Gas Log fireplace.

We had PD build a projection for a future fireplace.

After initially looking last year and only seeing one fireplace we liked, we decided to wait until this year and look again.

We have been to every home show and fireplace retail store we could find and decided on the original fireplace we liked last year.

We had a platform build to hold the heater and we had it installed a couple days ago.

Cutout for heater with plaster cut so we could minimise the re-plastering work.

The heater installers could not get the heater in place with the plaster cut so accurate, they needed to cut the extra plaster away to install the unit.

Here is the heater on, it heats the rooms beautifully, no need to use the central heating given we live in a couple of the rooms.

In the last photo you will see the power cord hanging out of the projection, the power inside the projection was not connected by the electricians before handover because they were not able to test the connection (hidden in the wall).  

The electricians came out on the day and fixed the issue, but I think it would of been informative for PD to let us now that any prewiring we had done would not be completed if they were not able to test the connection before handover.  

PD was really good about getting the electrician to contact us about this. I am not sure what would of happened if we have not done the heater for a couple of years and then found the problem, most likely we would have had to pay for an electrician to come and fix the problem.

All we need to do now is get it plastered and painted.

I think it looks great and it really sets the ambience in the room. 

Completed flooring and garden

We used black butt for our solid timber flooring.  The thing I really like about our floor is there is no quad around the walls.  It was a very long process getting the flooring done, but well worth it.  We were without flooring for about 4 months after moving in (we didn't get the builder to do the flooring, they don't do solid timber only floating floors).  We needed to have the skirting fitted and then both the skirting and walls painted/touched up.

The lawn was laid in April last year and I think it look great.

A couple days of rain and its so green, the only regret is not installing sprinklers before laying the grass.  Kikuyu Kenda Turf is a great lawn, we were told by the supplier that once it gets established it has low water requirements, but over summer we noticed that sections of the lawn dying. Installing the sprinkles would of made the maintenance easier. Over Summer it needed to be mowed every week, it is a very quick growing grass.

Twelve Month Inspection - and beyond

Sorry it been awhile since I updated the blog.

Lots of things are still happening, lots to do and then there is work.  The one thing that causes everything else to wait.

I will post so photo's of the finished floors, the lawn (Kenda Kikuku Turf) and other things we have been doing.

This post is able the twelve month inspection.

We had the same inspector from PW come and check the house, but PW would only book the inspection after we listed things that needed maintenance. Ok, not a problem until they then ask you to provide the exact location of each item and some instances they wanted photos. The inspector then checks the whole house anyway.  It just seems that PW is try to make it hard to get things done.

We still have outstanding items from handover that have not been completed.  I was required to provide photo's of these items again and was then told the inspector would review them when he visits.

We have had maintenance people there working on some of the items since the inspection and we are generally happy what has been done.

We have one window that does not open or close squarely, its quite obvious that its not square but the maintenance person was told (I believe) that if its closing without a problem then leave it.

We even have one double glazed door that has marking inside the double glazing and neither PW or the glazier will do anything about it. The funny thing is that to be considered a problem you need to be able to see the marks from (i think) 1.5 metres.  Thats not really a problem given you can see then from over 2 metres away.

Don't rely on the build to check the windows, I would suggest cleaning them yourself before handover and gets things fixed before final payment, thats the only way the build will listen!

We have some cracking in the mortar which runs through two bricks, will they replace the bricks? don't know, the inspector said he would speak to his supervisor.  Still have not heard back and its been almost a month.  Time to start ringing PW again.

Its been an interesting experience building our home, I would certainly would not take handover until all outstanding items were completed if I were to build again. 

We love our house, but dealing with the build has been slow and difficult at time.  I have no doubt that I was been a pain to them during this process, but given the money you spend on building, I don't believe you should close your eyes at the start of building and open them again when you are given the keys.

Three month inspection

We have just had our three month inspection.

I must say that is was a very pleasant experience, I thought we would be arguing about all the items we wanted addressed. The maintenance inspector from PD can in, looked at our list, looked though the house, identified a couple other items and added those to the report.

Now we wait for a maintenance crew to get allocated and all the items hopefully will be fixed on the same day.

Driveway Completed

We have finally had the driveway done.  We chose 'Balcombe' aggregate concrete from Mentone Pre Mix.

We have half of blinds installed, we decided not to get the ground floor blinds installed until the timber floors have been sanded and polished.

The shed should be delivered this coming week and I will put it up over Easter, we are also going to paint the fence, mostly likely we will go with charcoal in colour.

Start working on the gardens.

This is going to be a busy long weekend.

Timber Floors

The timber floors are currently getting installed, we went with Black Butt.

Here are a couple photos of the floor, I think it looks great.

Passage way

Close up of the floor.

Lighting and flooring

We have been busy in the house lately, we changed the lights in the kitchen and family rooms, added ceiling fans to the kitchen, family, alfresco, games and master bedroom. The ceiling fans have made a difference to the temp up stairs.

We put in LED downlights in the family room and passage. Replacing of the halogen globes with LEDs, the six globe light in the kitchen hanging over the island bench currently uses 300 watts, this will become about 36 watts or less depending how good the LEDs are.

The flooring has been started down stairs, the ply is currently getting laid, hopefully the floor boards are laid later this week.

After the floors are done, the blinds will be installed, they have being held until the flooring is finished.

We have starting planning the driveway, going aggregate (not sure what type). We are waiting for the concreter to get back to us with a couple reference sites so we can see the the different aggregates.

We have a garden design, it all starts with the driveway.

Fences

Now that the tradesmen are back from holidays we have been able to get thing moving on our house.

The fences are getting done at the moment, I think they look great.

We had an electrician doing some work changing lighting and putting in some ceiling fans.  The fans have made a big difference in the upstairs room temp.

We are getting some quotes for the driveway, looking at aggregate.

Next will be the garden design.

So many things to do.

Things to consider when taking ownership of your new house

Its been a while since I have posted an update about the house, this is mainly because when we moved I lost access to the net, waited for Telstra to connect the phone and then waiting for our ISP to transfer the ADSL connection.

During this time I have found and learn a few things about taking ownership of our home, the following are items to consider before taking final ownership.

1) on your final inspection, take window clean and clean all the glass doors and windows. Almost all the glass doors have scratches and I have had a few discussion with PD about changing them and still have to further discuss the issue.

2) Check above all the door and window frames, our home has gaps between the skirting and the plaster, before taking the house we could of requested PD fix the issue, now all they will do is fill and paint the gaps.

3) We have air coming in from the glass sliding doors, we temporarily used a light fabric to cover the windows and doors and we get lots of movement when all the doors and windows are closed.

We didn't have PD do the flooring , we had our carpet installed and we are very happy with the finished product.  The lines in the carpet are the vac marks, its not a patterned carpet.

The wife had her dressing room fitted out. She is in love with the dressing room.

 

Next we need to get the timber floors installed downstairs, have to wait until end of Jan before this can be done. The pantry will be fitted out after the floors have been done.

Once the inside of the house has been completed it will be time to start working on the outside.

So far everything we have done to the house looks great, we just love our new home.

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.