were cleaned today. They looked wet, so hopefully they dry and come up GREAT!