Drained

The plumber hopefully came yesterday (Friday) and installed the 4 additional land drains as recommended by Metricons building manager. We won't know for definite if its been done until we get home as we are away in Vietnam for our annual pilgrimage/family hoilday to one of our favorite places ever the beautiful town of Hoi An.

Metricon also supplied us with some spare roof tiles but they only had 6 so we have ordered 30 from a local tile supplier along with some ridge capping tiles so if any tiles need replacing over the lifespan of the house we will have some in stock. Boral are reducing their production in Qld hence why they have discontinued the linea tiles perfect timing Boral seeing as we only completed our house 4 months ago! Better we found out now while we could still get hold of some rather than in a few years time when stocks had been exhausted.

As for the solar we are waiting for Energex to do their bit now that all the paperwork has been completed which could take up to 40 days. My mom has had her 1.5Kw system for a year now and has accrued a nice amount of credit and it looks like her system will take around 2 years to pay for itself. Lets hope ours will have the same productivity.

Our next project will be to get the hard landscaping finished, get a shed and commence our vegetable garden - assuming the drainage issues have been sorted that is.....

Solar and Cracked Up

The boys from FreeSolar were up on the roof for most of yesterday in the blazing sun installing the solar panels for our 3kw solar system. From what I can see on the ground they have done a neat job. The inverter has been positioned over the electricity meter box so as to keep thinks looking tidy as we didn't want a random box just anywhere with loads of conduit running here there and everywhere. A few roof tiles paid the price during the fitting and apparently there were 3 broken ones up there anyway. So the asked if we had some spare tiles to replace the damaged ones - well the answer to that would be NO as Metricon didn't leave us any. Oh hang on I'm not being fair there - yes they did lave us some but....... they were all smashed so they went in the bin. Quick call to a couple of tile stockist who told us they'd need to order them in, followed by a call to Boral who told us that our tiles have been, wait for it wait for it, DISCONTINUED. Shock faint horror! You build a new house, have no spare roof tiles and the ones your builder used are discontinued. What to do now. Phone Metricon explain the situation and now they have promised to see if they have any that they can bring over, I reminded them we are still under our 6 month service and maintenance period so they better come up with the goods. In the meantime we have ordered 30 tiles from the supplier as there is stock but no more being made. That'll cost us around $175 (might send M the bill and see what happens ha ha).
The solar guys have moved all the broken tiles to the front row of the garage and sealed them up with silicone for now so if it does rain heavily before the replacement ones arrive and we get a leak it will be over the garage and not into the main body of the house. Also it will make it easier to swap them out.

Oh now I come to think of it we better order some ridge cap tiles too as we plan to live here a long time so don't want to get to the stage where we can't get hold of what we need if something gets cracked or dislodged.

The solar is all installed and on but we are not yet connected or is it producing electricity until Energex do their bit whenever that will be. Sorry to be so vague but I had some much other stuff happening yesterday that I didn't fully take it all in. I'll have to give FreeSolar a call and double check the facts.

Sometimes you can be generating power but not yet selling it back to the electricity provider and when that happens it actually makes you meter run backwards so your bill is smaller but you aren't getting the extra credits yet - not sure if that is true or whether the solar fitters were pulling my leg and having a joke at my expense. Time to do some research.

Driveway Poured

The driveway is now concrete and needs time to harden before it can be used. Nice team who did the job well and asked us to check the position of the mark out and talked about how we wanted things shaped before finishing off the formwork.

There were a few tradies on site fixing things up so now we have a white infill at the end of the white kitchen cabinets, completed carpets and a few other odds and ends sorted out. Sadly we got a "no way are we changing the diamond laid tiles in the showers". Hmm I guess we have to just suck that one up but I will be writing to Metricon to point out how disappointed we are with that and that we feel the displays etc are misleading and there should be a discussion at tile studio about not always being able to straight lay tiles in the shower areas. I feel it is best just to move on rather than keep pressing my point and possibly delay progress. I don't even do showers so I don't know why I'm so bothered as I won't even see the tiles when I'm relaxing in the bath! (Ha ha).

Here's some photos of our driveway in concrete (it will be nice when I can show pictures of grass and plants and soft landscaping too)

Front Path

Portico Area

Drive - The Team In Action

Portico - Again

The Left Side of Portico and House

Path From Drive To Front Door - Either Plants or Water Feature To Go In Garden Bed Area

The Drive Being Poured

Entrance Way and Side Path

Here's some shots of inside for you:

Air Con Control Panel

Study Carpet

Master Bedroom Carpet

Bedroom One Carpet and Inspection Hatch

Leisure Room With Our Son Running Around In Circles (He Did This In Every Room With Carpet!)

The Kitchen Infill (Very End at Right) Is Now White

 And now some shots of the finished driveway:

Ta Da! It Looks Beautifull

Ready For Your Close Up Miss Bushfire Exposed Aggregate?

Oh by the way we got the refund amount for the temporary fencing....$1950.00 well worth chasing that one up as now we can probably stretch to a new sofa for the family room!

Where Are The Photos?

My apologies for getting really behind with posting photographs, I was away at a workshop for a few days and had left the camera with the family so they could follow progress. There now follows an awful lot of pictures as I wasn't sure whether to add them to previous posts or just put them all in one big photo journal.

See photo journal Parts 1 -5

An Expensive Hole and Some Annoying Little Mistakes

We were down on site at the crack of dawn to meet with the pool company and help oversee markout for the pool position. All went smoothly and the layout and position of the pool looks really good. Then the diggers moved in and made at $12,000 hole in our back yard - now that's what I call value for money. The soil is being dumped fairly locally at a property where they wanted some fill. We had problems as to where we could take the soil as we are in a fire ant restricted area and can therefore only dump in another fire ant restricted area even though there is no evidence of fire ants on our block or those of the neighbours. I know its officialdom gone made otherwise we could have offered it to someone only 6 streets away!
The temporary pool fence will be up by lunchtime and the steel preparation for the concrete works commences either tomorrow or early next week.

Now the house..... The bricks have scrubbed up beautifully, the oxide brown patches are hardly noticeable now so I don't think we will be asking to have any bricks replaced. There are a few areas of untidy and missing mortar which I will have to discuss with the SS. Someone left a window wide open (tut tut! so much for security - we have no fencing around the site and I am asking for a refund on the 130 lineal meters of temporary fencing that was included in the site fees, any way - ) so Sandy climbed in and let me in through the laundry door. (We made sure we locked up on the way out as we don't want squatters.)

The floor tiling looks good, there is one row that hasn't been grouted, no idea why so that's another one to ask about. The hardware is on the doors but we have spotted some errors and a couple of things we are not happy with.

1. They have put a strip of wood one one of the double doors into the family room, it is a different colour to the door and does not sit flush so it looks really ugly
2. They have put a bathroom door lock on our rather expensive study sliding door instead of two big back to back horizontal handles and have thus ruined the door and the frame so that will need to be replaced (rather pee'd off about that because they have simply not read the plans!)
3. The way the sinks are plumbed under the vanities is crazy, I have never seen so many joins and weird angles. it takes up half the cupboard space instead of running neatly across and down.
4. I, sorry, we do not like the fact that the tiles in the showers have been laid in a diamond pattern when we have specifically asked for straight lay throughout. Pull em up and do it again please.
5. There is a blackened linewood end fill piece in the kitchen at the end of the white cabinets er duh this should be white.
6. The water pipe from the side of the water tank comes down too close to the kitchen window leaving no room for us to place the pool fencing so hopefully this can be re-angled and moved over.

The security and data networks have been installed and they have made a very tidy job so that's good.
Look overall we are very pleased but it gets to the point now when silly little mistakes end up spoiling the end finish. Time for a big chat with TC the site supervisor.
Oh and Metricon have been unable to provide us with colour samples for the master robe doors so we know have to go to the supplier which is an hours drive away to pick something out, not sure when we are going to get time for that as I am away for work this weekend and then busy all week. Hmm can you tell I'm slightly irritated by the inconvenience, perhaps I should send Metricon a bill for my time and car expenses?

I will add photos in my next post. Be warned there will be a lot.

Plumbed and Cleaned

The plumbers have been busy here's what they have done so far: the drains are in and connected to downpipes, the water tank and hot water heater have been installed and connected, and toilets, sinks, showers and taps have been fitted.

The tiles have been grouted and the bricks have been cleaned. (I am yet to see these things for myself and have no photos to share).

Now there really doesn't seem very much left to do before we will be moving in.....shower screens, baths, robe doors, air con, appliances, carpets, electrical fittings and concrete drive way. Oh and a bloody good clean!!!!
Better start packing, book Mini Movers and get the storage Pod organised - erm may be we should wait until PCI before getting too excited!!

The pool dig will be tomorrow, have to be on site at 6.30am as they want us there when they mark out the pool position to ensure it is done to our specifications. Then they will concrete it and wait four weeks for it to harden before they pebblecrete etc. Fantastic it should be ready at about the same time as the house completes, perfect timing for summer yippee.

Get some pool fencing, lay some pavers, fence the yard, make a yard, move in, set up home and then.......relax and enjoy .....no sorry that last bit should read buy a puppy and hope it doesn't trash the place!!!! I know who goes to all the trouble of creating a new home simply to fill it with a 5 year old boy and his dog? Simply insane.............

Green Thumbs?

The tiling is ready to grout, the toilets, showers, baths etc have arrived along with the hot water heater so the plumbers will be on site to install those soon. The SS has decided to delay the driveway and concrete until the plumbers have finished in case they need to do any digging or get access to inground plumbing (well that seems sensible). The tiler has added two extra rows of tiles for us in the butler's pantry for a small fee which is fine as it would have cost us a lot more than that to get someone in to do it for us. We are contemplating getting a larger glass splashback done for around the kitchen window after we move in.....if we had realised it was going to be so small we would have asked for it to be upgraded when we did our colour selections way back in March/April. This is yet another thing to double check on your plans - the splash backs are very tiny so don't assume just because you saw something in the display home that that is what you are going to get.

Size of Glass Splashback - We Would Have Liked This As High As The Window

We went to the North Lakes Metricon display at the weekend (after finally moving the bricks! yeah only about 20 wheelbarrow loads) to have a look at how they have planted and landscaped the garden areas. At the moment we are trying to decide where to have grass and garden beds, should we add some pavers and pebbles, perhaps a water feature or two, where will the BBQ go, how about a pergola, a built in BBQ and some bench seating, what can we plant and so on. For me it is hard to picture what the garden will look like when we are on site as it is all uneven and sloping, there are no fences and the pool and paving is yet to go in.

The main area outside the family room will be mainly turf so that we have an area to kick a ball and run around. There is talk of a cubby house in the back corner of this area, no planning permission required if it is no higher than 2400mm and less than 10sqm in size, with a slide and a sand pit. A garden bed along the fence and a concrete pad outside the rear garage door.

From the outdoor room to the rear fence we have approx 3m so a strip of grass and then some feature planting, possibly do a pergola and a built in BBQ with decking bench seats. Do you need planning permission for a pergola, I will have to find out.
Around the pool we will have the light grey granite pavers ( they had the exact same ones at North Lakes and they look great) and a raised garden bed with waterfall so only need to plant that out and use some feature pots for decoration.

The area from the laundry will have pavers and pebbles and a few plants along the fence line (I think).

The front garden is a 250sqm nature covenant so we can only put native plants in that area. We are getting some advice on that as we don't know a plant from a weed yet alone a native from a non-native!
We have also designed two garden beds on either side of the portico at the moment these are either going to be planted or have gravel and water features in them. The final decision will be made based on cost and practicality.

This is the overall feel we would like to create - simple, clean and low maintenance.

Flooring Is Spreading

The tiles continue to spread across the floors. From what I can see through the windows there are only a few edges left to lay then grouting can commence.
There was a guy there measuring up for the balustrade for the balcony so obviously that will be coming soon.
No concreters they must be busy doing other jobs, no toilets, showers and baths etc I presume even though I don't know for sure as I can't get to go upstairs to check. Must be happening once the tiles are finished.

The site bin is over flowing and there are piles of building rubbish growing around the site plus someone locally thinks our site bin is their personal dumping ground....I'll be keeping an eye out for them....... I know they have a small dog (tins of dog food) and a child - packaging from toys hmm that should narrow it down.
I can't wait for them to do a site clean again. But for now it is up to us to try and control what mess we can and oh joy its brick moving day to day.

We managed to pick out some really lovely light grey granite pavers for around the pool and in the outdoor room. I would have liked 600 x 300 but the only options were 400 x 400 or 600 x 600, our floor tiles are 400s so we opted to go for the same size to keep the flow and also the 600s are harder to lay. Sandy is still concerned about glare but even the lady in the pool tile shop said the darker ones get really hot. Also we are having quite a dark interior finish to the pool so I feel darker pavers will be too much. I got to have the final say on paver choice as the pool is my baby....... Gulp! I hope it works out ok, oh well too late now.

More flooring pics for those who can't get enough....

Entrance and Hallway

Kitchen Floor

Dinning Room and Family Room To The Back Right

Laundry Floor

I Must Be Psychic

As predicted in my last post the tilers turned up and commenced the mammoth task of tiling the floors downstairs. The areas to be covered included the kitchen, dining room, family room, laundry, butler's pantry, entry and hallway - quite a big expanse. It seems like it will take 2-3 days to lay the tiles and another 2 days to grout them. Sandy asked them if they'd do another 2 rows of tiles for the butler's pantry splashback if there are enough left over tiles otherwise one extra row would be fine...and as our tilers are great people they are more than happy to do that for us. Must make sure to remind them though.

It's one of those odd optical illusion during building moments as now the tiles are going down the place looks even bigger. May be it's the knock on effect of living in a once bed one room apartment, who knows?

At 3.45pm the roofers also put in appearance to fix up the remaining damage to the roof on the garage and outdoor room.

Granite Paving

We're off to look at pavers for around the pool and in the outdoor room area this morning. We are thinking of a light grey granite finish so it's not too hot to walk on but are a bit concerned it might create too much glare. The show home at Underwood has some lovely granite pavers and we are hoping to replicate what we saw there. Here's a snap we took when we were idea gathering.



The only photos I can get are through the windows so sorry for poor quality...

What The Tiles Look Like - Family Room Looking Into Kitchen (The House Isn't Really Leaning Over)

Tiling

Tiles - Family Room Into Hallway

And Now For The Next Bit

Being locked out is mildly frustrating as we haven't been able to check on progress but after a call from our SS we can confirm that painting is completed and that fixing and floor tiling is about to commence. By fixing they don't mean repairs they mean fixing things in place like shower screens, baths and toilets, taps, and electrical fittings including lights, switches power points etc. We're not really sure how long these things take and know the water tank, air conditioning unit, water heater and carpets will then also need to be attended to, however the SS did mention that by the end of this week he might be able to look at an approximate Practical Completion date!!!!! I can't quite believe that our house is going to be finished soon it seems like it only just started a few weeks ago.

The pool construction is due to start  a week on Thursday so it's going to be a very busy site again over the next few weeks. Hopefully I can sneak out from work for long enough to get some photos and actually see for myself what has been done.

Ready for Paint

Late afternoon yesterday we had a quick drive by of the house to survey what has been done. For us it's no longer the block as so much has been completed and it's beginning to feel like our home. We were locked out so had to make do with looking through the windows, try it it gives you a whole new perspective of your build...... like isn't our family room/kitchen/dining area enormous! And wow those doors look incredible etc etc.

Anyway.....The cladding is finished and the painter has only the front section on the balcony left to paint. The paint colour is dune to match the garage door and goes beautifully (or so we think) against the bricks and the roof tiles. But when are the bricks getting cleaned and the scaffolding coming down? [We want to get construction on the pool commenced and can't until the scaffolding has been moved].
Inside more doors have been stained and hung and the wet area tiles have been grouted. Which means that is must be time to start painting the interior. My understanding is that painting will take approximately 6 weeks to complete. I  think I may have that totally wrong and it may mean that there or around 6 weeks or so until the house is complete hmm I think the SS said that once painting starts its only 6 or 7 weeks until the finish date. Do I sound confused? Moving along....
So it's painting next and afterwards comes the floor tiles, carpets, lights etc etc. Followed by practical completion inspection (PCI) and then handover. We are psychologically preparing ourselves to be moving house in November.

Will have to delay posting photos as they weren't very good through the dust and dirty glass.

Tile-rrific

The tilers are continuing with the floor to ceiling tiles today in the wet areas which includes the showers and sides and edges around the bath. I'm really liking are tile choices, I think the bathrooms look smart and cozy all at the same time and I can't wait to be in there having a long soak in my bath with my essential oils and candles. We only have a shower at our apartment and it really doesn't do it for me. The tilers have also done the floor on the balcony area of the master bedroom, they are a similar colour to the wall tiles in the bathrooms. As I was checking things over I noticed a couple of tiles had slipped so I was teasing them about the joins not been straight in the bathroom so one of them came and pushed them back into line for us. They were only a couple of millimeters out but he agreed they needed to be perfect - nice guys, very professional and good fun.

The plasterer was in Saturday morning (and boy was he grumpy!!) finishing under the stairs and taking the cornices in the bathrooms off. Unfortunately he did the ones in the toilets too and the tiles are only a skirting in those so he'll have to come back and put up some new ones! I couldn't see any sign of a door for under the stairs will have to check that with the SS again.

The timber doors and bi folds are being stained mahogany and the painter will start painting for real tomorrow. The timber looks quite striking now it is more of a contrast against the white walls.

We asked the SS if we could have another row or two of tiles for the butler's pantry and he said if there are enough  tiles on site he will get the boys to do it. There was an extra pack of tiles in the garage and a few more had been stacked on the bench in the pantry so I think they will have enough to do that for us. Excellent.

So what is left to do?
Exterior cladding to complete
Downpipes
Water tank
Hot water system
Air con
Painting
Electrics
Baths and showers plus screens and taps
Toilets
Tiling and carpets
Appliances
Concrete for drive and paths 
and I think that is it...... oh my goodness it's going to be finished before we know it.!!!

Doors Stained

Under Stairs Boarded - Where's The Door?

Tiles in Bathroom Shower - Recess Will Be In The Dark Tile Too

Smart Tile Drain In Shower

Bath Surround Tiled

Balcony Tiles

In Close Up

Ensuite Tiles - Are You Sure They Are Straight? Teasing!

Its Starting To Look Like Home

So the cladding isn't finished, they are waiting for some more brick capping to come before they can do more but what cladding there is has been painted along with the sofits. There was a solitary painter on site who was kind enough to let us in so we could check on progress.

When Sandy when for the site meeting yesterday the tilers weren't actually given a lot of information as to what goes where and which tile is which (that's worrying!) so she gave them our tile samples showed them which tile was which and also gave them our plans from the Tile Studio which were much more detailed. That way they have no excuses for any potential stuff ups.
The wet areas floors have been tiled (we are having floor to ceiling tiles so there is a lot for them to do)  and thankfully we are happy with the colour choices as the tiles used for the powder room will be the same as we are having for the entry, hallway and family kitchen dining spaces so they are going to taking up a lot of square meterage. They have laid the shower areas in a diamond layout which I'm not that keen on but its really hard for them to get the fall right if they lay the tiles square and you can end up with water pooling in all the wrong places. I'm sure once the shower screens are on and the other tiles are done it'll look fine. The splash backs in the laundry and butler's pantry have also been done, hopefully the butler's pantry gets more tiles than are currently there as two rows looks quite stingey. We went for white in the laundry and a greyish tone in the pantry which looks very smart. In the kitchen the island bench is completed and the upgrade sink is in (nice). In fact I think all the sinks in the bathrooms have also been fitted. ( I had a super fast whiz through the house as the painter was getting ready to go home and I didn't want to hold him up).

The study doors have been hung, they are the same style as the front door but with translucent glass and of course they look fantastic, I should think so too the cost enough!! Initially we are planning to use the study as a playroom for our son so all his mess can stay in there and be hidden away with one swift slide of the door.
Under the stairs the framework has been started for the space to be boarded, the SS told us a few weeks back that they will put a door on here so we can use it as a storage cupboard will have to keep an eye on that to make sure it happens.

I think that's pretty much it for progress thus far, I can't believe how much they have done..... the bill for lock up will come shortly and as they have done so much inside they next stage will be completed almost as soon as we pay for lock up so it's going to be bills, bills for us.
Are we pleased with our build? Yes. Have we been happy with Metricon? Yes. We have no complaints and everything has been handled swiftly and professionally so far. Let's hope we can say the same once the build is complete.
Warning Lots of photos again:

Powder Room - These Tiles Will Continue Throughout Most Of Downstairs

Stud Work Prior To Boarding Under Stairs

The Island Bench

Kitchen Sink

Laundry - Plain White Tiles

Butler's Pantry Splashback - Will It Only Be 2 Tiles High?

Study Door - Fixed and Sliding Panels

Caution!

Ensuite Vanity With Sinks and Extra Holes for Electrical Socket

Ensuite Floor Tiled Note Diamond Pattern In Shower and Cut Outs for Smart Tile Wastes

Looks Like the Cornice Has to Go

Dark Tile (left) For Shower Wall and Brown Tile (Right) for the Rest