handover date set- June 4th

By Friday we had received an email with our final invoice. Hubby (G) has booked an appointment to hand over the bank cheque on Thursday morning and collect the KEYS!

Thursday:There were people at the house on Thursday. yes a door was left unlocked AGAIN!. We'll be checking every day from now on. Someone has been in patching plaster and the cleaner had finished her job. Someone made a bit of a mess in a few places ,I'm guessing after the cleaner left. The tiny downlights in the hallway are very bright at night.

Friday:On Friday someone had been in and filled up a few mortar holes ( they still missed some), the porta loo and waste skip were collected. Someone has done a first coat on the lintels under the main bedroom windows. Someone else has made an attempt to shift the big rock pile at the back. No luck so that means a BIG dozer will be in early next week instead. $$$$$$ Pest control final spray was done. At some stage the OHS construction sign was removed from the wall next to the office.

Saturday: Tiler was in and sealed the tile joints with silicone. There are neat little tins of leftover paint stacked next to the spare tiles and grout in the house.


Picked up a few " Redi shades" from Bunnings to get us started.
Ordered new bed bases for the boys. Paid a deposit with mattresses to be paid for when we are ready for delivery.
Confirmed that the cork layers start on Monday the 8th.
Started a proper list of things to do.
We've picked a main living area colour. Wattyle "Igloo" or something along those lines if we end up using another paint brand.

Almost done and dusted.

PCI is done and dusted. Most of the major concerns had already been fixed. Yippee.

Rocks WILL be removed.
Still a little minor plaster patching to be done early next week. Cleaner to finish on Monday. ( burst water main earlier today somewhere in town)
One window which has quite a gap when pressed will be replaced.
Linen sliders need to be adjusted.
Some minor touchups to some window frames and a few more small mortar holes to be plugged.
One privacy lock was on the wrong door but we've elected to leave it where it is. ( wouldn't have minded a privacy lock there as well anyway)
Tiler will be in once the cleaner has finished to seal benchtop and tiles that need a seal edge and fill a gap under the jarrah cap between it and some tiles.
Carpenter is going to putty the worst of the jarrah flaw and reseal the timber.

Everything opens, closes, flushes,switches on and off. all painting messes have been cleaned and covered.
Our brick stain from where the brickies trestle rested against the wall early in bricking stage has been attempted to be cleaned twice. Looks like we'll have to live with it. It's nto coming off and the cleaning attempts have only improved it slightly if at all. But it's not too bad. It will be hidden behind a small fence soon enough.

We have one brick discolouring from something.. We'll wait to see what happens between now and 4 month maintenance.
Elsewhere we have about 5 bricks with the green leeching on them made worse by the brick cleaning done. This will fade with time.




THATS IT!
Invoice will be processed tomorrow and we should receive it early next week and Hopefully we'll get handover by the end of next week.

OH for those who are fairly local. Our S.S> muttered that we seem to have started a trend with raked brickwork. lol I said hmm that might be me. I asked if it was people with the same brick as us and he said yes a couple were. Seems possible that a couple of Bunbury and at least one Collie person building read the forum. I explained that I'd commented on a forum that the raked bricks really brought out the markings on the bricks. lol.. When we started our brickies apprentice had never used a raking tool and the brickie hadn't done a raked mortar himself for quite a long time.

Small update: Cleaner has been in and finished off today. Someones been plaster patching but there's a few spots still to go.

PCI Soon

Well S.S. turned up on our doorstep this afternoon on the off chance of catching DH.

Sparkie is not too thrilled , claims he's never ever put eco flaps into a house with external venting but will come back and do it. hmm yeah right. Like we'd buy the ixl with the eco flaps instead of the cheaper model if we didn't want it.

S.S. is disputing that they said they'd remove the rocks they dug up during site works. BUT we have it in writing that they will he was very shocked when Dh produced the paperwork with the office signature on it stating clearly that the cost for additional rock siteworks included removing it and that it would be the same cost even if we chose to keep the rock. oops Someone their end has slipped up perhaps.

S.S. wasn't available after work Thursday or Friday so we are having PCI on Wednesday while the cleaners will be in. ( fine by us) if it had meant we could have had handover before the long weekend( wa) this weekend I'd have been willing to take time off but since it won't make any difference I won't.
They will then have 10 days ( is that working days or calendar days?) to fix issues. Invoice will start being processed on the day of PCI and will then be sent out to us approx a week later. We are hoping for less than that as the cork layers are currently booked for the 8th. We might have to move them to a fortnight later which we don't want to do.


I've rushed up to the house late this afternoon and taken photos all around the outside where there are defects in the mortar so I can print off photos with the missing mortar sections circled and some of the most obvious paint mistakes. This way we can hand this information to the S.S. on Wednesday with anything else we want sorted in writing. The painters still have 2nd coats to do on downpipes , meter box and possibly eaves so many of these may yet be fixed by Wednesday.

The only issues we have that we are currently aware of are:
Internal-jarrah cap wood flaw, crooked cistern in ensuite( it's not level), one slider rattles in the latch ( something in the mechanism?),a window that needs adjustment to close more securely.

External-scratch on a window frame.


Time to hunt that PCI checklist down so we can go through room by room. WoohOO

Today they've stained the front door. it looks great. we think there must be a 2nd coat but we'll wait and see. it's been so wet they can't do much outside. Painters are still doing 2nd coats on ceilings atc atm. they've managed to drip ironstone paint on to one of the light fittings out side the garage and drip white eaves paint onto door frames and some window frames and to
get splashes of white paint on the bathroom floor.


How do I know.
Yup you guessed it.
Someone left the laundry door unlocked again today.
Worse still they left our main bedroom window ajar.
And it's stormy.
And we didn't close it while we had the chance!
The guy responsible for the plaster repairs lives in our street so I popped down there tonight to ask him if he had a key and if so would he be kind enough to go and close up the window. his response was it won't matter. they could even hose down the walls and it woudn;t be a problem. ( his words) so rain isn't a problem.! hmm it is if I want to paint it in a week or so!

Pluses- shower screen is in, shower rail is in. All the yellow sand has been spread. ( oh well) And there has been a general site clean up at the front. BUT when they finally covered the electrical pit in at the front they decided to move a few of the rocks they'd dug up. For some reason they've moved them down to the side of the house. INTO the 2 m wide section we have to keep clear by council regulations for a fire boundary. oops. these are too big for us to shift ourselves. Thanks guys. They haven't bothered to finish clearing up the rocks and flattening out the ground leftover from digging up for the septics and leech drains. It's "almost" done but not completely. Downlights are in. We would dispute the position of one of the kitchen ones but there's nothing much that can be done except to rip it out and patch and reposition it. It's going to annoy us but a patched ceiling would annoy even more.

Hubby checked through our paperwork and discovered the builders insurance for the build runs out on May the 31st. Don't know what they plan to do about that. We haven't had pci yet or even had it booked , today hubby noticed the eaves on one side of the house looked damp because the gutters seem to have overflowed. and with this weather the painters can't finish. They haven't even started priming the 2 lintels for our main bedroom windows yet. There is at least 1 / possibly 2 windows that need replacing or at least refitting Lots of mortar to be patched and a dodgy piece of jarrah timber capping in the house. ( it looked ok until they stained it) it really needs replacing which means restaining or varnishing. It looks far worse in real life. The flaw in the wood makes the timber look like it is going to completely split open and huge chunk is going to fall out.


Plasterwork has been patched except for one very small bit that they've missed and probably haven't noticed but which we can see from outside the games room.( under one of the jarrah caps)

I guess they'll be claiming wet weather days. it could all certainly be done within the next week if the weather was fine.
I have 2 courses after work next week on the only 2 days we could normally both be available for a pci. Somehow I doubt they will do one on a saturday.

Big worry atm are our ixl lights. The sparkie "installed" these on monday but some how.. hmm managed to throw away part of the ixl in the rubbish along wiht the ixl switches. Instead we now have a blank bank of 5 switches and missing eco flaps. We are also concerned that he didn't follow the instructions for wiring the auto safety switch.( well if he couldn't be bothered to read the install instructions on something so basic would he have bothered to read the red warning instructions about wiring!?!).. what fun. Just as well we've been checking the waste bin frequently or we've never have picked this up. Give that the eco flaps and auto safety switch were the reason we spent additional money on this particular model of ixl over the base model we want it installed and preferrably correctly.

21st May House

ok very slow, patchy progress atm. Painful to watch because we just want the keys. painters had almost a week with nothing done. we heard the main painter was ill. But the rest of his team should have been there. Still if he was there and they painted grey splotches on our white eaves...

today they've lowered the garage door, put globes in all the light fittings. removed the builders power box and we have power to the power box and a little green power hub and power. We've both tested the light in the garage.

the jarrah caps inside have been varnished. They are still only part way through external 2nd gloss coats and nothing can be done atm because of the wild weather here.

It looks like the sparkie was back today which really peeves us off because we worked out on monday that he'd not completed something properly. We have the proof. we have part of our ixl's that he threw away that were supposed to be installed. Since we were half expecting a call from our S.S. we thought we'd tell him then rather than start complaining. But if we'd known he was returning during the week we could have hassled the sparkie direct. we bought the Eco tastic ixls which have a flap that needs to be fitted and which closes over the vents so cold air doesn't get in. the damn sparkie threw them in the rubbish with the empty box instead of fitting them! it was an extra 60-80 dollars worth buying this version instead of the basic version just so we had the flaps so we aren't too pleased.

warm enough

It seems Perth has been having a cold snap. At least at night , according to my cousin who was here last night. i guess there's something for going to bed dog tired and having a family room filled with computers after all.

news is sparse. Insulation went in yesterday. Painters have returned. Hubby was told the painter was ill on thursday, but obiously either he or his offsider was there on friday. No unlocked doors. So we can't explore, Rats!

Oops

Bit of a mishap today. I got to work to discover we had a staff meeting after school finished which meant I couldn't meet the sparkie with hubby. Arrghhh!!!! I wasn't able ring hubby until break time. As expected, hubby didn't take it well and wasn't willing to meet the sparkie without me there incase he forgot anything. BUT by lunchtime luckily he'd had a change of heart. We had a quick think over the phone and revised what we needed to check with the sparkie. Mostly it was just about making sure he stuck to what was on the actual electrical plan this time.

phew. Of course here I sit at home now. Dh is off at soccer training with our youngest where there is no mobile signal so we can't talk. It's in a complete black spot. Work is almost as bad as I've only found 2 places where I can get a signal. From what everyone at work tells me it wouldn't matter who my phone company was either.
I popped to the house before coming home and on checking all the doors found the laundry door unlocked. Had to go in for a look of course and lock the door afterwards. ( just checking to make sure all is "a ok" of course)Our oven is in and looks great!. That's protective paper around the oven door. I am very excited to think we will soon have a separate grill again. The tiny halogen downlight over the oven bench is in and so are all the normal exhausts for the loo and stove. No flash range hood for us unfortunately. I couldn't talk hubby into one. All the standard light fittings, power points and tv points are installed. The outside weather proof fittings are there too. Ugly white. but never mind.

Anyway have arrived home to a note from Hubby to say he'd sorted out the positions for our downlights, discussed the ixl positions, basically checked everything. but was worried the power points weren't the right ones as he'd forgotten about that and we had forgotten to discuss it. BUT I checked. They are the right ones. I think. So all ok. IXL's and the kitchen and front hallway downlights will be going in on Monday and the it's pretty much all done. Power box isn't finished off yet though. So I guess that's either a Monday task or maybe later on as the painters haven't put the cover back on the power box yet.

This lovely blurry shot shows how horrible the power points look against the tiles. We've got clipsal power points. I am going to be angling to swap all the points that are on the black tile switched after handover. We got clipsal points and switches because an electrician had advised us they were better quality than the "other brand' that was the builders basic standard. I was quite pleased about this because it meant you could switch the face plate on them BUT I've just realised it doesn't change the actual switch colour. Hmm black face plates with white switches sounds terrible. Hopefully when we can afford to get a sparkie in to add some nice light fittings than the basic "chinamen hats" we can get these swapped over to a nice switch as well. A basic black one would be fine.

We meet at last....

We have a meeting onsite with the sparkie tomorrow. finally!

S.S. told hubby that if we couldn't make it tomorrow the sparkie would be back on Monday. HUH! So we meet him tomorrow but he's not doing any extra work again until next Monday? No wonder it's taking so long to finish off. Very frustrating.

There was a glass man at the house this morning and we've found curtain rail off cuts so it looks like the shower screen is in and the mirror for the main bathroom hopefully as well.
Garage door went on last Thursday. Yippee.

So slow waiting for things to be done.
We've also found out the top of the ensuite wall will be plastered. S.S. was already on to it.

Trees, a Cashie and a Garage door

We are considering a row of liquidambar trees for their glorious colours along one side of the house far away from the actual house. Of course they are huge, and have to be kept away from drainage and pipes. hmm but they are so lovely...

we might also end up with some maples.


This is the bark of the tree above.


Look at the view. This is in the town we live in and about 3 kms from our house. Imagine buying that house on the right that is for sale. It overlooks farm land. Wow!

Never had sinks with drainer things in them before.



This is the colour paint we've picked for the laundry door and the small garage door. Met the tiler onsite today to pay him the cashie bonus for taking a bit more time to lay floor tiles in the showers on the diagonal and to mitre all the tiles. it was much lighter in the house today and the main bathroom, loo and laundry floor tiles actually look ok. Still darker than I expected but they are ok. phew.
You can see the mitred tile edges in this shot.


The wall and bath side ones though are very boring.

Got some advice from the tiler about sealing the grout. He said "yes" a good idea. Tiler also returns at the end of the build to do all the silicone sealing where wall tiles meet floor tiles in bathrooms and where 2 walls meet and where wall tiles meet bench tops in bathrooms and the kitchen.



Found one worrying thing though. It seems someone has stuffed up. The plasterers have assumed the tiler was going to tile the top of the brick wall for the shower. NOPE! so it's not been plastered. Photo below. Yuk! I wonder if the tiler has mentioned it to anyone. Hubby and I discussed how we go about mentioning it since we were left in the house by ourselves when we discovered it. Not sure how to explain how we know about it. Let alone how we have a photo. :)




The job looks terrific. Of course he left us to take photos. :)

Garage door was installed on Thursday. Yippee. BUT S.S suggested to me on Tuesday to delay cork booking for our floors until mid June in case of delays. :(

Nothing

Finally the additional leech drain sand has been removed. Hopefully the sparkie will be back by the end of the week.( 2nd fix) He wants to meet with us to check that downlights will be where we want them We are hoping that gives us a chance to remind him of the power point buried in plaster in the kids study/activity room. We also hope to have a conversation about placement of the batten lights for the kitchen and office to make sure their positions suit us.

Asked about handover and was told that although it as still possible it "might" be at the end of May/beginning of June that we should tell the cork flooring people mid June in case of delays. sigh.. A bit disappointing as it doesn't seem there is that much to do.
* 2nd fix of electrical including oven to be fitted. starting this week( fingers crossed)
*Painting to be completed.- stain and varnish front door and 3 jarrah caps.
-paint laundry door and small garage door with final coat.
-Paint, currently missing, manhole cover
- Final coat of power box and fit door.
- Other final coats????doors?
*Garage sectional panelift door to be installed
*Insulation in ceiling
*Minor plaster and mortar patching Maybe at PCI
*External Slider in dining to be fixed. Hopefully b4 PCI
* House to be cleaned
* Yard cleanup and rock removal, trench to be covered over.
* Porta loo and waste bin to be removed.
* Window in main bedroom doesn't seem to seal closed properly. PCI ?