When...? That is the question.

Matt spoke to our site supervisor Wednesday (weekly phone call) and during the conversation it came up about our finishing date... Matt asked if it would be by middle of next month (April) and he replied that we was hoping that it would be before then (YAY!!!!!). So then Matt asked if it would be by the end of this month, considering they are starting the painting at the moment and should be done by mid week, then tiling and fit offs and it's basically finished - bar the inspections. He said that it may not be that quick with this month having 3 short weeks (Labour Day + Good Friday + Easter Monday) but somewhere start of April! That means we have 4-6 weeks before we are moving - HOORAY!!!
Better start getting some boxes!

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!

Bricks are FINISHED!!!

Yesterday (Friday) was the last days our brickies worked onsite. After the bricks were delivered, they were straight back to work, and finished the front and window sils yesterday. I drove around in the morning to check out how much was left and I got out quickly and had a chat to the brickie - just to ask when they would be finished, and thank them for doing a fantastic job. We are extremely pleased - considering we were so worried about the bricks being the wrong colours, they have done a TOP job blending them.

We also have the insulation installed, and the wiring all done ready for plaster.

Still progressing inside

2 new pallets of our bricks were delivered late Tuesday. Bricking re-commenced today... I will post again when the bricks are done (with photo).
Insulation to the external walls and part of the roof was installed yesterday too.

All cleaned up...

Ok, take a good long look. Notice anything? Well, make that do you notice anything missing? Yes that's right, we have had a site clean. What's that? Oh yes, and the brickwork on the portico isn't finished. Does anyone see the bricks they are going to use? Anyone?

Ok, enough with the sarcasm. Saturday we drove past at about midday to find 2 guys doing the site clean. We noticed the nice neat pile of empty pallets in the corner of the block but a distinct lack of left over bricks. We had asked "site supervisor" ages ago (just after we started) and we had been instructed that whatever left over bricks would be piled for us and kept - same with the roof tiles. The roof tiles were still there when we arrived so we were able to save them, but the bricks had been dumped into the skip just before we arrived (damn it!). Matt had a chat to one of the guys cleaning up and he said he had been instructed to just clear the lot. He said that normally there are 1 or 2 pallets that don't get opened and they leave them, but all of our pallets had been opened (to blend them properly) which meant that there was only the bottom layer of bricks remaining on each pallet - so they thought they were all to go. We wanted the left over bricks to be able to build a matching letterbox etc, which I mean - it isn't exactly the end of the world - but more worrying is the fact that there is now a total of 10 bricks left to brick the remainder of the portico... Being a Saturday we immediately tried ringing Metricon but no one was available to take our call, so first thing Monday Matt rang and explained that we now had no bricks left to finish the house. They said they would get back to us but we haven't heard as yet (I imagine they are running around trying to figure out what the heck they do!). I guess if worst comes to the worst we will get Metricon to render the front portico for us, but that's a catch 22 cos I don't particularly want render. Maybe we could get stacked stone out of them? I mean, we aren't really stressing cos it isn't our mistake - I just want the bricks they come up with to match otherwise it will be costing them more than we were charged to upgrade to those bricks.

We are guessing the problem lied with the sidelights - if they had been delivered on schedule the brickwork would have been well and truly finished... so someone has obviously ordered the site clean ages ago and forgot to postpone it when the work wasn't done.

Last Friday we met with "site supervisor". He was lovely and very friendly. He was happy to answer all of our questions and show us everything - including the 2 points that didn't pass their QA assessment. Both have now been rectified. He also told us to go through and check all the electrical points as the wires and wall plates were fitted. There was one issue with a double powerpoint in the ensuite to the left of the vanity. Due to the sliding cavity door the point can't go on that wall, so it was either scrap the while powerpoint (leaving one double p.p in the ensuite) or relocate it into the left hand side of the vanity under the bench - which we have opted for. He told us that bricking should have been finished today (which was hard for the brickies as there were no bricks!), the lock up carpenters were going in to fix up ready for plaster later this week. He said depending on which "team" he was allocated for plaster it may take them 5 days, it may take 2 weeks. He said the painters may then take 2 weeks, then flooring and fittings (cupboards, etc) (? goodness knows how long)then 4 weeks of checks and fix ups, then handover. His generous estimation was 12 weeks, but if things can be kept moving we may be in in 8-10 weeks? Wishful thinking I know.

He has said he was happy to meet with us each week if we like as he only lives 10 mins away and can be there at 7.30am if need be (which we might have to do with Matt and me leaving for work at 8am).

Here is my mock up of what it should look like when the top bricks are finally finished:

Now where are those bricks going to come from? ...

A front door and more

As of yesterday (14th Jan) everyone was back to work - as far as our house was concerned anyway. We paid a visit on Saturday to see whether anything had been done over the holidays and discovered that the sidelights had been delivered on the 2/1/08 and were laying in the sitting room waiting to be installed.

On arriving there today, we found that the correct sidelights had been delivered (YAY!!) along with the matching front door.

Was it worth it??? If you had have told me that we wold have had to wait 2 months for them I probably would have said "don't worry about them - we'll take the standard..." but they look awesome don't you think? They will be painted "goanna" (bristol) - which is a mid brown.

There have been doors put on the rear of the garage, and the access door to the garage from the house, so we figure a lock up payment is looming. The front door wasn't locked so we had a sneaky peak inside, and found that internal cavity doors (both ends of the butlers' pantry, the ensuite and the back passage) had been installed, presumably ready for plaster?

We also found that the shower bases (that go under the tiles) had been installed, as had the bath in the bathroom.

As you can see on the external pic, the brickies have made their return, and have completed to the left hand side of the front door, with the right hand side and the top of the portico still to be done.

Dare I say (well, it's only my estimate) we could be in in March? For school holidays please? Sooner would also be GREAT!