July | 2013 | Paul and Jody

It seems like the house has almost been at a standstill for a few weeks even though I know it hasn’t really. Because we are now nearing the end of the build, the inside work takes a fair bit longer to complete. The plasterer’s have now completed the cornice in the wet areas and done the prep work prior to the painter coming in. The painter has painted the inside, and put a coat of stain on the timber slats for the screen behind the stairs and that is now being reconstructed. The painter is due back next week to complete the painting inside, adding the gloss coat to the skirting and architraves and doors etc, and finish the staining of the stairs, front door, balcony posts and screen behind the stairs, then complete the painting on the exterior (which I am still hanging out to see!).

I must say I am truly amazed that they are painting (especially with white!) inside while there is still red dust and dirt inside the house!?! David just said it will get a sweep out before the tiler does the main floor but no actual cleaning will take place until pretty much the completion! David has advised that the painting should be complete next week and then the plumber and electrician will come back to do fit offs and door handles, bathroom accessories, mirrors and robe doors will get fitted also etc. Then the tiler will return to tile the main floor for us, and a “builder’s clean will be done” at that stage which is approx. 4 hrs by a team of professionals. Defects from a Q&A inspection will be rectified and then the “new home/display home standard” clean will be done and appliances fitted just prior to practical completion. Then we are to allow 5-10 working days for any “touch ups” that were found during the final inspection before handover will take place. I just hope Metricon have good cleaners as I do not want to see one spec of red dust inside that house!

Apart from that, just waiting for the back glass door in garage to be fixed up externally with the bricks, (which should happen next week sometime), the oven tower to be completed and the front door striker plate to be re-made and fixed up.

David said 6 weeks till practical completion and then allowing 2 further weeks for touch ups before handover. It’s getting closer!…

Well, it’s been a while since my last post announcing the starting of the tiling . The tiling of the wet areas was completed Thursday last week and looks fantastic. We ended up deciding on getting the grout sealed so we paid the tiler direct to seal the grout for us on Friday. We are hoping it might stop any red dirt that may end up inside from staining the grout too badly. Fingers crossed that the wet area tiling is safe now and tradies are requested to remove their shoes when walking on the floors of those rooms! The main floor tiling will be one of the last things to get done.

In the meantime, we have had our back roller garage door installed and discovered another error when I was asking when our back garage door (aluminium and glass door) would be fitted. That was a bit of a surprise to David as it had not been ordered and had been overlooked! David of course immediately made a phone call to have the door ordered. Unfortunately he also found out that the door we requested was wider and a bit taller than the other door! So the surrounding bricks and whole door frame had to be removed to fit it. I would say someone didn’t read the plan/contract properly and didn’t allow for the door we chose and instead accommodated only the standard door! – Oopps! We are currently just waiting for the bricking to be fixed up hopefully by the end of this week. I hope it will look ok!

Also early last week our bench tops arrived and were installed (all except the kitchen island bench, which seemed as though the cabinetry wasn’t square, so that needs to be fixed up also). We noticed a couple of chips on the edges which had already been marked for fixing also. The other bench tops all look great and the sinks were all put in too with the exception of the kitchen and butler’s pantry sinks.

The front portico ceiling has now been plastered and a few touch ups now being done this week inside the house in preparation for painting which should start early next week. I can’t wait for the outside to be completed to see the overall look of the external façade and also see the inside get it’s first coat! The mirrors and robes were measured last week also so they won’t be far away from being fitted either. Other than that the progress has slowed down as a few fix up jobs are being rectified and the main job of painting will be started next week. But overall nothing really that exciting.

Anyway the biggest news is that we have an anticipated completion date – well sort of. David estimated it would be about 6-7 weeks until practical completion and 8-9 weeks till handover. So that should mean we can hopefully move in around mid September! Whoo Hoo!

Here are some photos of the updated progress.