Happy New Year

Just a quick note to wish everyone a happy new year. Hope you have all enjoyed the break.

We had a call from our SS this week to let us know what we knew already - not much has been happening but the tiling should continue this week.

He said we are experiencing delays due to the plumbers not coming back to finalise the flashing on the garage and alfresco. Come on plumbers - come back you are holding everybody back.

Once this is done, the plasterers can then come back to finish the plaster and this then enables the electricians to come back. Once this all happens things should then move along fairly quickly - I guess we will believe it when we see it. SS says he has booked in all the fit offs but doesn't expect PCI until mid Feb09.

We visited the site the other day and found the back window was open. Of course this is bad security as we had problems with this window before with the break ins and DH had placed a piece of wood to stop this from opening. Seems someone had removed the wood. On the plus side, we were able to gain access ourselves and check some of the "progress". All painting is done and looks terrific. Very happy with our colours except for overall kitchen view. Seems all a bit dark so we may have to touch this up ourselves when we move in. Will just live with it for a bit and then make a decision.

Unfortunately the biggest disappointment is still the plaster. It really is a lousy job with problems still existing, some minor and some major. The most disappointing thing is the major ones are the same major problems pointed out by our independent inspector weeks ago. Must admit we don't understand why PD don't just rectify these issues as they arise. At this late stage, the issues raised about the frame have now become plaster issues that of course are now painting issues! Lots more work for PD to fix now?? PCI will be interesting.

The tale of the amazing administrator

Once upon a time there was a little house to be in the burbs that had a nice little stockpile of tiles set aside for the summer. Then one day, the big bad tile company came and took the tiles away. The little house was devastated - "Oh no, those tiles were perfect, what am I to do now?".

The little house then had an idea! It made a wish and presto - along came the amazing administrator. The amazing administrator waved her magic wand and made those tiles reappear.

Of course, then everyone lived happily ever after (in the little house) with their perfect tiles and had nothing but happy thoughts for the magical powers of the amazing administrator.

...in other words "D" has gone above and beyond and found our missing tiles. Thanks heaps "D" you have saved the day!

Our faith has been restored

Happy to report some good news. We have amicably resolved our staircase issue with PD, thanks to the efforts of "T" and thankfully some good, old fashioned common sense from all involved. Our staircase will proceed as planned and our SS has advised the alterations shouldn't hold up the build too much as he can work around them. Thanks for all your support and helpful hints with this issue. ..and thanks to PD for resolving the issue so professionally.

Slight prob with the tiles now unfortunately. We all know Urban Earth has been discontinued but our administrator had assured us she had some of the last stock put aside for our use. Unfortunately, now the time has come to lay the tiles, it seems someone has taken the last of the Urban Earth - no special little stockpile for the Gang! So we may now have to find a replacement tile. Our administrator is on the job trying to find exactly where National Tiles have lost our stock pile. Has anyone seen it?

That's all for now really - other than our SS has told us the internal scaffolding was put up today to finish off the plaster work in the foyer.

Will post some pics once we can get back in the house.

A slow couple of weeks

Did Christmas start early for PD in the East? It certainly has at our place with pretty much no one on site for the last two weeks. Of course when the rat's away the mice will play and I guess it is just the fall out from our SS being away for a week.

Although we have had no tradies on site, things started moving again on Thursday when we had a site meeting with the Construction Manager to discuss the staircase issue. It was terrific that PD sent out a senior manager for us to discuss the issue with. However, we seem to have differing views on what we paid for and what we have received so far. As it stands now, "T" has taken the issues back to the office to consider and will work out where we go from here. Hopefully we will hear back from him tomorrow?

Friday saw a call from our SS with a plaster update. Unfortunately more bad news there as he is very unhappy with the standard of the stopping up. He said he spent two hours marking up all the faults. Two hours - that sounds scary. Glad he is on top of the issue and hope he can bring it up to a reasonable standard. Of course this means more delays because the painting will be at a standstill until he is happy with the plaster. On the good news front, he believes the tilers will be working over Christmas so we may make up some ground there.

We also saw someone on site yesterday and it appeared to be the plasterer? He was not due back until Tuesday - obviously wanted to make an early start.

We were able to take a couple of pics on the phone to show the painting. Ceilings are white of course and walls are Reiki....

A break in

I guess it had to happen, we have had a break in late afternoon today. As far as we can put together, it happened between 6-7pm. Someone has broken in through a back window and checked out the entire house. No damage has been done but they have ripped off protective sheets from most cupboards and have had a good look through the place. Our best guess is that it is a builder coming in for a bit of a sticky. They also broke into the house next door and did much the same thing. At least nothing has been stolen or broken but they did leave all doors unlocked.

In terms of progress, because the doors were open we were able to get in ourselves and noted
- house looks like the scene from ET when they cover the house with plastic. All windows, doors and cupboards are covered up.
- first coat of paint has been applied via spraying as opposed brushing. Is this how it is done these days?
- some architraves and skirts are still missing
- staircase posts (which of course should have been SS) have been painted
- staircase base plate has been painted when it should have been stained
- many marks have been placed on the walls where the plaster is NQR

Progress has been slow again this week as our SS has taken a much needed week off to get married. Congrats N, hope all went well.

No reply on the staircase issue as yet - expecting something back by Wednesday once our administrator has a chance to chat with N.

We Have Issues.

Last Friday we had a meeting with our SS. We have raised several points that need to be addressed, specifically in relation to the poor quality plaster and, dare we say it, the staircase!

And all we can say is: "Let the head butting begin". We have emailed our administrator with our issues and are awaiting a response.

There will be some very interesting discussions this week.
Stay tuned. Pictures to follow.

Much overdue update

It's been a while since we posted and an update is way overdue. Fixing stage is complete, kitchen is installed (other than sink and appliances), shower bases have been installed, frame under the stairs has been boxed and plastered and we have roof and roof tiles above our alfresco and garage. Must say the front of the house looks heaps better with a garage roof! Seems to finish it off nicely. The problem with the upstairs bathroom has now been fixed with the doors back to their correct position. We are very happy with the way PD dealt with this issue.

Although we have paid for fixing, we feel some "fixing" is still outstanding. Unfortunately our plastering has left a wee bit to be desired and a significant amount of the last week has been spent trying to sand out the "blemishes" in our plaster. We met with our SS on Friday and he feels we are going to have some probs with the painting due to the poor plastering. He plans to have one coat of paint applied which will highlight the real problem areas. He can then fix these areas before coats 2 and 3 are applied. Have a look at the mess the sparkies have made this week. Seems they forgot to wire in the front light.

Our kitchen benches have been installed but have to admit we are not that keen on them as they are a bit too yellow. The quantum quartz is "Sandy" but the sample didn't look that yellow - it's funny as the colour seems to change in different lights - just like paint. We will just have to wait until all painting is complete, tiles and appliances are in before we make our final judgement. IF the colour is no good, it will have to be replaced.

Went back to the display today to have a look. It is amazing how much better the inside looks with paint, tiles and carpet! Unfortunately we found a bit of a problem with our staircase (yes again!). Refer the pictures below and see if you can pick the difference. Keep in mind we paid the extra to have the SS ballusters to the whole of the stairwell, as per display. Looks like we are going to have another fight with PD about the stairs! Which look is your favourite? We prefer the display version, especially as that is what we paid the extra for.

On the good news front, our SS feels we will be pretty close to finishing at the end of January which will be great. Can't wait to move in!

Problem Solved.

After a very productive meeting with our SS today we have been told that they will remove and reverse the 2 bathroom cavity sliding doors. This will solve the problem with the basin clearance and also give the opened hinged door somewhere to hide.

We couldn't of asked for more and are very happy with the cost. ($0.00)

We also have had.

The garage trusses installed.
Base coat of render.
Pantry and cupboard shelving installed.
Fixing almost complete.

A Problem

Although no action on the site today - thought we would raise a problem we have found.

We happened to be looking at the PD website today, specifically the upstairs "brady bunch" bathroom and noticed our home is different to the display! This upstairs bathroom is situated between two of the bedrooms and has cavity slider doors as access points from each bedroom. The interesting thing is the door openings have been placed a door width away from where they are in the display. If you look at the pic above, the door opening to the right is supposed to be plaster, with the actual opening to the right of that.

Of course our first reaction was "the door openings are in the wrong place"! However, closer inspection of our plans shows that our doors have in fact been placed correctly according to our plans. We find it interesting that this was not pointed out to us on signing- or maybe that is expecting too much? Of course, we didn't pick it up when reviewing our plans either :(

Anyway, this change in door position not a big issue - the issue now revolves around the vanity unit in the pic - it really is too close to the door opening on the right isn't it?

On further review of our plans, we have found the vanity unit has been installed in the wrong spot! It should be further to the left in the pic.

Wonder how we go about getting that fixed?!? Has anyone else had a similar prob?

Full Speed Ahead.

More action today.
Alfresco roof frame.
Vanities and basins.
Laundry Trough.
Stairs finished. (including S/S balustrades - worth all the pain)
Kitchen Started.

Lock Up

After a long break from blogging we thought we would share our milestone as our house has been officially locked up.
Our lockup invoice was followed by a concerned accounts department call saying he was worried about the amount (it was the largest he had seen. He hadn't been there long.)
After we had recovered from the shock we thought we would go and see what our money had bought us.
We discovered that the scaffold was down, the brickies were finished, the plaster cornice had been finished, the stairs were being installed and the kitchen cupboards and doors had been delivered.
Starting to look like a real house now.

Our SS believes we should set ourselves up for a February hand over given the three weeks off scheduled over Xmas - but we will wait and see.
Our build tends to go in leaps and bounds and then stops for a week which can be very frustrating.

So the next couple of weeks should see the installation of the kitchen cupboards, fixing completed and the framers returning to build the roof to the garage and alfresco. ..and hopefully a site clean as the place looks like a bomb has hit it!

We have also managed to put aside a hundred plus bricks for our letter box which DH will be building.

We will try to be a bit more regular with our blogs from now on...

We have plaster

After a frustrating few weeks waiting for the brickies to show up it has been full steam ahead in the past week.

Wednesday saw the return of the brickies - yeh! Since then it has been a flurry of activity with plumbing finished off, heating and cooling ducts installed, insulation installed, temporary doors installed, solar panels fitted and the plasterers doing what they do best. Very surprised to see them on site this Sunday morning and even more surprised that in one day they have completed entire downstairs area and upstairs ceiling.
Day 2 saw them finish off hanging the plaster and taping the joins.
All we needed was an interpreter to help explain that we had to install the HDMI cable in the theatre room ceiling before they hung the plaster.

We caught up with our SS during the week and despite the delay originally with the framing and more recently with the brickies we are only about a week behind his schedule.

Retreat. Insulation.

Theatre Room.
Family Room.

Day 6 Of brickwork.