We have our keys!

Yesterday (Tuesday 14th) we finally got our keys. YAY.
We now have a bit of work ahead of us, painting and tiling some areas, getting the driveway done, doing the flooring, building a mailbox (gasp) and lots of other little things that need to be done before moving in.
Nothing much else really to report yet, but as we do everything, I will post the updates!

Picture of front..now with garage door!!

The end is near.....

We are at the end of the house build, and are now waiting for them to arrange the PCI. We had to cancel one already, as we got a call for it the day before... dont give us any advance warning! We wanted to get in our own inspector and let them know that. So after some phone-calls we found someone who was available, and he went through on Thursday 19th. He picked up some things...nothing major, mostly cosmetic stuff, but did say that our house was in the 'above average' catergory'. He puts houses in 3 categories... 'above average', 'average' and 'below average' so we were fairly pleased about that (thank you builders)!! :) So now we are waiting, from what I understand, they are going to fix the things pointed out first then have a PCI...at least I hope it is the PCI and not handover. There is still an issue with the theatre and kitchen lights I want to discuss, and would rather they be fixed up over something like the render issue. (Nothing major, on the plan the render goes to the rainpipe...but on the house it stops a bricklength before it). If it is indeed the PCI that we need to have, they have just bought themselves at least another 3 weeks to fix things up...*this week since getting the report and the 10 days after the PCI, that still needs to be done, for anything else thats picked up.

The painter has finished the rest of the external painting and our garage door and flyscreens are installed as well as the shower screens and mirrors. I dont have a pic of the garage door yet... one of Mr G's work collegues lives in the same estate and informed us that it was on... BUT our front door is finished and it really stands out!!


main bath shower with screen/mirror

ensuite with showerscreen/mirror

Front of house..doors and guttering painted, final coat on render.

Front door... up close



*Just noticed the guttering/fascia, in the last pic, the bottom part looks grey, but they are both the same colour.

Painted and tiled.

Our painter has been, and given nearly everything that needs to be painted a nice fresh coat of paint. That is the ceiling and cornice in white and glossy white for the doors, frames and timber shelf mouldings. The front render has been painted in the required colours of jasper and dune and gutters been done in their weathered copper. I was quite worried about what it would look like, as seperately the roof tile looks like a deep chocolate colour when the sun hits it, but all together it looked more greyish black! I was thinking that I maybe should have gone for black gutters instead, but the gutters are now done and I dont think it looks too bad. Certainly not as bad as what I was picturing in my head! So I am at least glad that has turned out well. All the downpipes weren't finished yet, but the painter still has to come back to paint the door and seal our walls. The tiler has done his part (there is still some sealing that needs to be done) and we now have proper looking bathrooms! There is some parts that I am not happy with, but I guess we can fix up some of it when we tile the laundry and toilet...we'll just get extra of the grey tiles, it will mean a little bit more work on our (Mr G's) part but it will make me happy :). One part of the tiling I am going to want to get fixed up through builder, especially if the shower screen does not cover it up, otherwise I will always see it and be disappointed, the tiles dont line up and at the moment its very noticable.
Well thats about it, the plumber hasnt been yet and neither has the electrician. There doesn't seem to be much more left to do until we get a handover date. I just hope it starts moving again, as going out week after week and only seeing a couple of small changes (or none at all) is a little disappointing.
I dont have many pics to add as yet, and I want to add some of the bathroom pre-tiles, the gutters, and others, but you will all just have to wait for those.

Front facade all painted

Close up of the jasper

Ensuite bathroom

Close up of the feature tile

Main bathroom

The tiles go up to 2m...I can barely reach the pipe that the shower rose goes on. I should have lowered it.


At this stage I am going to make a list of some of the things I have seen that I am either disappointed in or will want to get fixed/replaced.
*Front door frame is cracked and small chunks taken out of the wood.
*White plaster, in some placess, have scratches and or chunks taken out, or not applied high enough.
*There are some deep scratches to window frames...some are small and not very noticable, but others are more noticable.... both inside and outside on the window frame.
*One window takes some slamming to shut properly, and appears to be crooked when shut.
*The tiling in the main bathroom does not line up and unless the shower screen covers it, it will look awful.
*Ceiling joins are noticeble in some places, looks like it wasnt sanded back smoothly.
*I would prefer the white tile under the ensuite cabinet to be the grey floor tile, this we will possibly do after hand-over. I personally think it looks silly being white.
*We have two 'cavity battens' (pieces of wood) that cover the cavity in the garage. At the moment they are white but hopefully will be painted.
*On our contract it states that splashback tiles to hotplate bench only is by owner after handover, but tiler has applied tiles to both sides of that bench, and just left the back untiled. They will have to be removed and plaster fixed up. (will post pic later that explains better)
*Dont like the white grout on the grey floor tiles, dont know what to do here as we didnt get a choice on colour.

Cabinetry

Only a quick update today.....We visited the house on Sunday and to our surprise all the cabinets were in, ( we did get an email saying they would start ont he 23rd, but didnt expect them too as the painter still hasn't been). Our hole for the stove top has been cutout, and the sink was sitting on top of the bench, but no hole was cut, so that should hopefully be done on Tuesday. I can really see how low the microwave will sit now, but at least I will be able to reach in it, unlike before when it was just too high for me. We have a bath sitting in the family room, a trough and wood for shelves in the study, so they should hopefully be started sometime this week.
We were a little disappointed to see that the front door was left open though, and when we left we closed it behind us.
So heres the photos.....
Kitchen


ensuite and bathroom cabinets...the ensuite is the double :)


Close up of benchtop colour...white valencia

Floor tile for bathroom/ensuite. We will possibly get one the same or similar for the toilet and laundry. We have to do that ourselves.

Wood for teh shelves in the pantry and 3 robes. We have decided to get something spiffy for the walk in robe. :)

Locked out!

NOOOOOOOOO!!
I mean...
YEEESSS!!!
We have been locked out, our front and garage entry doors are up. Got an email last night from 'S' letting us know that the painter will be here this week and the cabinetry will start roughly on 23rd. We went out today, just in case the painter was there to ask if he would be able to seal all our walls (cash of course), but no-one was there. :( So we may have to try tomorrow.
Anyhoo since my last update, which was before christmas, not much has been done. (I will not forget that they did have holidays, and have really only been back 2 weeks. So putting it in proper perspective means that they are still going full steam ahead!) Since last update, we have had our internal completely 'white plastered' and boy does it make the house look so much bigger and light. We have found a couple of little things with the plaster, some scratches, a chunk of plaster out of the door corner, and a bit of a "wobbly" feel near the bottom of the door (found this while inspecting the missing chunk in the corner!) But all in all it looks pretty decent. We have been told, from a person who has built, that the plaster doesnt really show up how awful a job it is, until the paint goes on. I hope it isn't the case with ours!
Our ceiling has had all the joining fixed and smoothed, and the vents in the bathrooms/laundry been fixed in properly and our cornices installed. Our windows were installed, but left open (we had no doors at that stage) to air out the plaster smell. And our front was cleaned up, we didnt get enough of the bricks that they threw out, we were planning on bricking up the post for the alfresco as well as making a letter box. We may get the letter box made with what we have, but will have to purchase more for the alfresco post.
Today we found that all the doors are up internally, and there are shelves awaiting to be fixed in the pantry and wardrobes. And of course the entry doors are on, and windows shut and locked. All that is except one, it is for Mr G's study (activity room on the plans), it looks like it (or the frame) was not installed properly, as there is a gap at the top when the window is closed and it takes a fair bit of slamming for it to lock properly. We will need to get this fixed up, but not yet! At least we will be able to access the house on the weekends instead of being locked out completely. ;) Especially since they will be starting cabinetry very soon!
Picture time! (please excuse the date on the latest ones, my camera has a date issue!)
Entrance

Kitchen

main bedroom

theatre..tv recess (pre cornice)

bedroom

Laundry

Entrance with doors, not yet painted!

Bedroom...with doors

main bedroom with doors

The dodgy window..you can see the top sliding part is 'gappy'

Another update!

Well it has been some weeks since I have updated… not because of a lack of progress. No, on the contrary, the building is going full steam ahead! My lack of update is because I went away for a holiday… back to Victoria to visit my family (in Bendigo) and friends. I spent 2 weeks away (well nearly 2 weeks, it was really 12 days!) and these past 2 weeks back at the old routine, with kids, cleaning, cooking and grocery shopping, add Christmas shopping into the mix too. Anyways Mr G keeps saying this update needs to be done, so here it is.... :)
During this time, a lot of things were done on the house, I will start with what was done first. Before I left, all the wood roof timber had shown up on site, and that was started on the 24th and it took 2-3 days to complete. A bill arrived while I was gone for “plate-height” progress payment. I had to sign it, but had no internet for email or knew anyone with a fax! After a bit of discussion, I decided to wait for a couple of days until I visited my best friend in another town; I used her email and faxed it off at the local PO. All done!! Just as I was leaving (after spending only 3days there :( ) I received a phone call from our CLO. Apparently the kitchen laminex is unavailable and I need to choose a new one. I explained I was out of state, she sent an email with 3 colour choices, which Mr G passed onto me. After arriving back with my family I then had to find a laminex showroom to check out these 3 colours, I was hoping that they weren’t too blah! Choices were: *white Valencia, *cotton craft and *pietra snow after getting small samples the salesman asked if I wanted to see them on a larger sheet. Cotton craft wasn’t available, which was a pity as that looked okay on the small sample, pietra snow was available, and on the sample it looked too busy with too much colour, but on the large sheet, the colours didn’t seem as brightnoticable, it looked quite nice. White Valencia had a light marble grain going through it, I chose the White Valencia it didn’t have as much pattern as the other and looked nice on the large sheet too. Just hope it goes with the licorice linea cabinets. Messaged Mr G back with colour, another problem was solved. Hopefully I won’t get a phone call later saying that the tiles are unavailable!
After the roof frame was finished, the guttering fascia and downpipes were installed; we do still have two in our WIR. The eaves, alfresco and garage ceiling have been plaster-boarded? The brickies came back and fixed up all those cracked bricks under the windows, the electrical chasing was done and wiring put in. The renderer has been and done his job, and the front is now not looking so shabby! :) The roof tiles were delivered with an email saying they will start on the 8^th just after I arrive back home.

ROOF/LINING/GUTTERING:
along back of house
porchgarage
CHASING/ELECTRICAL:
chasing in walls
electrical wires
RENDER:

render...unpainted at the moment.

*This next part was written on Sunday, but had trouble with the site... so its a couple of days out of date!*

When I arrived home, it was great to see the progress on the house. Since coming back, the roof tilers’ have been and the roof is finished. The plasterers have finished the grey ‘float’ coat on all the walls and the plumbers have been and put in all the pipes and we now have our outside taps. The inside ceilings were fixed to the roof frame but haven't got the cornice in yet. I think the white coat of plaster will be done first. I dont think there will be anymore done on the house before the labourers break for xmas... Unless the joins in the roof plaster are done. *fingers crossed*
We also have our 'smart' electricity meter installed and the gas meter too.
I am not sure when the white ‘set’ coat will be started or when they add the glass in the windows or the doors, but it shouldn’t be too far away. W did say that they were hoping for the grey coat to be on before xmas, and that is well and truly done, he also said lock-up just after xmas, but if the grey coat is on, they may be at lock-up earlier than planned, will have to wait and see. Not sure whether it would be good to be at lock-up before the holidays or after. I guess if vandals are going to ruin the house they will do it regardless. Although I must say that when we drive around the estate, we haven’t come across anything that looks like vandalism at all….but then again, we haven’t been there when its holidays!!

More photos from the last 2 weeks:

roof tiles on
Front entrance
kitchen

main bedroom... mostly grey coated no ceiling

fully grey coated and ceiling on
electrical and gas boxes *first 1 shut, then next 2 open :)
*I wonder why there is a power point in there

Bricks are finished.

On Friday 21 we had a meeting on site with W. He was very informative and friendly. While we were conversing with him, we found out that the bricks will be replaced. We got a bad batch apparently, and are now waiting for more bricks to be sent over. Other interesting things we found out were: *Ultimate are a medium sized company and only build approx 200 odd houses a year, whereas some of the bigger companies are doing 500+ a year. This suits us as it means that they aren't focused so much on quantity, but more on quality. *W also only supervises 20 houses, so not too many and, from what the brickies said, goes out 3 times a week. *The plus series houses..what we are building...take approx 6 months to build. So may be looking at an April/May finishing time. (YAY) *Hopefully the grey coat on internal walls will be done before christmas.

When we pulled up to the house we noticed that the roofing materials had arrived. W said they were booked in for Friday, but were held up on another job, so should be starting on Monday, they will take aprox 4 days to complete, then the roof tilers should come and do their bit. It looks like the roof will be finished, by the time I come back from my holiday. The brickies were also finished, possibly early that morning, going by some wet mortar, and that means that the inside is now completed too! Everything looks great, and the internal bricks were pretty decent compared to some of the ones I have seen in other houses.

Front panorama

Kitchen...with my lowered wall oven :)

Alfresco, looking into completed meals/kitchen

Main bedroom.Games roomRoofing material......tiles haven't arrived yet.