Finishing Update #2 - Plantmark

Quick post!

I forgot to mention in my previous post, that one of the things we have done since taking ownership is check out Plantmark, who are a trade nursery that Porter Davis have a relationship with.  Apparently, being a trade nursery, they do not normally deal directly with the public.  However, through the relationship with Porter Davis, clients can go there and buy plants. 

We went on a promotional day when they were encouraging Porter Davis clients to come.  However, I got the impression that you could pretty much turn up whenever you want and they will do business.

They have a couple of locations and we went to the site in Thomastown.  I have to say we were pretty impressed.  I won't say that the GST-inclusive prices are that much cheaper than, say, Bunnings.  However, being a full-blown nursery, the range that they have is vast and (unlike Bunnings) we will be able to stock our entire garden from them.

So we will be returning once our landscaping is done to buy plants I would recommend this as a place to go for anyone finishing a Porter Davis house.

It is a big place...
 

with a big range of plants...

... and los of other stuff...

 

... and the prices seem to be pretty good.

Finishing Update #1 - Skirts, Laundry and more

It's been a few weeks since my last post, so I thought I would give a quick update on where things are at post hand-over.  We have not moved in just yet as there are a number of finishing projects that we ideally want to get prior to moving in.  Here is an update on a couple of them.

Skirts
When we negotiated our contract with Porter Davis, 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 floorboards.

Last weekend, I spent most of the weekend working on installing the skirts.  Partly due to the fact that I am working alone and it is ideally a 2-man job, and mainly due to the fact that I am pretty incompetent at mitre cuts, it has been slow going and I am only about halfway through.  Even so, I am pleased with how it looks and I am still glad we made the decision to install the skirts ourselves and avoid the standard quad edging.  One more weekend should see it done.

Skirts - A bit of touch-up paintwork required, I happen to think this looks nicer
that quad

I hadn't paid attention to just how fiddly some of the corners are in
the Wembley 35.  All these little corners take a lot of time.



But I happen to be a snob and I think this ends up looking really nice.

Laundry Fitout
As with the other cabinetry and wardrobes, we decided not to include any fit-out of the laundry other than what came as 'standard', plus a various package upgrades.  So we have a laundry trough and nothing else.  Our reasoning for this is that it is the sort of thing that we can do ourselves, hopefully a bit cheaper than what Porter Davis will have charged.

We decided early on to fill out the wall opposite the trough with cupboards and benches.  However, the probem we have hit is that none of the spacings match up with standard off-the-shelf cabinet sizes.  The standard depth of a floor cabinet is 600mm.  However, the distance between the wall and the edge of the architraves for the internal and external doors is 484mm and 564mm respectively.  Basically, standard cabinets will protrude into the doorways.



The problem of non-standard spaces for cupboards and cabinets...

So our original plan of fitting out the laundry with flat-pack cabinets and cupboards went a bit off the rails.  We have had quotes prepared by professionals to accommodate our sizings, but these have come in very expensive (as in it would have been cheaper to get PD to do the fit-out as part of the build).

Following the quotes, we have gone back to our original idea of doing it ourselves, but this time by modifying flat-pack cabinets bought from Ikea or Bunnings (or wherever).

I will post more on this as this little project continues.


Finally, I never posted a picture of our house when we picked up the keys.  So here it is!  You might note that there are a couple of palettes of bricks out the front.  These were left-over from the build and were left with us by Porter Davis, so we can use them when we build our front fence with matching bricks.

Our house!

Over the next few months,  will share progress and the additional costs we incur, which may be useful for those who come after us on this house-building journey.

Post-handover additional costs so far
Skirts
- Paint $42.00
- Tools $20.28
------------------
Total = $62.28

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

Construction Update - Week 23 - Floors, Garage Doors and More

So I snuck over to the house this weekend to see if there was anything to report and, boy, did I get a surprise.  After a couple of quieter weeks, a lot has been happening over the last 7 days.

First thing I saw was the garage door, which I think looks great.  I recall this being an upgrade at our selections appointment, and in my opinion it looks really good.  Other exterior changes are:

• The final render coat has been applied to the façade
• The timber window frames have been stained
• The in-fill above the bi-fold doors has been completed

But it was the interior, where I had the biggest surprise - we have flooring.  The carpet has been laid upstairs and the timber flooring has been laid downstairs.  Additionally:

• The staircase has been stained
• The bath has been installed and fitted off

I am also pleased to report that the plumbing in the downstairs powder room has finally been fixed and we have the mixer we originally selected.

We have had a message from our site supervisor today, wanting to book in an appointment for the final inspection - it could be as early as this Friday.

Here are the pics

From the Front

From the Front

From the Rear

From the Rear, with Chuggalugs photo-bombing

Upstairs area with carpet - the fluoro tags are markers where things need to be fixed

Our bath is installed

Rear Bi-folds are finished and stained

The Powder-Room Plumbing is finally fixed

 

The staircase has been stained, but it looks as though one of the hand-rails is going to be removed...

Finally, following a comment on my previous post, I did a search for the Wembley 35 on the Porter Davis web-site.  Sure enough, the Wembley 35 page is gone, so it looks as though the house is not being offered any more.  There is no question it's a great design, so I can only assume they have more profitable products to offer clients nowadays.

Construction Update - Week 22 - Garage is nearly finished

The plasterer has been back this week and fitting of the plaster ceiling for the garage and alfresco has been completed.   Also the rear roller door for the garage has been fitted.  And the fix for the master bedroom WIR window appears to be completed.  Other than that, there has not been much progress on site.

 

But the big news of the week is that we think we have finally resolved the powder room plumbing issue.  I have posted the background to this previously,  the basic problem is that the wrong plumbing was roughed in for the powder room taps and we have been working with Porter Davis on what to do about it.

 

We have through quite a bit of back and forth on this one.  A couple of weeks ago we agreed to keep the wall mounted plumbing if we could choose some decent tapware and PD agreed to give a pair of hand rails for our staircase.  In the end wall mounted taps was not going to work due to our shallow basin.  Finally after much to and fro, Porter Davis has agreed to go back to the original plan,  fix the plumbing and install the mixer.  Credit to PD for this.  Interestingly as the pictures show, the extra staircase handrail has already been fitted, and even though we are going back to the plan, we are hoping that it stays...

 

The final bit of news is that we have shared with our site supervisor that we have a long list of things that we think will need fixing.   He is keen to see the full list,  so I will be sending that over to him later tonight.

 

Here are some pictures...



Fromt the Front

From the Front

From the Rear

From the Rear

Panoramic shot of Garage, with Rear Roller Door and Ceiling

Panoramic shot from Dining Area, with Lounge on Left and Kitchen on Right

Panoramic shot from Lounge Area, with Rumpus Room on Left and Dining Room on Right

Panoramic shot from Rumpus Room, with Hallway / Staircase on Left and Lounge on Right

Look! a staircase with 2X hand-rails!