Little Pink Paint Fairy!

Today was the first day into the house since last Thursday. I knew my SS was good! He has marked off a few more of the issues I forgot to mention to him, but I had on my list for this Friday's meeting. He has been around and marked a few walls with pink paint that need to be straightened, things moved, or issues fixed. Thankfully, there aren't too many at all.

One of the more obvious issues I have is the cold water point which has been installed in the pot drawer instead of the fridge space:



Another issue on my list (and I forgot to mention on Friday), is the dent in the stacker door, making the door unable to close. This has been picked up and marked off too:



The inclusion of junction boxes on the pillars of the alfresco have been marked (unless there is something wrong with the frame that needs fixing, but there is one on each pillar where we are having lights.):



There is also a stripe of pink paint on a few studs in the house, both upstairs and down. This one is the surround to the steel beam support for the edge of the second story, and what will become part of the kitchen island bench:



This one is in the lounge room:



These ones along the curved stair wall in the dining:



This above the meals area side of the stacker door between the fixed window:



This is along side the linen/broom cupboard in the laundry:



I'm pretty sure this is in the WIR in the MB:



And this one in bedroom 3, upstairs along side the curved stair wall. Not sure what the 10mm refers to!:



I also found an arrow along side the linen/broom cupboard in the laundry on the slab. I'm not exactly sure what it refers to either, but will find out on Friday!:



This paint mark is on the slab in the alfresco, and pointing to something between the stacker door and fixed window on the family room side. No idea either, and it appears to have been rubbed out?:




This has not been marked off, but I discovered it the other day. The water pipes in the wall alongside the lounge have not been clamped to the suds properly in 2 places:





This is one of the main bathroom taps. It looks a little crooked, and it may have stripped the thread on the connecting elbow piece (the gold 'bit'). This also occurs with the hot tap in the shower to the ensuite, but much more noticeable. It was too hard to take a pic of it, though. I did mention the ensuite tap to the SS on Friday, but will mention it again at our official meeting:



This explains the need for temporary (cheap) doors for lock up, and why the 'proper' doors are not installed until most of the work is completed:



I have some stray floor tiles in my rubbish cage! Last time I checked, they weren't quite up to that stage yet, apart from the fact they are the wrong colour!!



My bricks with dried off white mortar! Once cleaned, they will look fabulous!



Another little thing to mention to the SS on Friday. It's a bit messy, and wondering if it should have some more mortar in the gap. Given it is below the weep holes, it will most likely be covered with soil, but it never hurts to check:




I'm not sure when the brickies will make another appearance, so it could be a fairly quiet week for me.

Stop Work!

Well, after 1 day working last week (Tuesday), the brickies have gone to finish off another job, and won't be back until some stage this week...with any luck. They then go on holidays for Easter, so it looks as though bricking won't be finished and lockup achieved until the end of April. Oh well! The build was actually a week ahead of schedule, but now looks as though they may fall behind. Hopefully, they'll catch up again and we can be at handover before the end of contract!

I had another accidental meeting with the SS on site last Friday when I went to visit and noticed his car parked out the front! He was upstairs measuring walls and checking out a few other things. I chatted to him for about 20 minutes about a few issues I had (that I could remember!). My main area of concern is still the slab, and I mentioned to him that it was filled with levelling compound in the completely wrong spot to what we measured a few weeks ago. He said he would look into it that day, but I will still get him to measure it again in a few different areas this Friday when we have our first 'official' meeting!

He mentioned that the plumbers have to come back as a cold water point is in the wrong spot. A-Ha, I thought! "Is it the fridge one that's actually in the pot drawer?" I asked! His answer was "Yes." So, my suspicions were correct, and I can now use 'wrong' instead of 'appears to be'! ;-)

Apparently, the broken tiles happened when they removed the scaffolding for the roof. I actually can't remember seeing them straight after it had been taken away, but I may have missed it. Anyway, they will be fixed so nothing to worry about!

My SS also let me know that he had no trouble with us coming to the site and having a look around on weekends or evenings. He said that if there was anything that 'appeared to be incorrect', or something we weren't happy with, to ring or email the office straight away. Phew! That was a relief! A lot of SS don't like the owners snooping around all the time, so I was very appreciative to hear this!

We also had a discussion on the bricks and bricklayers. I pretty much told him I was fussy with the blending and hoped they did a good job! Apparently, these brickies mostly use Daniel Robertson bricks, and most of the houses the SS builds are with DR's, so every care would be taken to blend them carefully. More relief!! He also said that he could organise other brickies in place of the ones that have gone to finish another house (which I have the address for so I can look at the workmanship!), but he would prefer to use the ones he knows and trusts...smart man! So it may take a little longer, but knowing I have tradies that the SS has used before and trusts really puts my mind at ease! It still won't stop me from 'snooping' around almost everyday...how can you not!

So despite chatting for 20 minutes on Friday, we will still have our meeting this Friday, as previously scheduled as there are still a couple of other things on my 'list'!

Friday night, at around 7pm, we received a phone call from our CSA (who was still in the office), to let us know she was going on holidays this week, and wouldn't be available. That was lovely for her to let us know, especially considering it was so late! All in all, considering only 1 full day of work was done on the house last week, it was nice to know we weren't forgotten!!

I LOVE MY BRICKS!!!

Hehehe....

I'm so glad I insisted we didn't compromise on the bricks and went with our (OK...'my') gut feeling. Although the mortar is still wet and will dry considerably lighter, it all looks fabulous, and is just the right rustic mish mash of colour I was after! No brick that I looked at came close to the Daniel Robertson's, and they are worth every cent of the $7.7K upgrade. Expensive...yes, BUT this is one of the features of a house that cannot be changed later, unless you completely render/bag/paint etc. And why would you want to render over $7.7K worth of bricks?










I just love the purple hue they have over a large scale!

There are at least 15 different coloured, or styled, bricks in the blend, which is why careful laying is required to get an even blend. I have noticed 2 bricks the same next to each other, but on a grand scale, I don't think it will really be that noticeable. Time will tell!

My excitement this afternoon soon turned to disappointment when I went up 'stairs' and noticed that 6 tiles have been completely cracked, broken and dislodged from the roof over the family/alfresco area. It 'appears' as though someone decided it might be fun to go for a walk on the roof and see how many tiles they could break. I certainly don't recall seeing them in this state yesterday (except for the first tile photo), so it must have happened overnight. Roof tiles don't look like this unless someone walks on them in the wrong spot.














Not happy at all about this, but at least I don't have to pay for it. It's just a shame that with the site clean yesterday, all the remaining spare tiles were taken away. I hope they can get ones from the same batch to replace them. Another thing to add to the list of fixes for the SS at our meeting Friday week...

It's a wrap!!

The house has been partly wrapped in green sisilation, AND the site cleaned up, ready for a brick delivery!

Two guys were busy doing the wrapping this morning when I went past, and on my return journey earlier this afternoon, there was a bobcat and a couple of trucks cleaning up the site, and removing the rubbish from the very overflowing rubbish cage.

Only half the house has been wrapped, but at least it gives the brickies something to work with. They will probably wrap the rest once the scaffolding has gone up for the brickies to get to the second storey, and also install the big MB window and finish off the roof.





Site cleaned, and ready for the brick delivery and the brickies!



On my next trip to the house at around 6pm, I was able to go inside and noticed the delivery of cement in the entrance hall! Which one of my tables do you think will fit the best here?:



The dining room 'view'. We are to install fence extension here according to RESCODE, so that will block out most of the neighbours house. A nice little feature pot and/or garden along the fence in front of the window will dress it up nicely:



The 'view' out the north facing lounge window. Again, a nice little retaining wall along the fence with some feature planting will make it lovely!:



The family room windows. Again, fence extension and feature planting:



Meals area window (north facing) and kitchen:



The north wall. In between the hot water service and the window I will most likely put the washing line:



I'm not sure if the sisilation is supposed to have holes, so I have noted this on my ever increasing list, and will mention it to the SS:



Site cleaned up, ready for the brickies any time now:



I emailed my CSA late last night about the meeting with the SS, but I didn't receive a response. I then had to call her and left a voicemail message to call me back about organising a meeting on site with the SS. It has been scheduled for Friday 3rd April at 9:30am. I have a 'list' and will be making sure each point gets a mention and things are not overlooked.

Roof scaffolding gone!

What a nice surprise today to see the roof scaffolding had been taken away, and we could see our house in all her glorious frame, windows and roof all complete without the 'mess'! Doesn't she look lovely! We are just waiting on the green wrapping, then the bricking can begin!!



Still no word from our CSA with a time for our site meeting with the SS next week, and we didn't receive a call from the CSA manager about the letter. With any luck, it's all been taken care of, and we will be receiving a new letter with the 'correct' dates on it.

I still have numerous loads of washing to do to add to the 5 I did yesterday and the 3 done today. At least the furniture is drying out and not looking so warped, and I have about 5 boxes to go back into the new storage place. It will end, one day soon, I'm sure...

Roof complete and plumbing 'rough in' done.

Yesterday saw the roofing fellas finish up tiling and pointing the roof, and the plumber finally came to lay all the water pipes, sewerage drains and gas pipes through the walls.

The roof looks fabulous, but, of course, being so high up it's difficult to take a good photo of it! I only had about 5 minutes yesterday to take some pics (when they weren't there), but should have a good chance this afternoon to have a good look around.







What a mess!!!




Good to see the plumber finally arrived after failing to do so on the Friday before the long weekend! One of the first things I noticed during my very quick walk around, was the capped water point for the fridge 'appears to be' in the wrong spot. Now I will use those terms as there might be a very good reason for it, but to my untrained eye...it's wrong! Here are some pics to help explain why it looks wrong...



The frame is for the fridge space and the oven tower, as to the very bottom left of the pic is the opening for the pantry. The next pic is of the kitchen elevation drawing showing the space for the oven tower and the fridge. The capped water point 'appears to be'...OK, it's wrong... in the pot drawer below the wall oven. Somehow, I don't believe my cake tins will know how to make ice...



Now, in saying this, it may have been put there so it doesn't protrude into the fridge space, so the fridge doesn't stick too far out into the kitchen, but flush with the wall. There is a small space behind the pot drawer and the oven to allow for ventilation, but it would also mean it was more difficult to get to to attach to the fridge in the first place!

I am still waiting to hear back from my CSA as to a date for on 'official' on site meeting with the SS. The sooner this gets sorted the better. Would be nothing worse than having the plaster on and then realising it 'appears to be' wrong.

Here are some more pics of the plumbing. The position of the back-up gas hot water service (solar mostly), but I assume all the hot water will be stored here? Not sure!



The maze of waste pipes from the bathrooms and toilets upstairs. Hopefully, they will never burst!!



Remember this 'thing' I had no idea what it was?



The mystery has been solved! It turns out to be half a pipe under the slab for the water pipes to go through to the island bench in the kitchen. This...



...becomes this!!



I just hope they have them connected around the right way!

No action on site this morning on my drive by, but no time to stop today. I am up to about my 10th load of washing, and am madly hanging everything up where ever I can find space. The garage has been taken over by wet books and furniture, and the courtyard has wet magazines strewn all over it. Slowly, but surely we are getting there. I'm just not looking forward to the next water or electricity bill.

I also dropped off a letter to the CSA manager, requesting she rectify the official dates for our site start and completion, as requested on the 27th January in a meeting with her. I wonder if I'll get a phone call from her...