DIY: Replacing your kitchen tap

So our new kitchen tap has been staring at me for a few weeks, while I've been happily procrastinating playing PS3 games - finally decided to get up and have a crack at replacing our crappy kitchen tap today.

 

  

I've said it before, I'll say it again - avoid upgrading anything through the builder that you can do yourself. We paid a couple hundred bucks to "upgrade" from the standard kitchen tap to this piece of cr@p Dorf Oasis spray mixer, and look at the just how much quality you get after a year of use, with all the braiding frayed, exposing the soft plastic hose inside.

To change it actually took a lot longer than I thought. Ideally you'll need a big wrench or two, a basin wrench, screwdrivers/hex drivers, spare towels, things to catch waste water in. Make sure you turn off the water from the internal taps located inside the kitchen cabinet first, disconnect all water lines to the tap and drain into containers.

Actually getting the old mixer out was a huge battle, since there was very limited space in the cabinet with our massive sinks getting in the way. I needed a sink wrench to reach way up under the sink to grab a tiny nut on a thread that was holding the tap in tplace, and with many hoses running into the tap in the same area it was hard going. If you have easy access to your tap from underneath the sink, things will be much easier for you!

  

After the old tap is removed, clean up the benchtop where it used to be,.

 

The final result... well, almost! This tap is retained in the benchtop a totally different way with a massive nut on a 35mm screw, and the plastic washer it came with was too big to fit under the sink, so at the moment it's held in only loosely. And of course, once I hooked up the new hot and cold water hoses, I found the hot hose had a crack/leak in it, so I need to get a replacement of that. Tomorrow,  a bit of fine tuning with a bench grinder on the washer, and a trip to a hardware store for a hose, and hopefully it'll all work out well!

Also ordered a new TV from JB Hifi online yesterday, and already having second thoughts about the whole process - should've walked into one of the stores and bought it that way, because their online store is truly craptactular. Logging into my account doesn't reveal my order, there's no contact phone number to call, and they don't return emails. No wonder we're all shopping online overseas, if this is the best an aussie company can do.

t&t

Day 252: Organising driveway and wider crossover

Met up with a couple of very friendly blokes from Whitehorse Council today - Alan who was reviewing the asset protection permit (checking for any damage to the footpath etc during the build) and David, who was in charge of assessing a wider crossover for our house. Anyway, the builders only damaged one additional footpath square (two were damaged during our demolition) and David has approved our full-width crossover - 4.8m to match our double garage opening!


I called up two concreters for quotes, and fortunately both turned up today (same day service!) to measure things up. Hopefully will get their quotes in the next few days and book one in.

Our SS and construction manager were also at the house today just checking on progress, and things are looking good for completion and handover.... soon! If we're lucky, the concreters may even be able to fit in our driveway and crossover just before handover, which will make moving in much easier and less messy. Our construction manager said that as long as they contacted our SS to arrange a day to do the driveway (and protect the garage door from damage) then we should be allowed to do this work before handover - very accommodating!

Now the main decision to make is what kind of driveway? Maybe a plain and simple coloured driveway in charcoal, or (as one of the concreters recommended) exposed aggregate? Opinions anyone?

Haven't been to the house for about a week, but it looks like some external painting has been done - our meter box is now Woodland Grey to match our downpipes, and sealed all around. Looks good!



And speaking of downpipes, the painters have also painted the stormwater connections at the bottom of the downpipes - nice! I think normally they are left unpainted, so it's nice to see the painters going the extra mile to touch that up - one less thing for us to do after handover.


Our SS says that someone is working on getting our powder room exhaust externally ducted (since there are no opening windows in that room); looking at the wall we can see a couple of bricks removed in preparation for the wall vent.


And finally, as he was leaving, John threw me a little present...


Pretty funny! Will come in useful one day when in the garden trying to destroy the army of weeds that have taken over the backyard.

T&T

Day 215: Plumbing review

Carrying on the weekend review, plumbers were in last week to fitoff taps (internal & external), waste plumbing etc.

First; the kitchen. The Clark Razor sinks have had the drainage installed, and each sink has a basket waste - cool! The tap is an upgrade; Dorf pull-out vegie sprayer with mixer tap. To be honest it doesn't pull out as far as we thought it would (but then again, the sinks are much larger than normal) so for a normal sized sink, it'd probably be sufficient. We'll live with this for a while, but are already considering changing it for a commercial style overhanging sprayer...maybe!

Next pic; details of powder room plumbing. Taps are the standard mixer, can't remember if they have a name, but nice and modern.

Upstairs WC: Toilet waste has some special sealing cap around it, and the water supply to the cistern has been fitted off.


Bathroom: standard rail shower with mixer. Looks like the showerhead has 2 or 3 settings on it, and the square rail looks suitably modern, with the chrome finish a nice contrast against the grey tiles.

Final pic, some details in the ensuite. There's a wall-mounted rail showerhead on one side of the ensuite shower, and one rainfall showerhead from the ceiling which hasn't been fitted off yet. Then door the WC in the middle, and one of the ensuite sinks on the right. You can also see the standard wall light fitting above the sink - there'll be one above each sink.


So all the plumbing so far looks fine, can't really pick any faults with it. Though there's a few obvious areas missing grout or sealant, so we'll keep an eye on that.

T&T

More painting pics

Some pictures showing the house after painting has been finished!

First off, beautiful front door, I think with all the staining completed. The ceilings, skirting, architraves, doors are all Dulux White on White. The walls are Dulux Natural White - probably a little more creamy than we though it would be, but I think the slight contrast will grow on us.

The laundry floor has had steel reinforcement welded back in, and should have the concrete repoured sometime this week - can't get our laundry floor tiled until this repair is completed. Termite protection was also reinstalled around the new waste pipe position.

And finally, our master bedroom.


T&T

Day 178: Engineers inspecting slab, and painting prep

Paid the fixing stage invoice last night - only one more to go; the final payment! But when we have to make it is still not yet decided!

Spoke to our SS today, and John gave us an update on what's happening right about now.

• Painters were in sanding yesterday, and should start on painting on Monday. Window frames still need to be sanded next week. Hopefully painting should be finished by the end of the month! Some of our doors were returned to the house, though now our recently delivered internal access door is missing in action; probably being prepped for painting too.
  
• Structural Works (engineers) were at the house today to inspect the laundry slab where the pipes were moved, and should come up with a report on how to fix things properly on Tuesday. Nice to know our concerns with the slab here are being addressed correctly - our independent inspector recommended an engineered solution, which we're getting.
  

Anyway, it looks like someone has also identified a little problem with the ensuite shower niche;


It says "NO FALL" on the bottom of the shower niche, which we think means there's not enough slope on the shower niche to provide runoff of water. Without the correct fall, water will pool in the niche, eventually rotting through grout and waterproofing and ultimately rotting the stud wall here. Not a good thing, so hopefully someone will figure out how to correct this - we won't accept a niche which collects water! Plus if you look at the top & bottom of the niche in the photo, it's pretty wavy and uneven, so we'd expect this to be corrected too to get a perfectly square niche. Tiling can correct minor surface imperfections, but not something as uneven as this!


Also some tins of Dulux Undercoat waiting to go on! Think that painting will dramatically change how things look - at the moment there's a lot of exposed plasterboard, more plaster patches and random spots of colour everywhere, so having it one uniform shade should improve the appearance heaps!

Got a call from my mechanic too; my new car only needs new tyres for a roadworthy certificate, so with any luck I might have it on the roads next week!

And finally - tomorrow is the auction of this Metricon Promenade in Mont Albert North which I'll be attending. Be interesting to see how much $$$ it earns!

T&T

Day 177: Deliveries continue, doors being painted?

More presents for the house arriving today...

Bit more plasterboard or cement sheets in the garage; probably for the garage roof, and maybe for the portico ceiling. Doesn't look like there's enough for both jobs though.

Some plumbing: the grey thing on the left is the box gutter for the balcony floor, not sure what the white planks next to it is.


Plus there's this plastic mushroom thingy that's grown very quickly outside the laundry door - some kind of drain cover?

Also the rumpus doors have been removed, maybe that means some proper door painting is going on somewhere? Couldn't get into the house today :(

T&T

Day 171: Laundry waste pipe moved, painting has commenced

According to MyMetricon, we've had the Fixing Stage completed as of 10.6.10! Time to check under the couch for coins and sell off unwanted items on ebay to pay yet another 20% of the build cost - though this means there's only 10% +/- variations to go, and that'll be at handover!

Today, someone with a very big hammer came in to cut out the floor of the slab in the laundry to move the waste pipe; which long-term readers will recall was incorrectly positioned under the laundry cupboards.

I didn't go to the house today - this is Tina's photo - but to me, it looks like there's a mini-garden in the laundry, where we could possibly grow vegetables. Ideally though, we'd have a bit of concrete and some tiles there, which is the conventional use of a laundry.

From our independent inspector's report:

"Item 18. The plumbing floor waste in the laundry which is to be located below the washing
machine is installed with in the laundry cabinetry area. The drainers will be required to
relocate the pipe. This will involve cutting and jack hammering the slab. The appointed
engineer will be required to supply a rectification plan to reinstate the slab removed as the pipe is being significally relocated. The slab penetrations are sealed with termite protection seals. This will also be required to be reinstalled by the termite protection firm. Recommend viewing the appropriate documentation to cofirm these works have been completed appropriately."

So what we'll be doing is emailing our CSC and SS to confirm that we'll get a copy of the engineers' report regarding fixing the slab where its been cutout, plus confirm the termite protectin will be reinstated. That's one of the dangers of modifying a volume builder's plans too much - the additional things may not be done ideally the first time around. As long as things are fixed properly though, the end result should be fine. I wanted a drain waste under the washing machine position as I have many memories of my mum's washing machine getting blocked, or pipes leaking/splitting, and the laundry flooding the house as a result!

The painters also came today - they were meant to start Monday, but have been delayed as we've insisted on the various lockup items to be fixed first. Today, they came in and covered the stairwell in protective plastic, and started with a layer of primer on the doors. We'll have to check the doors are painted all around, including top, bottom and sides; not just the obvious main 2 sides.


Our new SS, John, also called me this afternoon to tell me of the day's progress. I did mention the manhole was in the wrong spot (see the last blog entry) and he said he'll check it out. The plasterer should be back again on Tuesday to do a final plaster fix so the painters can really get into things. MyMetricon says painting will be done by 18.6.10 which is highly unlikely - probably towards the end of June would be more realistic. I like our new SS - he's only just started with Metricon, so hopefully he'll be particularly attentive to the fine details, but he seems open and communicative, as was our last SS.

T&T

Day 170: Waste pipe fixed, kitchen window moved, but manhole in wrong spot.

Carpenters were in the house today getting busy on a couple of items; first of all, the cutout floor joist has been repaired. Just need a plasterer to come and repair the hole.


Also the kitchen window has been moved down an inch or two to allow the stone benchtop to fit properly - glad to see this being done! However now we're missing the wood header that normally goes above the window, so will have to make sure that's rectified.


Also, to move the kitchen splashback window, the brick sill on the outside had to be removed, so at some stage the brickies have to be called back in to replace the sill.

Also some trimmings around architraves were put in. Now, there's also a manhole access panel in one of the rear bedrooms, to access the ground floor roof. Our last SS (Monique) was aware that due to the final roof truss design, this manhole should be in Bed 4 instead of Bed 3, but I think that information wasn't passed onto the fixing carpenters.

Can you see what's wrong with this picture?

You'd have to be pretty tiny to be able to get into the roof space with all those roof trusses in the way! Anyway should be a pretty easy job to move that manhole to Bed 4 and get this plaster hole repaired, will email our SS tonight about it.

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 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 129: Plumbing, plaster & cornice

Busy on site today - plumbers came in to connect up the downpipes, and a big delivery of plaster & cornices.


They removed the french doors upstairs to load the plaster up there - but fortunately they remembered to put the doors back!


You can see here the bricks have been cleaned everywhere - except for the balcony, which will be rendered. You can also see a couple of downpipes - square profile, in Woodland Grey (to match the gutters), close fitted to the house. We saw another house being built in Nunawading which has huge round downpipes, not fitted close to the house and it looked unattractive, so we're glad our downpipes look good! Though where it connects to the stormwater piping at the bottom of the downpipes is not painted and is quite a long way above ground level, so it stands out in white - maybe someone will come in later to paint that?

Lots of plasterboard (Boral 10mm) and cornice (Scotia) sitting in the kitchen/dining area waiting to be installed. Plaster shouldn't go up for a couple of weeks - I got a call from Monique today saying the carpenters should be back in next week for the balcony, garage roof (and fixing up all the notes marked on the frame?), and our independent inspection has been moved to Monday May 10th, so plaster can't start before then. Plus the insulation needs to be installed first. Where they've put the plaster is right under the massive hole in the roof where all the tiles have been broken, so I'll get some big plastic sheets to put over the plaster to stop it getting soaked when it rains.


Closeup of the cleaned bricks near the front door - love how they look! I think the brickies have done a great job, bricks evenly spaced, mortar widths consistent, good blending!


Finally, the plumbers also had a go at correcting the ensuite shower. We have one showerhead on an adjustable rail on the right (you can just see the plumbing fitting sticking out of the frame), and one showerhead mounted on the ceiling (which was mounted on the wall). It's been moved up to the ceiling - but it's located dead centre of the shower, rather than to one side as drawn on the construction plans. We're thinking this is maybe a good idea, and leaving it as it is?

What do you think - leave the ceiling mounted showerhead in the centre of the shower, or place it to one side? Comment below!

T&T

Day 121: Plumbers in for lockup plumbing

Bathtubs in the bathroom & ensuite have been connected up to plumbing, with wastes fitted and the hob-mounted spout thingy put in place.


This is the bathtub in the bathroom; the spout is controlled from a mixer tap mounted on the wall at the top right of the pic. Hiding just behind the rim of the bath is the plug :)

However, the ensuite shower plumbing still hasn't been corrected, with the ceiling-mounted showerhead still wall-mounted. Will get this corrected before plaster goes up.

Tina has organised for an independent inspector to go through the house, probably won't be until Wednesday May 5th as Monique wants to make sure the Metricon quality assurance people have given the house a thorough check first. Might delay the start of plastering a little while; but certainly better to have any problems identified and fixed before plaster goes up! Depending on how good our inspector is, we'll reveal their details after the inspection is done.

Hopefully the painter will start tomorrow, and finish up before the predicted late-afternoon showers come through.

T&T

Day 99: Internal plumbing, roof flashing

Realised when we got to our house around 7pm that the days are definitely getting shorter and darker already - note to self; pack a big flashlight in car for future visits! Didn't think anything would be done this week except for the scaffolding, but happy to be proved wrong!

Anyway, while it didn't look like anything was done on the outside, we've had our front tap replaced and water connection to the water meter done, and internally the plumbers had been busy connecting up all the "hidden" piping for the basins, showers, baths, toilets etc.


This picture is standing in the dining room, looking up at the bathroom plumbing. The big pipe on the right leading nowhere will be connected to the bathtub, the pipe on the left connects to the vanity and shower. Other connections have been installed for the toilets and other waste outlets.

Also all the mixing mechanisms had been installed for the showers & baths; and the ensuite shower floor had been put in - though the rainfall showerhead still hasn't been moved - need to remind our SS next time she calls. Another thing to follow up on is the floor waste to the laundry hasn't been moved yet.


Also, flashing for the ground floor roof had been installed; the metal gutter-like thing running alongside the tiles. Plus a few tiles broken in the process! There's also 2 pipes connected to the plumbing, that look like they drain from the roof. Not sure what they're for.


T&T

Day 69: Gutters, fascia - and lots of plumbing!

Went by our house on the weekend, and realised why the family room window was bugging me on Friday - turns out the awning window they put there was meant for the home theatre room (double glazed), so I'll pop by the site tomorrow morning, and if the chippies are there putting in the rest of the windows, I'll let them know.

Building a house is a bit like Christmas every day - you get to the site in the afternoon after work, and if you've been a good boy/girl, someone's left you some presents already unwrapped! (And if you've been bad, maybe nothing's been done!)

Anyway, we must've been good on the weekend, as not only are the gutters & fascia on the first floor, but also a whole lot of plumbing has been run through!


Gutter is Colorbond Woodland Grey, and fascia is Colorbond Surfmist. Looks great! With any luck, the Surfmist looks close enough to the white windows to complement the facade. Need a roof & gutter/fascia to the rear of the house though - waiting on the chippies to come back for that job.



Plumbing: They must have had a fairly big or efficient crew today, as pretty much the entire house has been plumbed! Hopefully they've fixed the leak at our main entry pipe, as we had a huge bill for the final quarter of 2009 - I think the demo crew didn't cap off the main water feed when demolishing the old house, plus there was also a puddle of water in the front yard after the demo. This picture is of the ensuite; a whole lotta pipes to feed the twin basins. I wonder how the plumbers keep track of which one is hot, and which is cold - i"m sure there's a system in there somewhere!

They've also installed pipes for the solar panel for the hot water system (plus insulated copper or brass pipes)

Pipes for the island bench go in one pipe under the side kitchen bench, and pop up in the middle of the slab. Waste for the sink/dishwasher pictured behind water pipes. We added a floor waste in the laundry, but it's in the wrong spot (under the cabinets) so this is another item to bring up with our SS - it's meant to be located under the washing machine.

Checking how things have gone today, only only little thing about the plumbing is wrong; we have two showerheads to the ensuite shower. One is a mixer feeding a normal rail showerhead on one site which has been installed correctly, the other showerhead is a mixer feeding a ceiling-mounted rainfall showerhead, but the plumbing has been installed for a normal wall-mounted showerhead. Will have to mention that to our SS.

And "hi" to our neighbours down the road who dropped by today, yet another M redevelopment on our street, starting soon!

Yesterday we spent a bit of time wandering through some furniture shops on Church Rd - lots of fairly pricey stores there like Natuzzi, King furniture etc. Not sure I'd spend $15k on a big sofa from King... Suite Deals also had a store there with some nice items (lots of ex display home furniture), and then after we went to Ikea to check our their "sale" which wasn't really a sale. I don't think we'd get furniture from Ikea (though I have my eye on quite a few storage items for the home theatre, family room and study), as their furniture prices aren't that competitive compared to some of the deals available from dedicated furniture stores. We're at least 6-7 months away from seriously looking for furniture, but it's nice to dream!

T&T