Update on Builder's Variations

We received the builder's variations and updated plans yesterday.

The variation to the staircase was due to head height restrictions on the bottom few treads. By removing one stair, they were able to fix that up. Unfortunately they aren't able to send us colour schematics of the updated staircase, and it is quite a big upgrade so it would have been nice to see.

The alteration to WIR1 of the Master Bedroom doesn't appear to be too much of a big deal. They have had to extend the void that backs on to WIR1 by 35mm, and the amount of space we're losing to our shelf width is 15mm.

We've signed and submitted the variations and updated plans. Let's hope the end result is ok, especially on the stairs!

That doesn't look right!

Here are a few pics of things we thought looked wrong (or strange):

The Bones of the House...

At our recent rough-in walk-through we were able to take some decent photos of the inside of the house. Here they are:

Temporary front door

Roof trusses wtih roof tiles laid

Evaporative cooling and ducted heating vents

Roof over rear of house

 Frame for Ensuite spa bath

 Insulation bats ready to be installed

Theatre Room with sound insulation installed 

Fireplace provision 

Gyprock delivered 

Cornices delivered 

Looking from rear of house to front door 

Master Bedroom insulated 

Frame for tub in Bathroom

 Ducted Vacuum piping

There's lots more, but it's hard to know where to draw the line. These pics should give a good idea of what stage we're at.

Bricks

Bricking has started and it's already looking really good. The colour of our brick was Brown Terrain and we liked it from the beginning because of its warm brown colour, and also because the smoothness of the brick looked modern, but also homely.

We are really happy with the colour coming through from the bricks. Hopefully once they're cleaned up they'll look even better.

Bricks delivered and ready to go



More bricks



Half way up the bottom floor. Not bad for a few days' work

Rear of house

Rear of house and Alfresco area getting bricked up

Alfresco area

Bricks in the sun

Pre-Plaster Inspection

Our Pre-plaster Inspection took place on Thursday. We managed to get out there and meet with our inspector.

The inspection seemed to have gone quite well, and the inspector said that, on the whole, he was impressed with the quality of the construction.

There were a few things he identified in his report though. He said that they were things that needed to be fixed, but weren't too serious.

He also checked on the oustanding items from the Frame Stage Inspection. There were a few things that hadn't been fixed up, which was quite disappointing. And all of the items that were concerned about (detailed in the previous post) had not been fixed up.

Here are the items that were identified at the Pre-plaster Inspection:

Outstanding Items from Frame Stage Inspection:

• The polyethylene vapour barrier beneath the concrete slab has not been turned up the external side faces of its edge beams prior to them being back filled up against, which will allow moisture ingress via slab edge dampness into the internal timber wall skins and/or the floor coverings.
• The edges of the floor slab have not been correctly boxed up prior to being poured, which has resulted in it protruding out past the pine wall frames.
• The tails of the bottom jack rafters are unsupported and the fascia that is fitted to them is non-structural and therefore have no capacity to pick up and/or support them. The ends of these rafters must be properly supported off the framework.

New Items from Pre-plaster Inspection:

• The concrete slab has been cut through and the pipework for the Powder Room has been moved up to approximately 300mm. This work should have required an inspection by the Builder Surveyor on the reinstatement of the mesh prior to being repoured.
• The chipboard sheet flooring to the first floor to within the areas from the WIR2 across the house to Bed3 have not been supported at the joins and do not contain the plastic tongues between them to support these joins.
• Various sections of the house where piping is <10mm out of plumb, and this is outside the tolerance level of the relevant building standards.

We've sent the Report on to our CLE and are waiting for their response.

We've also requested copies of the inspection certificate and reports that were done by Carlisle's inspectors as our inspector has suggested.

Let's hope they agree to fix everything.

Frame Stage Inspection Outcome

Carlisle agreed to fix all of the defects that our inspector identified at the frame stage inspection.

Our SS advised that all items would be rectified prior to plastering the walls. There were three things in particular that were concerning us, mostly because they had the potential to cause structural defects in the next few years.

One of the items was that the foundation had not been trimmed back to the timber frame correctly, which can cause drainage issues as water collects in the timber frame.

The second item was that the vapour barriers had not been placed correctly, which again could lead to moisture building in the frame. This also affects the termite barrier, which also needs to be fixed up.

The third item was the gas piping that was placed incorrectly prior to brickwork being done, which could lead to inadequate drainage and build up of excessive moisture.





We had booked in a Pre-plaster Inspection with New Home Inspections, and they confirmed that they would check that all items identified during the Frame Stage Inspection would also be checked on, to make sure they were rectified.

Our Pre-plaster Inspection was done later that week...

House Wrapped Up

The house was wrapped last week, which is comforting because the cabling and insulation were to be done during the week, and the weather forecast wasn't looking too good.

In fact, we've had a good run with the weather. It's been cold, but mostly dry.

Some pics of our wrapped up house:

 

Roof, Heating & Cooling

The roof tiling looks pretty much complete, apart from a few items that our indepedent inspector found at our frame stage inspection.

The vents for our Brivis evaporative cooling and ducted heating systems have been installed as well. We opted for heating and cooling upstairs and downstairs.

Brivis Evaporative Cooling Unit

Roof over rear of house



Completed roof - rear of house

Evaporative cooling vent

Heating and cooling vents - upstairs

Cooling vent - close up

All Systems Go!

Despite the empty cans and Maccas packets all over the site, the house seems to be progressing at full speed now. It's very exciting, but that also means that we have to be on top of everything that's going on behind the walls, because once the plaster is on, there's no going back.

We're happy for the tradies to be well nourished if this is the pace they work at!
Over the last few days lots has happened. We'll break it down over the next few posts...

Update from the 'Experts'...

Our CLE and SS confirmed that they will fix all of the faults identified in the Frame Stage Inspection Report to the standard advised by our inspector. That was refreshing to hear and our inspector was pleased as well.

There were a few other issues that we were made aware of today though.

1. The staircase that was drawn up and included in our plans won't fit in the designated space. As soon as the CLE called and said 'there's a problem with the staircase' we thought the worst. The staircase is supposed to be a feature of the hallway, so we didn't want anything to ruin the look we were going for.

It turned out that the problem wasn't that bad. We will basically lose one of the four bottom stairs, which won't really alter the look of the hallway.

We're waiting to get the updated building variation and drawings so that we can get a visual on the changes.

2. One of the voids for the evaporative cooling vents needs to be extended, which means we'll lose a bit of space in one of our walk-in-robes. Again, not a big deal, as the extension of the void is only an extra 15mm.

3. Our electrical contractors were on-site roughing in the cabling today, and we got a call at lunch time from one of the guys. He seemed a little panicked, and got us even more panicked.

We've put a lot of time and effort into our electrical plans and cable schedule, and had several meetings with the smart wiring company to make sure everything was on track. The phone call alerted us to some 'issues' that they were having trying to figure out how to cable certain things, where to run the cables from, and how much length to leave at the ends.

We thought this was really strange and would have expected them to have done their homework before setting foot on site. And here they are asking us, two accountants, how to do the wiring correctly!

Needless to say, we shot off an email to our SS and CLE advising them of the conversation we had just had with one of the sparkies. Our SS replied and said he had spoken with them as well. And then the sparkies' boss sent us an email saying that 'he is on top of it' and will be on-site on Thursday doing a walk-through with a sparky on hand to make sure things are as they should be. Fingers crossed they get it right.

Because of the cabling issues, our SS has pushed our plastering out to next week Monday (instead of this week Friday). We're not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

It's good to the extent that it is critical for the cabling to be done correctly before the walls are plastered. The bad part of it is that the cabling will be left uncovered over the weekend...

Melbourne Building & Home Improvement Expo 2012

The 2012 Building & Home Improvement Expo was on at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre this weekend, and we went along to see what was on offer.

There was a lot to take in, and it would have been easy to fill two bags with brochures, business cards, and samples. We went to the Expo last year as well so this time around we targeted a few specific trades.

One of the things on our list was security systems. More details about this will be included in the Electricals page, but we came across a few providers that were able to give us some good information on the different products and how we could integrate different parts of the security and A/V systems together.

We also checked out the stands of some of the decking specialists and found that bamboo products featured quite prominently this year. That's something that we'll keep in the back of our minds for when we start on the deck some time after handover. The bamboo products look and feel great, and are strong and durable, but the coloring of the material is not really what we had in mind. That's not to say that we have ruled it out - we just need to check that it will work with the rest of the house and furnishings when we're ready.

Mini-displays of window furnishings were provided by quite a few in the business. Most of the stands were for blinds only (rollers, romans, venetians, verticals, and shutters), but a couple of them also had curtains, and some did furniture refurbishments as well. Curtains and blinds are something we will be looking into in the next couple of months to make sure that we're covered within a few weeks of moving in.

If you've read our previous posts you'll know that we're getting a fireplace provision put into our Family Room. There were a few different providers at the Expo, and the displays were impressive. Some of the gas and hot stone fireplaces are amazing and look so good, even if they are all show and no go. We got some pricing from JetMaster and will look into this later on. With all the other things that need to be done after handover, the fireplace isn't really a priority.

We were also looking out for security doors and screens. There were a few options, but nothing too exciting or out of the ordinary. We were hoping to see the CrimSafe product on display but they didn't have a stand at the Expo.

Outdoor living was well featured - there were some really clever ideas in terms of closing off or opening up your outdoor area and making use of the outdoor space in the best way possible.

Custom-designed glass splashbacks and feature walls were quite interesting to look at. We may consider this once we've moved in and furnished the place to see if there is something we can put in that will enhance the decor of any of our rooms.

Of course, driveways and paths were also well represented, with some of the providers showcasing their products in their stands. We picked up a few brochures and cards, and also got some ideas as to how different materials and finishes look.

There were a decent number of kitchen and bathroom fitout suppliers with good interactive displays. Their stands were quite busy. We didn't stop to look at them in detail because we've chosen all of our fittings, but there were some that had towel holders and the like, which we will have to look into after handover.

And finally, energy efficient lighting featured quite heavily in the Expo, similar to last year. No doubt there were some good specials for those who purchased items at the Expo.

All in all, it's a good Expo and worth going to if you're thinking of, or in the middle of, building or renovating. Most of the people we spoke with were very familiar with the building process and different stages, spent time talking to us despite the hundreds of people that were around, and gave us some good information that we've taken away with us.

The Carbon Tax (yawn)

Going through the process of building our own house has really got us interested in the whole building industry, so we're always reading articles and watching home shows for ideas and updates.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple of years, all Aussies will know that the Carbon Tax came into force on 1 July and we're all waiting to see exactly how it affects the prices we pay for all sorts of everyday items.

We recently came across an article that was published in the Master Builder Victoria magazine about the Carbon Tax and the house building industry.

The article is aimed at builders, but there is supposedly some good news in there for us. While the carbon price of $23 per tonne of carbon emissions is being hotly contested as being over the top, MBV is suggesting that many of the most emissions intensive building materials are actually receiving compensation for their carbon emissions, so the price of carbon is actually a lot lower. When looking at the construction of your average family home, apparently only 58% of the cost of building the house will be subject to the carbon tax, while the remaining 42% will receive compensation.

The article also goes on to say that we, the consumers, will be paying more for carbon emissions through our consumption of energy than the builders will be paying (and passing on to us) for materials and construction.

If an average Australian family lives in the same house for 9.5 years, and the price of carbon is $23 per tonne, then that family will be paying an extra $1,800 in carbon costs from energy consumption. Add to that the annual price rises for electricity, and you're talking $$$ that can really impact your household's bottom line.

So the advice of the MBV is for builders to help their customers 'manage their cost of living by providing better house designs and better quality, energy-efficient homes. The smart builders get that a house is more than walls and a roof over the family's head...'

Really? We're trying not to be too sceptical here, but we would have thought that any builder (not just ours) would jump at the chance to put up their prices and blame it on the Carbon Tax. The builders revise their prices every few months and put them up. Let's see if any of them say that the price of carbon is pushing up the prices of their suppliers, and therefore the prices they charge us. It would be great to have enough faith in them that they wouldn't do that, but that doesn't seem likely.

Here is a link to the latest MBV magazine: Master Builder Victoria

Raise the Roof!

Roof tiles started going on last week and they look almost complete:

Tradies on site in the weekend!



Side view - Solar panels and evaporative cooling unit installed

Front door - pity it's the wrong one!

'Spare' roof tiles

The most obvious error we found was that the front door and door furniture are incorrect. We've brought this to our CLE's attention and are hoping they rectify it asap.