Introducing....

Well, the house was originally meant to be finished before she arrived but we had known for a long time that was not going to happen.
Unlike our house she arrived almost 2 weeks earlier.... Introducing Aria Rose. Born 20th May 2014 at 6:46 weighing 2.85kg

Slow and Steady...

I swear the tilers have slowed down! They didn't have as much completed as I thought they would based on how much they had previously done (when they laid the wrong tiles)

It is looking good though.

The render is fully painted....in two different colours... The top looks like the right colour but the bottom half looks way too purple.

Our Essa Stone kitchen benches are in and look fantastic. However the tilers have been using it as a workspace. They better not scratch it.

What else would you expect?

Jake and I went out to the block yesterday hoping the tradies would be there so we could get in and see the tiling that should have been mostly completed.
The house was open, but no tradies around.....at least if anything gets stolen we don't have to pay for it.
I walked into the laundry and for 2 seconds I was really happy to see tiling in there but it was quickly ruined when I realised it was the wrong tile! Jake got straight on the phone to our builder and I checked the other bathrooms. Two others were wrong with all the tiles having been laid but no grout.
For once I was able to just laugh it off. There's no way the builders can charge us for it so its just another costly mistake for them. Apparently tiling wasn't meant to be started until after the tiling meeting where we check the tiles - which doesn't make sense because we were only going to be contacted for a meeting this week to book for next week and tiling was on the agenda to be done the last 2 weeks....
Just after we arrived back home (a 25 minute journey) we got a phone call from out site manager asking us to come out for the tiling meeting...... Jake said yes because he wanted everything sorted out quickly.
they blamed it on the tile supply company delivering the wrong ones but due to the other ones being laid the tiler said they probably wouldn't take them back for a swap. The tilers came back on site straight away to rip up the tiles while the glue was still wet. They are in all weekend for tiling but the right tiles for the wrongly completed areas can't be delivered till Monday so we are probably looking at a few days delay.
The site manager said its usually 8 weeks after tiling is completed that you have the PCI and then handover 2 weeks later but this is a month longer then what the general manager told us to expect so we figure he's trying to give himself wiggle room.
Other mistakes this week include the plumbing for the bathroom spout and mixer have been put in the wrong place....again, missing cabinetry in the laundry and a shelf that is now too small due to other changes that has to be bricked in. Completed on site this week was the varnish to the front doors, grano to the garage and all ceilings and cornices done. The best thing was that I got to try out my bath and its fantastic! I had to buy it blind as none of the retailers where we lived had it in their showrooms.

Cabinets

It's great to be at lock up, but so annoying not being able to freely roam around your own home. It especially sucks in a two storey house where you can't even peak through the windows. Armed with a tripod we went out to the house yesterday with the idea to hold the tripod up to the windows and take photos and see what we would get. 

To our surprise, there were tradies there on a Saturday! So we got a lovely look around at all the recently installed cabinets. 

Laundry

Kitchen/Dining

Entertainment room- bulkhead installed

Powder Room

Kids Bathroom

My bath...not happy at this point.

Ensuite Vanity

Yo Yo

So I feel like the build has been a yo-yo lately. One week will be great, everything going to plan and progressing and then the next week its like nothing has changed.
So as of when we went to see the house on the weekend....
Progress is going well, plastering is finished, cornices are in, windows in, external doors on which means...
LOCK UP!
I was all set to go out there and be locked out and be okay with it, but through the window we discovered the tiles, vanities and baths had been delivered...would have loved to have been able to go inside and look at them.
The builders recently found another error that could only be fixed by lowering the guest bedroom ceiling to 28 courses and to have another external duct....grrr.... so I got mean and demanded they give us an extra that we did want and gave them three options.....they said I could have all three!!!!
If your builder is constantly making errors and causing you stress I urge you to stick up for yourself and ask for compensation- the worst that can happen is they say no. The best that can happen is you get some freebies!
I have never understood why websites have a search option that lists products from highest price to lowest, aren't we all out for a bargain? But with the builder paying I finally got to use this option! So we are getting an upgrade on our garage door to wood, a dishwasher and microwave.

Pottering Along

So a lot of promises have been made on our builders part and the last two weeks haven't really lived up to them. You might remember they now have to provide us with a fortnightly schedule of what will be happening on site- which they are yet to fill in correctly. Two weeks ago they did not get all items completed and this last week they had completed what they said they were going to. So its not terrible but if I was the builder and had given such bad services I would be saying I would get the bare minimum done each week and then  'surprising' the owner with extras. But then again, if I was the builder the house would be finished by now!
We have back roof frame and all the scaffolding is now down. The other progress items are not very interesting (laundry chute cut out, minor electric and plumbing works etc)

Things are Looking Up!

Last week we received an email from the builders stating our house would be finished mid June. So we are back on schedule! YAH!
So much for the general manager stating there was no way we would be finished on time....Jake thinks he meant that the build was meant to take 9 months, whereas the contract states 12 months (buffer of 3 months?) and that's what we always go off.
They sent us a schedule for the next three months, not much happens in March but then a lot happens in April and May.
Ceilings were done this week to the top floor. Its looking good. We noticed another error but hopefully it is easily fixed. As for this week...haven't been out yet but we did get an email saying that due to unforeseen circumstances they were not able to get us our fortnightly update on time but it should be to us on Monday.