New splashback

My kitchen splashback was one thing that never sat well with me - too dark, flat and heavy! We engaged the services of a tiler for another project so we decided to change over the splashback too.
Whilst I was led to believe this was a small, quick job, it actually involved demolishing the whole wall.

By the next day, it was all finished off. I couldn't be more pleased with the result.

We have a date...

....with Eden Brae Homes to make our final payment and collect our keys.

MONDAY OCTOBER 21 in the morning

A little disappointed that it couldn't be Friday afternoon to give us the weekend to 'play' in it. It probably comes down to availability to meet onsite too.

The last week has been full steam ahead with PCI, purchasing decorating items, loan settlement, insurances, tying up loose ends and creating other loose ends, on top of being sick and looking after other sick family members. A few more dates have been booked in to the schedule  - Shutter/blinds installation October 15 and appliance installation on October 16.

I received an email this morning from EBH informing me that our cooker is out of stock but that they are happy to offer us an upgrade. A Google search revealed nothing on this upgraded cooker so I rang Baumatic in VIC just to ensure we were getting at least a similar product. This cooker has extra capacity and triple rather than double glazed door. I approved the upgrade!

The private certifier has completed his inspection for the occupancy certificates. We have some items that need to be completed

 FOR INTERIM OCCUPATION CERTIFICATE
 1.       Provide a copy of the engineers certificate for glass balustrades confirming that the design complies with AS1170.1 & AS1288-2005
2.       Submit compliance certificates
3.       Site Cleanup
 FOR FINAL OCCUPATION CERTIFICATE

 1.       Comply with condition 23 with reference to retaining walls
2.       Comply with condition 21 with reference to vehicular crossing
3.       Comply with condition 20 with reference to driveway installation
4.       Repair/Reinstate damaged footpath 

None of these items seem to be an issue so the certificates should be fairly easy to access.

HnK Ryan has completed their re-inspection which marries up fairly nicely with our PCI inspection report. Troy has indicated that most items identified by the independent inspectors will be fixed anyway but I will use this report as the basis for our 90 day maintenance inspection.

A teaser....

Tomorrow's post will contain loads of photos. I am meeting Troy on site tomorrow to check out the progress and the kitchen handles. I am hoping that I will have time to wander around and shoot away. Maybe I can give AJ (re-do my space) those honours whilst I talk to Troy.
The stackstone on the front portico has been started and whilst it looks good, it is darker or 'dirtier' than I thought it would be. Photo to come tomorrow.
I also sent a message to the Wardrobe World installer today as directed by their head office. I am keen to find out the cost to add some more drawers to the wardrobes - 2 is not enough and it seems our wardrobes are too shallow to accommodate any stand alone shelving.

Kitchen handle update

 The news has come back from EBH that nothing can be done at this time with the handles.

"Unfortunately I don’t have good news for you. All cabinets, doors and drawers have been installed with the square handles (0115154). As you have found, this is as per the colour selection. The handle that you wish to change to (9112637), will not suit the holes that have been drilled. To change the handle, new doors would need to be made. You may consider changing this after settlement."

Whilst I understand that it was partially my mistake and we signed off on it, there is a part of me that is a little disappointed at the mistake that was made in the first place by the HOG consultant who confesses that she is 'not very good with numbers & letters' or in the words of another blogger 'a self-diagnosed dyslexic'.

One of my fellow Home One members who has both types of handles in his kitchen feels that we can definately do something in the future to rectify the situation even if it means contacting the kitchen supplier to assist. He also had errors in his HOG colour selection sheet.

WARNING to those about to embark on the journey - take photos of everything you select WITH codes visible to assist with crosschecking later down the track. Part of our problem was that we selected our products in July 2012 and didn't receive the final paperwork until January 2013.

Kitchen handle potential disaster

 

 

Photo courtesy of fellow EBH bloggers Anne & Alok

It has come to my attention over the weekend that we are going to have an issue with our kitchen cupboard handles. I went back to our paperwork and discovered that I had overcorrected a mistake made by Home Options Gallery in the final paperwork. When we received our colour selection sheet, we realised that the incorrect bathroom vanity handles were recorded and alerted our consultant. She changed this manually on our sheet and assured us that it would make it's way onto our final documents. Of course when our final documents came through, they were still incorrect. I changed them to what we had selected (the square ones pictured second from the bottom) but also accidentally overcorrected and changed the kitchen ones to these as well. I am sure they are going to look 'wrong' in the kitchen. At this stage, I am not sure whether they have been added to the cabinets or not. I have Eden Brae looking into the situation for me and i have requested a site visit to check it all out. If they have already been attached, we may have problems with screw holes :-( If only an error had not been made in the first place......

A few exterior photos

I need to keep the interest level up. Without inside access, I can only provide outside photos at the moment. It seems that there is no work happening onsite at the moment unless it all happens before 8:30amish (my first driveby)
Waterproofing was supposed to occur yesterday with certification today. Only action on site was watching Troy carry some things to his ute LOL. The kitchen cabinets are scheduled to arrive today but that has obviously been delayed.
Photos for you.....

Garage door is down for viewing

Front on view

Part of the new decorative corbel installed - more to come above stackstone

Another angle - unfortunately the portaloo has been moved to be in the way

Onsite photos - yay!

From water tank slab looking up the side...towards garage

From backyard to the house

From rumpus room to kitchen/pantry

Rumpus room window (room with a view - NOT!)

Where the front doors and sidelights will be

For AJ - the mudroom area

Family room & alfresco from doorway

Photo fest today. I was fortunate enough to have a site visit for the first time today. I am still buzzing! So excited. Tim, from Hayward Landscapes, and I walked around the site so that he could get a better idea of the lay of the land to put together a quote/concept plan.
I was able to meet Troy, our SS, today as well. Good to put a face to the name. I am confident in his ability to deliver us a quality house. He did pick up a brickie error today.

As you can see from this photo, they have bricked where there is meant to be cladding (roof gable). Troy asked if I wanted it left this way. No, thanks! It will be pulled down in preparation for the cladding to be done.

Kitchen post - Quiet rainy day

No work is being done today even though it hasn't rained at all since about 7:30am and in fact we have had glorious sunshine since late this morning. Boy, the rain was heavy last night though - it kept me awake between asthma attack and toothache for different children.

I have had a few people ask me about the prices for different upgrades int he kitchen. I am happy to share them on here though note, it will be different for every kitchen depending on measurements. Kitchen Culture (supplier for Eden Brae Homes) was by far, our worst experience so far in the building journey. As I have mentioned before, their customer service is lacking. I feel this is mainly due to not having any competition - we have to use KC. Some clients like to complete their own upgrades after settlement to save the builders markup. We are aiming to do as much as we can up front for convenience, tidiness and the guarantee.

These are the upgrades we got through them :-

In the kitchen :-
* Reconfigure the kitchen to be L-shaped (needed as we relocated the kitchen) - $2000
* Provide fridge run including appliance roller cupboard & 2 others above & below - $1850
* Provide additional tall cupboard to the side of fridge for brooms - $850
* Pull out, soft close bin drawer with 2x20L bins - $700
* Relocate cutlery drawers - $330
* Additional pot drawers with 30kg runners - $720
* Overhead cabinets - $1300
* Bulkheads to overhead cabinets - $650
* Provision for overhead cupboard lights - $176
* Soft close drawers - $1150
* Soft close door buffers - $220
* Provide 2 row wine rack above fridge space - $620
* 2 Hettich cutlery trays - $147
* Caesarstone upgrade - $2000
* Two tone kitchen - $500
* Silk finish to white laminex - $1230
* Undermount sink including polishing fee - $1000

In the bathrooms :-
* Stone benchtops - $2200 (powder, main & ensuite)
* Drawers to main vanity - $350
* Silk finish - $320

In the laundry :-
* Laminex benchtop to run the length of the laundry - $2150
* Laminex shelf underneath this - $277

Upgrades to taps, toilets, baths etc were on top of this at Cooks Plumbing appointment ($2000)

Kitchen

We finally received our Kitchen Culture drawings this afternoon so I will run through the kitchen selections with you. Enjoy!

THE BENCHTOP - CAESARSTONE OSPREY

THE ISLAND BENCH - SMOKEY SAPELLE

THE FRIDGE RUN & COOKTOP RUN - LAMINEX SILK FINISH WHITE

TILED SPLASHBACK IN A WOODGRAIN LOOK (will be narrower 'planks' and in more of a brick pattern)

TILES ON FLOOR IN KITCHEN/MEALS/FAMILY/RUMPUS etc -

PULLOUT BIN A LITTLE LIKE THIS

DRAWER ORGANISERS

AND THE 3D DRAWINGS!

COOKTOP RUN

FRIDGE RUN

Kitchen

Well, Kitchen Culture finally came back to me after I called yesterday leaving a message & rang first thing this morning. M said that it was on the top of her pile and that I would have it by lunchtime. Yep! Got it and it includes one extra 'number crunch' in it. After 51/2 working days, I was expecting 3D diagrams at least. To change the kitchen bench from the original design (which doesn't work since we relocated the kitchen) to an L shaped one to create a walkway of 1m, the quote is nearly $2K. We were told by EBH prior to tender and also Kitchen Culture last week that it would be minimal. $2K? Minimal? I have asked for a breakdown of these costs and measurements of each design.
I have also questioned the bulkheads that we are paying for in our Kitchen Culture proposal. The EBH plan already has them noted. Are we paying twice for these? Hopefully not!
Not happy at all with the Kitchen Culture experience.

Actually got a response within a few hours this time. I asked for the breakdown of cost & measurements. We are having an extra lineal metre of bench which will cost $1617 plus GST for cabinetry & stone bench. Doesn't add up to the $1806 plus GST on the original variation so I am a little confused.

Cabinetry cannot be reduced in size to accommodate a breakfast bar overhang so of course, we need more Caesarstone!

I wish Eden Brae had warned us of the snowball effect when making changes - relocating the kitchen has meant soooooo much extra unforeseen money! 

More miscellaneous

1) Kitchen - I am still waiting on my documents to be sent to me from Kitchen Culture a week later. Really, I don't think we are doing anything out of the ordinary. We were meant to have a week to sign off on any changes. Hmmmm, not really possible!
I lay awake last night thinking about things that I was not sure about or didn't organise at my appointment....
* Bulkheads - did I get any? Yes, I did.
* Breakfast bar overhang - completely forgot about this at the time. Doh! I think I will ask them to reduce the size of the cupboards on that side of the island bench to allow for it rather than paying for more Caesarstone.
* Pull-out bins - I want to look more carefully at the pull-out bin setup we have allowed for. I would love for the bin lids to open up as we open the drawer/cupboard. My decision was so quick I can't remember now what it's features are.

2) Laundry - EBH have now accepted 'responsibility' for our extra laundry cupboard to match the one currently in the plan.

3) Doors - I am now undecided about the internal doors though I am sure that price will help me with the decision in the end. We went with the standard door in White Gloss.

Now I am thinking they may be a little 'plain'??? What about one of these in the white?

4) Apart from these little ramblings, I am spending some time researching for our electrical & flooring appointment in 4 weeks. I really want to get in & out as quickly as possible.