Monday 5 September 2011

Got the keys

Hey guys!

YES!!! YES!! ! YES!!! We have got the key finally.  It has been such a long wait to be finally holding the keys to the house.  I'm not going to update with photo as it looks very much the same as the image from my last post.  Metricon still need to come in to change the front door since the carpenter could not get the front doors down as his builder's key doesn't work anymore.  There are also a few handles that is still to come in. 
Update for progess so far.
  • Tilers has started tiling last Tuesday and should finish grouting tomorrow.
  • Rendering starts today and should finish end of the week.
  • Painter will start next week with exterior finish.  
  • Landscape designer has finished the draft for our landscape design and I will be meeting up with him maybe tomorrow to sign off on design.  I'm aiming for hard landscape to start soon so at least we can get the driveway in so we don't dirty the house anymore. 
  • Had a long meeting with interior designer yesterday afternoon with draft design which look very promising.
  • Most of the major furniture has been ordered from furniture store.  Most of the furniture will be arriving around Nov-Dec so we are aiming to move in before Christmas.  
  • Need to arrange time for window covering appointment
There is so much things to do after handover.  It is very full on.  We also went to the Courier Mail home show last Friday and  found quite a few nice ideas to incorporate into our house.  So more things to think about....

Friday 19 August 2011

Handover booked!

Hey guys

I have been quite busy recently juggling between work and building so haven't got a chance to update as much as I would like.  First of all, handover is booked for 26th of Aug!!!! We went through practical completion walkthrough last Friday and pick out a few other things that might need attension. 

Metricon has actually stuff up our order for the front door handle so instead of square, it was round.  Luckily, our SS said that he was planing to get a new front door due to cracks on the timber so he will just order a new handle to go with it.  I was originally quite worried coz the mount on the round handle was different to the square one we order so Metricon would not have been able to fit the proper handle if they did not replace door.  There were also quite a few other internal Corinthian doors that need replacing due to dents and cracks plus some paint repair, plastering work and faulty light switch.  We ended up with a list of 10-15 minor fixes after the walkthrough which our SS will endervor to fix before next Friday.

Another major problem was the shower screen in the main ensuite.  We originally wanted a single piece of full height glass instead of the frame-less shower screen as some of u might have seen on the display.  No one ever told us that there would be a problem with the glass cutting into the cornices where the wall and ceiling meet so it really look untidy when we saw the full height glass cutting into the cornices.  After going back to through the paperwork, our contract actually state that the glass is to be 2300 height so Metricon was happy to replace the glass to a lower height of 2300 which then will not cut into cornices. 

 Bedroom1







 Ensuite 1


Kitchen and Dining


Garage
 This is all the picture that I have on my phone.  Will take more and better photo on Friday!





Saturday 23 July 2011

Electrical and Plumbing almost done

Hey guys!

Sneaked into the house on Thursday nite while electrician was still hooking up the home network system.  It seems that we are now very close to finishing.  Some of the mirrors have gone in and basins has also gone in.  One thing to report is that Metricon was not able to install the full length mirror in our ensuite therefore we ended up having 2 piece together.  I think we gona have to tell them to take the extra side piece off as our mirror is bevelled edge so it actually highlight where the mirror joins together and does not look that good.  So I think we need to have a chat to SS regarding what we can do.

Work booked for next week
Windows gets service
Locks get fitted
House get cleaned out
Carpet goes in at end of the week

Here are some of the pics.  SO EXCITING!!!!







Tuesday 19 July 2011

Electrical fit out started

Sneaked in to the house today to see work started for electrical fit out.  Painter still has not finished his work yet but I think he has finished the areas next to the light switches so painting will not delay fit off today.  We will see how the colour come out later. 

Here are the pics of the basin and electrical and light switches ready to be fitted

Last cabinets finished (back of the under sink bench)
Ensuite 1 - Mirror still hasn't gone in yet.

Ensuite 2
Ensuite 3
Our roof tiles on top of the outdoor room
External Wall Tiles on Front Portico Peirs  nearly done (taken from Balcony)




Matrix Cladding on the side of the house
Light and Power Switches


Wednesday 13 July 2011

Painting almost done...

Got off the phone with SS.  Pantry door has been changed over.  We were very lucky that 820mm is a more common size so there was stock available.  Painter should finish by end of this week.  Tiler should also finish the external tiles to front of house this week.  Next Tuesday, the electrical, plumbing, air con fitting goes in and should finish the week after.  Carpet will go in after fitting after house is cleaned up. 

There was also discussion this week regarding the long mirror to main ensuite.  Apparently it is very hard to get the long mirror as per display in Melbourne Whittaker display (see below).  Originally, we had to consider 2 mirror that join up in the middle to get the length we needed.  SS was happy today to report that he did manage get the supplier to provide for us one piece of mirror that goes all the way which will be much thicker mirror than what was going in before.  The main problem now is getting that mirror upstairs into the ensuite.  SS is worry that they won't be able to get the mirror up through the L shape stairway so he will actually as the supplier to bring the 2 piece mirror together with deliver in case they cant get the long one in.  Fingers cross that they can get it in.
So all goes well, QA will do a walk through early August and we should see house handover around the guarantee built date,  possibly before. 

Friday 8 July 2011

Recent work and Problems (venting)

Hi all

Sorry haven’t been updating as much as before due to commitment at work recently.  Our SS has been making great progress at the house the last few weeks.  So far this is what has been happening at the house. 

Tiles of the wet area has been finished
QA has been through the house and noted repairs through out the house in plastering
Painter started work on upstairs area and will continue to next week for downstairs
Exterior wall tiles has started
Cabinet 90% completed
Garage Door up







 

Again despite the great progress, several issues have come up after our walkthrough last week.
Pantry door has for some weird reason became 620 instead of 820.  We have our Customer coordinator to thank for that stupid mistake so don't get me started how disappointed we were at our whole experience in pre-construction paperwork.  Originally, we asked for all of the internal WIN21 doors to be downgraded to clear glass from translucent glass but our coordinator has also change the door to 620 by mistake when she amended the contract.  Lucky Metricon was happy to rectify the problem without cost as we were able to proof that the request was for changing glass type and not width.  Credit to our SS and Metricon for allowing that change without cost to us as we have actually miss that mistake ourselves too and have sign off on it. 
2ndly, the opening to robe in Bed 1 and 2 was not upgraded to 2.4m which we missed in colour.  I remember discussing during colour appointment regarding upgrading all of the opening to higher height.   As we later realise, all of the doors upstairs was upgraded but robe opening was missed.  So we will be up for the administration cost of $1000 on top of the cost to change plus builders’ margin not to mention loosing the guarantee built time.  We decided that we are going to leave it as is and consider renovating it after hand over.  Yes... renovating a new house :(  The cost to get Metricon to fix will most likely be much more than us doing it ourselves after handover due to administration cost and plus I don’t want to lose another 4-6 weeks of time.  We will decide what we want to do when handover to see if we want to leave it or change it.
3rdly, the height overhead cupboard was much more higher than expected.  During colour, we showed our consultant a photo of the Whittaker kitchen in Melbourne which we took ourselves.  The rough drawing at the time was correct but when the final construction drawing was drawn differently to original plan.  Anyway, the cupboard is now at 720 height where we wanted 520 height.  I guess we now have extra storage space so no big deal I guess.  It only that it looks different to what we wanted so we can live with that.
Lastly, it was regarding the tile selection for en-suite 2 and 3.  The whole tile experience was a disaster all together during pre-construction.  I will stop here before I start writing an essay regarding all the frustrating experience that Vicky and I had at tiles.  I think Metricon should have left tile to the specialist at Beaumont tiles like before or Metricon should just have the appointment at National tile.  There would be more selections, more professional recommendation and better design ideas to choice from at a proper tile retails at the end of the day. 
My recommendation out of all this, never think Metricon know what they are doing in design and colour.  Seriously when you think about it, Metricon has spend so much money doing up their displays to near perfection using their best people to achieve high class look.  At the end of the day, those people that design the house are not the people that u get assigned to during your appointment.  You have to know what you r doing and what you are looking for when you are customising your house.  There is such a big difference between the house u see at display and standard house you get at the end of the day so ultimately, u will miss thing here and there.  And when you realise that the mistake has been made, they slap u ass with a big administration fee before they tell you how much that it will cost to fix problem, whether or not u want to go ahead, not to mention loosing your guarantee built time. 
I’m happy to pay more to get a house that is identical to the display but when u have to constantly fight your way through changing everything since the standard house is so different to what a display has, it is so frustrating to find out later that you have miss some items.  No one in the whole office in QLD knows what is standard and what is an upgrade in our house.  Most of them never seen a Whittaker design before so how on earth are they suppose to help u build your house when they don’t know what they are talking about. 


Friday 17 June 2011

Tile Work

Had a quick meeting with tiler this morning.  They will be working till next week to get the tiles in the wet areas sorted.  Tiles was delivered on Wednesday apparently and its looks great.  Can't wait for it to be layed.