Landscaping

 

Above you will find our landscaping scope of works carefully prepared by Tim of Hayward Landscaping. He cannot be faulted for the time, effort & sleepless nights that have been poured into the job already. Tim has worked hard to reduce costs yet ensuring that we have a design we will be happy with in the long term and one that meets all the standards that the private certifier will be happy with too. The work will take approximately 2 months, depending on weather. Let me know if you have any questions about the work above.

Scaffolding gone

Pretty hard to blog anything at the moment being restricted to this side of the fence. Stackstone is finished and the scaffolding has gone along with the portaloo. Not sure how the tradies are planning on relieving themselves as we have no toilets or plumbing.

Inside, the wet area tiling has finished and the painting has started. Not sure where they have gone but there has been no painting for 2 days now. 

Behind the scenes, I have been selecting furniture pieces with re-do my space's help and looking at landscape design. I will post more on those aspects of the build very soon.

Next screenshot

I received an email from Troy this morning which included this screenshot of the program for the next 2 weeks. Looks like a lot of it depends on how the painters are going.

Email from Troy.....

"Another good week on site. Tiling to wet areas complete and painting has commenced. We did have a bit of a hiccup with the stone tops to the wet areas having to be replaced because a hole was drilled behind the basins when the taps are wall mounted. They were replaced pretty quick and didn’t hold up progress though.
 Did have a complaint from a neighbour re rubbish on site. I explained our policy and procedure regarding rubbish. I had previously scheduled a Yard clean which will occur today. I explained to to the neighbour that we have milestones when rubbish would be removed and it is impractical to have the rubbish removed on a weekly schedule. I also asked if there was any rubbish outside of the site, to which she said “no”. She was purely concerned with the volume of rubbish on site. Just thought I would give you the heads up on this."

Sounds like Troy dealt with the issue. The neighbour is going to have to deal with more building on the other side of her house when it gets developed soon.

Bubbling along

Everything is happening as per schedule which is nice. I was amazed to see the tilers on site ALL weekend, yes even Sunday. He assured me he was making no noise - just grouting.
Today, we have the floor sanders making a huge mess upstairs. Dust is flying out the windows.
The painters are due to start tomorrow and should be working on the house for the next 2 weeks or so.

Site visit = photo fest

Alfresco tiles

Rangehood, cupboards with THE handles, stonetops

Undermount sink & stonetop

Sink 'run'

Whopping watertank

Powder room vanity

Front door from inside

Main bathroom vanity - part of 3 way bathroom

Ensuite vanity

Ensuite - floor to ceiling tiling

Stackstone is nearly finished

It was rather difficult to talk, measure and take photos at the same time so there aren't too many for you but you get the idea.
Kitchen handles - I think we will leave them for the moment and readdress later down the track if we wish to.
Everything else is looking great. There is a slab issue in the kitchen/family area that is being addressed before tiles are laid (apparently an easy fix)
I am particularly loving the laundry but I was too busy ooh-ing and aah-ing to take a photo. The LONG bench on one side and the double cupboard on the other are amazing!

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.