House Update - 27 June 2008

Hi All,

Well it has been a couple of weeks since the last update and there has been a heap of things happening at the house.

So this will be a fairly substaintial update.

The tilers have been in and finished all of the tiling in both of the bathrooms, laundry and kitchen and did a great job.  It was amazing the transformation that the tiling being done made.  The ensuite in particular looks great - it only needs the shower screen and mirrors now to finish it off.  Bath 2 (the boys bathroom) looks really good as well. The tilers were really good and put up an extra rows of tiling in Bath 2 and the laundry so that the respective areas in the rooms looked even rather than unfinished as the original tile layout would have looked.

Again we were very lucky to have a couple of tilers that obviously gave a damn and had high standards in their work.

The electricians have also been in and fitted all of the electrical appliances (oven, range hood, IXL Tastics etc) as well as the lights, power points, exhaust fans and ceiling fans.  There are a couple of small things that will need to be fixed but nothing to0 big (eg fan switches fitted up side down etc).

The gas plumbers have also been in and this is the only real drama of the build so far.  We went for the top of the range Rennai instantaneous hotwater system with a control pad located in the ensuite to control the temperature of the water throughout the house.  As the hotwater system was to be mounted on the side of the house where we wanted the maximum clearance to get a car down the side of the house to the rear garage, we paid the additional money for a recess to be embedded in the wall of the house (by cutting out the external bricks) and the system being mounted inside the recess with a cover that sat on a few centimentres off the wall.  Unfortunately when the gas plumbers installed the system they not only mounted the system too low in the recess so that the exhaust vent did not line up with the hole in the external cover - they also melted the whole bottom of the recess when using the oxy torch to hook up the copper pipes - even though there was a big sticker inside the recess saying to take caution when heating pipes !!!  Then you would have thought that the plumbers would have stopped what they were doing and let the site manager know what they had done - but no, they finished the job, put insulation on the pipes, placed the cover on and left.

To make it even worse, the electrician came along to install the power point for the hot water system which was meant to be fitted in the recess but because the unit was installed too low in the recess they did not have room to fit the power point - so instead of contacting the site manager and letting him know that the unit was incorrectly fitted and that the recess was damaged - they too simply finished the job by mounting the power point on the wall of the house outside the recess.

Then I came along the next day and found both of the cock up’s, took photo’s and emailed them to the builder who had no idea that anything was wrong until I told them.  I’m sorry … but I really don’t think that it shows a great level of professionalism on either the gas plumber or the electricians part.  This was particularly disappointing as every other contractor to date has been great and has taken real pride in thier work.

Needless to say, the hotwater system has since been removed, the recess replaced and everything refitted how it was supposed to be in the first place - and NOT at our expense.

In the last week, the pavers have been delivered and the bobcat has been in to prepare the driveway area and spread the sand ready for the paving guys to come in and lay the paving. 

Other things have also been done like the doors fitted to the linen cupboad, the plumber has been in and installed the two toilets, the shower hardware and all of the taps throughout the house.  The brickie has been back to remove and replace some bricks that holes were drilled in when the outside taps were mounted in the wrong place.

Another plumber came in today and installed the trafficable drain in front of the garage as well as the soakwell that it runs into.

A couple of things that have made a real change to the look of the front of the house is the rendering under the front windows and the fitting of the garage door.

Besides the paving, the only things that really need to be done now is the fitting of the shower screens and mirrors in the bathrooms and final coats on the internal painting and the external painting.

We can’t believe that we are only effectively a couple of weeks off practical completion and about three to four weeks off handover. The whole build to date has really gone pretty smoothly which is a credit to the site manager, Graham.  Since lock up there has been very fews days where something has not happened at the house and most of the time there has been multiple contractors there working around each other - this indicates to me that Graham is a pretty good project manager.

In the past couple of months we have chosen and confirmed the order for the blinds, had the ducted airconditioning designed and ordered the units etc and chosen the paint colours for the internal walls.  The plan is to have the blinds fitted the day after handover so that the house does not look empty, then have the airconditioning installed (will only take a day), then the painting (Dad and Chris are coming over from Tassie to help with that) and then the floor coverings.  The hope is that all of this will only take 2 to 3 weeks and then we can move in.

Anyway, it is all getting really close now, so hopefully there will not be too many more building updates to post - then the posts will be about making the new house into a home for Cameron, Brock, Zac, the girls, Rusty, Enid and I (and the chooks that Enid wants).

 Enjoy the photo’s and leave us some feedback …

Cheers

D&E and the boys