SNEAK PEAK

Here's a sneak peak ;p its coming together...

We're IN!!!!

Sorry I haven't blogged for a while. We have been so busy with the move..yes!!! we have finally moved in! officially on the 30th April 2010! There's still alot of things to do:

1. Some painting
2. Waiting for the cabinet makers to adjust the drawers in the kitchen
3. Paving
4. Landscaping - front and back
5. Splashback for kitchen
6. UNPACKING

The electrician came in last weekend to get some lights fitted in. There's still more to do. He'll be back mid May. We are loving the lights in the house! :)) It just feels good to finally move in! Will post some pictures soon ;p once i get the clutter out of the way!

Stress ! Please let it be over soon!

Shower screen

Our outcome from the meeting with the shower screen supplier was not good. Basically, the builder asked him to come over to confirm that the screen provided is a semi-frameless shower screen. Well..fact is..we know that! we know that they have 2 types of semi-framless. our argument is, why did they provide us the current semi-frameless when the amount we paid and what is drawn up in the plan refers to the other semi-frameless. The problem is during pre-start the pre-start lady did not show us the shower screen we were going to get. We assumed that all semi-frameless look the same and based on the drawings we signed off. We feel ripped off with the semi-frameless we got because the only area where there is no frame is the right and left side of the door. We might as well have taken the fully framed!!! But the supplier did tell us that the other semi-frameless was just added into their range about 5 months ago. We had our pre-start ages ago. So basically, we have no case. :(

Mainbath tiling

On Saturday, we had to attend to a couple of things. I had to clean up the current house because the owners were bringing new potential tenants to view the house. The house is generally clean but there still was some clutter here and there. My hubby had to go to bunnings to buy the paint for the home theatre. Then we had to go to Malaga to get more 600x600 because it was not enough. So basically we were rushing for time. After we had completed everything and returned to the house, we had a look at the main bath and there were 2 colours of the floor tile laid!!!! 2 variations! oh god! I asked the tiler why did he lay it and not call us???? he said we mentioned last night that it was fine. You see what happened was.... the day before, the tiler mentioned to us that the tiles might be different. I looked at it and said it looks the same but i cant really see cause its dark. The tiler took it as yes looks the same and laid it. :( So yesterday i had to go get more tiles and thankfully he was able to pull out the tiles with the different colour easily as it wasn't completely dry yet. Oh my goodness! I just cant wait for all this to be over and done with!

Bobcat

We need to pour aggregate and we have been trying to catch a bobcat for sometime now. We have had 3 bobcats who said yup they will do it but never showed up. :( We are getting closer to moving in and we dont have a driveway yet! :(we kinda stressing about this now. we managed to get a number of a good friend and we are gonna try and get him to do it today! hopefully. The removalists will be coming on the 29th ! tick tok tick tok! aarghhhhh! breathe breathe!

D' Tile Dilema is over

Last Friday, we rushed back to the after work to see if we can catch the tiler on site. His name is Richard and he is a great bloke. I would recommend anyone to use him as his work is really good. On top of that, he actually explains to you or presents his idea on how he will be placing the tiles. The sad part is he was the one who was suppose to have tiled our bathrooms but he was away in China for Chinese new year. He just got back. So its just bad luck that we had to have that woman tile our bathrooms and screw it up. :( He gave us his honest opinion about the mainbath and laundry....which was not good. Basically the floor is not level. We asked him to rip it out and re-do the tiling. We could have gone to the BRB first but all this is getting to us. We just want to move in!!
We have a meeting with the shower screen supplier tomorrow. If the outcome is not good, we will take that to the BRB. They have given us false information and not sufficient information about the shower screen we were given. Initially we thought of just buying a new one and replacing it but looking at the amount all this is costing us....we will go to the BRB and see if anything can be done.

The tiler is nearly done with the ensuite. We have asked him to tile all the way to the top. :) its looking really nice. Also he has started with the living and it should be completed latest Monday. :)) Yippee.... we will be having some prayers in the house tomorrow. My mother-in law has been so helpful to us during this time.... i havent had to lift a finger in the kitchen! Its so nice having family down. When my dad was here on 'holiday', we had it easy...he took care of everything for us.... we had no probs with the construction of the house... but when he went home...we started having issues :( anyways..everything is good and coming together.... hopefully next time i will have pics to post! :)

Its all coming together now!

I know i havent blogged in a long time... we have been so busy with the house. Painting, and coordinating tradies to complete some work. YES! I said PAINTING!!! Finally! We received our keys on the 31st of March and we have been painting ever since! Thanks to some of our friends who dropped by to lend a hand, we managed to complete quite abit ... but there's still alot to go. :( Latest updates are.... the ensuite tiles are being done again! amazing isnt it? i thought that would be it...but they are ripping it out again... and they will be changing our kitchen cabinet, to ensure that the pot drawer is the correct size as well :) I am so happy. Hopefully they do it right this time around.... I will post pics once we have completed painting :) Cheers!

Again

Well a few things has happened since I last blogged. Miraculously my senior site supervisor asked the tiler to rip out the tiles ! we told him to please make sure that it is done at 2mm +-0.25 mm variance this time. He said she will follow the wall tiles. Fine. but guess what? its the same thing AGAIN. So really there's no point, I'll be going straight to the builders registration board. There are a few other things we are not happy with. the linen cupboard doors are crooked, the shower screen seem to be framed instead of semi-frameless and the island bench seems to have been placed crooked as well. pfffff! we will just need to deal with it one at a time.

The main bath tiling is not great either. I wanted the lipping to be fixed but nothing has been done. Well we will wait for PCI. Make our complaints to the builder, then complain to the builders registration board. Whatever it is, the workmanship should be acceptable, and it is not.

Cleaned!

I stopped by at the house yesterday and the house has been cleaned! Windows are all sparkling! i can see that the protective sheets have been removed from the bench top in the laundry and the kitchen bench top too! I will be calling the Customer Liaison Officer to check the status at 9am!

Tiles Dilema continues...

I had my meeting with the senior site supervisor on Thursday. He said he will be getting the tiler to replace the tiles which have bad liping but otherwise he is not going to re-do the floor! I asked him why? he said they is no set rule saying that the laying has to be 2mm apart. I told him "You told me that the tiles are laid the same in the display homes. I went to the display homes and it is not the same. The display homes are laid closely". He replies me saying he did not say that! "but you did!" he said no. How do I argue? He said even though the gap is bigger, it is consistent!
He said there maybe a variance of 0.25mm.I took out my measuring tape. I told him, "look at this! This gap is 5mm and this is 3.5mm! thats 1.5mm! I told him you have to agree that she did a crap job! he said "i do not agree". So then i started pointing out things. and everything i pointed at he said "she will fix it"... if she was such an experience tiler and done such a great job..why would anything need fixing?? arghhhhhhhhhhhh! He then said "all i can say is we are not re-doing the tiles. If you are not happy you can bring it to the builders registration board, but they probably tell you the same thing"

All I can say is .....BRING IT ON! All we can do is try. If the builders registration board is blind as well...then what can we do? :( Since we are tiling up to the top later, the floor tiles should line up with the wall. She has done the wall ones in the shower closely and the floor ones further apart..it so frustrating but hey what can we do?

Kitchen again but good news...

When my kitchen cupboard was delivered, I mentioned to my husband that I found the pot drawer below the oven really small. I did not think it would be that small. I definitely cant put a pot in it. Finally, I thought, I'll just have to make do. Maybe I can put some plasticware or something in there?

Yesterday, we took a drive down to one of our builders display homes. We stared at the oven, thinking why didnt they do that for us? Basically their oven reaches right up to the kitchen bench and the drawer below is bigger in size. Our cupboard has a panel between the kitchen bench and the oven. Basically, wasted space! We got into the car feeling annoyed. My husband started the car, then said 'hey, take the plans out'. So I stretched behind and grabbed the plans from the back seat. He asked me to check the layout of the cupboard ifor the oven n the plans... and guess what??? they made a mistake!!wooohoooooooooooooo! score! so I will getting them to change that during PCI. :))) yaaaay! I now have a 'pot' drawer! It still won't be as big as I thought....but hey its bigger!

The oven should be right to the top...making the drawer bigger:)

Electrician was on site ;p

Okay the electrician came in today and completed all his work. light fittings, powerpoints and one exhaust fan was fitted. Here are some pics...

Switches at the front entrance...

The power point and telephone point dont seem to line up quite right... but thats ok;p

Oven fitted :)

Outdoor powerpoint - too high? we tried changing it when we first saw it..but :(

Light fitted after entry foyer - will be changed to downlights

Light fitted in kitchen - will be changed to downlights

Garage light fitted :) - will be changed to 'updown' light

Exhaust fan in ensuite - we bought a stainless steel one....the one we bought might be small. :(

Tile Expedition ;p

Well we had a meeting with the SS on Friday, and he told us he will fix the tiles in the ensuite where there is bad lipping. but I told him i am still not happy about the distance between the tiles. Rectified tiles are meant to be laid close together .... mimimum they can do is 1.5mm. That would be great but i dont mind 2mm even! Our wall tiles, she has done it at 2.5mm and the floor it varies between 4mm and 6mm! According to the SS, he said the tiles have to be far apart because of the drainage. I thought to myself noway..cant be. Then he said all our display homes have big tiles and they are far apart! ahahhh! soo ..todayyy i went to one of their display homes. Guess what? the floor tiles are about 2mm distance! I took some shots. Then I tried calling the SS but he didnt answer....anyways its Saturday. He probably is not working on the weekends ;p Got carried away ;p Well I sent him an sms and told him that i looked at the display home and there are 2mm apart all over the floor. so i want everything redone to 2mm. If the tiler is not able to do this, please find another tiler. Also someone who knows how to mitre tiles. You see we wanted our tiles mitred and asked her to do it. She turned around and told us that we have to order the tiles mitred. Apparently thats a load of crap! Tilers mitre the tiles, its just that it takes time. So now because she 'lied' we have unmitred tiles and it doesnt look good. Anyways hopefully they do something about that. Maybe i should make a big deal about it. Anyways my senior site supervisor has been pretty good, so i expect him to replace it for us.

My ensuite Wall Tile - abt 2.5mm

My floor tiles - abt 6mm. The wall and floor tiles are exactly the same size so the gap should be the same!

Display home ensuite tile 300x300 non rectified - abt 2mm

The display home floor rectified tile 300x300 - 2mm. Even smaller than my wall tile gap.

Friday Activities ;p

Well here are some pics of activities which happened yesterday! They have done the soak well connections, fitted the cooktop, taps to all bathrooms, toilet bowls fitted, door handles fitted! Kitchen mixer tap fitted! We now have water supply!!! wooohooo!

It's now GO! GO! GO!

OMG! I have to start packing!!! Looks like we will be getting the keys a month earlier than expected! wow! and arghhhhhh! We have to start rushing to get everything sorted now. We have most of the items delivered and installed in the house already. Had a bit of a hiccup with the gas connection. I needed to create a new account with Alinta gas. Since I only manage to get that sorted on Thursday 4/2/2010, they said i will get connection on the 4/3/2010. However if the house gets completed earlier, then we can request for the gas connection to be done in a hurry. ;p exciting!!! So next tuesday I will give them a call and tell them the house will be ready in one week!!!! ahhhhh! so many things to do! I have to pack so many things! should have listened to mom and got some done when she was here! :( Anyways thats ok. :)

Here is the frontage of our new home! luuvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv it!!!! both of us just love it!!!!

Other Updates

We received our Linen Sliding doors and the downpipes for the front of the house has been fitted. Also I have posted a pic of the laundry ;p

downpipes...

Linen cupboard...

Laundry....

The Kitchen Dilema

The kitchen :) Where the Heart is. :) We will be having a red metallic splash back for the kitchen and lights under the overhead cupboards. Also we will be changing our doors to Polytec ones at a later stage. I like the glossy look ;p The builder wanted $6800 for that! so we thought we better wait and have them ordered separately and fitted in. That should save us heaps!

The corian bench is not what we thought we had asked for. We looked through the design and realised its our fault that we did not pick up 2 different terms being used for 2 ends of the island bench. We wanted a waterfall edge on 2 sides of the bench. instead the gave us one side 'corian slab' and another 'corian back'. Seems unfair how are we suppose to know the 'terms' used? We told our sales guy we wanted a waterfall drop. But hey how can we prove that? theres nothing but the design to look at :( but no worries! we will be getting someone to come in pull out the corian back and join it with the bench top to give us the waterfall look we are after! No point stressing too much. Just extra costs :(

One sided waterfall edge (Corian slab)

Love my tiles but not laid evenly??

It was so disappointing to see my beautiful tiles not laid the way we were expecting it to be laid. Its not even. even the grout distance is shocking to me. I was so excited about it but here it is! We have a meeting with the SS on Friday, hopefully we can highlight this and they might do something for us. he said that she is an experienced tiler but looking at the work...am not too sure. The main bath was done really nicely and you cant really notice because its 200x200 ceramic tiles. but with the 300x300 in the ensuite, an experienced tiler should have been called. here are the pics, you can clearly see that it is not even. I am not sure if i could hurt myself as the corners are sharp. Am I asking for too much?? When I had my meeting with the tiler, I asked her to mitre the tiles and she said no, she can't do it and that we have to order the tiles mitred. So i thought fine. But then everyone I speak to says thats crap and she should have the tools to mitre the tiles :( Anyways lesson learnt, i need to make sure this is all documented during pre-start!

see the tile ? this can be found in a few places...

Isn't the distance between the tile too far? Even the distance between the grout and tile for all sides are different...did she use a spacer? am not too sure?

I paid extra labour cost because it is more difficult to lay porcealin.....

Crooked .....

We've got tiles!!!

We had a meeting with the tiler on Thursday morning to explain the design we wanted for the ensuite and the main bath. Everything went well. On Thursday evening we had a look at her work and we were happy. :) however on Friday, she had done the hob for the ensuite shower and it doesnt seem right? the hob seems to be tilted. Not sure if this is suppose to be but it doesn't look right. Not too happy about it. The tiles for the main bath turned out great! :)) Here are some photos.

Ensuite Vanity ;p


Ensuite - Left side shower


The hob... it doesn't look right..?


Ensuite


Main bath vanity ;p


Main Bath - Shower ;p


Main bath- shower



Main bath - bathtub :)

It's delivered!!! Part2

Living area...

Vanity top delivered!

Vanity cupboards delivered!

Bathtub delivered!

Towel rails....

Sinks delivered!

Linen shelves fitted!

Laundry Sink delivered!

Kitchen cupboards delivered!