Carpets and concrete

I had this really well thought out, perfectly spaced timeline of how we were going to get all our finishing trades through the house before Christmas so that we could move in and have our first Christmas in our new house. They really were the best laid plans.

My plan somewhat went out of the window when handover didn't occur on Nov 1st but managed to keep on schedule with the wood flooring able to access the house via the builders key. Next step was the aggregate. We are using HCM concrete and the boys were out on Friday the 8th and Saturday the 9th forming up the area around the back and sides of house and around the pool. The plan was to have the pour on Tuesday 12th of November with a colour called "Mont Blanc" from Geostone (Holcim).

Unfortunately on Monday the 11th, HCM got informed that Holcim were having issues with the quarry crusher and couldn't supply anything until after the Christmas break. This was a massive spanner in my plans and basically i cancelled the moving truck service, due in a few weeks time, upon receiving this news. This news basically lost us the house for Christmas, as we wanted to wait for the colour we wanted rather than swap to one we didn't.

But I still had other dominos in the chain waiting to fall, so we pushed ahead with carpet install, which was due to occur Monday 18th, but slipped to Tuesday 19th. Carpet was laid to both kids bedrooms, the guest bedroom, games room and study.

Tuesday afternoon we got a very unexpected call from our aggregate guy. He was able to get a delivery from an alternative vendor, Limecrete, for a colour that is very, very similar to Mont Blanc called Kajaani White and that he could pour it this coming Thursday. We jumped at the opportunity given how similar the colours were and I'm happy to report that as of 9am this morning, we now have aggregate around the back, sides and pool. Can't wait to see it honed.

Keys!!

We finally managed to get our PCI inspection done on Wednesday the 30th of October.  At the time of the inspection, our air conditioning hadn't been finished, nor did we have any glass balustrading on. This unfortunately meant that we weren't going to achieve key handover by November 1st as planned.

However, Stannard appreciated that we were in a tough position with our own finishing trades and kindly allowed us to access the house via our own builder's key so our trades could start. So on Monday 4th of November, the Art of Timber, our engineered wood floor contractor started work on site. We are getting wood up our stairs, across the first floor landing and into our master bed and robe.

After a week of work, the timber floors were nearly finished. It was then the turn of the balustrading people to install our glass balustrading, which went in on Monday 11th as planned. Three days later on November 14th, we went into Stannard's offices and officially completed handover and got the keys to our new house!

PCI delayed

Well, we were meant to have PCI last Friday but about two weeks after booking it for the 18th of November, they pushed it back a week to the 25th as they weren't quite going to get there. Fortunately they are still backing themselves that we won't discover much at inspection and are committed to handover occuring on November 1st. 

Finishing work continues - we've seen the painters a lot doing cornicing, skirtings, door frames, doors and other fiddly bits, leaving the walls til last. Plumbers have been in doing various bits and pieces around the house, guttering downpipes have been installed, electricians have energised the house, things like towel rails, robe hooks, toilet roll holders, etc have been installed. We also now have a garage door. Perhaps the thing we were most excited about though was our void pendant. It looks awesome!

Last weekend the cleaners showed up and spent the entire weekend thoroughly cleaning the house. There was a team of them for literally 10 hours a day on both Saturday and Sunday cleaning. I hope that's not reflective of the cleaning effort we're going to have to do! Of course it won't be as they had to clean off two years plus of construction grime. 

At this stage, we're two work days away from PCI and still need the following done: Air Con vents and outside compressor installed. frameless glass balustrading to be installed, mirror splashback to our bar area to be installed and painting to be finished. It's a pretty small list and with the exception of painting, can all probably be knocked off in a day's work or less for each required trade. They drilled the holes for the balustrading yesterday so with a bit of luck, that'll be installed today/tomorrow.

We've been busy lining up trades for flooring, carpets, cupboards, aggregate, etc and have them all lined up to kick off on Nov 4th, with our intention to move in early December and be settled in time for Christmas. Just hope everything else (bed, mattress, furniture) will be ready for delivery on a similar timeframe.

Getting very exciting!

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 😀

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!

Ground Floor Works

There has been a spattering of activity over the last few week post the completion of our ground floor roof cover. 

Firstly the skylight appeared on Good Friday. I had visited site on Thursday March 28th and hadn't seen any progress since the roof cover had been finished. I then went to site late in the afternoon of Good Friday, March 29th and the first thing I noticed was the skylight was now installed! In fact, I didn't notice straight away, I was on site to water the fruit trees, had turned on the water and while walking through the kitchen realised it wasn't as dark as it had been the day before. Looked up and saw the skylight!

Wanting to get a photo of the skylight from the top as well as the bottom, I walked upstairs and that's when I got my second surprise of the day - cabinetry for our kitchenette was in place! I then looked around the coner into the master and sure enough, our ensuite had our vanity and shaving cabinets installed. Returning to the other side of the upper floor and cabinets were also installed for the kids powder and bathroom. A very unexpected, but pleasant, surprise indeed.

Another week passed with no works until the following Friday when two vehicles were parked out the front with a cement mixer. Turns out these guys were here to brick in the kids bath as well as install brick bases for under our bathroom vanity units. The bricked in and rendered over their work. Small steps but steps none-the-less.

We flew to Singapore on 8th April for our first overseas family trip so I'm unsure of the timeline for the next 7 days but I do know the plumbers were on site when we left. Upon our return we found that all the ground floor water lines had been installed, including to our outdoor kitchen area and outside taps and all the upstairs waste piping was complete. At some point the waterproofing team had also been back and waterproofed around the newly bricked in bath and vanity bases as well as giving the walls and floor another coating to the upstairs bathrooms. They also waterproofed the balcony.

This week saw the air-con team come out and extend the piping and ducting into the ground floor living area under the ground floor roof. The next step is for the rendering team to come but we've been told it's a bit of a wait for them (4-6) weeks. In the meantime we can expect a few other small bits done like measuring up our commercial sliding door and construction of the light tunnel for the skylight. It's a bit death by a thousand cuts but we are inching closer to the finish.

In other news we have purchased and received the lights we intend to put in our void and master bedroom and are awaiting delivery of the light that will go over the kitchen island. We have also asked Stannard for a variation to fit out our bar area as we are keen to get the same stone benchtop as the rest of the house before the engineered stone ban comes into effect.

Ground Floor Roof Cover

Monday afternoon I was doing one of my usual drive-by's of our build site on my way home from work and was surprised to see a truck parked out the front making a delivery. Naturally I stopped for a chat and it turned out he was asked to do a late delivery of our ground floor roofing colorbond materials as the roofies would be starting the job the next day.

We were therefore a little disappointed when Tuesday brought about no progress at our site, nor any Wednesday (although there was a brief appearance by the sparkies), nor any progress Thursday. Happily though, Friday saw a team of roofies appear on site and they quickly went to work installing all the ground floor roof cover, including the little bit of roof over one side of the garage. It was a pretty long day for them as they were still finishing off by school pick up time, despite the typically early tradesperson start time.

Another step closer to lock up. Still no sign of the plumbers as yet but hopefully we'll see them, the skylight people and the air-con guys show up. Alternatively, they could come and install the glass to all the lower floor windows and doors, install the front door, alfresco slider and the door between the house and the garage and we'd be at lock up! I'd be happy with either and any progress is good progress.

More Ground Roof + Electrical

After a flurry of activity in the first two days of ground floor roof construction, the roof chippies disappeared for a couple of weeks. However, progress continued on a different front - the ground floor electrical. Speaking with the electricians, it seems the main roof chippie got injured at some point (unsure if on our site or not) and Stannard was organising another team to finish it off. 

The electricians have spent many days on site over the last couple of weeks chasing cables through the spaghetti maze of pipework within the upper floor slab to provision wiring to all the ground floor light switches, power points, internet points, TV points and speaker points. They have then been fitting off the cables into the wall channels that were cut previously. A few channels were missed the first time so they were also marked out and a chasing company came in and did a few more cuts for the electricans to finish. 

The electricans also ran the cabling through the new ground floor roof and into the single storey part of the house. There is now a mass of cabling leading into our garage, where both the electrical load centre and internet hub will be located. Pleasingly, another roof team also showed up to finish off the ground floor roof framing works so that the colourbond could be measured up and ordered. We've already had the guttering and downpipes delivered. Imagine we'll see the roof chippies return once the colourbond material arrives ready for roof cover to go on. 

I also expect we'll see the plumbers come in now and chase the plumbing through the single storey portion of the house and complete the waste piping for the upper floor wet areas. They appeared briefly about two weeks ago to concrete in the bath tub in the kids bathroom, of all things! 

I got the drone out on the weekend so here's a quick whip around of where we're at :)

Ground Floor Roof

Pleasingly we are starting to see fairly regular attendance of trades at our block so far this calendar year. Having had the scaffold removed from the upper storey and relocated to the ground floor (which is at the back of the house, next to the pool) in the first week of February, we've seen a few things happen every few days. First, the came and removed the brick lift and tidied up the front of the block. Next a couple of guys spent a full day cleaning the inside of the house as well as down each side and around the back of other building debris that accumulated during the construction of the top storey. Roofing materials then started appearing on site in preparation for the construction of the ground floor roof.

Yesterday, February 19th, a big mobile crane came and lifted all the wood and steel beams up and over the top storey and into the back part of the block (and where necessary, into place as part of the roof support). Despite it being 40+ degrees, the roof chippies were also on site and cracked on with the construction of our lower floor roof. By the end of the day, pretty much all the horizontal beams had been installed. Today, another 36+ degree day, the roof chippie team had constructed all the pitched beams. They now need to tidy up all the eaves, install the flashing & guttering and horizontal supports across the pitched roof and it'll be ready for measuring up for cover. 

Upper storey revealed

Today we got the first look at our completed upper floor following the removal of the scaffold that has surrounded it since mid June 2023. We are thrilled with how the house is looking, the colours we've chosen and the lineal design style. We really like how the splayed gutters accentuate the house width.

Removal of the scaffold marks an exciting step as construction now moves to focus on the lower floor, starting with construction of the roof at the back half of the house, including the alfresco, which is also under the main roof. We are also looking forward to seeing the light come in from the skylight we optioned to have over the kitchen.

 Once the roof is on, it's back to more render inside and out, installation of the door and window glass, including our large commercial sliding stacker door between the kitchen/dining and alfresco and our wide front door to get to lock up. Lock up is our next formal completion stage and the next time the builder gets cash so I'm hoping that incentive will see us power through the next phase. I've got a bet on with Josh that we reach lock up by March 31st. Two shiny dollars are at stake so fingers crossed!

Ready for scaffold drop!

Hope everyone had a great festive break. Our builders certainly took one with nothing happening at the build between Dec 19th and Jan 17th - pretty much a month, but that's to be expected at this time of year.

Happily, since the 17th, we've seen a few things happen. The first trade back to site was the tiling team, who came and screeded our master ensuite, the kids bathroom and the balcony. The next week, it was the rendering team, who first applied a paint sealer to all our external walls before coming back the next day to apply the acrylic render texture coat to the whole outside of the upper floor. At the same time, the tiling team came back and applied the waterproofing to the ensuite & kids bathroom. The painting team then reappeared to finish painting all the eaves of the house. The upstairs is really looking great!

Best as we can tell, there's nothing left that requires the scaffolding, perhaps just the drain down pipes, so hopefully we see the scaffolding dropped so work can start on the lower floor. At this point, the build looks like a house (upper floor) has been built on top of a construction site (ground floor). 

We're excited to be moving to the ground floor part of the build. The upper floor is more of our "sleeping" zone of the house, while the ground floor is where we're going to do our living, so it will be great to see that start to come together.

More internal painting

 The last official work week for the year before Stannard went on festive break saw the painters return to continue painting the inside of the upper floor. They applied a second coat to all internal walls and fully painted the ceilings and cornicing. It's so white and bright walking around upstairs now 😀It actually is looking more like a home than a construction site up there. According to the painter, we should expect to see the external renderer after Christmas, but I suspect that means after the Christmas break, i.e. early to mid January.  

So that's it for this year. It's been reasonably productive I guess. 2023 saw the upper floor formwork built, the upper floor concrete slab poured, the upper floor brickwork completed, upper floor roof frame, upper floor roof cover, upper floor rendered inside and out, upper floor walls plastered and painted, upper floor ceilings and cornices installed and painted, upper floor glass installed to windows and doors, external moulding installed to balcony and portico and all the plumbing, electical and air con work performed to the upper floor.

Hopefully this time next year we have keys and have started on the post-handover finishing items. See you all in 2024

Upper Floor: Glass, ceiling & plaster coat

This week was one of the busiest we've seen for our build yet.😀 

But before I get into that, we only had one thing happen last week - we had the our brickie team from the ground floor arrive back on site to finish bricking up the balcony. Previously they had left an access hole through the balcony to allow trades to get wheelbarrows through the balcony wall for all the cement render. That access was bricked up last week. Was a surprise to see our ground floor brick crew back but since to say g'day to the team again.

Onto the week that was. We had three different trades attend this week. Yep, you read that right, three! The glazier from Jason windows kicked things off Monday by putting in all our external windows and sliding door glass to our upper floor. He was all done by Monday afternoon.  Tuesday saw an early delivery of gyprock and cornice materials followed shortly after by the attendance of the ceiling guys to start putting the ceilings in. They wasted no time and had pretty much finished putting it all up in one day.  We love how the raised ceiling in our master bed is looking! They came back Wednesday morning to finish off what they hadn't got to as well as do the drywall sheeting to the void wall, which doesn't get the cement render treatment that most of the other walls receive.  

Friday the rendering team were back on site to finish rendering the external balcony now that the brickwork had been completed as well as start applying the smooth plaster coat to the internal walls.  I was surprised at just how smooth this plaster coat goes on. No doubt that comes down to the skill of the trade and when you see the quality of the work we're getting, it does make all the waiting a bit more palatable. 

Our fortnightly update that we got on Wed also suggested that the progress will continue in the coming weeks with ceiling guys back to put on the cornicing once the internal plaster work is done, a trade to come and apply our external mouldings (the materials were also delivered this week) and even the waterproofing to the upstairs wet areas are booked in to be done. Nice to get a good run of trades, especially this close to Christmas when I was expecting things to quieten down. 

Scaffold Drop

After a little over four weeks of waiting, today we finally saw the scaffold team back on site to drop the scaffold back down to the floor height of the upper floor. Stannard has really struggled with this scaffolding team and as a result have sought alternate vendors. Unfortunately we're stuck with the under performing mob and the long waits that come each time we need scaffolding moved. Fortunately it should stay where it is now until they are fully finished with our upper floor. 

We're now expecting to see renderers & plasterers on site to attend to both inside and out, air con ducting installed to the upper floor, ceiling and cornices installed and windows put in as the next steps. Basically they get the upper floor to "lock up". Fingers crossed we get a good run of these trades in November!

Roof Cover

It seems everything happened while we were away (as is always the case when you're watching something closely).

As part of the celebration of Cheryl, 11x Wylde's went south for a week down at Siesta Park, just outside of Busselton during the first week of school holidays for some well needed R&R. Back home at our build, things weren't quite so leisurely. Fortunately my neighbours are keeping us updated and half way through our trip down south, on Wed 27th September, I received a couple of messages to say that our roof cover was going on.

When we arrived back from Siesta Park on Friday the 29th, we found the house with the roof cover fully done, the upstairs plumbing all chased in and the electricians on site putting the final touches on chasing in the electrical wiring. Three trades in one week! 

Top Roof Cover is another project milestone, which of course means another bill, but also means another step closer. Our next major milestone is Lock Up, so there's going to be a fair bit happening to get to that stage. Naturally, I took the opportunity to fly the drone over the house to capture the roof cover in all its glory.

Also, randomly after flying the drone over, I noticed a few days later we now have a TV aerial. I don't know when that happened!

Roof framing

On Friday 1 September it was all action at our block with the arrival of our roof carpenter together with a crane. The crane spent a few hours lifting all the roof materials up into the upper floor and onto the scaffolding and the boys wasted no time cracking in. By the end of the day, we had the start of all the flat beams that the ceiling will attach to. We could also see where the raised ceiling recess will be for our master bedroom.

Unfortunately, winter wasn't quite done with Perth and we lost the next  Monday and Tuesday to bad weather with no one on site. Wednesday the boys were back and by the end of the day, we had the start of our roof pitch. Another two solid days work on Thursday and Friday and by late Friday afternoon, the main roof structure was complete, flashing has been attached and they'd even started putting in the eaves material for the boxed eaves.

Speaking with the tradies, they thought they had a day or two ahead of them still so hopefully the weather stays good and we see them first up next week. 

Update 12/9: Cruising past the block late Monday it appears that the framing part of the roof construction has been completed. The wooden framing looks done to my untrained eye, the flashing is on and the eaves have been sheeted. Speaking with the Stannard team over the weekend, I understand they need the flashing on before they can measure up and order the colorbond roof cover so we won't see that for a couple of weeks I'd suggest. In the meantime, we are expecting to hear from the electrician to conduct our upper floor walkthrough to confirm all our electrical provisions. They'll then come and put that in. We should also see the plumbers on site to do all the pipework for the upper floor wet areas. At some point, the air con ducting also goes in but I'm not sure if that's before or after roof cover. Guess we'll see.