Ben & Casey's First Home - Metricon Mercer 32

Day 159 - Settlement

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:53:00 +0000

THAT'S RIGHT!!!! Today we got the keys. Let's not get too excited though because not everything is finished yet. Due to the wedding and also my site supervisor's wife due to have a baby in the next week or two Metricon pushed the settlement a little forward to ensure we had the keys after we came back from our Honeymoon to move straight in.

In the meantime Metricon are going to keep working on the house, we're still waiting on the floorboards which are booked in to be installed next week. The light globes were fixed, painting touch-ups done, bolts installed..all be it one deadlock on the wrong door, but they are going to just keep that one there and put in another deadbolt on the external door.

Yesterday the deck was installed, the fences are in the process of being installed and everything has come up looking great. Now I just have to get the deck in at some point, hopefully before Christmas.

We're going to have a nice surprise after the wedding, coming back to find the floorboards in which will really finish off the house. Our site supervisor is also going to get the house cleaned again even though we have the keys etc, given there is still a bit of work for them to do.

This is the front of the house on the settlement day with the deck installed.

How much water they used....
The kitchen with the light globes all fixed.
The fence pretty much done.
I'll upload some pics of the floorboards once I have them........I'll also post a few more things up when I have time re the experience etc....how Metricon was, some tips etc.

Glad we can finally call the place ours!

Day 153 - Fence Started

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:46:00 +0000

Today I dropped by the house to check on the fence given that it is on the side of the house that there has been a little bit of an issue with in terms of the ground level. It was lucky I went by because I was basically going to lose about a square metre of my block because they were going to stop the fence at my garage instead of continuing it on meaning that I couldn't get into 1 section of my property that would only be big enough to store some wood or bricks or something given how narrow it is but my neighbours backyard would have been about a square metre bigger.

I've asked them to extend the fence down another metre and a half to my neighbours garage so we'll see how we go and if they do it...however they told me they would.

I also took a few photos of the front now the render is complete. I'm pretty happy with how it came up, there is a splash of colour without being over the top and all of the colours go together.

There hadn't appeared to be any progress work on the house, there were still red dots throughout. I didn't receive my normal update call today even though my site supervisor said he would give me an update today on when he would expect to settle.

Pictures from the completed facade are below....

From the driveway side....From the front of the house

Front again..
Front again...

Projection render.....the colour is Dulux DreyfusThe projection render...the colour is Dulux Bullring
The side of the house...this will have a fence up hopefully within the next week or two.

The fence between the neighbour going up...
The fence again....

I was also told by the estate that Metricon need to replace the footpath after the gas company dug it up to lay a pipe.

Hopefully we settle next week but given we've had no progress yet we'll see what happens.

Day 151 - Final Inspection

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:02:00 +0000

Today we had the final inspection and it all went pretty well. The flooring isn't in yet, it will be done after handover when the floorboards become available. The front deck will hopefully be done this week.

We had a couple of pages of items that need to be rectified but nothing major. Hopefully the items will be resolved by the end of this week or worst case early next week. I'm hoping to get a more specific date for handover on Wednesday.

The render was being finished off today while we were at the house, the colours looked great.

The front poritco render after it was finished.
the carpet is down in the master bedroom
The robe fitout has been installed
The carpet in the hallway..
All in all things are looking good and we're really happy, lets just hope now that we can get it over the line within the next week and a half.

Day 147 - To Be.....Inspection Date Booked

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:18:00 +0000

Somewhat good news today. The Quality Assurance guys from Metricon went through the house and the house managed to pass. We're booked in for next Monday to have our final inspection.

Metricon have advised us that they would rather not try and pull the floorboards out of the contract and they will install them for us. What I don't know is what this means to the handover date, I'll hopefully have that resolved in the next day or two.

Other than that...its all good! I'll post another update next week after the inspection, hopefully with some pictures.

Day 146 - To Be or Not To Be

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:42:00 +0000

I had my usual Wednesday catch up with my site supervisor today. Nothing has really happened at all last week since the driveway. The floors are now an unknown again if they will get pulled out of the contract or not. Tomorrow the Quality Assurance guys are booked in, so if they pass the house it looks like we might be a goer to pick up the keys before the end of this month, if it fails it will push out to the end of November.

I will be eagerly awaiting a call from my site supervisor or customer service coordinator tomorrow to advise me of the outcome.

The front portico still needs to be rendered underneath and then painted, they are hoping to have that done by the end of the week. All things going well, and fingers crossed we should have our inspection next Monday and we should pick up the keys the week after.

I'll post something when I know the outcome.

Day 140 - Driveway Complete

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:15:00 +0000

Today we drove by the house to check if they had finished the driveway given the weather was pretty good and they were meant to have dug it all out yesterday and layed the crushed rock.

We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived to find the driveway just completed. What we did notice first off though is that they did the driveway with the wrong finish. We picked a spotted type finish to be different to everyone else around. The only difference is instead of the brushed effect it was like a cleaner spotted effect but they did the brush and it came up ok so no big deal.

View from the front without the garbage bin as well.

View from the side....starting to look good, can't wait for the rendered section to be painted.
Near the garage door
Near the front door, the portico will be decked.
View from the portico.
All things going well hopefully the render will be done tomorrow. I have a meeting on Saturday to discuss the fences.

Over and out for now.

Day 139 - Is The End In Sight?

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:42:00 +0000

Today I had my usual Wednesday phone call from my SS. It had been roughly 2 weeks since our last chat due to my phone dropping out last week and me being in meetings when he called back earlier this week.

Things are still progressing, the floorboards has slowed things up a bit and caused the most delays however they should be installed next Monday and should take a couple of days to finish off. This week the driveway is meant to be started if not finished depending on the weather. Apparently the site was scheduled to be cutout for the driveway today.

The rendered section at the front of the house is also planned to be painted by the end of this week all things going well. There are a few other items that need attention including:

Deadlock fitted to rear garage door
Painting touch-ups
Check plumbing to sinks
Check mortar on one side of the house which looks discoloured
Check expansions joints, there is one missing
Install double glazed tri-stacker doors

Hopefully we'll have our inspection on Friday next week after Quality Assurance on Wednesday and we may even have the keys the following week all things going well assuming the bank can get their act together.

I'll see if I can get some updated pictures soon, at this stage it probably won't be until the weekend.

Day 138 - Floorboard Delays

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:50:00 +0000

Unfortunately not much has happened over the last few weeks. Everything has come to a grinding halt right at the end of the whole process as we wait for a delay at the suppliers with the floorboards.

Up until today I hadn't heard from Metricon since last week and unfortunately I missed the call on both occassions. I'm hoping to get a full update tomorrow including when our inspection will be. At this point MyMetricon has it as this Friday but it probably won't be until next Friday when the floorboards are in. At this stage we're going to be lucky to have the keys by the wedding.

Another update soon when I know more....in the meantime..still waiting.

Day 132 - Carpets Installed

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:51:00 +0000

Today I received my weekly update from my site supervisor...unfortunately my stupid iphone cut out half way through the call and refused to let any incoming calls be answered so I didn't get to have the chat I was after. I dropped Metricon an email asking him to call back but I haven't heard anything yet.

Thanks to my iphone I have no planned inspection date, my SS hadn't been onsite since Monday morning had he was hoping the floorboards were installed yesterday. We dropped by the house today to find no floorboards but carpet in throughout the whole house. They had to leave the edges unfinished until the floorboards are done, hopefully they'll be finished by the end of this week.

To our surprise Metricon had also filled in the slab with soil around the house. In a couple of instances they covered up blemishes in the bricks that I already have pics of and by kicking away a section of dirt can hopefully get them to fix it.

The rubbish bin is also gone which is great given someone in the estate dumped a heap of rubbish in it over the weekend. I also queried the air conditioning control because we paid for a digital thermostat of which we have nothing installed, just a manual controller. We originally asked for it to be all put on the one remote which they said was possible but we're now told that because we have different brand ducted heating to evaporative cooling it isn't possible, however we will get 2 programmable remotes.

We're almost over the line, hopefully our inspection will be next week.

Day 129 - Cleaning Complete, Getting There

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

It has been a while since my last entry, in some respects a lot has happened, and in others, we'er not as close as we thought we would be at this time a couple of weeks ago.

A couple of weeks ago the house was cleaned and since then Metricon have been slowly ticking off the items that need to be resolved. At this point in time we're hoping to have our final inspection in a couple of weeks time.

VIEW ALL PHOTOS AS A SLIDESHOW

The garage door is now in and the automatic door control has also been fitted. The colour actually came up really well, but we're still waiting for the front of the house to be rendered in the final colour.

The splashbacks are in the kitchen, it has been completely cleaned and all except for a broken light it is looking great.

This is the view from the rear door entry

The view from the family room.
The painters have been around the house and have painted the electrical box on the outside of the house, they left the fibre box the standard colour.

The robe doors have been installed
The bathroom with lights on
The garage door control
Where the electrical pipe in the bedroom used to stick into the room.
The bedroom doors have finally been installed and stained, not sure what happened with the vent and light.

We have also ordered our blinds and will hopefully have them available before we move in so we can get them straight away to save us having to put up paper or blankets.

We had a bit of water getting into the roof due to some flashing or tiles issues so apparently that plaster has been replaced and painted. One of the broken windows has been replaced, but not the front window, hopefully this will be done over the next couple of weeks.

I'll try to give another update by next weekend, hopefully we get out final inspection date on Wednesday.

Day 111 - Lights On, Cooling Up

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:20:00 +0000

I missed the call from my SS last week so it has been a fortnight since we last spoke. I fired off a quick email this morning to ask some questions in relation to the progress given it has really been non existant for the last week and a bit since the tiling was completed.

We chatted for about 5 mins, discussed a few bits and pieces which I thought Casey and myself could go out tonight to check out. What we found was a very nice sight.

The electricals have all been fitted off, all the doors are locked, but we could turn on the garage light..and guess what IT WORKED!! :) The downlights inside look great, all of the external power points are complete, the lights above our island bench are in and look fantastic.

The plumbing fitoff has also been completed, the sinks are in, taps are in, showers etc....everything looks very noice! The powerpoint for the water heater is on the wrong side of a downpipe but I'm not sure what I'm going to be able to do there. I've flagged it, we'll see what happens.

The evaporative cooling unit has also been replaced, lets hope this one stays on in the wind. All of the cooling vents are in and they also look great.

There is a little bit of rectification work still to be done including the electrical pole in the bedroom, they have actually knocked this back in from what I could see through the window but they still need to fix up the hole and they also need to fix up the fridge cavity plaster which isn't square.

We found today on approaching our block that our neighbours have installed security shutters. It would appear they are the first in the estate to install them and I now feel like I'm living in the middle of downtown LA with gunmen running the streets, oh well, we'll put up the fence and live with it.

The rear neighbour has also started building, their house will be relatively to the fence to take advantage of the northerly sun for their alfresco based on the slab configuration. It looks as though it is a single story home, at least I hope it is so it doesn't block our northerly sun to the alfresco.

Where to from here I hear you ask, well, our clean is scheduled to occur next Wednesday, after all of the plaster rectification work is done (if it ever gets done, we've been waiting about 1 month for it). The following Monday floor tiles will go in with the carpet going in on the Friday. Once the carpet is in we're basically finished, Metricon will have their Quality Assurance guys through and we'll be in for our inspection not long after.

From there it takes about a week for our bank to check the house and issue the cheque, it also allows a few days for any recitification work to take place and also enough time for the Certificate of Occupancy to be ordered.

Based on the current dates it looks like our inspection might even scrape into this month, worst case at this stage it will be early next month. I'm having some blinds measured and quoted on this week so I'll get some pictures while I'm onsite. I'm also having someone come to quote and give me some advice on a deck under the alfresco.

Its all very exciting, we just can't wait to get a few more weeks in to get our inspection date to know that we're closer to moving in!

Upgrades

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 10:54:00 +0000

Given that we're now getting a little closer to completion I thought it might be worth itemising the upgrades we made to the base house design.

We had some upgrades as part of our Luxury Promotion Pack. These packs always vary but we made quite a few upgrades again on top of this pack. For the most part it upgraded our selection categories, but we found we upgraded again on quite a few things, particuarly the kitchen.

The Upgrades:

Structural

Higher Ceilings: 2550mm ceiling instead of 2400mm standard ceiling

External

Front Render: Render to bedroom projection and portico, we also paid a bit extra to get 2 different colours.
Brickwork Above Windows: By default all windows come with infills, we upgraded the alfresco and rear windows to be bricked.
Bricks: Upgraded to Category 3 - Austral Bricks - Urban One (Chocolate)
Roof Tiles: Upgraded to Category 1A - Bristile - Char Grey
Hot Water Unit: Moved hot water unit to rear of house to make room for potential water tank

Garage

Internal Garage Door: Installed internal garage entry
Deadlocks: Upgraded all rear doors to be deadlocked

Windows

Double Glazed Windows: We upgraded all windows to be double glazed, including the tri-stacker door. This also meant we had to go with awning windows instead of sliding windows
Window Flyscreens: By default the house price doesn't include fly screens, go figure.
Obscure Glazing: We added satinlite obscure glazing to toilet window, also not included by default

Front Entry

Front Door: Upgraded to Corinthian Madison entry door.
Glazing: Added glazing to front door and side window
Entrance Handle: Upgraded to Gainsborough Trilock Level Deadbolt

Walk in Robe

Robe Fitout: Fully lined inserts with laminated kicker, banks of four drawers, single hanging sections, double hanging sections, polished mirror

Ensuite

Ovelle Spa: 1890mm oval spa with tiled hob and hot pump.
Caesarstone Benchtops: upgraded as part of the package, we picked Osprey
Basins: Upgraded to Caroma Liano Vitreous china inset basins as part of the upgrade package.
Tiled Shower Base: upgraded as part of promotion.
Tiled Kickrail: Bottom of cabinets upgraded to be tiled, we liked this look
Bath Spout: Upgraded to Alder Zen gooseneck

Dining Room

Wall Cutout: provide a 1350mm x 1630mm void in wall as a feature. We liked this from the display

Kitchen

Colorform Gloss: Upgraded the laminate to colorform gloss doors and drawers, this cost a bit
Fridge Shelf: Added in shelf above fridge, this space is normally empty otherwise
Pot Draws: Added 2 sections of pot drawers each with 2 draws, either side of the oven
Kickrail: Metalaminate kickrail which looks like metal instead of plain white laminate
Overhead Cupboards: Cupboards added as part of promotion
Overhead Shelves: We paid extra to put in the overhead shelves on either side of the cupboards
Caesarstone Benchtop: Upgraded to Category 3 - Snow, we liked this better than the alternatives after we upgraded to the glossy cupboards
Glass Splashback: We upgraded the splashback to Category 2 because we liked the colour better than the Category 1 colours after doing the benchtop and glossy cupboards
Oven & Cooktop: We upgraded to a 900mm Baumatic oven and a separate Baumatic cooktop. These are normally one unit but we wanted them split and upgraded from the standard model
Dishwasher: Upgraded by promotion
Taps: We upgraded to a Zucchetti Elisse Sink Mixer with extendable 2 jet handspray & swivel sprout
Handles: Upgraded to category 3 handles because we liked the look of them better
Sink: Upgraded to a deeper 1300mm 1 & 1/2 bowl and drainer

Laundry

Cabinet: Upgraded as part of promotion
Overhead Cabinet: We added this in as a bit of extra storage
Lock: Upgraded the door handle lock

Outdoor Room

Tri-Stacker Door: We added in a wider, 3450mm tri-stacker door which is larger than the standard door space and and we also upgraded it to be timber and double glazed

Bathroom

Basin: Upgraded as part of the promotion
Tiled Shower Base: Upgraded as part of the promotion
Tiled Kickrail: We preferred this look of the tiles and it is the same as the ensuite

Doors

Cavity Sliding Doors: We installed cavity sliding doors in the ensuite to break it off from the bedroom.
Front Door Size: We upgraded the front door to be higher to go with the higher ceilings
Higher Doors: Upgraded all doors to be higher than the standard size doors
Timber Doors: We took the lead from the display home and upgraded the bedroom and pantry doors to the timber corinthian doors with a glazed glass, we also increased the size, as above
Privacy: We added privacy locks to the central toilet and bathroom

Flooring

Carpet: 100% Nylon Plush Pile Carpet to bedrooms, hallway, rumpus and living room.
Floorboards: Truelock 1000 series 90mm x 10mm timber floorboards in spotted gum.

Decking

Portico Deck: we are having the front deck done which is going to be done in 90mm x 19mm merbau decking

Electricals

Downlights: We put downloads in the main living areas
Garage Lights: We substituted the garage baton light for 2 florescent lights
Front Lights: We added downlights to the front of the house including 2 feature lights on the front portico
Front Sensor: We put in a front sensor light to light up the downlights and front feature lights
Dimmer Switches: Added in 3 dimmer switches to the downlights
Exhaust Fan: Added in exhaust fans into toilets and showers
Power Points: Of course we added in a whole heap of new powerpoints and light switches etc on top of the standard
Surge Protector: Added in a single phase surge protector which wasn't included by default

Heating

Ducted Heating: Added in a 4 star Bonaire ducted heating system with 13 ducts, this is compatible with the evaporative cooling to use a single control

Cooling

Evaporative Cooling: Upgraded to 4 star VSM 65 Summer Breeze cooling unit with additional cooling points in each bedroom

Additional Upgrades:
There are a number of additional items we added that weren't through Metricon that will be completed after we take the keys.

Alarm
We have a friend that helped us out with a high end security system for the house which has blanketed the entire house after we added in additional sensors.

Ducted Vacuuming
This is something we tossed up about but in the end we're really glad we decided to put it in.

Entrance Security System
We have allowed to put in a front door sensor and doorbell with a screen inside the house so we can see who's at the front door from the living room.

Data & TV Cabling
We had all of our tv and data cabling done by a company named Techlife. We removed out Metricons tv points and and it all goes back to a hills hub that we are putting in to centralise the cabling.

Summary:
All in all, most of the upgrades were your default stock standard upgrades that you do as part of any house. We decided to do quite a few things through Metricon, although it was more expensive, more than anything it was just easier. The electricals cost a fortune through Metricon, however we did leave standard baton lights in most areas, and we only put the downlights in the main areas and to save having to do painting etc later, we just went with the downlights.

The optional upgrades, like alarms and ducted heating are very expensive through Metricon, it is normally retail plus a markup.

We also decided to spend a bit more now rather than regret not doing things at a later point in time, the attention to the detail will hopefully pay off in the long run.

Day 105 - Tiling Complete

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:52:00 +0000

About a week ago now the tiling was completed. I've been a little slow to update the site given we're also not far away from the wedding and with the house progress slowing up now it is taking up less of our time.

I missed the call from my SS on Wednesday so he left a message advising us that he had kept the end of this week and all of next week to rectify the couple of plaster issues we have. This should also hopefully give him time to get the plaster fixed and the paiting also done.

There are a few updates that are worth noting.

First off, I took a few pics of what the evaporative cooling unit looks like since it blew off it in the wind.

This is where the unit was:

This is how it looks now.......

This is where the evaporative cooling unit ended up, it blew off from over the other side of the house.

They aren't sure why it came off, let's hope they fix it properly when they do put it back on, perhaps they'll use bolts instead of blutac next time round.

The tiling is also complete, we're really happy with the way that it has come up. We can't wait until the tiles are all cleaned up and the colours come through. The ceasarstone is also installed and looks great.

VIEW ALL PHOTOS AS A SLIDESHOW

The ensuite:

View from bedroom, mirror isn't installed yet.
The feature shower wall.
Another one of the bath.

The kitchen snow ceasarstone installed, hard to see due to the wood over the top.

The ceasarstone in the kitchen:

The bathroom tiling:

The laundry tiling, the laundry is basically finished now.

I started to take a few photos of the front of the house to play around with some landscaping ideas. We have been thinking about putting in timber stairs but that would mean that we might need to adjust our driveway layout. I took these photos anyway to play around with:

and another:
I haven't done to come to any firm ideas around the front but I got the image looking from this:

into this, however this is only a peak at how the driveway etc will look, we haven't had the driveway paved yet.

We're about a week away now from fitoffs, the fence hasn't progressed on our neighbours side. It looks as though today there was a gas pipe laid however it goes a long way up the side of the house. I was thinking of putting in a fence and at the moment it means the fence is going to be a fair way back and it will probably change the look of the front of the house.

The external painting of the render should also be done over the next few weeks.

Enjoy the photos below.

VIEW ALL PHOTOS AS A SLIDESHOW

I'll try and provide some more pics and update over the weekend.

Day 95 - Up, Up & Away

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:34:00 +0000

You might have thought by the title of this post that this means we're getting closer to finishing. Well I guess we are, but it isn't what the subject is referring to.

On Saturday I dropped by the house to show a friend how it was coming along. After getting out of the car and walking around the easterly side of the house we noticed some scatter pieces of Evaporative Cooling unit on the ground. "Is you're evaporative unit in" he asked, "Yes" I responded. "Isn't yours the same colour as that one on the ground" looking at a 2 foot by .5 foot piece of evaporative cooling casing the on ground, "Yes" I responded again. Perhaps we should have a look to see if I'm missing any of it.

After walking around to the back of the house and gazing towards the roof I realised that a piece hadn't been blown off, the whole thing had. All that was left of the evaporative cooling unit was the pipe that goes into the roof. The whole thing had been blown off in the wind on Friday.

There were scattered pieces of it on the land next to our block, the majority of it which was about a metre squared was about 40-50 metres from the house, it's a good thing no one was hurt or there wasn't any houses there. At least it happened before we moved in, not sure how it came lose but it did, so we'll have to get a new one. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures because I didn't have a camera with me.

As for everything else things are coming along well. I had a call late Friday from my SS who told me painting was all done, the plaster hasn't been fixed yet but there will hopefully be someone out this week to check if there was any water damage over the last few weeks, they'll also fix up a few of the cornice and wall issues we're having.

The tilers will be in action this week, with the electrical fitoff and plumbing fitoff hopefully also taking place towards the end of the week depending on how quickly the tilers finish up. We only have wet areas to do because the rest of the house is carpet and floorboards.

After the tilers we'll have about 10-15 business days to wait for the shower screens and splashbacks to arrive and about a week or so after that we should be in for our final inspection. At this stage it would appear as though we're only about 6 weeks or so away from finishing up.

Day 91 - Painting Complete

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:11:00 +0000

We dropped by the house tonight after seeing on MyMetricon that the painting had been completed. We arrived to find that the driveway area had been raised up to the level of the garage which initially had a drop off of about 30cms. The site has also been cleaned up a little bit.

The painting does appear to have finished however there are still a few outstanding issues:
1. The tri-stacker doors aren't in yet, however the painters stained the current doors (even though they'll be disappearing)
2. The electrical box pole is still sticking into the bedroom
3. No plaster work has been completed at all. The fridge cavity wall is still not straight and no cornices have been fixed.

The living room windows have been fixed the bricks were taken out last week, the seals were placed on the windows during the week and the bricks have been put back in. I forgot to check if the expansion joint in the alfresco had been fixed. Theoretically next week tiling was meant to start, however with some of the minor plaster issues it will be interesting to see if they proceed.

There were a few red dots around the place, I haven't had a call from my SS this week and it is highly unlikely I will now given he normally rings on a Wednesday or Thursday.

I'll hopefully have some more photo's taken from outside over the weekend.

Day 87 - Looking Sexy!

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:05:00 +0000

We dropped by the house for a quick look. It is fair to say that once that house gets to this stage it looks a lot more like a house, but there is less to look at. In the first few weeks we had a slab one week, frame the next, roof the next, bricks the next. Now we have paint, more paint, more paint....

My first observation was how much brigher the house is now that it is painted. The merbau doros also look great. The painters actually stained the doors that need to be replaced because they are not double glazed. It will be interesting to see what happens there.

This is the bedroom wall that suffered a bit of water damage. It doesn't appear to have been fixed, but they painted over it anyway. We'll see what happens here.

The living room gets the afternoon sun. The walls still aren't finished yet but the roof is looking good.

When I said it was looking sexy, what I was referring to was the outside of the house. The window infills have been painted and they look great. We kept the infills on the sides of the house but we bricked over the rear window and the alfresco windows. We figured no one is really going to see these windows anyway.

And the other side of the house. You can see the window at the back has the bricks over it. It was quite a lot more expensive to do bricks over all of the windows hence why we opted out. They only need to do this when you get the higher ceilings.

The electrical pole that will not disappear continues its saga. I think this may become a permanent fixture in our bedroom. It has now been painted, at least it looks a little better when it matches the wall colour. Now it's been painted they might forget about it. Hopefully this is the last time I'll see it.

The showers have been waterproofed as well late in the week

Hopefully this week we'll have our painting finished. It is on MyMetricon to finish on Friday. Nothing else appears to have been fixed since my inspection on Thursday and I'm yet to receive the building inspectors report.

Getting closer though, both Casey and I are getting very excited with the wedding drawing closer and the house hopefully due for completion before we tie the knot!

Day 84 - Fixing Inspection

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:13:00 +0000

This morning we had our independant building inspector come out to site to conduct what will be our second last inspection with him. We were met by our SS who we spent about an hour walking around the house and talking to about a few of the issues outstanding including where we go from here and what we can expect.

Given that our building inspector wasn't available last time around he checked off the previous report to make sure everything had been done correctly, which it had so he was satisified. He said that there weren't too many issues and all of the issues that he did find Metricon had already picked up anyway, lucky we've got a transparent and honest SS.

Yesterday I spoke to the SS as normal, he gives me a buzz every Wednesday afternoon let me know how we're tracking. The day before I had sent him an email asking whether any water might be getting into the roof through some tiles that hadn't been put back properly. the thing that alerted me to it was some water running down the render outside. He mentioned that he had a missed call from the painter along the same lines..except there was water in the master bedroom. Our diligent SS dropped in on his way home and fixed up the tiles, on inspection he found the cornices had bowed and the plaster was a little wet, he put up a pole to keep the wall upright :)

He's was trying to get onto the maintenance guys today to come out and inspect the plaster and see if it needed to be replaced. Either way the bowed cornices are going to be replaced.

The hole in the wall still exists, apparently the carpenters try to hit it in with a hammer....they need something a little bigger. The SS was disappointed when he found this wasn't fixed prior to plaster, he had instructed the tradies to fix it and they left it thinking it was back in enough. By the time he realised the plasterer's had been in and had to leave a hole. This has happened at 3 other sites he is building at the moment so it seems to be a common problem.

This is the only really bad plastering issue we have at the moment that is a genuine fault. The plaster appears to come out further on one side of the wall rather than following the frame. They are going to have to take this wall out and possibly the cupboard as well to redo the plaster etc.

Apparently in our house design they had a design issue with the front door. These days it is fashionable to have the higher ceiling with higher doors. The ceilings aren't an issue but the higher front door causes a little problem under our portico. The support beams weren't designed with a high door in mind so the door is actually higher than these beams. They need to put in some boards that they can render over because they can't get bricks in there. Once this is done, they'll render it up and lay the plaster for the portico.

The brickies need to come out and pull out these eaves as per my previous blog because the rubber seals are missing from the bottom of the window. The eaves are also too high. In the next few weeks the brickies will come out, pull out the eaves, window guys will insert the seals and brickies will re-brick it.

I'm thinking of becoming a building inspector. I noticed above our bedroom door that the frame and wall didn't appear to be square. There is also a mysterious hole in the roof that isn't near an electrical point and it isn't centered, someone must have put a piece of wood through the roof. They are going to pull down the cornices and try to get this straight again. We have a few doors like this.

We weren't allowed to put a power point on the other side of our mirror because it was a risk near the bath. Instead they put the electrical power point on the side of the stud that sits within the shower frame cavity. What this means is that we'll be able to shower and dry our hair all at the same time. This is apparently common with some designs and we're told it is no biggy to fix. It is because the electricians need to guess how far out the mirror frame will come and then guess the hole...they were close at least.

We are still waiting on a quote about our fence. We need to put in a sleeper to build it up to our ground level on our side which we need to fill. A few people have commented how close the houses are, that's because of where the driveways are, our living areas are a reasonable space apart.
This is how high we need to fill up the garage side of the house.

We're thinking about putting a deck in here, still not sure whether to do it ourselves or pay someone. Metricon aren't going to fill it though so that way we can do the deck more easiliy and we won't have to clear it out again.

The painting started today, they spent most of the time we were there covering windows, doors and cupboards. They had started painting just before we left and we hope they'll be finished by the end of next week.

This is all the cupboards covered up.

VIEW ALL PHOTOS AS A SLIDESHOW

All in all things are going pretty well, we've had a few issues but for the most part they have been resolved quite well. The tilers are booked in for around the 24th of August and it should take them about a week to finish. From that point Metricon normally aim for about 4-5 weeks to get to one of our final walkthrough's.

Before Metricon will let us in their quality assurance team needs to come in and give the site at least a 97% complete mark so that we don't pick up little things that haven't been done. This ensures we don't complain and think we're miles from completion and it also ensures we get in not too much longer after that.

Based on those estimates we will hopefully be in by about mid to late October.

Day 83 - Pre-Fixing Inspection

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:35:00 +0000

Tomorrow we have our inspection for the fixing stage which will be the second last inspection before we take the keys.

Toady I had a call from the SS and he said that things were way ahead of schedule and that they were working on rectifying the outstanding issues including the windows without the rubber seals, some roof tiles that aren't on correctly, doors that are on back order and a few issues with the plaster.

We got in trouble for going into the house...when I say in trouble they said you shouldn't be going in and taking photos etc, but I think the only reason being that for some reason my SS's boss seen the photos of the issues outstanding, not sure how that happened.

He said that normally after painting and tiles it is about 4-5 weeks to completion, or at least that's what they aim for. At the moment we're at about the 12 week (3 month) mark and we're in the final stage of completion. Working on a rough timeline that could put us in anywhere from mid September all going well right through to the end of October I hope as a worst case if we run into issues.

I'll post some photo's after the inspection tomorrow, apparently the painting has begun.

Day 81 - Kitchen & Cabinets Installed

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:03:00 +0000

On the weekend we arrived to find the cedar feature installed at the front of the house so now the facade just needs to be painted the correct colour to finish it off. I'm told this will happen closer to completion. We love the way the cedar looks, it is great to see the front finally coming together.

After the plaster was completed the only thing that had to be done to finish the fixing stage was the cabinets, the most anticipated one being the kitchen cabinets. To our delight we found the cabinets installed and looking great. We're really happy we went with the white colorform gloss white cupboards. We felt it was a bit of a gamble to keep everything white but the metal kicker really finishes it off and after the floorboards go in it will offset everything nicely..or so i hope. The bathroom and laundry cabinets were also installed.

There appears to be quite a bit of work done over the last few days to finish off the fixing stage, meaning we are now basically into the completion phase of building. We're now probably only a couple of months away from getting the keys. We don't have an anticipated end date yet but given where we're at hopefully we'll start to get an idea over the coming weeks.

VIEW ALL PHOTOS AND MORE AS A SLIDESHOW

View from the front with the plantation cedar along the top

View from the side, the other side looks great in the sunlight, I'll get a shot next time.

Kitchen looking good....

kitchen looking towards dining room on the left and alfresco area

Kitchen with view of walk in pantry, fridge cutout and front door.

Ensuite cabinets and board for mirror. The bottom section will all be tiled right up to underneath the cabinets.

Laundary cabinets installed...we paid a bit extra to get the top cabinets can never go wrong with more storage.
Bath sink installed...same deal here with tiles going up to meet the cabinet. This was an upgrade but we though it would like nice to go with the full tiled shower base compared to laminate.

It looks like they did the best they could to hit the electrical pole back into the wall of the bedroom but it hasn't appeared to budge, it's just dented. Still a bit to go here we'll see how they fix it..and it better be fixed well!The door in and ready for some paint.

VIEW ALL PHOTOS AND MORE AS A SLIDESHOW

We upgraded all of the handles and we also upgraded the ceasarstone benchtop but apparently that waits until the end to go in. All of our doors are upgraded to be taller doors as you can see near the kitchen and we also upgraded the bedroom and pantry doors to be merbau translucent....it cost a bit but was well worth it based on how it looks.

We're wrapped with how it is coming along, there are still a few plaster issues etc but I'll see what the SS says about them this week. We are also planning on getting an inspection later this week.

Day 76 - Plaster Complete

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:23:00 +0000

We're about 2 and a half months into building and today our plaster was completed. All of the skirtings are done on the roof and the floor. This week the kitchen is expected to go in whcih means we would have finished the fixing stage by the end of this week and next week we'll be into completion...the final stage.

It is safe to say that things have gone up really quickly, we've been lucky and haven't had any delays with brickies etc. The front has been a little delayed due to someone pinching the cedar for the top of the house which was apparently inside. That's probably still a week or two away.

I had a chat to my SS today and below are the updates.

Windows that didn't have rubber seals:
The window eave bricks need to be pulled out, the window fixed and the bricks put back in. Initially I told him this and he said na we'll just put some sealant..then when I said i wanted it replaced he said ok, we'll just put the seal back on. Today he acknowledged everything has to come back out.
Bricks Cleaned
Today the bricks were cleaned....they came up great...I'm really happy with the job they did.
Plaster Issues
From what I can tell we haven't had too many issues but tonight when I was out there I could see some minor defects which will need to be fixed prior to painting, which is meant to begin next week.
Doors Delayed
All of the internal doors have gone in except for the doors in the master bedroom due to a delay in stock. SS said they should be a few weeks away. The rest look great though.
Window Packing
I highly doubt that the windows were packed when they put the trimming on. I'll see if they vibrate when I shut them and perhaps we might need to resolve that issue later on.

We heard that our neighbours have their final inspection on the weekend and they are planning to move in within the next few weeks. They are more than happy to use the fencing company that is doing most of the estate however after talking to the estate design panel they advised me that my neighbours will most likely need to put in some wood panels to hold up the soil between our blocks.

The issue appears to be because they dug out their block that they need to re-inforce it, that's going to be something that we're going to have to talk to them about, let's hope we agree on how to go forward to start off the relationship on the right foot.

The next few weeks should include: cabinets, painting & tiles. I better get onto my inspector to get the fixing stage inspection done asap.

Day 74 - Lock-Up Inspection & Plastering

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:07:00 +0000

A lot has been happening the last few weeks. On the 17th July we had our lock-up inspection. Lock-up came up very quickly and at the last minute we booked the in our building inspector, except he was on leave for a few weeks so instead we got his son.

The inspection went very well, there were quite a few items to come out of it, but we'll get to those. There were actually a series of frame issues that were also picked up that our first inspector missed which is a little disappointing.

It might be worth while getting a cup of coffee or tea before reading this MEGA update.

Lock-Up Stage
The list of things that were picked up during the lock-up inspection were:

Fit infills above doors and windows where required.
Fit infills to raised roof area.
Clean bricks.
Provide weepholes and flashing under all windows.
Brickwork overhangs the slab by approximately 22mm at the Outdoor Area/Dining
Room door – maximum overhang allowed is 15mm.
Articulation joints to the right hand side of the Outdoor Area and north wall of garage are not continuous.
Brick lintel above garage front door to be galvanised to match all other lintels.
Rubber window sill gaskets are missing to the Sitting Room windows and the brick sills should have a clearance gap.
Provide fascia and spouting above retreat window and complete roof cover.
Door stud to left hand side of Bathroom door opening is not nailed to the bottom plate.
Ensure bath & spa hob tops are flush and continue to window frame.
Window and door frames to be installed to manufacturers requirements.
Pack studs to wall under opening at Family/Rumpus – both sides.
Explain partial roof sarking.
Fit stud to left hand side Kitchen bulkhead.
Ensure insulation is installed to manufacturers requirements.
Provide trimming for plaster south west corner Sitting Room.
Ensure all walls are straight, plumb, corners fixed and correctly packed.
Ensure adequate bracing to internal wall frames.
Ensure floor flashing is complete to both shower bases.
Cut out Ensuite toilet door plate.
Provide nogs for panel lift garage door.
Ensure power points are as plan in Laundry and Bathroom.
Replace odd coloured bricks (3), left and right hand side of front door (orange coloured).

As you can see most of these are not an issue. Some of them are things that the building inspectors pick up are just because you're paying them money and the longer the list the better it looks. The first observation that was made was that the bricks were very good, they were very well aligned and he commented how they looked good even though they hadn't been cleaned.

Now for the issues:

You can see the brick below is a litle bit orange, the surface had been scraped away so it had to be replaced. I think the bricky must have thought that this area was rendered so he left it.

These are some bricks in the portico that were also damaged.

These were the bricks by the garage that had some surface damage.

This is the replacement bricks that were put in a few days later. They managed to grab one more brick that was slightly damaged but there isn't much I can do about it. I mentioned it to the SS and he basically said yeah if you look at them all they are all like that...which they aren't.
These are the garage bricks that were replaced.

The waterproof skirting around the bathroom didn't go all the way to the showerbase esentially meaning that it may not be waterproof. This area was fixed, but another one wasn't.

This one below didn't get fixed. The SS said it would be alright, I don't believe him but I will follow up on it this week. Because Metricon passed their frame inspection they said it was fine to proceed to plaster.
This is how they decided to fix it...its better but still a bit dodgy.This bit wasn't even touched. This is the one I'm going to follow up about. It is the cloest point to the shower and Metricon said it would be fine!!!

I can't believe this was missed in the first frame inspection, however it is harder to pick it up without a roof etc. There is a whole stud missing from the kitchen to make it square. This is now fixed.
There should be a rubber seal under the window which is missing from 2 windows. They initially said they would just put some sealant over it but I asked for the windows to be replaced..after all there new.
This was meant to be packed prior to plaster, I don't think it happened.....
All of the beams on the portico are galvanised steel meaning they won't rust. This one above the garage entry wasn't for some reason. My inspector said make them put in galvanised which would have meant pulling all these bricks down. I called the council and the surveying firm that did our building permit and they said it should be alright. What it means is that I'm going to have to keep painting it to ensure it doesn't rust.

The insulation was a little dodgy with whole areas missed.
You can see they thought this area wasn't even worth doing. This has now been fixed.
There was an expansion joint that was missed at the bottom. Initially my SS forgot to tell the brickies to fix it so they'll have to come back to fix this bit. Apparently they just cut off some of the brick at the bottom.

The spa is in as is the pump. This is a dodgy bit of work however there is a cover that goes over the hole in the bricks so we'll see how this turns out.

You can see the window bowing from the weight of not being packed correctly. Getting the windows packed has been a real issue. The manufacturer says they should be nailed at 3 points in the side, ours are nailed at 2, they are also meant to be packed solid, ours aren't packed at all. I was told by the SS that there is a gap after plaster and they will pack them. I know they won't but there isn't much I can do except for keep asking, I can only assume it will happen otherwise they can pull off the window skirting and pack them properly.

There were a couple of braces missing from the frame initally. I ended up getting a copy of the bracing plan. You can see here that they replaced a stud and in doing so cut the brace. I had them replace it prior to plaster and I also confirmed every brace as per the bracing plan to ensure nothing was missed. Apparently Metricon's frame stage is quite strict but still, you're better off checking it yourself to be safe.

Plaster
It took us a couple of weeks to get to plaster after lock-up was meant to be finished. The main reason for this was due to the issues with the frame needing to be resolved. They got all of them except for a few minor issues, but building with a volume builder what do you expect. I trust that 99% of the issues are resolved that we picked up and the rest will be done in due course.

The house has now been rendered at the front as you can see below. This is just the prime coat of render, it isn't the final colours, it will be painted closer to completion.

VIEW ALL IMAGES AS A SLIDESHOW

As you can see below the plaster is now all in. The skirting boards are going in this week with plaster expected to be finished by the end of the week. The plaster actually looks pretty good, we'll see how the next inspection goes but it seems pretty straight. Most of that I think comes down to the fact our frame was made really well with good timber and it was already quite straight which has been commented on by the 2 building inspectors and also Metricon.

The spa is now also in which is very exciting!!!!!

This is the view looking in from the front door. You can see that you can look straight through to the backyard which I really like.

One of the issues that wasn't resolved before plaster was the electricity box pole that is meant and was leaning into the bedroom. I'm not sure how they will fix this without damaging the plaster but we'll see what they do.

This is the view from the family room looking towards the dining area and backyard.

This is the projection in the bedroom...it's hard to get a full shot of the bedroom it's a little big for the camera without a wide angle lens
I'm guessing that the optic fibre has been installed. I can only trust that this locked box is the ONU where the fibre is terminated.

VIEW ALL IMAGES AS A SLIDESHOW

It is funny how by writing this blog I realise how much stuff has happened in the last few weeks. Not seeing any progress between bricks finishing and the plaster for 2 weeks I thought nothing was happening but it appears as though things were busier than I thought.

This week hopefully all the cabinets should go in, next week we'll hopefully be painting and based on the estimates I've been given we should be in within about 3 months.

Our next door neighbours appear as though they are basically ready to move in, we got a letter today about the fences. That side of the fence will needs a wall to reinforce it which was included in the quote however I'm not sure how deep they are going to do it given that our soil needs to be built up quite considerably.

We also got a bill from Metricon for removing our rocks, they didn't ask us they took them and charged us about $300 but we were going to keep a couple for the front yard. I still need to work out if I'm going to pay it or argue that they should have told us first.

Hopefully next time it won't be so long between entries.

Day 54 - Telephone, TV and Data & Site Chaos

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:17:00 +0000

I think back to October last year when I started talking to Metricon about installing Fibre to our home through the company recommended to us by the estate. I had 4 months of them being completely obvlivious to my request regardless of the conversations I was having with them. Then in February it was escalated and after I received some advice from Building Concilliation & Advice Victoria (BCAV). In the final week before signing my contract they finally gave me permission to go onsite and told me I was on my own and I'd have to ensure everything happened at the right time.

Today the data cables, telephone cables, tv cables, hub cables etc...were all installed by Opticomm's contracted company Techlife. The engineer was really friendly and accomodating. Over the last 3 months I have done my best to ensure that techlife were onsite after the electrical company but because they electrician's didn't attend the site last week they ended up being there at exactly the same time.

I had to drop in before work to meet techlife to ensure everything was going to the right place. When I arrived onsite you could say it was somewhat chaotic. There were about 6-8 electricians onsite, 2 carpenters, 4 brickies and 1 techlife engineer. Techlife were reluctant to lay the cables for fear of getting in the electrician's way but they seem to have worked it all out.

I ended up removing a phone point from my original quote and relocating it in a different room. I considered where to put the wireless router but I ended up having to put in 2 additional data cables to where the router will sit so that I can then hook back into the switch in the hills hub. The electricians very reluctantly listened to my request to put the power points in a corner between 2 studs.

Anyway the moto of the story is that now all of our electricals have been done, the data cabling etc ended up proceeding without too much grief and I managed to get it in before plaster which was great.

The lock-up inspection is booked in for later this week, however we will have the son of our inspector because ours has gone on holidays.

This is the photo I took today. You can see the bricks are pretty much finished at the front, the garage is now bricked in and apparently the garage door was meant to be measured this week.

On a side note, I also found out that Metricon didn't install a 32mm conduit when they put in the electrical box. Now I need to pay another $660 to have a backhoe come in and dig the hole for the conduit to be laid for the fibre. Normally the fibre would just be installed after handover but I need to get the conduit laid before Metricon put my driveway down. I also need to buy an extra switch for the hills hub.

I will put together another blog entry on the opticomm installation and the how it all happens for those people that might have to do it at some point in the future.

Day 53 - Another Day Closer To Lock-Up

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:29:00 +0000

Things are moving along quickly and I like it! We're making good progress, there are things going wrong that need to be fixed, but for the most part they are all things that are par for the course.

At the start of last week I was concerned about some of the issues we'd been having but as more progress has been made the house is looking good and I'm happy with how things are coming along.

I went on site today because I had to get a few things sorted out and I caught up with my site supervisor while I was there. We did a walk through and by the end of it I felt pretty good about the things that had to be resolved.

Last week we had our evaporative cooling and ducted heating installed, the bricks continued and are now almost finished I would assume that it should be finished by tomorrow. The plumbing rough-in was finished today, however the plumber hasn't punched the holes through the bricks for the hot water system. Initially he did but he was told by the SS to fix it and he would incur any costs to have the brickies out to fix anything he stuffed up, if he stuffed it up.

The garage that co-joins the neighbours garage is really messy on the side, but they are going to clean it up when they're finished, they didn't roll any of the mortar even though they could have walked in the gap which is small, but not that small.

VIEW ALL PHOTOS IN SLIDESHOW

The shower bases are now both in:

The bath is in:
The evaporative cooling and ducted heating:
The ensuite doors are installed, you might mistake the bedroom for looking a little more like a camp site:
The view from the sitting room towards the back of the house next room is the family room and at the back the rumpus room:
The evaporative cooling unit on the roof and the bricking pretty much complete along the side and back. I'm really happy with the colour of the bricks with the roof, gutters and facia:
The side of the house bricked up:
Initially the power outlet was all bent on the side but that has now all been completely fixed and its sitting in nicely.

VIEW ALL PHOTOS IN SLIDESHOW

Over the coming week the lock-up is expected to be completed. My SS said that we're well ahead of schedule at this point which is nice to hear. There are still a few frame issues outstanding, all of which were picked up by Metricon's quality control people.

The rear door is still a bit of an issue, the double glazing still isn't in, the door doesn't quite slide properly and the padding is just slapped together but that will hopefully be fixed this week.

There are probably a few more things I could put down but I'll save them for another time!

Happy for comments on colours or progress etc!!

Day 48 - Pleasant Surprises

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:37:00 +0000

Tonight I decided to drop by to check on the progress of the bricks and it is fair to say that I was pleasantly surprised for many reasons.

On the weekend I was a little concerned that the building was continuing and there were a few issues that I thought might cause bigger issues down the track. After firing off an email to my Customer Service Co-ordinator and not receiving a reply I was getting a little worried. My Site Supervisor (SS) called very late in the day to put my mind at ease.

We're actually very lucky to have the SS that we were allocated. He seems very organised and just seems to know what needs to be done. That said I hope we don't run into more issues down the track that cause us major problems but he seems to have his finger on the pulse.

He assured me that the plumbing that was in the wrong place will be fixed by the plumbers, I wasn't sure about this given they bricked over it, but after inspection today I found that the pipes aren't sticking through and he's right, they can fix it, I'll just be interested to see if the messages get passed on and are processed by the guys doing the work (call me pessimistic).

He also assured me that the frame items will be fixed this week, the rear door glazing will be fixed prior to lockup and the missing window and door will be installed this week.

Driving down the street I was interested to see how much of the brickwork had been completed. I was initially thought they hadn't made much progress because the front hadn't progressed since Monday but one side, and the back were pretty much complete, the garage which was tricky because it is very close to next door was complete and it looks like they have one more side to go and then some remaining work on the front.

The mortar has really lightened up a lot, something that initially it crossed my mind that it appeared a little dark but after a bit of research I found it takes about 3 days to find something close to its colour after drying and then it is about another 4-6 weeks for it to completely dry weather depending. I have to say though it looks good.

I noticed the front door frame has been installed finally and the garage internal door is also installed. After venturing into a very dark uninviting house with fading light of my phone I found the frames issues has mostly been fixed, the ensuite doors had been installed, the bath is installed the rear window is in and I have to say, the double glazing kept the house incredibly quiet. When the door wasn't in and the rear window was missing it was like a wind tunnel and it was very noisy, now it is very quiet, can't wait to see what it's like once we move in.

The shower in the bathroom had also been marked out and there is a few plasterboards onsite also. Over the next few days the brickies should finish up and the electrician should be in.

Next week should ideally be the last week before lock-up is complete. Currently Metricon have lock-up scheduled for next Wednesday.

Probably one of the best sites I've seen apart from seeing the slab and frame flying up and forming what would be our house. As much as it is disappointing to know that we are going to be locked out within the next couple of weeks its exciting to know it's all starting to happen!

Day 46 - Bricks Started & Outstanding Issues

noreply@blogger.com (Ben) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 01:28:00 +0000

It's hard to believe we've been building for a month and a half now. Things are starting to take a little bit longer than they did in the first month. Now we're starting to get into the tricky bit of building where we have identified a few issues and building is continuing and the issues aren't getting resolved too quickly.

I think part of the reason things don't happen quickly is because I don't have much contact with my site supervisor because I need to go through my customer service co-ordinator who just forwards on my email. Based on this I think they sometimes don't comprehend what the issues are and therefore are unable to resolve them in a reasonable efficient manner.

I'm still yet to pay for the frame stage installment because the 3 issues that were identified haven't been resolved. On a more positive note the window that was upside down has been turned up the right way. The tri-stacker door at the rear still has the single glazed glass in it.

New Issues:

1. Hot Water System in Wrong Location
We moved the hot water system so that we could fit a water tank between the downpipe and bedroom window however the plumber has roughed in the water tank wherever he thought might be best.
2. Wrapping Has Come Off
In the wind over the last few days the wrapping has blown off.

3. Gutter / Fascia Dropped Off
The fascia and gutter dropped off a small section of the front. This is no biggy, the site supervisor knows about it it is just a matter of getting it put back on.

4. Board is coming off wall
This hopefully won't be a big one either, it could be caused by the wind coming in from the west side of the house but the board has popped over a nail and is bent. It may not be that easy to see in the photo but up close it is pretty obvious.

Last week I had the plumbing rough-in take place, it all looks pretty good except they put the hot water system in the wrong place as mentioned above. I'll be interested to see if they can move it or if they'll propose I leave it where it is.

I bumped into a neighbour yesterday while at the block. She built with Metricon in another estate and has had 4 years worth of issues. The main issues appear to be with plastering and tiling so I'm thinking I might follow up with my SS to see if he's booked in good plasterers rather than the 16 and 60 year old's that apparently plastered this other ladies house.

It looks like the tri-stacker door is going to need to be pulled out of the frame to replace the door panels so I want to get that sorted out within the next couple of weeks before plastering gets done but I'm not liking my chances.

This week the bricking will continue, hopefully the wrapping will get fixed, the electrician is meant to be onsite at the end of the week and the plumber back next week. The correct front door (or what I think is the correct front door) has arrived onsite as has the rear window which was on back-order because they had delays with glass deliveries I'm told.

The mortar looks a little darker than it is meant to be at the moment but I think that's because it hasn't dried yet. Apparently it takes about 4-6 weeks to reach its final colour. I'm really hoping it dries up a lot and ends up quite a bit lighter, at the moment it's basically grey and blends in with the bricks.

VIEW ALL PHOTOS AS A SLIDESHOW

Latest update with the bricks starting to go up:

The bricks at the side of the house:
The bath frame was also started this week:
Plumbing rough-in started:
The new door and window onsite:

VIEW ALL PHOTOS AS A SLIDESHOW

I've requested a meeting onsite this week with my site supervisor so I'll see how that goes and maybe provide another update afterwards. For now I'm not feeling that great until we have a few of the issues above resolved.