Forgot about my blog! Here is the finished product.
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16.9.14 – Due to the rain our landscaping has been very delayed. The only things left to do are the last coat of render to retainer walls and plant boxes, the fence is going up as we speak and the turf needs to be laid. So will have some updated pics hopefully by the end of next week.
Here is a pic of the family room, its cosy and we love it.
The Landscapers have been hard at work over the last few weeks, all that is left to do is rendering of the retainer walls and garden beds, installation of new Timber Lapped and Capped fences and laying of turf to yard and council strip. Our concreter is coming back to seal the driveway once this has been completed. Then it will be our job to do all the planting in the garden beds around the side and back boundary, we have around 25 meters of plant box to fill.
Monday the 21st of July was our big day. Our home was finished 47 days ahead of schedule. SS was onsite from 7am and also had a painter onsite to finish any final paint touch ups. We had a good look over the house, went through some paperwork, signed some documents and handed him our final cheque. By 7.30 I had my landscapers onsite and furniture was delivered by lunchtime. Site fence was taken down by lunchtime and I also had an electrician come in and hang my pendant lights and external lights. Sorry for the lack of colour in these pics, something happens when I upload them. I will post more pics of the home and landscaping progress in the coming weeks. So happy with the home 🙂
Finished Home
Finished Kitchen
Landscaping underway – retainer walls to be erected and rendered, new fences, paving, plant boxes along all of back fence and courtyard and turf to come. Massive job. At this stage footing dug, formed and concrete poured and courtyard has been levelled for paving, the guys have also put in the ag drainage.
30.07.14 – landscaping update
today our driveway was poured, waiting on the council to come and grind down some tree roots, so we can lay the crossover. Retainer walls, plant boxes and courtyard underway. It’s looking good, can’t wait till it’s all done…. I am sick of the dust!
My husband and I attended this together along with a Private Inspector that we had organised for a sweet $695.00
The report came back within 24 hours and there were only a few issues that Clarendon will need to address, the Inspector did say that for a project home this is one of the better ones he had seen and it was built pretty well. (My SS was pretty chuffed to hear that)
Small Issues:
Paint touchups here and there internal and External – this will be fixed prior to handover
Bricks are leaching salt and require cleaning and sealing – SS has arranged for this
Bricks require repointing in some areas – This has now been done
Lintels need to be painted – SS said this happens with the final paint job
Window sill on Parapet is not sloping and requires sealing
Aluminium sliding door frames are bowed / loose and require securing there are also gaps in the frame which require sealing
A few grout touch ups are to be done in bathrooms
Another General clean of the site and internal is required
Marks on the edge of the face panel and are damaged and require repair (kitchen island bench)
Skirting tiles missing to back side of laundry (under stair well)
Bigger Issues:
Significant crack in the mortar over the head course of the window in the dining room – Brickwork requires re-laying to correct allingment (SS had this fixed the next day)
Brick wall overhangs the Slab / Footing and cracking is present in the concrete footing – recommend further investigation by structural engineer. (SS has made the call to have extra concrete added the the slab edge) with a 50year structural guarantee I am not to concerned… I will more than likely be dead by then.
Colourbond steel capping is not covering the top edge of the rendered Parapet wall and requires additional render and painting. (SS has arranged for this to be fixed)
Cracked brick in window sill in bedroom and requires replacing – this has been done
The wall in the stair well has a flush line on the joint and the fixing is not adequate, this requires re-setting of the joint (this is very visible)
The inspection took around 2 hours most things we had already picked up, but having the Inspector there was great as he documents it all down and I sent the important parts of the report to my SS to have fixed. Also the inspector went up into the roof space and checked it all out, something we were not going to do.
Our lovely, old home, full of character, but way to small
a sad and happy day
Clarendon come in and level our block – 22.1.14
Piering work complete – 29.1.14
Internal Drainage and Formwork – 30-31.1 14
Pods and Steel – 1.2.14
Slab -4.2.14
This is where it starts to get exciting !!!!
Second floor frame – 20.2.14
front view
side view
24.2.14 -First walk through 🙂 windows delivered
3.3.14 – after a few days rain we now have roof trusses, windows and bricks ready to go.
5.3.14 – First 20 rows of bricks laid on western side, Things are starting to take shape now. Very happy with our brick choice.
6.3.14 – eastern side and back wall bricked
7.3.14 – alfresco piers bricked
Somewhere in the last couple of days internal plumbing and gas has been installed
10.3.14 – scaffolding up!
12.03.14 – progress with brickwork
20.03.2014 – brickwork completed
24.03.2014 – Brickwork cleaned
01.04.2014 – roof tiles to top floor complete, also notice gutters and fascia
03.04.2014 – Rendering done
16.04.2014 – Progress Update
Well as of today, eaves and cladding painted and second story scaffolding has been taken down. There has been some issue with the installation so the flashing under a couple of the windows, so as you can see widows are missing and cladding not complete to the front and side of house. They better fix this up ASAP, getting annoyed here.. Our build has slowed down due to the rain and the fact that Clarendon are busy and running behind. However I am very happy with my colour selection and the painters have done a great job. Obviously Render gets done at a later date. The scaffolders have been back to erect the trusses over the alfresco and dining room, so hopefully all my tiling will be complete after Easter. Soon we will be ready for a site inspection and I am going over it with a fine tooth comb as I am not 100% happy with the brickwork.
24.04.14 – Flashing redone, windows back in, lined and ready for clad. First floor roof tiles, eaves etc underway. Alfresco roof tiles almost complete. Looks like it takes up the whole block, but we do however still have a little bit of back and side yard.
3.5.2014 – Massive progress. Today I had an onsite meeting with our site supervisor for pre lining inspection. I arrived at 8 am and the gyprock team were onsite ready to go. We went over everything to check that all was in place, and he was excellent in explaining everything to me as we went along. I am fortunate to have an excellent Site supervisor that is highly organised. I went back to the house later that afternoon and the whole place had been lined with Gyprock. I am so impressed with the workmanship and speed of the internal linings. Stairs are booked in for the 10th. Most of the scaffolding has come down and they are still to complete the cladding to the front corner of the home which will be done this week. Considering the amount of wet weather we have had, to get to gyprock stage in about 15 weeks is fantastic. They say about 10-12 weeks from Gyprock, so we are over half way, YAY!
17.05.14 – Today we went and had a sneaky look at progress, stairs are in cornice is up and temporary lock up doors are on the front of the home. Still some external paint to go on, all internal doors and architrave has been delivered. Cavity sliders have been fitted although the one on the WIP has the wrong glass in it. I have emailed my SS about this. It’s looking pretty good, bricks will need another clean as some touch ups have been done.
21.05.14 – been doing AM drivebys to see if any action is happening, I noticed a man inside doing more waterproofing to the bathrooms, and other utes have been there but can’t tell what they are doing. Stacker doors have been fitted today so we are totally locked up. I will post what I can see through windows as we progress. Tiler is supposed to be starting tomorrow, but things never happen according to our weekly phone call from our SS, but they do happen eventually. We still have not had our sewer connected but that will also happen…. Eventually! While we have been waiting on the external doors to go on, a cat has made himself at home in my theatre room and pooped all over the floor, it smells bad too! We have been told kitchen arrives on the 23rd.
23.05.14 – well, today has been a busy day at site, kitchen and bathroom vanities installed, internal doors hung yesterday, they actually put the wrong cavity slider on my WIP, a clear glass door went on when I ordered translucent. This is being changed. First coat of paint on (undercoat yesterday) front Door delivered, gas and electricity connected. Holes cut for electrical outlets. Remainder of down pipes painted. We are moving along nicely now 🙂
24.05.14 – tiles delivered ready for tomorrow appointment with tiler onsite
07.06.2014
Curtain fabric and more pics of bathrooms and bench tops, we chose round basis, as I find the square ones to shallow and I think they round ones are easier to clean, and the house has 5 basins so that was important!
21.06.14 – getting closer…
23. 06.2014 – house cleaned, bathrooms done, feature walls done… God bless my six year old daughter for choosing that hideous pink feature wall for her bedroom, we will have fun covering that up when she grows out of it. Could not grab a pic of the downstairs bathroom as there was a tradie working away.
2.07.14 – PCI day – place is a bit messy again but will be cleaned again after touch ups have been done
Exterior
We are going with almost the same colours as the Ivy 32 @ Jordan Springs minus the timber window frames. Lets see how it turns out.
Brick Selection – Austral Symmetry Earth
Roof Tile – Boral Contour Walnut
Cladding – Taubmans Coach House
Rendered feature (parapet) – Taubmans Leatherwood
Gutters and Downpipes – Colourbond Jasper
Windows and Fascia – Surfmist
Garage Door and Front Door
Front Porch Tile
Internal Colour Selections…
As you will notice I am heavily into the neutral colours and browns, I plan on brightening the home up with different colour accents throughout.
Internal Wall Colour – Taubmans Ageless
Kitchen and Bathroom Cabinetry – Polytec Leather Matt
Kitchen Splashback – Parklane light grey 300x600mm with Haviana grout, taking the tiles all the way up behind the range hood. The original splashback tile I chose was discontinued, I think the was a blessing, as it may have been the wrong choice 🙂
Accessories I have purchased for my new kitchen
Pendant lights for over island and island bar stools
Kitchen and Powder room benchtops – Quantum Quartz Reflections
Main Bathroom and Ensuite benchtops – Quantam Quartz Luna White (Differencce between the two, Reflections has more sparkles in the stone and is a creamier white)
Main Floor Tile – Bould Cashew 45x45cm + Bottom two timber steps of staircase
Tile Selections, as you can see I love my neutrals
Carpets and Stairs
Upstairs Carpet light colour, Carpet study and Theater room black colour + bottom two steps of staircase Dark stained Timber
Feature Walls
Meals Room
Taubmans Black Fox – Feature Wall to Theatre room
Taubmans Manhattan – Feature wall to Meals
Taubmans Coach House – Feature wall to Master Bedroom
Taubmans Pressden Lass – Feature wall to Bedroom 2 (my 6 year old daughters room…. and yes this is the colour she choose)
And I think that all of the above will go beautifully with the bass wood plantation shutters I have ordered.