Some of the new joinery

There will be a small burst of activity on the blog as we head towards the end of 2014. We are waiting for some more furniture and furnishings to arrive to finish off the final rooms in the house. All ordered and paid for, just waiting on delivery.

Yesterday, our amazing joiner installed the long awaited extra bits and pieces to fill in niches and gaps. We are stoked with the outcome!

Outside the kids' study - previously the school bag dumping ground

Now a cupboard for each child

And a drawer each for Brad & I

Floating bookshelves in the media room

Screaming out for some books

Overhead cupboards in the laundry to accommodate the new hanging rail. The timber block needs to be painted.

Not sure what will go in the cupboards - so much storage considering the other side of the room houses full length cupboards!

 

 

 

We had a large niche upstairs that has been transformed but it needs some painting work to it before I reveal it. Within the next 2 weeks, Davella Kitchens will install all the desks and shelving units in the kids' study. Another exciting day in our household.

Joinery time

I am busy behind the scenes working, with Anastasia  from re-do my space, on the final few rooms in the house. It will very exciting to get them usable and looking complete - kids' study, adult study/with sofa bed and lounge room.
We are working with a joiner, Darren from Davella Kitchens to fit out the kids' study with desks and bookcases. Here are some plans....

The girls' side of the room

 

 

 

 

My boy's desk with bookshelves and lower cupboards

While he was here, we also had plans drawn up for some other joinery to fill in niches.

Opposite kids' study for school bags and some floating shelves in the media room

The large upstairs niche will gain some floating cupboards and cubes

And the laundry will get some more cupboards so a hanging rod can be attached

Looking forward to this all being installed sometime in the next month or so.

Landscaping photos

As requested by someone - laundry photo

The gorgeous wreath given to us today by one of the teachers at school - excuse the dusty door!

The start of our letterbox

Update on laundry shelving error

Half of the laundry cupboard shelving

Well, it has been an 'exciting' few days in my neck of the woods. I received a Building Variation from EBH to delete 1/4 of the shelving that was erroneously installed. (You may remember, we had it deleted from the contract so we could do a custom fitout to suit our needs) Imagine my surprise when we were charged nearly $700 for the privilege of taking some of it out and adding an end panel in. Surprise was the nice word for it. No explanation via phone call, just an email with a $700 price tag. I asked for clarification  - if I delete the entire amount of shelving, would I be charged anything? NO was the answer! So essentially, I was either being charged $700 for ONE panel of melamine or EBH were trying to recoup the costs of their mistake by charging me for the shelving. A very sour taste has been left in my mouth on this one even though yes, I am getting free shelving (not quite what I want though). After asking a few questions, the Estimating Department has flipped their decision and there will be no charges to cut out 1/4 of the shelving. Yet another mistake, this time not handled well.

On a brighter note, the Temporary Supervisor rang for a chat today - lovely guy. Matt gave me a rundown on what is being done currently and about to happen with the house. The main floor tiles have been delayed further and will now commence early next week. The bath wall mixers will be changed over to the basin wall mixers a little later when the plumbers need to return for something else. Matt reassured me that work will continue smoothly in Troy's absence and will be scheduled ahead for Troy's return. I will try to meet up with him at the house on Monday morning sometime to have another look/see. Before then, I want to go through the contract to see if there is anything we added or deleted, check door handles, towel rails/rings etc, outside taps etc.

So exciting!

Wow! The house is looking fantastic. Love, love, love it even without being cleaned or flooring in. We discovered a few issues to fix up.
* The laundry cupboards have been fitted out with shelving when we have put it in the contract to delete it all. The shelving installed is fine though they have not left us anywhere to store ironing board, brooms, mops etc. Troy is going to delete 1/4 of the shelving for that purpose.
* The vanities have incorrect mixers installed. Thanks to AJ for picking that up immediately. They are far too long and, in fact, are bath mixers.
* There is a motion sensor for my WIR missing.

Enjoy the photos.

Powder room vanity

Alarm pad (!)

Study/guest

Formal lounge

Stairs with step lights added

Undermount sink with mixer/vegie spray

Family room

Hallway to front door

My beautiful linen cupboard

Main bathroom (incorrect mixer)

Ensuite bathroom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ensuite shower

Ensuite bath

Pantry

Pantry

Half the laundry cupboard

Other half

Alfresco fans

A quick spontaneous inspection....

....but sorry, no photos! I made a visit to the house this afternoon to see if I could take photos from outside. The carpenters were still there and so was Troy. After a chat, Troy offered a quick run through the house before he had to leave to go elsewhere. Happy to!
It was great to see the gyprock on, cornices, some doors on, stairs installed etc. Gives a better idea of the size of rooms. Other things noted include
* The garage door is on but hidden out of view
* The laundry cupboards are amazing - LOVE!
* The lowered ceiling in the powder/mud area doesn't look too bad really
* I really don't like the airconditioning box in Bed 3 :-(
* The decorative corbel has been taken off and half of it replaced.
* The wardrobes for the children do not seem very deep at all (450mm)
* The manhole has had to be moved to Brad's WIR due to a roof truss being in the way.
* Bricks can be left for us to use for landscaping
* The noisebatts and soundcheck gyprock has been installed between BED 1 and BED 2.
Troy confirmed that all is still on track for work to progress as per the latest screenshot.

Laundry

Laminex Platinum Micro - long bench

Laminex White - Cupboard underneath and shelving

One side of laundry. Other side to be all cupboards. Love the bench space for folding!

Eden Brae are proving to be SLOW at the moment

And this is being experienced by a few of my fellow H1 members too. This is more a to-do list for me but these are the things that need following up.
1) Quote for a bulkhead in the laundry 07/08 - not needed according to CSA 16/08.
2) Quote for the change in front doors & rumpus sliding doors to Madison 06/08 - received & accepted
3) Follow through on wardrobe shape in main 02/08 - not needed as will leave as is.
4) Quote for extra aircon vents to the laundry, main bathroom & ensuite 14/08

Also waiting on.....
1) Kitchen, bathroom & laundry 3D drawings from Kitchen Culture 17/07 received 22/08 accepted 22/08
2) Answers from electrical guy to tie that variation up 14/08 (DONE 17/08 - accepted)
3) Details from Di Lorenzo for tiles, carpet & kitchen splashback 14/08
4) Quote from Abbey Blinds though won't hold my breath - someone is still waiting on their quote from NOV 2011!!) 14/08
5) Quote from Genneral Stairs for balustrading 14/08 - received & approved
6) Relocation of gas point from inside to outside 14/08
7) Images of wardrobes from HOG 07/08  Received 24/08
8) Image of standard mirrors from HOG 16/08

Fiddly bits and followups

It has been a while since I have posted an update. Nothing major has happened just loads more research on the forums to see what others are doing and going back through emails to see if there is any item that seems to have fallen through the cracks.

1) The pool contract is here for some light bedtime reading. Hmmmm, I just love reading all that fine print. I also need to talk to the mortgage broker soon to see if we need to take the pool allowance out of the EBH contract as Concept Pools are not related in any way to EBH. (This is more a little note to myself than of any great interest to anyone!)

2) Waiting to hear back from the estimators on the Madison front door and door to rumpus room as pictured below.

3) Still waiting to hear about the shape of our Bed 1 robes - the plan has them as Ushaped but the design of the fitout from Wardrobe World is named L-shaped. Don't want 2/3 of the robes not shelved!

4) Not being au fait with reading plans, I have been a little in the dark about measurements of certain things in my house. This has been highlighted when planing the luxuriously large laundry. No-one has told me what sort of material the laundry cupboards will be made of - laminex? No, gyprock inside, architraves and flush doors. No heights, depths etc. Discovered the height of them which does not go to the ceiling. Now I am waiting on estimating to get back to me on a quote for a bulkhead over these cupboards - I really do not want an open space above the cupboards for dust and lint to collect (or for me to dump stuff!) I am guessing that the picture below, from a display home, are the standard height.

 

5) Caught EBH out on a little error this week too. Reading through a PCV for me to sign there was an extra charge for $494 to install 2 upgraded freestanding baths. Pretty sure that the baths I selected were not freestanding (don't want them) and even if I did, there was no mention of this when I signed the Cooks Plumbing quote. A quick apology was made when I pointed this out to them. I reckon some clients might just sign away without checking too carefully.

6) Finished all my variations (I hope) with Kitchen Culture for the kitchen (obviously), bathroom vanities and the laundry benches. Waiting on my 3D drawings and plans which will take approximately another 2 weeks.
I really wish EBH used more than one company for their fittings etc (kitchen, electricals, flooring etc) These companies know that we are 'stuck' with using them so there is no competitive pricing at all and customer service could be better.
Whilst I am on suggestions for EBH, I will note here for future reference (mine) that my idea would be to have another level of inclusions called Platinum (or the like) for clients like me who seem to want all the upgrades. They could include things like, but not limited to, glass splashback, stone tops in kitchen & bathrooms, wallfaced toilets, raised ceilings/doors, softclose drawers, pot drawers, 2 DPOs per room, more TV points, more data points, overhead cupboards in kitchen & laundry, higher category of carpet & tiles.......
Anyone else on my wavelength?

Ramble over now. Excited about Tuesday's appointment - electrical, window coverings, staircase and floor coverings. I am sure there will be a big post on Tuesday or Wednesday!

Mainly shelves today

Today I spent a fair bit of time following up on loose ends because I received replies to emails that I had been busy sending.
1) Questioned the shape of our wardrobe fitout as it is listed as Lshape whereas our robes are more U-shaped. I would prefer for the whole robe to be done not 2/3s of it. HOG is checking this out with both EBH and Wardrobe World who are doing the job. I can see more $$$$ coming! In looking at this, I began to think about how we already had shelving/hanging rod in the 5 robes and we had not been given a credit for it. Sent an email to EBH who told me that I wasn't entitled to a credit as we were upgrading from the standard wire shelves. This didn't make any sense to me nor my cohort on H1 forum. I copied some of the credit examples they gave me to EBH and voila (!) the estimating team are working out what I am owed!
2) After I signed my 'final' Kitchen Culture variation, I realised that there were colour items missing from there. We decided to upgrade to a white silk finish on the main bathroom vanity and that had not been quoted or recorded and one of our standard choices for the ensuite was not recorded either.
The really big oopsie on my part was that we are having a large bench run the length of the laundry with a shelf underneath it where we can put some baskets for bits n pieces. Didn't really think about the washer and dryer that will need to fit under that shelf - well, it won't (!) so we will need to cut the shelf short!
3) It seems strange but we have never actually seen an image of the large feature front doors that we have agreed to pay nearly $2K for. I think I just trusted the lovely sales person when he said that I would want to upgrade to a nice feature door. I have never been able to find this particular door on the web. Finally today, HOG have been able to produce a picture and I am not sure I like it :-(

This is THE door but we have 2 of them with sidelights and a highlight - too much glass and not enough door in my eyes. Agree?!

I prefer something more along these lines......

 

I think my next project is to research more front doors.

Laundry update

You may recall me rambling on about our laundry extension meant that we need to extend the cupboard in the laundry to run down the entire back wall. At tender, we were told that it was something that Kitchen Culture would deal with. And of course, we were told at that appointment that it was something that Eden Brae should have put in the plan. I am happy to announce that Eden Brae have raised a post contract variation for another cupboard....and at no extra cost! Thankyou EBH - a nice touch for a good(money spending!) customer!

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.