1 step forward, 1 step back

We went down to see the house on the weekend.

Got a quote for concreting... Going to organise another one or two for later this week.

Also went searching for blinds... We are thinking that we may go for:
* Timber venetians with sheer eyelets over the top for the minor bedrooms
* Curtains for the main bedroom (or venetians with sheers)
* Panel glides for the sliding doors
* Possibly Romans in the living areas with some sort of sheer curtain/blind underneath

In the mean time we have brought a whole heap of redishades!

Not sure how some of this looks in real life... But it looks good in my head! Any pictures (especially of venetians with sheers) would be greatly appreciated!


Then we finally decided to look at the house. It was muddy outside and we were reluctant to get dirty! We could only see two things which had been completed from the inspection on 10th June. Firstly one of the outdoor powerpoints was moved (it was previously under a tap). Secondly, the splashback was installed... Would have been fantastic if it wasn't installed WRONG! It is about 200mm too short

On the upside I do like the colour!


It really seems as though no one is reading the plans!

When we spoke to the Construction Manager today he said that we should have our final inspection in 2 weeks and handover in 3... Don't know whether to get excited or not...

After the initial walkthrough...

Last Thursday we had our initial PCI. Our SS is busy at the moment, so the Construction Manager ended up taking his place...

When we arrived we knew there was a lot of work still to be completed (major re-bricking etc), so we didn't feel we were in the position to sign the PCI document. Luckily the CM was fine with us doing another walk through at a later date and signing it then...

We received the results of the mortar test which was completed. Mortar FAILED due to NO lime!
Apparently the fix is to use an Alkaline spray treatment (http://www.mortarmend.com.au). However, there is a small note on this website saying that it bonds "with free Lime in the Cement or Lime components of the mortar". Not sure about this so we are doing some of our own research. The only other options are
* full render (which we do not want)
* grinding out all of the mortar and repointing (which could be very messy)...


Defect list had almost 100 items on it.. Some of the items which I can remember are:
* Rebricking 4 sections of the house (maybe 1/4 overall) due to bowed walls and poor quality brickwork.
* Fix mortar around entire house (see above)
* Install splashback
* Paint front door
* Paint render
* Find a fix to the "expansion joint" which is installed on the flooring. It sticks up about 5mm and is a massive trip hazard in the middle of the hallway! (see picture below)
* Many paint touchups, including cracked cornices (will end up repainting about half the house I would think)
* Fix a few tiles
* Replace some glass in the windows due to scratching and glass defects
* Repair plaster around the downlights
* Repair nails which have popped out of the plaster
* Fix sharp areas in carpet (where nails are sticking up)
* Replace section of garage door which is dented
* Seal around baths/sinks/shower screens


Hopefully we can still have handover in 4 weeks or so. It's been a long wait (site start 11th Nov last year)... The number of defects which we have picked up along the way has been disappointing. We are grateful that Carlisle has been easy to deal with in regards to fixing them so far. For us, it is more about how problems are dealt with, rather than if they occur in the first place...

Now for some pics! Most were taken after it was dark outside... Some with flash and some without so just ignore the different lighting!

Front Door, Feature Hobs and Entrance

Expansion joint...

Minor Bedroom

Bathroom

Powder Room

Master Bedroom

Ensuite

Home Theatre Room

Laundry

Lounge/Dining/Kitchen

Shopping

Forgot to mention we have started shopping for the bigger ticket items!

Got an Asko dishwasher on sale a couple of weeks ago. Last weekend we visited the Asko run out sale and managed to pick up a washing machine and dryer for less than half price (we still spent about as much as we would have if we got a normal brand because they are so expensive!) It's nice to have some good quality stuff though.

Now on the lookout for some more sales! Maybe a fridge?


- Sarah

It's been a long time...

So I am a Melbourne supporter. At the football. I think my time will be better spent updating the blog via my iPhone seeing we are almost 70 points down at the start of the 3rd! We have got one goal so far though. Here's proof! Haha



Back to the house. Firstly we had our full electrical fit out - optic fibre cabling, lighting, speaker cabling and powerpoints.

Dad came along one weekend and installed some noggins for us :) thanks dad!



Insulation was then installed. Thanks to our awesome SS who allowed us to install some extra soundproof insulation.

Plastering followed. No real issues apart from finding that one section had not been properly insulated. SS called them back to fix it up no problems.

In between all of the above the bricking was carried out. Looks to be a good job to me. Loving our choice of bricks (Boral Mocha). Bricks have now been completed, cleaned and feature locations rendered.

Only had one small issue with the bricking (or the wrapping to be precise). Part of the garage was bricked without wrapping or damp proof course in place. SS had them pull it down to install the wrapping and damp proof course, then rebrick.

Here are a load of photos below.

Some of the insulation and electricals.



Front entrance plastered. Looking though the family room at end.



Looking down hallway back towards front door.



Front door scratched. Hope they fix it!



Master bedroom



Master bedroom looking into ensuite



Looking at family area



Looking toward alfresco from same location as above



Looking toward kitchen from same location as above



Front of house with bricks all cleaned. (not rendered yet)



Along back of house towards alfresco



Close up of bricks



Another close up of bricks



Three quarter time and we are still only down by 71 points. Kicked 3 goals that quarter :)

Hopefully we get cabinetry before Easter!

- Sarah

House with a hat!!

It's seem to have been a long time between updates because so much has happened!

Our wall frames finished, closely followed by roof trusses.

There was a few issues with the roof trusses which have now been resolved. Firstly, they forgot to add the eaves on the northern side of the house. This was resolved by adding timber onto the chord of the truss. The timber extension overlapped the truss by about 1.5m so as to reduce the cantilever forces caused by the weight of the tiles. The second problem (picked up by dad) was that the roof trusses were not blocked. Blocking has now been added :)

The next time I visited the block the roof tiles were up! In the 3 days between the gutters and fascia was installed, followed by the tiling. Some pics below from most recent visit on Friday.




From front of house



Looking towards back from front door



Looking up to roof. Can see some of the blocking in this pic too



Feature wall behind bed



From kitchen looking towards living area (alfresco on right)



Looks like we will need a small laundry basket. The door is about as wide as Glens shoulders!



Bricks have been delivered!! Love them!!! (Boral Mocha)



More bricks. There was about 18 pallets all up!!



On our way out to visit again. House was wrapped yesterday! :)

- Sarah