Construction Update - Week 27 - It's Ours!

And it's done.

Last Friday was a big day for us - we (actually my wife) drove to Narre Warren and picked up the keys to our new house.  Technically, we could have done this any time during the week, but with insurance to be organised, final bank paperwork and payments to be cleared, and the need to take an hour and a half to drive literally to the middle of nowhere (yep, that's Narre Warren :-) ), Friday was the first opportunity my wife had to pick up the keys following our final inspection last week.

And by total coincidence, Friday marked exactly 6 months since our site start on 12 March.

Overall it has been a good journey with Porter Davis and we are happy with the house and also the way the construction was managed.  Considering that we bought "off the plan" and that, having been builders previously, we didn't go into this expecting everything to go completely smoothly, we feel that we have got what we paid for been well-treated along the way.

Now starts the next phase of our project, which is getting the house ready to move in.   Key jobs for us between now and move-in day are:

• Installing the skirts over our timber floors - we agreed with Porter Davis to have our skirts delivered, but not installed, so that we did not have to have quad all around our downstairs
• Building a front fence - a priority given that we have bus-stop right outside our house
• Laying down a driveway - obviously required
• Landscaping - we want to try to get as much of this done as possible before the heat of summer
• Installing cabinets for the Walk-In-Pantry - we always planned to do the cupboards, robes and shelving fitouts our selves
• Installing cupboards and shelving in the Laundry
• Fit-out of shelving in the master walk-in-robe
• Fit-out of shelving in the bedroom walk-in-robe
• Fit-out of shelving in the bedroom 3 & 4 built-in robes
• Curtains, blinds and other window coverings
• Lighting
• Building our display shelving between the Living Room and Rumpus Room
• Decorating the kids bedrooms

Yikes that sounds like a lot when I list it out like that.

 

To kick things off, over the weekend, I painted all the skirts, ready to get them installed over the next couple of weeks.

Unfortunately, due to flat batteries, I didn't manage to take any photos over the weekend, but I will update this post with some when we get out there next.

Construction Update - Week 26 - Final Inspection

Following our PCI last Wednesday, we had a call from our site supervisor on Wednesday this week to book in a time for our Final Inspection.  We had thought it would take a couple of weeks to circle back to us, so we were a bit surprised.  But this morning (Friday) we got up bright and early to go on site to do the final inspection and sign off our paperwork.

The cleaners were still going through the house while we were there, but, other than that, the house was (according to Porter Davis) ready to hand over.

We went through every item on our independent inspector's report that had been agreed to be fixed, so the process took about 2 hours.  We then went through every additional item that had been documented by ourselves at the PCI and confirmed that all the issues had been resolved.

Everything that we had asked for has been fixed, so we were pretty happy with the result.  Updates included:

• The balcony handrail has been re-fastened and strengthened
• The staining on the timber windows has been redone (twice) and looks a whole lot better
• The bi-fold doors have been adjusted and now open and close smoothly
• All the windows have been serviced and (for the first time) they all open smoothly
• The wiring in the Rumpus room has been reversed so that the down-lights are on the dimmer
• Leaks underneath the en-suite basin and kitchen basin have been fixed
• Various paint touch-ups, caulking and filling has occurred inside and out

Kudos to our site supervisor on fixing one issue, which I don't think I have previously posted about.  I had raised it (on a couple of occasions) as a problem in the upstairs flooring at the top of the stairs - there was quite a bit of creaking as you walked over it.  He had previously given us the standard line "your house is built of natural products, its going to move and settle, blah, blah, blah". I had pressed him a bit at the PCI and he conceded that if it is a problem in 3 months, PD will probably have to come and rip up the carpet and fix it.  Turns out he changed his mind and just decided to fix it now, which was a nice addition.

Here are some pictures of the house, the interior and some of the fixes

Range-hood extraction flu cover where it meets the cornice - before and after

 

The visible holes in the bricks above the garage door lintel have been filled - before and after

 

Gaps around the electrical meter box have been filled

 



Panoramic Shot with Lounge to Left and Kitchen to the Right



Panoramic shot with Rumpus Room to the left and Dining Area to the Right.  You can see that our skirts are still lying on the floor here.  These will be moved to the garage.



Panoramic shot with Hallway and Staircase to the Left and Lounge to the Right.  If you look really closely, you'll see we ended up with 2 hand rails



Panoramic shot with Dining Area to the left and Lounge Area to the Right

Downstairs Powder Room

Laundry

Ensuite Bathroom

Ensuite Bathroom





Our Home Care Manual!

Construction Update - Week 25 - Practical Completion Inspection (PCI)

It has been nearly two weeks since my last post so my apologies to my loyal reader (sorry mum).

Things have been moving pretty quickly.  Last Wednesday was our Practical Completion Inspection (PCI), a huge process that took over 2.5 hours.  When we got to the house it had been cleaned (mostly) and looked quite presentable.  This had been one of the criticism's of our independent inspector who had been through a couple of days previously.

 

During the PCI, the key things that were identified as requiring fixing included:

• There is a leak and flooding near the water meter
• The balcony handrail is not fastened correctly
• The staining on the timber window frames is inconsistent
• The lock on the bi-fold doors needs to be adjusted as the door is not closing properly
• The wiring for the lighting in the Rumpus Room is back to front (the main light is on a dimmer switch, where we wanted the down-lights to be dimmable)
• There is a small leak in the kitchen basin plumbing
• The windows all need adjusting so that they open and close smoothly
• There are dozens of minor painting, caulking and filling fixes

Having worked with builders and trades previously where any questions about defects are met with denial and blame and finger-pointing, we were expecting a bit of a battle with our Site Supervisor regarding a few of the items, and in particular the staining on the timber window frames.  On that specifically, we can tolerate some variations in colour - after all that is exactly why you stain timber (okay it also protects the timber) but what I mean is that it is the colour and tone that is the aesthetic reason to do it.  To his credit, he looked at several of the window frames and concluded, like us, that the guys who did the staining could have done a better job.

And that's how it was with nearly everything we raised - we discussed it, our site supervisor provided clarifications but generally put it on his list of things to be fixed.  It was a good experience and I guess it's just nice to be treated as a customer sometimes.

 

A number of things have already been fixed and/or completed, including:

The kitchen island bench-top has been replaced.

• A timber infill has been installed above the laundry door
• A service has been booked in to adjust the windows so that they open easily
• We got some clarification on the tap near the laundry door not aligning to the drain.  It turns out that Porter Davis do not install drains beneath exterior taps.  The opening in the video is not a drain, but a sewer overflow.  Basically, if the sewer gets blocked, this overflow will mean that any flooding will occur outside the house, rather than inside.  The fact that it is almost aligned to the tap is coincidence.
• The pointing on the alfresco roof has been finished.

Here are some pictures of some of the items

A small hole in our staircase needs to be filled

Painting touch-ups everywhere...



Brick holes above the garage door lintel will be filled



Poor rendering finish by front door

The hand-rail of the balcony is not fastened

Laundry Door has been fixed

Stain colouration is not matching on the window frames