Sunday, 16 August 2015

Week 27 - Flooring and Handover date.

Finally we have progress!

Our flooring was completed and they look fabulous! absolutely impressed with them.

As with all laminates there is a bit of repetition in the flooring pattern, but because the detailing is quite subtle, its less noticeable.

It is very comfy underfoot too, the upgraded underlay to a tyre composite works a treat... feels like real timber!

We also have the exciting news of our handover date which is the 25th of August.

They have their work cut out this week to get things finalised but fingers crossed.

Parador Trendtime 1 Black Butt





Tuesday, 4 August 2015

Week 26 - Pictures


I was fortunate to be able to walk into the house as it was unlocked... Nothing is happening until next week... I was able to spend time looking at things that need to be fixed prior to handover.


All the shower screens, fixtures are installed, our electrical items are complete (except for the pendants in the kitchen and CCTV cameras)

Got the electrician to lower the pendant slightly.


Powder Room

Ensuite




Powder Room Shower


Main Bathroom Shower
Splash Back installed.

Media Box for modem, data cabling, phone point and Cable TV to roof

3 in 1 Martec - these are great!

Powder Room Shower



Our latest dramas! where to put the security screens!



Week 26 - Waiting... Delays

Drama after drama after drama.

First Drama
I knew our timber stacker door was wrong, I should have spoken up earlier, its only come to my SS now.

When you order your Timber Stackers, you have to ask prior to manufacture if you wanted extra tracks to be fitted onto the timber framing for flyscreens and security screens..(this is asked in your contract).. We opted for this so we could have it seamless rather than have it retrofitted on later on... this obviously costs money...

Now the issue is, plantation never notified stegbar about getting these additional tracks added before the stackers arrived.

The option is to retrofit them on the outside which is probably the easiest option, but it does look ugly cos its not actually built into the frame.

Or Remove the whole door, retrofit the tracks in and build in back into the frame with achitraves, screens will be internal of the house...

Obviously the second option will be more troublesome but its going to achieve the best look but it will cause delays...

Second Drama

As I spoke before, there was a delay in our flooring... Our floors were suppose to be done in Week 25, but are not due to come in the 12th of Aug.

So all the final touches with painters and plasterers will be delayed until after that... So now plantation is asking for an extension of time for the delays as our contract date is 20th of August. I think they will be asking for 12 more days to complete works...

In essence our build process has suffered weeks of delays.

There was probably nearly 1.5 months of nothing mostly in waiting for bricklayers and painters. A few of those days were very bad wet weather in april...




Monday, 27 July 2015

Week 24 - Fit off (Electrical / Plumbing)

The painters are all done and I'm pretty happy overall with the paint job... There's a few touches that need to be done up but I'm sure once all the other trades have come through theyll get back to it.

All the timber work has been stained and looking fabulous. I think the pantry doors a still a bit unfinished

The plumbers have installed all the tapware, toilets and hot water systems.

Electrical fit off is nearly complete - Most lights have been installed, air conditioning done

Carpenter still needs drill all the fittings/fixtures and door handles.

I'll hopefully be able to spend some time checking all the paint work and identifying issues that need fixing before handover




We have light! Amazing Value LED lighting


Niche for Water and power

waiting on our island pendants, they sent the wrong ones

Garage door installed, facade complete

55cm Peeta Pendant, needs to be adjusted slightly lower




Hills Security Installed

Master bedroom


Paintwork complete

Black Glass Gas Cooktop
Daikin Multizone Unit

Ducted airconditioning - massive unit





Ensuite
Bathtub

Thursday, 16 July 2015

Week 23 - Painting

Finally the painters have started putting their first coats on, they have started staining all the timber doors.

After that the electrician, plumber and fixtures can be installed to finish off the house...

We ran into a few late issues...

1. I happened to come across some "Builder Plans" in our house. The design of the portico was completely different from what the final result is as below... Initially the plaster was suppose to be recessed in behind the facade wall. In the end the porch is full brick work over the doorway

Image
Our ugly portico


Basically, the metal frame work that was holding the bricks of portico up was exposed and they "stuck on" some plaster, which I assume they will paint. The final result looks far from nice or luxurious as they quote to be, they will need to finish it off better... Ill need to talk to my SS about it.


2. Our flooring - Trendtime blackbutt 1 - is completely out of stock, was initially suppose to be laid down on the 23rd of July, but at this stage, stock will only arrive on the 12th Aug!

They offered a change or an upgrade to anything else in the range, but we really like it and want to stick with it. 

I used the opportunity to upgrade our laminate underlay, which was initially quoted $2000+ but because of this they will do it at cost for $865! Which is pretty amazing.
The product is a 3mm rubber acoutic underlay from the UK called instalay. http://www.instafloor.co.uk/products/instalay.aspx

Otherwise the first coats of paint were done and the initial timber stain. Hopefully will be completed this week so the rest of the fit off can occur next week.

Image

Image

Monday, 6 July 2015

Week 22 - Absolutely nothing!

We have had a fun couple of weeks of absolutely nothing.... Our painters were delayed again and are only planning to start this coming Wednesday 9/06.

This left basically no action on the home for 2.5 weeks!

Our contracted handover time is 20/08/15. So that gives just over 40 days to finish the home...

In the mean time, lighting illusions had there EOFY sale, I have manage to purchase all our LED lighting, cieling fans for bedrooms, 3 in 1 heater lamps for bathrooms and external lighting.

I still need decide on our pendant lighting before the electrician arrives in 2 weeks.

Thursday, 18 June 2015

Week 19 - Fixing Completed

The tiler has completed his work, most of the stone has arrived, they measured our ensuite stone incorrectly...

Painters have been booked in next week as the plasterer was finishing off today.

Unfortunately we are looking at delaying our handover to early August. Apparently there is a large trade shortage in SE Qld, plus plantation are building over 250 more homes than the previous year... Ah well...



Abey Undermount sink - I chose for the stone to over hang - this prevents water from being trapped and mould




Lunar white bench top 40mm

Laundry with subway tiling!



Powder Room


Lunar White bench top close up

Finger Mosaic - gaps will be filled with silicon

Main Bathroom sink - Polar - more stones visible compared to downstairs


Ensuite Niche

Still unstoned!