Keeping busy!

No handover as yet, however one of the major outstanding items has now been completed - the tiling! The balcony has now been tiled and grouted, and the splashback in the pantry has been finished. Oustanding items are the stairs to be re-coated, and the flaky paint in the al-fresco ceiling to be sorted out.

Pantry splashback

Balcony tiles

Balcony again

Tiler also patched up some of the grout in the ensuite

We are not letting the time go to waste as we wait for handover - today was spent working on the retaining wall. Ohhh - my aching back....

Sleepers delivered. 200mm x 75mm x 2.4m (in "treated pine" colour for the girls)

The uprights were concreted in over a week ago. Got a fair bit done today...

Council has approved our 5m driveway, which means that the driveway can come straight down without narrowing too much. You can make out the marks where the kerb will be cut.

A closer look at the markings

So close, but so far away!

Well, no handover on Friday (we never expected it anyway), however the past few days have seen a lot of activity around the place.

Plaster, paint, tiles and other things have all been worked on. The toilet has been removed, the Tri-lock installed and loads of other things.

Yesterday (Saturday) we picked up our timber laminate flooring from Fowles and took it to the house, as the painter was there and the place was open.

Broken tiles now replaced. Tiler had to bring some tiles over as the mongrel local kids had broken the ones I set aside

Left over roof tiles - now stored in the garage!

Tiler put the last (missing) tile into the bathroom. At the same time he also tiled the splashback in the pantry (picture coming next time)

Balcony has been sealed in preparation for tiles

Toilet and bin have gone

Gas meter now installed

Hand rail now installed - for the first time since painting...

... but the location of the light switch isn't ideal!

This cornice in bedroom 4 was replaced

Quad beading in place in the al fresco.
More painting needs doing here - or should we say, sanding back, then painting.

Drainage from retaining wall now tied into silt pit

Our flooring being delivered

All 47 boxes!

As the place was open for the past couple of days, we took the opportunity to terminate some wiring and put face plates in. More detail on this coming up on the LexCom Blog (see the link at right).

Lights and Plaster

During the last couple of days the sparkies have been back to move some downlights, and the plasterer has been repairing the holes.

We are now waiting on the painter, roof tiler, interior tiler and some odds and ends to be sorted before we can do a handover. One of the problems we have is weather related - the tiler can't do the balcony tiles until this darn rain stops! No firm date for handover - but we are working towards Monday the 28th July.

Very happy with the location of the lights

The old and the new

Red spots are being addressed

The garage floor has had a touch up

A couple of people have asked why the lights had to be changed - when we planned our lights we gave some careful consideration to where we wanted the lights, especially over the kitchen work area. In practical terms, the lights could not be placed exactly where we had them on the plan, as the heating and cooling ducts were larger than shown on the plan - the sparkie had to make some changes, but we were not happy with the lighting of the bench.

Having said that, we are very happy with the new arrangement.

LexCom Home Network

A few people have asked us about the Home Network we are installing in the new house, so we thought it was about time we documented some of the material.

Given the amount of info, another web site (blog) has been created and you can find it at:

LexCom Home Network Blog

A step closer

Sparkies were on site today moving a couple of lights and (hopefully) fixing a power point. Plasterers are due to come back for some repairs tomorrow.

Balcony is ready to be tiled

Retaining wall posts

PCI - ed

Hi all! Well, we had our Practical Completion Inspection (PCI) last Friday (18th July).

We were there for about two hours and ended up with a three page list and many dots! For those of you who don't know, the PCI involves a walk through with the Site Supervisor to compile a definitive list of items which need attention, when are then signed off.

As you go through, paint items are identified with a dot (in our case red)

Red spot special!

Minor paint items were marked, and the major things to be done include: Some cornice to be replaced, a couple of downlights to be moved (and holes patched), sticking (stuck!) back door, various paint and fill items, some tiling to be completed, infills above windows and doors, roof tiles to be replaced, and various odd and ends.

The aim is have handover on the 25th, but depending on how long it takes to get the various trades on site handover may be the following week.


This is the first time we have had a chance to get up close and personal with the new heater in the family room. Part of the protective film has been peeled back in the shot below to show the polished stainless steel finish (although it looks black in the picture).

Looking forward to cranking this up on a cold day!

Haven't had a chance to update the blog since Friday as we have been hard at work putting a retaining wall in along one entire length of the block. Thanks heaps to Dad for coming down from up north and helping with the posts.

Holes marked for the posts

Bobcat hard at work with the borer. The handsome fellow in the picture is Dad!

At of writing (Sunday night) all the post are in. We will take more photos when we get a chance.

Render

So - you thought that you wouldn't see another entry from us until after our PCI (which is tomorrow)? Wrong! Went for a stroll to the house this morning as we knew the render guys were hard at it yesterday.

We were a bit surprised that the house was open (garage door could be lifted, and then the internal access door was unlocked), so took a few inside shots. Not much has changed, so there will be lots to talk about tomorrow with SS.

Render colour is "Maudsland" (because we know you will ask...)

The finish on the render looks fantastic. Bagged and painted would have been cheaper, but the extra cost for the render is worth it.

From the front door - down to the rumpus room

Close up of the heater in the Family Room

Laundry - previous shots have had the basin covered

Render from the balcony. Tiling needs to be completed on the balcony floor

Mirror has been installed in the ensuite

We now have fly screens

This shot shows the drain hole for the balcony. Andy and Simone have one on each side. These houses are all the same - but different!

Little bits

Disappointingly, not much has happened since the last blog entry, with the exception that the Painter was back, which allowed us entry into the house - the first time since the cleaner had been through.

I guess all things are relative, but we noticed that while the place was definitely much cleaner than before, there was still a lot of crud stuck to the floor in various places, and people have still been walking up and down the stairs with their workboots. We didn't get one of those "Don't come in with your grotty workboots" signs that M&M had after their clean.

Enough of that. Some photos.

Paperbark colour now above the garage door.

Clean upstairs games area

Cleaner stairs - but with boot prints

Close sesame!

We were bagged for apologising for having too many photos last time (yes, I read the comments on other peoples blogs - you know who you are ;-)), so here are a couple of more.

First pictures with the garage door down. Power was on, so we put the door down. Why not?

Outside shot (derr... really?)

From the inside - you can see the internal access door.

Painter is on site as we write this, so more pictures later (if we can get in before the painter leaves).

Wondered about the animated picture at the top of this page? We have a bigger version - currently the picture has 19 photos in it.

Here's the link (opens in a new window)

The big cat has been

The Bobcat has visited the site, and what a difference moving some dirt and rubbish makes!

Yesterday our heater was installed, and the new shed was finished. All in all - a very productive couple of days. Loads of photos. Sorry.

Mr. Robert Feline in action

What a huge difference!

Dunny and bin are next to go.

This is how we knew the heater had been installed.

Photo taken through the (now clean) window.

A lot of dirt has been moved - down the side....

... around the back ....
The big pile of dirt has gone!

... up the other side. We need to build a retaining wall here.

Expansion joints have been sealed.

This shifty looking character is the site security (and Minister of Finance, and Building Inspector, and Colour Coordinator, and....)
Boy, and I going to be in trouble for this one.

Our shed has also been completed. These photos especially for the blokes. For the girls - the colour is "Paperbark". :-)

Dimensions are 7 metres x 9 metres.

Yep - gotta build a retaining wall along here so we can get into the shed.

.. as a whistle?

Not sure if the place is as clean as a whistle, but someone certainly certainly committed a neatness at our Cremorne 41!

Yesterday (Sunday) we met the lady who had the pleasure (!) of cleaning up after the tradies. Best of luck with your project.....

From what we can see today, she seemed to do a pretty good job - although I'm sure Bernadette will be going over it again after handover! Below, you can see that all the stickers and protective plastic has been removed from the windows.

The photos below show the back doors - which you could even see through before they were given the treatment!


Eagle eyed readers would have noticed that there are some infills missing above the doors. Fixed soon....

Now all we need is the bobcat to come on site and remove the rest of the rubbish.

Oh yeah, our shed is progressing too:

Garage Door

A few changes since the last entry - the most significant is that our new garage door has been installed. The house has had it's floor swept, and the correct door locks have now been installed.
This means we are getting close to completion!

Yes - site needs a clean!

After a forced change of plans today, we decided to go back to where it started - the Cremorne Display home in Caroline Springs. It's amazing to see a completed house (with carpets and window coverings) after seeing our own empty place for so long. We took a few photos of the display home, and some have been included here, just for interest!

Similar to the one we are getting.

Display home bathroom (this pic especially for M)

Standard bath is quite small - we opted for a bigger bath

In total, 8 wall lights used in the stairs.

Decking is nice, and gave us some ideas....

Finally, our shed is progressing:

We see your t-shirt....

Those of you who have been following this story will know that two very close friends of ours (whom we have never met) - Mike and Marita (M&M) - are also building a Cremorne 41. Their start date was a week behind us, and it's been a race to see who gets their keys first. Even the Site Supervisors are aware of the little competition.

Well, this appeared on the M&M site earlier this week:

T-Shirt Up For Grabs

Well M&M - B & P see your T-Shirt and will raise the stakes with a lovely stubby holder, lovingly engraved (at great expense to the Management) with our initials.




When you win (and we are putting our money on you at the moment), you can think of us every time you take a drink on your new timber decking.

As you know from our last post, our PCI is set for 18th July, and yours is 11th July. We are thinking of sneaking into the house over the next week and fixing all of the problems ourselves so we can catch up.... :-)

Some dates

Had a phone call today from our CSC, and we were given a couple of very important dates!

The PCI is set for Friday 18th July at 9:00am. That's the "Practical Completion Inspection" where we the get the opportunity to pick everything we are not happy with.

The handover is set for one week later (25th July), however I suspect that the handover will be delayed once they have our list. A couple of the items on the list won't be fixed in one week.

A couple more pictures for you.

Wardrobe rails have been put in.

Junction boxes in the stair walls - our stair wall lights will be fitted here. This is the set of stairs above the landing. Photo taken from upstairs.

Junction boxes in the wall for the set of stairs below the landing.