Day 160: Doors & skirting installed, fixing inspection items

Carpenters on the job today, with almost all the internal doors hung.

First of all, our front door has been installed- a Corinthian 6G in 1020mm wide. Will be stained dark, with a 750mm pull handle and mortice lock.

Next up; home theatre doors. I actually wanted the doors hung opposite to how they are in this pic: if you look closely, the right door has the opening handle, and the left door has the mushroom stop.

I did mention to our SS that I wanted the doors hung the other way - admittedly on the floorplan, they're drawn to this specification. I wonder if it can still be fixed - would involve moving the mushroom stop to the right side door, taking out the handle mechanism from the right side door (and filling in the gaps), and putting it on the left side door.

Upstairs now, this shows the upstairs linen closet. For some reason we had to choose totally different handles for linen doors (we chose rectangular handles that match the vanity handles) as you can't put the door handles you use on normal doors. No big deal I guess. Can also see the architrave & skirting all around too.

The other thing too is that the internal access door is a plain flush door, but we specified at our colour appointment that all doors are to be Balmoral-2 design - we think someone at M head office counted the number of doors wrong! Will contact our SS to see if the missing door is going to turn up soon.

In addition to doors & skirting, a couple of the inspection items are starting to be fixed, yay!


Above, Item 17. The noggin in the wall of the kitchen, below the stair case, has been removed. A small square of plaster has been cut out, and the noggin replaced. Should be pretty easy for the plasterers to seal it back up. In addition, all the data cabling etc is poking out on the left side of the pic - this pic shows the fridge alcove, and the data cabling should be on the other side of this wall in the walk-in-linen. Easy enough to plaster over though.

Another item has been attempted to be fixed...


12. The sewer waste pipe over the kitchen area has been installed through the top flange of the smart joist. The manufacturers of the ‘Smart Joist’ do not allow cutting out of the top flange as noted on their ‘SmartJoist’ hole chart. Recommend the manufacturers supply a rectification design for the damaged floor joist.

Looks like the carpenters aren't exactly sure where this sewer waste pipe defect is, so this cutout in the ceiling is in the wrong spot. To make it easy for the carpenters to find the spot, they should go to the upstairs WC and poke a long drill bit directly adjacent the the waste pipe, and where it pokes through the ceiling is where they need to fix the defect - but I don't want to tell anyone how to do their job, so maybe we'll just sit tight and see how they go about fixing things! Ultimately the ceiling and kitchen needs to be replastered as most of the defects are in this area so the end result will be good - we hope!

T&T

Day 158: Garage roof flashing and gutter

Sometime today, the garage roof had metal flashing and the lear gutter installed.

You can see the metal flashing up against the bricks - also the last 3-4 ridge capping tiles have been dislodged from the mortar, so will have to make sure that gets fixed. Wondering if the ridge capping at the back of the house has been fixed? The lear gutter is hidden from view, between the garage roof and the house wall, and diverts drainage to another gutter.

T&T

Day 157: Sparkies on site

Little bit of work done today, with the electricians running in some wiring to the garage now the roof there has been completed. While I couldn't get my 3 car garage, or even a workshop, at least there's plenty of powerpoints and a TV outlet!


Near the front of the garage is a double powerpoint, plus light switches for the ceiling fluoros and an external light.

There'll be two fluoro lights on the ceiling - can never have enough light in the garage for working!

Inside the sparkies have starting locating wiring for powerpoints and switches. We've placed the washing machine powerpoint and water taps on the wall above the machine (hate bending down to turn things on & off inside cabinets!)

Apparently someone from the cabinet company came by to check on the installations today too, and have left this sign:


So while the fixing stage is meant to be complete by 31.5.10 (according to MyMetricon), I very much doubt it'll be complete by then unless teams of tradies work throughout this weekend. The definition of the fixing claim stage being complete is:

"The stage when plaster is hung (decorative cornice may not be complete) architraves, skirting, doors, baths, basins, troughs, sinks, cabinets and cupboards are fitted and fixed in position. Attached garages, front porticos and carports are completed (Granite installation may not be complete). Or percentage of works completed."

Erm... we have no doors, no skirting, no architraves, missing plaster in the kitchen and none in the garage, portico isn't even started and many items from the lockup inspection haven't been addressed - so should we receive a fixing invoice in the mail before these items are completed, there's no basis for us to pay it!

T&T

Day 156: Garage roof in daylight

Day off sick today - first one in years; but managed to drag myself out of bed to drive past our house. Looking good with the roof finished over the garage now!


Also got a call from our SS today - the fixing carpenter should start work tomorrow, doing things like doors etc and also addressing the issues from our inspection; and probably painters coming in the week after next (hopefully the missing plaster in the kitchen will be installed and sanded by then!). Tina's going to meet our SS next Friday to check on inspection issues and to get a feel for how everything is going so far.

T&T

Day 155: Garage roof done, and more work in the wet rooms

Turned up at 7pm and astonished to find someone still on site!

Anyway, we're thinking that the tilers came in the morning to finish off the garage roof - finally no more rain and mud in our garage area! Been keenly anticipating this part of the roof being done, as there's not much more to do for the facade to be complete.


However there's a couple of little things that need fixing in the garage roof - I think the rear gutter is incomplete, and there's a couple of noggins missing from the truss in the pic below. Easy to fix providing it's done before the plaster goes up!!!


The people who stayed back to dinnertime were working in the wet areas, just finishing off some cabinetry work.

In the ensuite (above pic), handles have been installed, basins placed in rough position (won't be sealed in until ceasarstone delivered) and a big backing board for the wall mirror mounted. Because of the little drawers in the ensuite vanity, the handles here are smaller than used in the other vanities; but still looks good.

And in the bathroom, handles, basin and mirror backing board installed. Still no more items from our inspection fixed yet.

T&T

Day 154: More waterproofing

Some more waterproofing - at least I think that's what all this blue stuff is.

Around the ensuite bathtub. Colour actually looks quite nice!

And also in the bathroom around the shower & bathtub. If you look at the shower base, you can see a little white lip, but this should be hidden by the floor tiles.

Trying to organise a meetup onsite with our SS for next week, as according to MyMetricon, we're meant to be finished the fixing stage on 31.5.10 - and then we're onto the final stage! Though what we are trying to find out at the next meeting is what's happening regarding our independent inspection items, as they really need to be fixed before any further work is done in the next stage. We've paid all our stage invoices on time up to now as progress has been OK, but the fixing stage invoice for 20% won't be paid unless we're happy with how the issues identified so far will be rectified. They're not particularly difficult to fix, but not much has been about them as far as we know!

T&T

Day 152: Kitchen and vanities installed on a Sunday - Good, and Bad!

After a little sleep in, thought we might go past our house today, and weren't we surprised to find some people working hard to install our cabinets - on a Sunday of all days!

At this point, I think it's important to mention that while we like to have a lot of work being done on our house, recently it seems that speed is overtaking quality control - mainly concerning the laundry and the kitchen. We'll get to those 2 things later, but let's have a look at the vanities which are being installed without too many issues - so far.

First of all - the powder room vanity. This has polar white cabinets, and will have Urban (grey) Ceasarstone drop benchtop with a semi-recessed Liano basin. So far, no problem.

The vanity sits on a little pedestal which will be tiled, as well as tiled skirtings.

The pic above is of the bathroom vanity, no handles yet. Again, polar white cabinets, Urban ceasarstone benchtop.


And this one is the ensuite vanity, double doors under each sink and a stack of 3 drawers in between the sinks. OK so far. Same colours as before.

Now here is where things start to go wrong... anyway, this next pic is the kitchen - looks good in this angle! New Graphite on the island bench, and Pearl Frost (or is it Frosty White?) on the cupboards.

The next pic is a closeup of the island bench. One door is missing - apparently was scratched, so a new one ordered. The other issue is that the two doors under the sink cutout - the handles rub on the surrounds, so they'll need fixing.

But the real problems are all to do with the side bench. Have a look at the next photo.

See the exposed plywood on the side wall? It was left unplastered so it could be fixed at the top. Same with the missing plaster on the bulkhead. However, you'd think the cabinet installers would realise the plaster is yet to be completed, but no... they've plowed on anyway and stuck on the side bench and overhead cupboards, with a few random bits of plaster against the plywood. In addition, the kitchen window is 15mm too high, which means the stone benchtop won't fit right - it's meant to reach right into the window reveal.

So what needs to be done here? The overhead cupboards and bench need to be removed so that plaster can be correctly installed on the side and bulkheads, fixing screws plastered over and sanded. There's no way for an acceptable plaster fix to be done with the cupboards and bench in the way, I don't think! And the window needs to be corrected - a job for the carpenters. Then the kitchen can be re-installed.. *sigh* wouldn't it have been easier if the installers hadn't been organised until things had been fixed first?

However, apart from these issues regarding the order of fixing, we do like the colours and how they've come together - in particular, the flush handles we picked are very streamlined, and don't stick out of the drawers so you don't end up bruising your leg against them while working in the kitchen!

And here's issue number two. Laundry bench is Polar White, with New Graphite benhtop. We added in a floor waste to the laundry to be positioned under the washing machine position, and this is clearly marked on our plans. But the floor waste pipe was put right next to the laundry sink waste pipe. This issue was mentioned several times, months ago (I think March at least!) and also picked up by our independent inspector - but despite this, the floor waste still hasn't been moved. And what does this mean now? The laundry cabinets have been installed, the installers have cut out TWO holes in the base of the cupboard - one for the laundry waste, and one for the floor waste (the one on the left of this pic), which isn't meant to be there. *sigh*... so what has to be fixed now? The laundry bench has to be taken off, floor waste position corrected and termite protection around the pipe reinstalled, the base of this bench needs to be replaced and then reinstalled.

Now if only the kitchen and laundry had been left until this looooong outstanding issues had been fixed, it would make like much easier for all the tradies involved, instead of a problem being identified, ignored while work steamrolls blindly forward, then everything ripped apart, fixed, and then started again. One very quick step forwards and three long steps back. *sigh*...

We're hoping work will still continue at its rapid pace, and we're loving how our house is starting to look, but it'd be nice to have these niggling little issues resolved prior to ongoing work being done. Still many other items from our independent inspection to be rectified in the frame - again, which has been plastered over. Be nice to get an update on progress too - haven't had a call from our SS in a couple of weeks?

T&T

Day 151: Site clean, and noticing other work done during the week

Turned up at the house this afternoon to find a bloke doing a site clean - finally, all the broken tiles in the backyard are gone, and a much neater site for the trades to work on.

We were able to discover some other things that have been done during the last week; first of all, the missing garage roof truss has been delivered and installed.


You can just about figure which roof truss has been installed, as it's missing horizontal noggins on either side of it, just above the garage side wall.

Also, the shower bases in the ensuite and bathroom have been flush finished.

The cool thing about the showers we're getting, is that the tiling is totally flush and continuous from the shower base to the floor of the bathroom - there's absolutely no lip or raised guttering required! Very modern and minimalist - it'll look fantastic!

Finally, Item 15 from our independent inspector's report has been rectified.


From his report: "15. As per AS1684.4 for timber framing table 8.3, ply bracing requires fixing along all edges at 150mm maximum spacings. The ply brace on the kitchen wall adjacent to the window has not been nailed along the top edge. The structural engineers bracing design will also detail these fixing requirements. Recommend viewing the documents for confirmation of
the requirements." If you look closely in the above pic, you can see quite a few additional fixing nails in this ply brace - probably twice as many as required, but better too many than too few!

Still many other inspection items to be rectified, so as they're done we'll tick them off our list.

We're thinking that a few things need to be fixed before the kitchen & vanities go in - first of all, the remaining issues in the kitchen area need to be fixed, so that plaster can be finished before the kitchen is installed. Also, the laundry waste needs to be moved from out unde the cabinet position before that's installed too. Hopefully our SS is on the ball with that too!

T&T

Day 150: Stairs installed! Kitchen, vanities, sinks, doors, skirting/architraves delivered!

Wow, what a day of activity at the house! I didn't get to go due to work, but Tina got to catch all the action today.


A couple of guys from Slattery & Acquroff installed our stairs today. I was always a bit unsure about these stairs - big upgrade from the standard stairs, but looking at them now, they're worth every cent! Will get brighter photos of the finished product tomorrow. The great thing is that because of their slim design, they make the corridor adjacent to the stairs feel even bigger, and the cantilevered projection of the stairs makes them a real feature that you can just see from the front door too. LOVE them!

Also a whole bunch of big internal doors delivered - Tina thinks we may be one short, as for some reason our internal access door is a standard flush door and not a Balmoral-2 design like we've specified for all doors. Also the door frames and fittings also delivered. Not everyone likes the Balmoral-2 design (small panel on the bottom, large panel up top) but they're a major feature for our house, love them!


And our family room is absolutely packed full of cabinetry - we've got a whole bunch of kitchen cabinets, plus all the vanities and laundry bench here waiting to go in. Exciting! Also some skirting/architrave delivered today, and a manhole cover. Woo!

And also the laundry sink (Clarke), and the Caroma Liano basins. We've decided to have inset sinks everywhere except for the powder room, which gets a semi-recessed sink. Looks nice, but you get a lot less bench space - so only suitable for the powder room.

Very happy to see so much activity going on of course - it's really starting to feel like our house now that the internal selection items have arrived, and will be exciting to see how they look!

T&T

Day 149: Stairs delivered

A nice present for the house - the delivery of our expensive upgraded stairs!

Looks like the stairs are prefabricated in the factory, then installed on site. Made by Slattery & Acquroff - our design is the upgraded Contemporary 17.

These are the KDHW treads - Kiln Dried Hard Wood. They're raw finish, and after handover we'll get them stained to match the front & rear timber doors. They look stunning in display homes - although having this paricular stair design means no understairs storage area :(. Though maybe in the future (if we need the extra storage) we can figure out a way to add a small access hatch to this small understairs area - not really a big deal right now, as there's huge amounts of storage elsewhere!

The handwriting above this sign refers to Item 17 on our independent inspectors report - there's a noggin missing between the studs behind this area of plaster. Glad to see our SS is taking on board the items from our report and getting them noted for fixing!

We got a new building CSC, Laelle - so far she's been more useful than the other CSCs (admittedly we've not had to contact any of the CSCs in the past), as she was able to forward us some interesting construction detail diagrams - thinking of printing & framing them up for some quick decorations when the house is done!

T&T

Day 147: Some waterproofing commenced

Bit of a drama last night... after selling my GTR, I've been driving around my very first car (which has hung around as a spare car all these years), which broke down just a little last night. Got it towed home, then to the mechanics today, who were able to diagnose and replace the faulty distributor on the spot. Anyway, drove past our house to test it, and found a bloke there doing a little spot of waterproofing.


From what I can tell, the bathroom & ensuite wet areas (baths & showers) have had the mixer taps and spouts sealed in, as well as the ensuite niche below.

Still quite a bit more waterproofing required before the tiles can get started.

T&T

Day 146: Sanding

Bunch of trades in the house today with full protective gear, sanding down all the walls. Hopefully this means not long until cabinets and other fun things arrive!

T&T

Day 144: Plasterers working on a saturday - cornices installed

Thought we'd stop by the house after lunch today, nothing much has happened the last couple of days but apparently the plasterers were in this morning, as the cornices have been installed.

Hopefully the writing will be scrubbed off, or at least fully hidden by painting! This is a closeup of a weird little recess near the entry door.


Standing in family room looking at kitchen. There's still some frame issues to rectify before plaster is installed over the fridge recess & along the side. You can see the horizontal kitchen window splashback, which will have cupboards above & below there. To the right of that is the door to the pantry, then the huge fridge recess. Because we moved the laundry door from the kitchen, the fridge recess is now big enough for 3 fridges! One for food, one for wine, one for beer...

And this is why we still don't have tiling on the garage roof - we're missing a truss right here. The roof protection is on, the tiles & pointing are delivered, so I guess as soon as the truss can be delivered, the carpenters should stick it up, then the tiling can get started. Sooner the better too - with all the rain lately, there's a few inches of mud coating the garage floor!

Hoping to see some action with stairs in this coming week too!

T&T

Day 141: Garage roof protection

Just some scaffolding/OH&S stuff for the garage roof, which means the roof tiles here should be put up pretty soon.


T&T

Day 140: Plastering, Day 2! Plus a bonus... walkthrough video!

After receiving the report from Alex last night, decided to give Monique a call in the morning. She hadn't received the report, so I emailed it to her and Julie, our construction CSC, as well as a request for the bracing diagram - which to Metricon's credit, we received a few hours later.

Anyway, we're pretty happy at how Monique says she'll handle the issues raised; some of the plaster has been left off where changes need to be done, and where the toilet plumbing cuts through a truss, the carpenters will cut out plaster and repair, get a few photos taken then replaster. Sounds good to us!

So here's a few photos from Day 2 of plastering - pretty much all complete (except cornices), and the joins in the plaster and screwholes have mostly been plastered over.

Many people have reported their houses feel bigger after plastering; we're not in agreement with that! The open plan area (kitchen, living and dining) definitely feels bigger after plastering - it brings out the 2.7m ceilings well, and we're looknig forward to spending many lazy evenings here! But the minor bedrooms do feel a little smaller after plaster, but then again it was getting late in the afternoon with not much light, so we'll see how it feels in broad daylight.

Home theatre room, south facing window looking out the the backyard on the left, then another window facing west, but shaded by the outdoor room on the right. These are double glazed awning windows (which are standard in the rumpus room only), so hopefully with the home theatre cranked up, there won't be too much sound leakage to annoy the neighbours! There's also sound insulation (acoustitherm) to all walls in the home theatre room. We were thinking of doing double glazed to all windows, but think we'll put them few extra thousands towards the mortgage first.

Upstairs. On the left is Bed 4, then a linen cupboard. Then an open doorway in the centre, with the toilet just to the right of it. Then another open doorway to Bed 3, and Bed 2 around the right corner.

Apparently, our beautiful (and expensive!) upgraded stairs might be in as soon as next week - and the kitchen is soon on the way! Hopefully the issues raised at inspection will be corrected prior to much other work is done too. So far Monique's been great at scheduling tradies, and we're hoping she's good at getting them back in to correct things too!

Now the countdown is really on towards finishing... took us months to get to a site start with all issues with easements and powerlines, but it's almost like the end is in sight!

And finally - because we've managed to hit the magic mark of 50 followers (if you want updates on our blogs and you're not a "follower", click on the follow button on the right column to get updates!)... I recorded a little video on Tina's ipod nano of a walkthrough, until the nano ran out of space. Enjoy!




T&T

Day 139: Plaster installed on INSPECTION DAY... The good, and the bad!

Well, today was the day we had booked in our independent inspector to have a lockup/preplaster inspection - and of course, the best-laid plans are laid to waste by plasterers who decided to start on our house EARLY - thus our "preplaster inspection" is more of a "mid-plaster inspection". I missed a call from Alex (our inspector) this morning - turns out he arrived at our house early, and he started his inspection early because he found the plasterers already sticking up the ceiling and walls!

I didn't make it to the inspection due to work, but Tina met Monique and Alex on site to have a look around. Anyway, let's start with the plaster pics first.

Kitchen/family room area.

Kitchen window splashback, surrounded (mostly) by plaster. Long cornices sitting on the floor.

Dining room with plaster waiting to be installed, home theatre room off to the left.


Bathroom - not "normal" plaster used here, special wet-area sheeting used.

Anyway, back to the inspection. To be honest, quite annoyed at the plaster going up ahead of schedule, as we were very clear that we wanted the inspection done prior to any plaster being put up so that the frame could be inspected as well. However, the plasterers (being third party subcontractors) seem to do what they feel like, and what can we do about that?

Alex picked up on 18 items on his inspection, some easy to fix and trivial, some a little more involved. Anyway, let's do a brief assessment and my layperson's assessment of the seriousness of each.

1) Garage internal access door - gap between the bricks and frame. Easy - timber infill or similar to fix.

2) Some bricks on the garage slab stained from brick cleaners acid. Easy - just need recleaning.

3) Garage boundary brickwork substantially overhanging slab. Medium-Hard - need an engineer to design a rectification solution to support the brickwork.

4) Holes in mortar around the house. Easy -just needs new mortar added.

5) Perpends in alfresco piers over tolerance. Easy (apparently.) Tina says it's a minor cosmetic issue.

6) Timber quads to be installed around afresco beams. Easy -again, a cosmetic issue.

7) Timber infill needed over alfresco door/window. Easy.

8) Powder room window damaged along top edge. Easy (apparently), Monique will get that fixed.

9) Render splatters on brickwork to be cleaned. Easy.

10) Brickwork short of entry frame. Medium - needs door frame adjustment, or infill to match doorframe.

11) Kitchen bulkheads (not load bearing) are in contact with floor joists, need to have a clearance between these two. Medium-Hard -not sure how this can be fixed?

12) Sewer waste pipe (from upstairs toilet) cuts through top of Smart Joist truss - not allowed. Hard? I googled the manufacturers data, and apparently they need a photo and description of the damage to the joist so they can say what needs to be done to fix it. A similar situation was seen with the ensuite shower waste cutting through the joist, and a new beam was fixed adjacent to that, so I suspect a similar fix is needed.

13) Heating ducts are installed through a number of joists, with the holes beyond the maximum size allowed for these joists. Hard? Maybe needs reinforcement of joists where the holes have been cut. Alex only noticed the heating ducts in the family room, but there are a number of other heating ducts through the ground floor which have also been cut through joists, and would need similar rectification. (Of course, to fix all these things the ceiling will have to be pulled off, the rectifications done, and ceiling replastered. Not our fault the plasterers started early!)

14) Tension bracing not adequately fixed to top & bottom plates. Easy - Hard? Monique reckons they're to manufacturers spec, so we'll see what the documentation says.

15) Ply brace in kitchen not nailed in. Easy - just nail in some more nails!

16) Lintels missing over openings in non load-bearing walls (doorways, robes etc). Medium - Hard. Because the plastering is mostly done upstairs, the plaster needs to be removed, lintels installed and replastered. See why the plasterers shouldn't have been booked until the result of our independent inspection?

17) Noggin missing in kitchen wall. Medium. Remove plaster, add noggin, replaster. Sigh... would've been easier... if the plaster wasn't put up early! Spot a trend here?

18) Floor waste to laundry in wrong spot. Medium. Move floor waste, get engineer to approve modification to slab and termite protection is intact. Alex recommends viewing proof all this has been done (eg engineer's report) which is a good idea.

Things weren't all bad though - Alex did state that the brickwork was done to a very high standard, which we're both extremely happy with!

Soooooo... things were going too well I guess to not have some hiccups! On the whole, about half the things Alex picked up were minor and easily fixed. However, the remainder are slightly more complicated, and would be MUCH easier to fix, if the plaster hadn't been installed.

However, the outcome of having this inspection done is that we're going to follow up on the items identified, and ensure that things are made good to standards. I doubt there's ever been a house built that was constructed 110% correct from the outset, and providing that these items are corrected to the relevant standards, we'll be happy still! I reckon there'll be a significant amount of plaster removal and replacement - however that's not our problem!

So, finally a plug for Alex at urbaninspectreport.com.au for doing a thorough job. Stay tuned for followup regarding what happens next. I'll be emailing Alex's report to our construction CSC (I'm not sure who that is this week, it seems to change every month) and will call Monique tomorrow morning to ensure she has a copy of the report, and find out her plans for rectification. Plastering (except cornices) is 99% complete (in one day!) but there's not much point doing any further work until these items are rectified to our satisfaction.

Wish us luck everyone!

T&T

Day 137: Balcony tiles discontinued - new one chosen

We had our colours selection waaaay back in 2009, August or September? Anyway Tina got a call yesterday from Beaumont Tiles saying the manufacturer of the exterior balcony tiles (Eureka Tiles) had shut down production, and we had to come in to choose new ones.

In a way this was good for us - because at the tile selection appointment, there were only about 4 or 5 tiles to choose from for exterior tiles, and they were all pretty bad, and we chose the one that was the least bad of the lot, it was some horrible shade of brown or something, amongst the 5 horrible shades of brown available.

Anyway, getting into Beaumont's today we were happy to see there were now about a dozen tiles to choose from for the balcony, and there were 3-4 ones that suited our grey/white neutral scheme. Ultimately we picked the Luxe Anthracite exterior tile - they also make an interior tile that was our second choice for wet areas.


So if you're building with Metricon in Victoria and haven't had your balcony tiled yet, expect to get a call in for a reselection soon!

T&T

Day 136: Roof tiles for garage delivered

Today, a delivery of nearly 2 pallets of roof tiles for the garage roof, as well as the timber tile trusses.


MyMetricon has also had a little update, with the plaster scheduled to be completed by 21.5.10; two weeks from today. That'd be nice!

T&T