Heading toward PCI

Wow, it's been over a month since my last update but this time that's not due to a lack of activity at the build, I've just not kept up with keeping the blog updated.

About a week after the stone went in, the tilers returned to commence tiling downstairs. This meant the guest ensuite, the powder, kitchen and scullery splashbacks as well as the vast majority of the ground floor and alfresco. They also had to do the upstairs kitchenette splashback. The team doing the tiling was Ross, Chris and Jordan from Causerano Tiling. I honestly couldn't be happier with them, they take great pride in their work, ensuring everything is clean, straight as a die and level. They actually screeded the entire ground floor (and alfresco) before setting the main flooring tiles to ensure a perfectly level finish.

The tiling crew worked away for around three solid weeks, finishing mid September. The finished product looks so good, especially the main floor. At one point, they were at the build on a Saturday and we happened to drop past and they let Josh and Imogen help with the grouting to the kitchen splashback. The kids were very excited to be able to say they helped.

We have also had other bits and pieces of finishing work happen around the site. First we had the temporary front door replaced with our final front door selection, which is an oversized wooden door with horizon glass windows. The bar area cabinetry was installed, balcony balustrading installed, various electrical bits and pieces finished off, all the toilets, sinks, showers, etc fitted off and connected, now all fully operational and the rendering team return to render the entire downstairs area. It's really starting to look like the finish line is getting close now.

As the finish line is approaching, that also means we've needed to get ourselves into gear and think about everything we need to do after handover. So we've been busy working with Lifestyle Wardrobes on all our bedroom robe designs, TV units, study fit out cabinetry, mud room cabinetry and games rooms cabinetry. We've also purchased a new King size bed and mattress as our housewarming gift to ourselves, re-engaged the landscaping team that did up our initial design to get a quote for build works, appointed a building inspector, signed up for carpets and bought a rug for the master bedroom.

Finally, in the most exciting news yet, we have a date for PCI! It's booked for 8am, Friday October 18th, just over three weeks time from typing this. Two weeks after that and we should have keys (somewhere around Nov 1st).

Stone!

I wouldn't normally put in a same day back to back update but it's not everyday your STONE arrives! Love it!! Pics pics pics!

Exciting progress

Let me start by apologising for the delay in update. After a month of unexciting progress, it's nice to be writing again with a more exciting update 😀

About a week after my last update, a large truck showed up with a team of people to install our kitchen, scullery and laundry cabinetry. This is a significant step toward finishing and the first time we're really seeing all our colour selections come to life. It was also really cool to find little things we didn't know we were getting, like a little drawer over our bin to keep bin bags, etc. We also discovered the rangehood was already installed, along with the underbench strip lighting.

The following week, the electrical team showed up and starting fitting off our light switches and power points and installing our downlights throughout the house. We also saw deliveries of all our internal doors, skirting boards, shelving and other finishing items for the carpenter. The tiles for the downstairs bathrooms, laundry and main floor tile were also delivered.

This week, the finishing carpenter started, hanging all the doors and building the shelving in our linen cupboards. The cabinet makers are also back today putting in cabinetry to our bar area. Really pleased to see some fairly consistent progress.

Outside of the Stannard part of the build, we've also been busy getting quotes for finishing trades and have decided on Curtainworld for our shutters and curtains and HCM Concrete for our driveway, porch, house surrounds and pool apron aggregate. We're hoping to nail down our preferred vendor for robes and finishing cabinets soon. Starting to really come together now!

Unexciting progress

Again, I find myself a month after my last blog update with not a whole lot to really write about. Don't get me wrong, we've had pockets of progress but not exactly the stuff that makes good reading (not that I'm convinced any of my previous content does).

The tilers worked away for about 10 days on the upstairs bathrooms and balcony tiling and finished working up their around the 28th of June. From their, they tidied up, moved their stuff downstairs and then set about cleaning up the ground floor slab ready for pouring of a screed to all areas where the ground floor main tiling is occuring, as well as the laundry, guest ensuite and powder. 

On 1st of July they returned to pour the screed, taking two to three days to screen all the areas to be tiled. A necessary step toward completion but not exactly a shout from the rafters update. Perahps something a little more tangible in terms of progress came about 10 days later when they poured our garage floor grano and then another two days later again when they returned to pour the grano for the alfresco and my pool equipment room.

On Tuesday this week we saw the first load of our kitchen and laundry cabintry dropped off on site. Nothing was installed, they literally dropped it off and then left again. According to our fortnightly update, they should be back toward the end of the week to start installation. What the update didn't say is that the painters would be returning to apply the first two coats to the inside downstairs. On my usual cruise past the block on my way to work this morning, I found the painters on site cracking in. A pleasant surprise to be sure.

So that's it, this update is literally about watching concrete and paint dry. Unexciting, but progress.

Tiling

It's been nearly a month since my last update and that's because after the absolute flurry of activity in the lead up to lock up, things have come off the boil a little bit. The main activity going on at the block is tiling of our upstairs wet areas. The tilers have been a bit on and off, showing up one day, but not the next, for the last couple of weeks but they are getting through it.

Our ensuite is full height tiling with all mitred joins so that's taking a while but it's starting to come together and we're really happy with how it's looking thus far. The floor is done, as is the shower and the feature wall that will go behind the free standing bath. Work continues on the walls this week. The kids bathroom also has the floor tiling complete and the balcony tiling has also commenced. 

About a week ago we had a meeting with Paul, our site supervisor, just to talk through a few things and get a bit of a rough idea about timing. We need to start to organise our finishing trades, such as flooring, window treatments, wardrobe fitout, aggregate, etc. Paul said that he's hoping to be finished in September, which would be great, as it gives us Oct, Nov & early December to try and get everything else done before the industry stops for Christmas. We've started to get quotes for these items and will continue to meet people on site over the coming weeks to try and land preferred suppliers.

So if we're aiming for finish in September (let's call it end of September), then we're only a little over three months away now from getting our keys! Starting to feel real 😀

Lock Up!

We made it to lock up! 😀😀😀

Today we saw the installation of our beautiful big sliding stacker door to our kitchen area leading out to the alfresco. This was the final piece of the puzzle to officially deem the house locked up. Pretty sure the tradies were still on site finishing it off when the progress claim from Stannard came through too!

I've previously mentioned that the door itself is a commercial stacker which has its own in-built sump drain. This allows it to be installed at the same level as the flooring, giving a dead flat look rather than a step down/up/over between the inside and outside floor levels. This was something we always wanted and spent a bit (lot) of money to achieve. As a result, it wasn't simply a drop in job. Prior to the door arriving on site we had people attend to cut a channel into the slab (one was already partially there when the slab was poured but needed to be bigger), the plumber come and provision some pipework to sit under the sump drain and a labourer crew come to brick in the plumbing and form a base for the door to sit on. This all happened in the few days leading up to the door arriving.

We also had the tiling team back to make a start on our upstairs bathrooms, which was very exciting. As of today, they had tiled the floor to the kids bathroom and had laid out the first two rows of tiling to our master ensuite. We're expecting them back next week to continue. Here's hoping the run of trades we've had recently continues so that we can now push through to completion.

Approaching lock up

It's been a month since my last blog update and as usual, there have been periods of lull and periods of really good activity.

The first week or so since my last update not a whole lot happened at the build, although we did see the first of our stone benchtops installed into the master ensuite, kids bathroom and kids powder, along with some basins. You may recall we changed our mind on our benchtops quite a long time after our initial selections and we're really happy we made the switch. The new benchtops are lovely. There was also some framing down to the ground floor roof where we are having bulkheads, soffits and coffered ceilings.

We also made a post-build decision and have appointed Art of Timber as our preferred supplier for the suply and installation of our timber flooring that will go up the staircase, across the landing, down the upstairs hallways and insto the master bedroom and walk in robe. We've chosen a wide board blackbutt in a brushed matte finish. Can't wait to see it.

Early May saw the arrival of our bathroom tiles, which was a little earlier than expected but a pleasant surprise. The rendering team also arrived back to start the cement render inside and outside of the ground floor. They have been on site pretty much every working day for the last two weeks. They completed all the cement render and then started into the final plaster coat. In between the two coats, the glazier was out to install all the downstairs glass.

Two days ago we saw the installation of two temporary doors, one at the front and one between the garage and the mudroom. These were actually locked for the first time yesterday in the first real sign of lock up. Yesterday we also had an on-site meeting with the tiler who talked us through his plan to lay out the tiles for our upstairs bathrooms. He will get started in earnest in the next few weeks. Finally, today, the ceiling fixer team in on site to install all the gyprock sheeting to our ground floor areas. A labourer team was also on site cutting a channel into our slab for the sliding door to the alfresco. It's a commercial stacking door and has an in-built sump drain so that it can sit flush with the flooring. We also need a plumber to come out and plumb this drain and also some more brickwork to be done before that door can be installed. Once it's in, we'll officially be a lock up!