It fits....

The car looks good in the garage...

Merry Xmas to all and to all a good build!!

We finally have keys

So we have a heap of keys....... a few outstanding issues that will be fixed, SS told me if I left it on Master Key tradies could just go in to do stuff. I told him that the house is mine so no way I am leaving it on master key for anyone to just wonder in I waited for a tradie to fix up an issue on the bath and then locked her up, a plumber arrived because he wanted to switch the bath spout to a shorter one but could not let himself in. Told him I'd have to run it past the boss so he'll be back next year for the dishwasher anyways. Had a call from a sparkie trying to get in this morning "Can't get in, did you take the house off Master key".... hmmmmm yes I'll be updating my blog over Xmas, I stopped because I got busted onsite and have a heap of pics to post of me being in there as per below

Handover date tomorrow

Well tomorrow is the final day that the Supervisor's at Allworth are working (Xmas party on Thursday)

Bathroom tiling should be completed today, tapware on tomorrow and a visit from Trend to sort out the rear door...

So hopefully tomorrow everything will be completed, I have told the SS I can visit the site in the afternoon to inspect. Fingers crossed it is all ok and I can get the keys, if not they are not back until the 14th January

SS contact

SS called the Boss today, all the items on the list have been resolved with the exception of the bathroom which is a work in progress.

Cleaners went through on Tuesday and will do another run through after the bathroom is done

Contact from the builder

Just had a call from home, the Deputy Construction Manager went onsite today.

He has emailed us to let us know that the items raised are being actioned, some have been completed and the rest are booked in to be resolved.

The Bath spout will be relocated to the correct position but this will push completion into next week some time due to the amount of work involved.

The house will be cleaned to "Industry Standard", so we are getting clarification on what that is....... aslong as it mean's the floor is vaccumed and cupboards, benches and wet area's all cleaned that should be OK

My wife was told by the GM it should be "like a shiny penny" when you walk in.

Good to see them onto everything, we have told them not to rush the work as we want it done right not fast.

Overall a little disappointing as we wont be able to get anything done until 2013 now

Leave cancelled heading back to work

Have been told by the GM that our complaints and concerns emailed have been forwarded to the Construction Manager for action.

Nothing back today so organised to head back to work tomorrow so I don't just sit at home playing PlayStation while we wait for them to finish

Email to builder

Sent that email off yesterday, but this morning we were talking about the main bathroom. There was an issue with the spout not quite long enough to be fully over the bath. We were talking about the whole room seeming off.

So off to the display today and we see the problem. The display tap is on the end of the bath, our place has it in the centre on the long side.

So a please explain to the builder tomorrow. I am meant to be on leave to organise flooring installs etc but seems like I will cancel and head back to work Tuesday.....

Handover a bust....

Well we had our handover inspection but I doubt we will be in the house anytime soon.........

A bunch of things inside we are not overly happy about but the major thing is really the Rear slider, it has been unable to lock for the whole build and is still not repaired. SS said he had been chasing Trend about it but I can't take possession of the house as my insurance company will not cover me as I am unable to secure the home correctly.......

The painting stuff will be addressed on Monday and the mortar issues have been marked to be fixed this afternoon

Felt sick on the way home and my wife has told me she doesn't even want the place after the inspection.......

My wife spoke to the General Manager and is drafting an email for him on Monday. She has also told me she is taking charge

Still not fixed, Handover tomorrow

Well the date for handover is tomorrow at 10:30 so either it gets fixed tomorrow morning or suitable commitment in the next few days.

It is not filling me with confidence the interior will be acceptable

oh yeah this is what the place looks like....



Street view (the tree that was there is gone)

Disappointed

Well disappointed this arvo, the SS called late to tell my wife the house was complete and they organised the handover inspection.

I got out there and a PVC downpipe replaced 2 weeks ago is still not painted, there was paint damage to the door I expected to be fixed at the same time. Also the mortar blowouts and cracking on window sill issues I pointed out after the brick clean and was told would be fixed still there.

A please explain email to head office (can only call the SS direct on certain afternoons) last night and a follow up call from my DW

Was told the SS would call us today but no call.......

Also checked out my loan account and my lender has paid the final payment even though I requested it be held until after my final inspection.

Handover date

Well Handover is meant to happen this week.....

I know the bank has the valuer going through this afternoon so it is pretty close to all done obviously

We need to let them know by the 11th (Tuesday week) if we want our Appliance's installed on the 19th of December before they close up. I'm not sure one when my tiler will start so commiting at this stage to that date for the appliance's going in seems not doable so they will drag until 2013

So we wont rush to be living there prior to Xmas, just get thinks done so we can just move in so all the flooring, driveway, fences, landscaping, etc if we can

Have been contacted by two of our neighbours which is awesome, just waiting on the people over the back fence to say hello so we can get fence's rolling as soon as we get all the quotes back in.

Have to say a big surprise yesterday when I was watch TV yesterday arvo (Sunday) and get a phone call from the fencer confirming 100% what I wanted for the side block-off's on the house

First Contact....

Sent out a letter to our neighbours to introduce ourselfs and to let them know we will be in soon and want to obviously get fence's happening. Have not managed to bump into them onsite yet, always seem to be out there when the neighbour's 3 doors up building with the same builder are there

Painters working hard

I can't wait to get the carpet in, we have had hardwood floors through our house for the last 8 years so will be good to have some carpet again

Went past the house on the way home and took a couple of pic's. I also noticed 2 roof tiles at the back of the house missing, look like where the scaffolding was mounted so emailed my builder tonight as me next chance to contact the SS would be Thursday arvo

Front Entry


Corner from Master

Painters started!!

Went past the house on Saturday and the painters have started, will go past again in the next few days to get a look at the render colour.

The mission for this weekend was to sort out the flooring for the house that we need to organise afterwards.

Saturday was our tile shopping day - went down to do the local shops first, into Macarthur Tiles and we liked one of the tiles we saw on the way in. The DW said she liked it and joked we should stop looking..... walked around the shop for another 40 minutes and went back to the first tile. They let us take a sample (to keep 450x450) so took that to the display which has a heap of the same colours internally as our place SOLD!!

Here is the tile on our outside table


Had Sunday off but back out Monday to shop for carpet and decide on if we do some floating flooring in the entryway. For carpet we decided on Godfrey Hirst eco+ carpet in a Mushroom colour

I think this is it...


While at the carpet place we had the floor tile and selected a floor we liked and grabbed that sample and our tile and back to the display to check out what it looked like. Seems OK so basically as you open the door we will have our 2 metre Entry way with the floating floor for about 5-6 metres until it hits the Formal Lounge which will start the tiles.

Floating Floor colour


Happy to have that part all sorted, ordered and should all be waiting once we get the house so will just need to organise installers

Front Render done

Went past on the way home and found that the external render has been done and the front step tile's completed, I assume that means the wet area's are all completed as well

Not sure if that is the final render colour, I thought it would be a bit darker but maybe it will be painted???

Managed to take two pics of the front before my phone died...

Front view

Side View

Tiling issue sorted

Went past on the way to work and spoke directly to the tiler, went armed with my selections list. Hung out in the front of the site until he came out and invited me in. After explaining and showing him the paperwork he blamed the tile supplier and told me it would be sorted.

Asked me how I got in as he had left tools and supplies onsite, told him how we got in...

Garage Door done and tiles started, an issue found

My Dad drove past yesterday arvo and called to tell me the garage door is on and the internal tiles have started in the bathroom. Asked home he knew and told me the rear slider is not locked and easy to open.

Ducked up today to check it out, took some snaps of the internals I missed the other day. The family was there and we noticed an issue with the tiling. In the shower niche of the main bathroom they have installed the feature tiles meant for the ensuite.....

The OMG that is wrong moment.....

Wrong Feature

Ensuite

Back of the front door

Kitchen 1

Kitchen 2

Laundry

Booked site Inspection

Had a booked inspection , the kitchen, bathroom, ensuite & laundry cabinets were about halfway done. The house also has the front & garage internal door installed. I left my phone in the car and only remembered 10 minutes down the road I didn't take pics

The only issue is there are two man holes for some reason when I asked for the laundry one to be removed and one placed into the garage so I now have both. Hope that is sorted out soon..

The wet area tiler was booked for Friday but the SS said he thought they would start today instead so from what I could tell the things left to do are:

Wet Area tiling
Internal Doors
Skirting
Painting
Ceiling Insulation

In trouble

Well turns out I am in trouble with the builder. To find the electrical issues I went onsite, when I was told they were fixed I decided to drive into work and go past the house to double check. There were tradies onsite and I told the guy who I was and that I was checking everything was sorted.

Got a very short and rude phone call from my SS talking at me and telling me if I was onsite again they would shutdown the site and do xyz and it would be at least a 2 week delay. I was shocked by the call and basically said nothing I was so shocked....... I had after all pointed out several things that if I had not caught would have been much bigger issues down the track

Figure this post needs a happy picture and seeing that I am writing this after we have finished and the site can't be shutdown, here is my son enjoying his first walk through the house :)

Electrical Done

The Electrical stuff has all been done. I can see from the outside that the Speaker cables have not been run to the Alfresco so I'm going to call the Electrician and Builder tomorrow.

Roof on, now they can work 24/7 :)

Had a family trip down the coast on Saturday morning so after all the fun we decided to make the trip home via the house to check out the roof tile progress and it looks 100% done. (excluding the tiles missing where the scaffolding is mounted)

There seem to be no spare tiles to patch those holes, looks like they just tossed all the ones of the roof they did not need into the rubbish pile. Heaps of smashed tiles everywhere there, I was hoping for some spares in case some break down the track.

Here are some pics

Front Shot

Left side

Right side

Roof Half done

Went past on the way home to check out what the roof tiles looked like on the house, they are about half done so hopefully they finish up tomorrow :)

Front View

One side complete

Rear view

Brickies finished, Roof tilers onsite

Decided to drive to work today so went past the site in the morning, the brickies have finished up and moved all the broken bricks etc to the front of the site.

The roof tiles have been delivered and the roof tilers are onsite getting the roof done, so hopefully by the weekend the roof is done :)

Bricks finished - Front Entry

Bricks finished - Garage

Roof tilers putting on batons and sarking

Brickies almost finished

Went past today as the brickies were due to finish today with the Roof tiles to be delivered tomorrow. Got there to find a fresh delivery of sand, 6 courses left on the Main Entryway pier and 4 window sills to be completed.

So I am guessing they ran out of sand today and had to wait for more, should be finished tomorrow.

Almost done