Its our home

We settled on the house yesterday.

We had debated about waiting for the couple of items to get completed before settling the house, but decided that settling gave as a couple weeks to get tradies to do things before they all stop for xmas.

The timber floors have been delayed until late Jan, so we can only partly move in.

Now the real work begins, we started last night by fumigating the house. Tonight we start cleaning.

So many things to get done :-)

Certificate of Occupancy

PD obtained the Certificate of Occupancy yesterday, we are now much closer to completion.
The bank has received the copy of the certificate so they can complete the processing of the final payment.

We have had our independent inspector do the Pre-Handover inspection, identified 32 items.

We still have not been given a completion date and the outstanding items are taking more time that we were hoping for, again we are waiting for PD.

Completed PCI

We had our PCI inspection today, interesting meeting.

We covered all our outstanding items and this time we could discuss the painting.  I must say that the SS made it a great experience. PD is trying to complete the house before the end of the month, it would be great if we could have the house by the end of the month, just not sure its possible.

Between the bank and PD, the timing of everything can be challenging. PD had a problem getting the certificate of occupancy due to water in the garage (brickwork had just been acid washed).  The inspector issuing the certificate rejected the house because of this.  The bank will not complete the paperwork for the final payment until they receive the certificate of occupancy.

The SS marked all problem areas in and around the the house, in all we had four pages (about 36 items) in total.  This is excluding the plastering/painting/brickwork issues.

Now its about getting the tradesmen back ASAP to fix the list of items.

PCI on Monday

We have been given a PCI date, this Monday.

This will be an interesting meeting, been told it usually takes around an hour.  We had a list of about 70 items from all our previous inspections that have not been addressed.

We are not sure that we should do a PCI given the outstanding list, but will discuss this with our SS on Monday.

We are finally getting close to completing to house. We even have the gas meter installed.

The gas fitters removed the termite barrier (green hose to the left of meter)

We have had some issues with the brick work and mortar, PD had the bricklayers out to fix the problem ereas.  The bricklayer said the colour difference in the mortar would not be noticeable after the acid wash.

This is the mortar colour after the acid wash, don't think its the same colour :-)

 The cracks in the mortar (one week after the window seal was fixed)

The brickwork still looks to short for this window seal

House - thieving continues

We passed the house this afternoon and guess what, we have had our external lights stolen.

The house on Saturday.

The house on Sunday - after lights were stolen.

The security (sensor) light on the side of the house

The container used to reach the sensor light.

House - Near completion

We went past the house and some more work has been done.

The garage doors have been installed, looks good.

The termite protection has been installed around the house perimeter except for the garage which is on the land boundary. I need to confirm if this is a problem.

Someone has moved the termite barrier to fix the problem with the slab being too short in some areas.  They have used an industrial grout to fix the problem and now the termite protection needs to be redone.

It's interesting the order things get completed. The slab being short was identified at our last independent inspection, months ago.  Now the termite protection has to redone because it was not addressed earlier in  the building process.

The range hood has also been installed.

House Update

Not much to report, the house is moving slowly.

The tiling has been finished,  mirrors have been fitted, site has been cleared.

Bathroom, the mirror look great.

Kitchen, RedBox splash back.

Powder room, this mirror goes to the ceiling. Its huge!

The site has been scrapped. 

The block behind us has started to build, just as we are finishing the process.

Painting - Photo's

Kitchen looking towards the front door

Kitchen

Family Room

 

Games Room

Doors from Kitchen facing Alfresco

Painting Completed

Spoke to the painters last Friday and they told us the painting was complete, so arranged a site visit, which we had yesterday.

The painting is interesting, we were told that you can only look at the walls at a 90 degree angle.

If you look at any other angle the painting does not appear consistent, but at the correct angle the paint looks great.  The doors have such a great shine, as do the door/window trims.

Next is the electrician, plumber and then the tiler.

The painter needs to come back and complete the garage once the plasters have finish.

Still waiting on the carpenters to come back and fix the garage as well as the brick layer who needs to replace some brickwork (bricks to short) around the doors.

Will upload some photo's when I get a chance.

Painting

Had a site visit this morning, the painters were on site doing preparation work.  All the plastering had been finished (garage and stairs).

At this stage of the building process the house appears to have slowed down, not sure it actually has, but is seems to take forever to get the house finished.

Two weeks (starting now) for the painter, then tilers followed by electrical and plumbing.

We are currently six weeks behind schedule, the house should be completed by the first week of Oct,  currently looking at mid to end of Nov.

Its a slow slow slow process............

Fix stage completed.

Had a meeting with the SS on Thursday, did a walk though of the home.  It is looking great. The fixing stage was almost completed, skirting missing from a couple of the rooms and was finished today.

Had a small water problem in the ensuite, the cleaner (cleaning the portable toilet) turned on the water and one of the taps in the ensuite was missing a plug and water went everywhere. Some of the plaster on the rumpus room now needs to be fixed. Not sure how the water got to the rumpus room. SS is going to wait until the water has dried out and then identify what has been damaged by the water.

Water everywhere in the ensuite

Water leaking into the games room.

Kitchen, one of the carpenters fitting a door.

Laundry.

Powder room.

Stairs, needs a frame and plaster.

House broken into ...

Went and had a look at the house last night, and the front doors were open.

Thought a tradesmen still working or forgot to lock up.

The door was kicked so hard it broke the piece of timber that had been screwed behind the door to secure it.

My wife drove passed in the morning and the door was open, so if no one was working on the house then it happened late Wednesday night or really early Thursday morning.

After trying to ring our SS and PD (no answer from either), decided to wedge timber under the door handles and exit the house from the garage door.

We are hoping that nothing was taken (kitchen has been installed), our SS will be checking today.

It is interesting that PD does not have a 24 hour contact number of things like this.


I hope however did it gets court and gets taught a lesson.

Photos - Kitchen and Stairs

Here is a photo of the kitchen and stairs.

Most of the kitchen is installed. Not sure I like the blockhead above the wall cupboards.  The kitchen needs a small adjustment in height (30mm) because of our flooring going in after handover. SS said this was easy to do.

Stairs are in, need to plaster between the upper and lower steps and plaster needs to be done behind the stairs (currently looking into the pantry).

I like the solid timber first step (not in photo), will need to stain it to the colour of our floors.

Need to get more photo's - if the opportunity presents its self.

Stairs and Kitchen

Spoken to the SS and have been told that the stairs have been installed and the kitchen will be installed today.

The fixout carpenter will be onsite either Wednesday or Thursday to fix the last couple of items in the house.

Things are starting to move quickly now, starting to count the days down until we move in.

Have a site meeting on Wednesday, will take some photos.

Plastering

The plastering has been started, here are some photo's, the house looks so different.

Rumpus room.

Family Room

Rumpus room door looking to front of house. 

Kitchen on left, family on right.

Future stair

Lounge room.

Study.

Games room.

Looking from the master bedroom down the corridor to the toilet.

Master bedroom.

Balcony door in master bedroom.

Garage Update - Conclusion

Had our site visit almost a one and half weeks ago, after which we decided that we were not happy with the conclusion.  Rang our CSC and asked to arrange a site meeting with the Construction Manager (CM). On Monday (we meet with the CM, SS and our new SS (YES we are getting a new SS). It appears that PD is going through SS's, this will be our third.

So even before we could discuss the garage, they had decided to remove the new pier (roller door could not be fitted) and remove the packing under the timber beams. We are extremely happy, the finish of the garage will be much better.

The timber structure holding the roof is held in place by metal strapping, its not free standing, which I thought it was, still the timber frame is not flush against the brickwork.
PD has agreed to seal the gap between the brickwork and timber beams to prevent the movement of air.

I must say that overall looking at all items that are outstanding, it was a productive meeting with the CM.

On the day of our site meeting with the CM, the plastering has started.

Garage Update - The fun continues

Been informed that PD need to add an additional Pier in the garage to support the roof. This has been done without my input, they just told me it has been done.

Ok, so here is my issue, the building plans were done by an engineer or draftsman so the number piers in the garage should be correct to support the roof.


So why would be need an extra pier, someone stuffed up. I am guessing that the roof trusts are wrong (just like in the trusts ordered for the rumpus roof) and instead of replacing them, PD has decided it would be cheaper to add the extra brick pier.

So what is the big deal, nothing except that
1) the garage for the Cremorne in not plastered,
2) the back roller door will not likely be able to be fitted,
3) the timber structure sitting on the brickwork holding the roof is not held in
    place by anything but the weight of the roof
4) Timber structure holding roof sits about 40mm from the back of the brick wall
5) Putting a extended Pantry in garage (added extra door from pantry to garage) and garage has insulation that is pointless since we have air flow between the brick work and the timber frame.

We meet with the SS on Tuesday for the next round of discussions. I could be wrong, but it appears the PD uses the Crisis Management style of management.  Surely someone thought to check that the roller door could still be fitted.

After our meeting on Tuesday will update on issues and we will see if I was right or wrong. On the weekend we are going for a drive around and having a look at some of the other PD homes that are being build to see if the garage is the same.

So how is the roller door going to be fitted between the the door and the NEW  EXTRA pier (230mm space).

The timber frame is not against the brickwork.  We will get air flow and therefore insulation is pointless.

You can see here that the roof trusts are short and an additional timber has been used to support the flushing on the roof.

Spacers have been added behind the timber.

Garage Update

The house has finally started moving again.

The downpipes have been fitted (except one over the garage roof), the roof of the garage has been installed, stacker door replaced and the framers have been working for fixing the outstanding issues.

 It is good to see progress.

Garage roof

Drove past the house and noticed that the roof trusts and guttering has been completed.

Balcony

The brick layers have done a great job building the balcony, we are having tiles in the balcony and therefore we have 2 large openings for the water to exit.  

PD has put the floor in the balcony, as you can see it does not look very nice.  You can see the ply and cement sheeting from the water exit points. I hope that when the tiler does the tiles this is covered be metal edging (like what they use between carpet and tiles).

It makes me think about fitting down pipes after handover to prevent the brick work being stained, the garden destroyed by the water runoff when it rains and to hide the look of this finish.

Why doesn't the carpenter build the floor so when the tiler does the tiles, it is flush with these exit points.  I think that this would of been a nicer finish.

Building, hmmm

I know that building a house is a complex task, but I would expect that people supervising the construction would be on top of everything.

Having said that, I can appreciate the complexity when you have multiple houses that you are supervising with owners all giving you things to fix and the business always pushing you forward to completion.

During a site visit I noticed that the waste from the ensuite was running between the floor joists, through the laundry and into a void in the powder room.  Currently the waste pipe in the laundry is just there, I believe we are missing a void to hide the pipes, this has been confirmed by our SS.

I am amazed that given we are about a week from plaster, this has not been noticed.  We are on our second SS, had two sets of framers, multiple inspectors/inspections and a set of owners that know the plans like the back of their hands and still this gets missed.

I am amazed and concerned that this might not be the only thing missed.

I again put the issue straight at the contract documentation. I went to the plans (section where they provide a view of each room in each direction) and found the only reference to the bulkhead.

The electrical plans, small plans, large symbols. When we had our electrical consultation the consultant places symbols on the plans to identify the locations of power points, light switches, lights, etc. The electrician then looks at these plans (and what ever else they use) to determine the exact location of each point. The location of these items can easily be addressed if wrong and fixed before plaster, but after plastering they become an problem.

Over several weeks we have identified position issues with the electrical. In this time we identified stupid things like light switches behind doors (previously posted about this), doors opening in different directions because we changed the options in a room (again fixed by CSC and SS), lights not centred in a room, passage lights not evenly spaced, prewiring for stair (wall) lights not centred and light switches further into a room that you would expect.

The SS has had the electricians out a couple of times to fix some of these problems, the rest are still to be addressed. I believe they will be further highlighted when the electricians completes their work, at which time we will have lots of small patches in the plaster. Some of these problems can't even be fixed without making large holes in the plaster, the passage lights need to be moved between a set of floor joists. I can only hope that all the items  identified can be addressed before plastering.

So the question is, who is responsible for checking everything against the plans? Ultimately I think the owners should be responsible given its their house being build, the problem with this is that you don't have access to the house during the complete building process. Therefore the owners and the SS will most likely be responsible for insuring the house is as expected.

Only time will tell

Clean Site

Went passed the house this morning and PD was having the site cleaned.

It looks so much better now :-)

 The garage roof joists have also been delivered.

House photo's without scaffolding

Here are some photos of the house.

I think it looks great.

You can see where the bricks have been cleaned.