Yet again, time has got away from me and it's almost a month since my last post. Lots of activity on site despite our SS being away for a couple of weeks - full credit to him for arranging trades etc to be on site while he's away. We're probably not as advanced as he expected but I'm happy with progress nonetheless. I met up with the SS back on 4th April and we had a good look around the house. At that stage, the plasterers were back in doing their touch ups prior to the painters arriving. I pointed out a couple of minor issues and then explained that I didn't think the soundproofing had been installed in the lower half of one wall in the theatre room. Matt didn't mess about and promptly put his foot straight through the gyprock - thank god there was no soundproofing there...! He was clearly p***ed off and explained that the soundproofing dudes would need to pay for the gyproc to be removed, wall re-lined and then re-plastered. I was just relieved that I hadn't got it wrong!! Luckily I had photographic evidence. It's disappointing that the insulation trades tried to rip me off. I paid a lot for this soundproofing. Hopefully it will cost them dear.
Picture of sound proofing showing missing area. This was taken back in Feb.
Anyway, we got the fixing invoice that very evening which was a bit of a surprise for two reasons - firstly, Matt hadn't mentioned that when we spoke in the morning, and secondly because we haven't got a garage...! So I queried that with PD who passed my query from one person to the next without actually providing an answer. In the end I forwarded the invoice to the bank with a status update. They clearly didn't care about paying the penultimate (90% complete) invoice despite there being no garage in place as they paid up straight away. My conscience is almost as clear as my bank balance!
Since then the painters have been hard at work and that is now as good as complete. It took two solid weeks of painting to finish - big house! And this week the brickies were on site to build the garage and complete the facade features. That took a total of 3 days (but I think there were only a couple of blokes doing the work - I was actually in NZ on business). Next step outside will be for roofing trusses (scaffold was delivered yesterday - 22nd Apr), roof tiles and render. Inside it will be waterproofing the wet areas, electrical fit out and tiling. Matt is still thinking a mid June completion date so we are now on the home straight with about 8 weeks to go. We did have a minor hiccup with having to change our stone bench top selections as PD no longer uses Essastone. But I have to say that we were even happier with the alternatives and PD were happy to provide a category upgarde so that we got a good match - bear in mind that we selected our stone to match the cupboards that have already been installed. We have now selected Silestone Blanco Maple for the kitchen and Blanco Norte for the bathrooms and are very excited to see the final result.
First day of bricklaying for the triple garage.
From the future driveway...
Pillar that forms corner feature for the facade. This will be rendered in a colour called Heifer.
Barley doing a quality inspection of the painting in the living areas. Colour is Astor White. The blue tinge is because the ground floor windows still have protective film on.
Eve checking out the kitchen.
Garage brickwork complete
Double garage door at right, single at left. Door and roller access at rear of garage.
Should be a good sized garage with easy access to the rear
Roller door goes here. We have power provision for future pool at side of the garage.
View of the completed facade, yet to be rendered. It's looking like a building site again!
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