Inspections

Again, there hasn't really been much happening.  There was a lot of angryness while leading up to inspections, part of which came about from the simply not being told what the procedure would be, and being given the indication that a private inspection was in-place of a PCI (WTF?).

Eventually we booked the inspector to come in, but it was a 2 week delay due to the timing, and being told last minute that it could be done.  A lot more prior planning and notice would have been more appropriate, and would have meant we could have arranged inspections much sooner.

During the first inspection most of the items found were minor - the only particular major things were batts missing from the roof and sarking having been cut through; other things that need some re-working were robe rails not being level (so doors return to the center), scratches on glass windows, cornices being cracked, oil stains on carpet, paint marks on floorboards, door handles being loose, a couple of two-way light switches needing reversing - nothing too major.
If anything, the most major thing I'm not too happy about is how the CAT6 return points have been installed - on to two face plates.

We only noticed in the second inspection that a CAT6 point is completely missing - we've missed it all along, and only just noticed it just as we were finishing up.

Hopefully more soon, maybe with some pics.

The updates - they just don't exist!

You see the volume of updates I'm posting lately?  Yep, that's about the same amount of info I'm getting.

Believe me, I'm far from impressed.

And then the calls stop.

I realise it's been a long time since any updates have been posted.  Main reason for that is that any change from this point has been minor - they seem to be moving at a rate approximately resembling fitting one tap per day, or something to that effect.  It all adds up, but yes, we've only just got some render done on the front, and a driveway has now gone in.

So here's the latest progress shot:

Actually the other reason for lack of information is because that's exactly what they've been providing me - a fortnight ago I didn't get a weekly call from the site supervisor, and then last week I didn't either - making it three weeks since I'd heard from them.  So I called them, and they had very little to really say.  Also tried contacting my person at head office - nothing.  No replies, no returned calls or emails - I really have no idea what's going on.

When I did manage to briefly speak to the supervisor they still won't give any hints on a handover date, and it doesn't look like being before Easter, which will push it out even further.  Oh, and despite somehow managing to keep the crossover intact for the entire build process up until this point, when do they manage to put a nice pothole in it?  Yeah, when pouring the driveway.  Good going!

So right now it's getting rather frustrating being told very close to nothing.

Oh yeah, and fencing guy?  I approved/paid for the fence on the left to be done some time in January, I thought it was supposed to be done by mid-late Feb.  As you can see, there's no fence - but he's also completely dropped off the radar.  No returns to emails, phone calls, nothing - he was supposed to be chasing up the other neighbours to get permission to put fences up.  Haven't heard anything back on that either.  IT's basically like he too has dropped off the face of the planet.

The fences are down!

Fences have come down around the construction site - not long to go now, it would seem.
The update yesterday told me we're looking at the following timeline for various bits and pieces:

• Fixing of Hebel at front of house and first layer of render: Monday
• Replacing glass in front door: Next week.
• Front render complete: Friday
• Internal painting fix-ups: Next week
• Gutters and downpipes installed and checked: Following week
• Driveway: Following week
• Internal QA start: Three weeks
• PCI scheduling: About four weeks.

Of course the actual PCI date could be months away :(

Flooring progress

A little while ago they started with the carpet in some of the smaller rooms, but since then haven't really made too much progress.  As such the study and bedroom 2 have been carpeted, but bedroom 3, the hallway and the master beedroom are still solid concrete.

Some time between Wednesday and Sunday though they've been in and laid down all the floor boards, so now from the hallway to the back of the lounge room it's all timber looking.  Unfortunately when I got out there on Sunday night it was getting quite dark and reflective, so no decent photos to really be able to post.

Painting still needs to occur in the master and lounge room, doors still need to go on in bedroom 3, and the Hebel fixed up on the front façade.

Other than that though, it's mostly getting there.

The splashback

That is all.

Rendering happening!

Good update from the site supervisor today - they've pushed a few things back, but some big progress items have also been completed.
They've held the carpenter back a week so he'll be installing carpets next week, and they're going to hold off a bit longer on the timber flooring - that will now be done at least the week after next or the following week again.
Plastering and re-painting has all been done - there'll be another layer of paint to be done over some areas but for the most part that's been fixed up.
Plumbing fit-off has been done, so there's taps throughout the house, and the first/base layer of the render over the Hebel was done today.  They usually give it three days before doing the second coat, so he's hoping that by Wednesday the house will be fully rendered and coloured.
Most importantly though the splashback is getting fixed up tomorrow, so come tomorrow afternoon we should have a nice blue glass splashback rather than the tile one that was installed by mistake.

Getting close now!

Garage door

This can be kept as a quick update:  Things done between today and last Thursday:

• Garage door
• Holes drilled for door handles, and door latches installed
• Shower screens installed
• Lounge room plaster wall reinstalled and repaired
• Some skirting boards repaired
• Holes in master bedroom walls repaired

Tiles are in, but boy is there a big screwup

Thursday nights have been the time I've been dropping by over the last few weeks, since I can do it without having to make extra trips - this Thursday meant visiting whileit was absolutely bucketing down with rain though.
Just a few hours earlier I'd had an update from the site supervisor as well, which informed me of details something like this:

• Tiling has been completed throughout the house.
• Plumber will be in next week to do all the fit-off of taps etc.
• Hebel guys will be inspecting the house on Friday, and Metricon are waiting for a report back from them.
• The back wall that's been cut out (which was because of the frame being out of plumb) will be repaired early next week, after which they'll get the painters back in.
• Flooring will be done late next week and/or early the week after, which includes both the timber-look laminate and carpet.

Tiles don't look to bad - they're basic though, and we didn't really have a lot of choice in colours for tiles.  There was one very, very obvious screwup though.  Remember how I said I'd paid for a glass splashback, which was basically what's going to liven up the room?  Well, imagine my shock when I saw this:

Basically straight away I sent off a query, basically saying "I didn't know they put glass over top of the tiles..." ;)

As expected, they gave me the option of leaving it with a credit, or fixing it.  A glass splashback isn't just a look and feel thing, it's also easier to clean and much better on the fire safety side - so it's definitely getting fixed.

Some other shots of the tiles having been completed:

Oh, and now we have some shelving in the pantry!

Very difficult to get a photo that shows the width though, since there's a doorway there and all.

Colours - larger versions

Now that the paint has dried, I've got four of the colours painted on to some MDF in larger patches to give a much better idea of how it might look on a wall under light.

Thoughts?

Oh, and if anyone knows what flag that is... ... well I certainly don't anyway :P Flip it 90 degrees and it's the Maldives, but that way? No idea ;)

Some colour options

At the time of the colour selections with Metricon we simply couldn't decide on what we might want to do with feature walls - and their staff weren't particularly helpful.  Working through it today I've grabbed dozens of colour swatches and a few sample pots to get some ideas, and some MDF to paint as large test patches - since you can't really be expected to get a good idea of what things will really end up being like with just small samples.
From that I can decide what to use to go on the walls straight after moving in.

The toughest decision is which specific colour for certain areas.

For the study I want a dark colour - you don't want light colours that reflects lots of light on to screens - so I'm looking at a deep blue - probably the one on the far right.  The background colour is the Beige Royal Half that's been used throughout the rest of the house.  The blue I've grabbed a sample pot of is the Bedazzled Blue, a Pascol colour.
Unfortunately it's really difficult to get a decent shot of the study without a 10mm camera lens (Lumia 920 is only 26mm (35mm equiv)), which I don't tend to carry around.

Any colour used on either the north or south wall here would be visible either from the main living area or from the doorway.



I'm seriously considering Turners Light for the main wall in the living room - that'd be on the left in the below shot.

Thoughts?

Electrical outlets in fantastic spots

Something we didn't pick up on until later on when looking at photos was the ridiculous location of a power outlet which has been installed.

For some reason someone has decided that rather than wanting a power point to be near the bench, you'll want it all the way off in the corner where cables have to run across to.  While on the drawings it could be argued it's just a little bit off to the right from where it should be, the drawings show it's pretty clearly supposed to be placed right on the edge of the bench.

Painting - first coat done

Originally there were no plans to drop by last week since there has seemingly been no work going on, but I figured best to just drop by and check.  The first obvious thing that was noticed was two other sites which have started - a neighbour two doors down across the road has had the site cut, and my neighbours on the corner block adjacent to mine has all the fencing up.

The render hasn't been done, but I circled the house and checked through the windows, while doing so checking that all the doors were locked... they weren't.
Should I be getting stuck in to the painters for not leaving the house locked?

Of course, I took a look around.

Should I also be pointing out that I expect any house of mine will be a non-smoking premises - and that if they're going to be stupid enough to be smoking, maybe leaving dirty cigarette butts left lying around isn't the best choice?

There's quite a few places where you can see that the paint is very thing - or even completely missing.  I would guess then they're planning on doing three coats of paint, but I'll be checking this with them.  I don't see them doing three coats as of now on those unpainted areas.

Mondo grass

There's some cleaning up of the parents backyard being done, so we've transplanted a bit of Mondo grass to be put in front of Dionellas, which tend to grow outwards over paths where you may not want them going so far.  They're also great for lining the edge of paths.

Mondo grass in a long pot to keep them alive.

Oh yes, some of the other collection of plants being grown to go in.

9 out of 10 puppies approve of Mongo grass :P