Update

We're getting closer and closer to the big day! The house is looking pretty good, but there are still a lot of things that need to get tidied up/corrected/installed before the house takes on the look that we're after.

The fencing around the perimeter of the house has been taken away and the site has had a bit of a tidy up. This is how the outside is looking from the street:

Unfortunately the tap out the front is right in the middle of the front entrance. We will have to ask our SS if it can be moved, otherwise it will really limit what we can do by way of a pathway to the front door and our front landcaping.

The gaps in the brickwork seem to have been filled/sealed:

Someone didn't get the memo...

The laundry tiling has come out nicely and the neutral colours should mean that we don't get bored with it too soon! The tiles and laminate still need to be cleaned up.

The flooring has come a long way since our last visit:

The staircase is yet to be stained, but the stair lights have been installed:

Can't wait to use this!

Our practical completion inspection (PCI) is getting closer and we're putting our list of things to check together. We'll have one inspection with our SS and independent inspector, and another one with the electricians to walk us through all of the cabling. We're hoping for smooth runs on both.

There is still a lot to organise aside from preparing for the PCI.

We've got to find out who our neighbours are (both sides and back) so we can get fencing organised. We got a couple of quotes over the weekend and need to follow these up this week.

We have to get our driveway sorted out. Again, we've got a few quotes and need to organise this.

We need to find out what other council requirements there are (eg getting our waste bins), organise a mail box, get our phone line up and running, a few more quotes for window furnishing.... the list goes on and on. And then there's packing and moving out of our apartment.

The lead up to Christmas is going to be busy!

The heat is on...

We were reviewing our plans and getting our questions ready for our PCI when we came across an issue with the ducted heating unit.

Our sales and tender documents specified a networker controller with a heating unit that we were told could be zoned for upstairs and downstairs separately. We wanted to confirm that the correct unit had been put in with our SS, and when we asked the question, it turned out that the unit that was installed wasn't actually right for the house, nor did it agree with our sales and tender documents.

We made further enquiries with the manufacturer (Brivis), recommended installers for the Brivis unit and Carlisle (builder), and initial indications from the builder were that it was too late to change the unit and Carlisle thought that the unit was appropriate for the house. That would mean that there would be no option but to heat the entire house rather than being able to heat upstairs and downstairs separately.

After several discussions via phone calls and emails, Carlisle finally agreed to change the unit to one more appropriate for the house. At a cost of course. But we thought it was more important to get the right unit in now and not regret it in winter. Carlisle's management agreed that a unit that could be zoned would be more appropriate for this house, and to their credit, they absorbed some of the cost involved in changing the unit meaning that we only had to pay for the upgrade cost. We were told that a crane would be involved, and part of the roof would need to be lifted to change the unit and the costs for this and rework done on walls or ceiling will be taken up by Carlisle. 

The ducted heating unit is being changed to a higher efficiency zoneable unit. The controller will also be different, as the controller that was originally installed was not correct as it was not one that could control zoning. 




We've just signed and returned the building variation for this, so work should commence on changing the unit and controller next week.

A close up peek

So far all of the problems we've identified and raised with Carlisle have been fixable. We noticed a few things on our last visit to the house, which may have been rectified during the site clean, but if not, we'll be raising them at our PCI (practical completion inspection).

Here are some pics of the issues we found:

The tap in the front yard was leaking

Guttering to be finished properly, and the seal around that tap is very messy

 

Uneven power points #1

Uneven power points #2. We can't comprehend how the sparky thought this was ok

Uneven power points #3. Is there any method to this madness? Not only is the spacing uneven and random, the heights at which they've been placed is all different

Gaps in the brickwork still to be sealed

Infills above the Alfresco doors to be completed. The brickwork in this area (especially in the corners) is very untidy. We're hoping it got cleaned up when the house was cleaned during the week

We have no idea why this brick is different...

Messy mortar and finishing in the top corner of the Alfresco

Gaps in the brickwork to be filled

The join between the bricks and the window frame needs further work

Guttering on the rear of the Garage roof to be completed



On the whole, the house is looking good. We managed to catch a swan swimming around in the pond. Hope it hangs around and makes a home there!

Rendered

We've got a few bits and pieces to report to cover the last couple of weeks. Some inconsiderate person dinged our car and didn't fess up, so it's currently with the panel doctor getting fixed up. And the weather in Melbourne hasn't been the best over the last couple of days, so we haven't ventured out to the see the house using public transport.

The most exciting developments are as follows:

• External rendering has been completed
• Tiling has finished
• Carpets have been laid
• Plumbing has been completed, with all taps, showers, baths, sinks, and toilets in
• Wooden laminate flooring has been laid
• And, our SS tells us, the house has been given a good clean, inside and out.

Render
The front of the house has been rendered. Our SS told us that this is one of the last things they do once the site has been cleaned up, because they have to get it right the first time, and any damage is hard to fix later on.

We're happy with the colour (Dulux Yarwood), but the finishing on the right of the balcony looks rough and uneven. We haven't discussed this with our SS yet, as we've got an inspection coming up. But it is very noticeable (and very annoying). We're not sure how much work will be needed to fix it, but we're hoping it's not too much of a big job. We do need to go and see it again though, just to see what it looks like at different time of the day and in different light.

The rest of the rendered areas (above the Garage and to the right of the house, part of which you can see in the above photo) look ok. The colour (Dulux Pale Earth) looks nice - it's probably a little lighter than we would have preferred, but it's so hard to tell when you're looking at paint samples. It suits the brick and the rest of the house though.

Tiling and Carpets
The floor tiles, feature tiles, and bath tiles have all been completed, and when we saw the house last weekend, the carpets had started to be laid downstairs. Our SS tells us that the carpets are all done now. Unfortunately we weren't able to get into the house to see the finished tiles and carpets, but we managed to get a few snaps from the outside:

Excuse the shadows in these pics! This is the Laundry, fully tiled. The shelving in the Walk-in-Linen is also in, and that gave us a good idea of how much room there is in there. On the whole, it looks light and bright, and it looks like there's enough room in there for the washing machine and dryer to sit side-by-side.

This is still the Laundry - we noticed that one of the spec downlights had come crashing down onto the tiles, leaving a pile of glass. Mental note - check for chipping of the tiles in this area. These tiles were a bit of a luxury upgrade, so we won't accept anything less than perfect!

This is a view from the front lounge, looking into the house. The entry hall is fully tiled, and the Lounge, Study, and Theatre have all been carpeted. The carpet looks darker in this pic than it really is. The caret we chose was Quest Sunday Dawn, with platinum underlay. Looking forward to testing this with bare feet when it's all done and cleaned!

Taps
The only tap we were able to see was the kitchen tap:

We were a bit worried about the height of this tap as there are overhead cupboards above it. It looks as though we've got a space of about 10-15cm between the top of the tap and the cupboards. The tap needs a bit of room to move, so we'll need to check its functionality when we go through our inspection. We did raise this issue with our SS before the cupboards and tap were installed.

We haven't been to the house since the laminate was done, and also haven't seen it cleaned up. We get our back on Monday, and have an inspection coming up in a couple of weeks, so that might be the first time we see the finished floors, tubs, tiles, loos, and the cleaned house.



Grand Designs Melbourne

We visited the Grand Designs Live show at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre last weekend. We've been watching the UK series of the show with Kevin McCloud for a while now, and became more interested in it when we started thinking about building.

The main focusses of the show were in the kitchen, bathroom, outdoor living, and media/lighting areas. And of course there was a main theatre stage on which Kevin McCloud and other celebrity designers presented.

Kevin spoke mostly about his own 'grand design', the Triangle - a community housing project in Swindon, UK. It was good to see and hear him up close. He was, after all, the star of the show.

The exhibits were slightly disappointing and probably not as helpful as the other home shows that are on during the year.

Miele put on a good display of their kitchen products. Fisher & Paykel also had a display of fridges and other stainless steel appliances, all of which you can see at good old Harvey Norman anyway. They did have an impressive BBQ on display though. Hmm... is it too early to dream about summer barbies?

 

The outdoor living displays were pretty good. We came away with some gardening ideas that may or may not make it into our back yard.

 

 

And there was another special guest - the Dulux dog! He is an Old English Sheepdog, and his fur feels like cotton wool. Very cute.