It's Bathtime!

I was in Malaysia on business this week but Sonia was providing updates each day.  Well, almost....by the third day of almost nothing happening on site she had given up going to the site because it was making her feel disappointed.  But on Thursday it was full-on action and she couldn't resist a sneak peek in the evening.  That day had seen tiling grouted, (most of) the kitchen benchtops finished, and - wait for it - sinks, toilets, baths and shower heads fitted.  There are still sinks to be fitted in the ensuites but progress has been generally good.  Power is also on and the sparky has been back to fit the fuse box and GPOs in the garage and future pool power point, and a couple of GPOs to the island bench.  Scaffolding has also been removed from the facade which hopefully means rendering is imminent.  On Saturday night we noticed torch lights around the house and decided to investigate. It turned out to be a bunch of Chinese plasterers fitting gyprock to the garage ceiling - those guys certainly put a shift in! As for the benchtops, we have not quite received what we hoped for but that is probably because our sample from WoS was incorrectly labelled.  Turns out we wanted Maple Orna silestone, but actually ordered Blanco Maple. The issue here is that the sample was labelled (by Silestone) as Blanco Maple Orna...WTF?? Luckily we really like the finished product so will probably just live with it.  Either way, it is much more preferable to our original essastone Crystal Chalk which was always a bit 'Meh!'  There also appears to be a problem with the cooktop stone as this has yet to be fitted - I think the issue is that we want the stone to run into the window reveal but there is a sill that is preventing this.  The tiled reveals have also not been done.  Not sure why but I do know there has already been a big cock up here because we are already on the second set of custom built windows.  Sanctuary Lakes have approved our requested concrete colour so over the weekend we have also managed to get a couple  of concreting quotes. Fencing quotes will start this week.  Will we really be in mid June...?  I'm betting not - but we will be meeting the SS on Tuesday so should know more after that.  

Benchtops are in - island bench and prep area only

Undercount sink with veggie sprayer tap 

Waterfall edge.  Blanco Maple 

This is our actual stone - not quite what we thought but very nice nonetheless

Galley stone and sink.  Grouted porcelain tile splashbacks.  Really like these. 

Let there be light...power on this week.

Freestanding bath in Eve's bathroom.  Tiling here looks so much better now it's grouted.

Still waiting the sinks but the tiling looks good

Eve's shower - this is the standard shower head which is rubbish - will be changing these very soon.

Plumbing and tile splashbacks in master ensuite.  Loving the porcelain tiles. 

Shower to master ensuite

Bath to master ensuite

Powder room sink, tap and mosaics.  Love all of these.  Sink and taps will be in all bathrooms.

Laundry tiling complete

Gyprock to garage.  We asked our SS to include a manhole here and the message clearly got through - useful storage for Christmas decs ;-)

Out on the Tiles

Monday was a down day, apart from some utter d@*? head delivering tiles and grout to the house and deciding to utterly destroy the nature strip.  What a complete mess - I was fuming to find this and vowed to send the pics to PD. 

All credit to them, though, because it had (almost) been levelled by the end of the week.  Despite this hiccup, the tilers were in for a couple of days and finished the vast majority of what needed to be done.  A few finishing touches (tiled reveals to kitchen windows and side of the bath in the master) still to be done - hopefully they are not oversights and they'll be back to finish this week.  They also have clearly had trouble fitting one of the tiles to the side of the bath hob.  Grouting also needs to be done. We're very happy with kitchen splashbacks, powder room and the master ensuite.  The jury is out on the other ensuites.  In other news, flashing to the garage roof has been finished and gyprock and cladding for the eaves has been delivered.  There's a lot still to be done though.  Rendering, plumbing, gyprock (including the damn theatre wall), grouting, kitchen stone, paint touch ups, gaps at the top of windows, and site clean up.  I can't help thinking that June 20th is a stretch - let alone a little earlier than that.  It will need to be all action on site every day from here if the house is to be finished in time.  Over to you PD...!

Tile delivery

Laundry splashbacks - grouting still to be done

Kitchen splashbacks - reveals need tiling and still waiting for stone

Splashback - really like this porcelain tile

Master ensuite.  Like this

Party shower

Bath hob - not sure why there's a tile missing

Terrace

Ensuite

Shower in princess suite.  Hmmmmmmm.....

Princess suite.  Not sure about this.  Sonia's already looking for new feature tiles.

Barley checking the view

Powder room.  Tick!

We're getting there

View from the terrace.  Tick. Tick!

Roofing and Proofing

Another successful week starting with a chance meeting with the electrician on Monday. He was good enough to hang our pendant in the void and it's looking great. Sonia has got a touch of OCD regarding the black cable being connected to one of the suspension wires - OCD is normally my job - but I think it looks great.  The positioning is perfect as well because we will be able to change bulbs without requiring the highest ladder in Melbourne. Despite that, though, we bought a replacement LED light that should give us 3 years life.  

When Sonia and I delivered the light on Tuesday we also saw the ceiling insulation being fitted and the stone bench tops being delivered.  So I took the opportunity to check the colours and.....wrong colour for the kitchen!!!  The entire truck load was Blanco Norte instead of Blanco Maple for the kitchen and galley.  We let the installers know (which they were grateful for because apparently it's a nightmare to rip out once fitted) and dropped a line to Matt and our BC (the latter, of course, never bothered to acknowledge the email - but that's to be expected). Matt, however, was quickly on the case and the following day I received an mail from the stone supplier offering $500 compensation for accepting the Norte stone. We refused that and got another much bigger offer the next day.  Again we refused - the kitchen stone is so important to us and we would never be happy with anything less.  So, someone has made a costly mistake but hey - what can you do? I'm sure they'll be able to reuse it in someone else's Plaza.  The new stone will be cut and delivered next week.  All the bathrooms, meanwhile, are done and look great.  

Other things completed are sissalation, roof tiles and pointing on the garage, downpipes, and waterproofing in all the wet areas, terrace and balcony.  The windows either side of the kitchen splashback also appear to have been replaced - possibly because we had to remind PD that these would be square set with tiling and stone into the reveals. That paves the way for the tiler next week.  Bring it on!!

Pendant light from the ground...

...from the landing....

...and a close-up.

Princess suite waterproofing

Master ensuite

Blanco Norte stone to master ensuite

Pendants will go above the island bench. No Silestone in the kitchen yet!

Roof Tiles to the garage.  Pointing was completed at the weekend. 

 

Progress so far...

Landscaping plan submitted to ARC. I love straight lines...! Ex military engineer you see 😏

Trusses and Air

Another busy week on site despite it being a short one with a public holiday on Monday for Anzac Day,  an RDO on Tuesday and torrential rain on Friday.  However, by mid week shelving had been started in all of WIRs, pantry, laundry and various storage areas throughout the house.  I never realised how much storage - and shelf space - we had.  It's looking like IKEA Sanctuary Lakes! No wonder the guy took two full days to complete the job.  It certainly puts the pathetic storage in our rental to shame - can't wait to fill it all with junk and kitchen appliances!  

Wednesday saw the roof trusses go on the garage and the view from Bed 2 became evident.  Grayce is unsure whether to move into that room or Bed 3 which is perhaps smaller but will have an unobstructed view of the lake (once we replace the cathedral glazing with clear glass ;-)

Thursday started early with the aircon guys in the house fitting vents and controllers.  The carpenters also finished the roof trusses and Argus was in fitting AV wiring and the alarm.  I've got an issue with the siting of one of the PIRs so will need to speak to the SS about that - talking of which, he appears to have gone AWOL...! Have sent him a couple of texts over the last week requesting a meeting but have received nothing in reply. Perhaps he's been on a PD customer service course over the last week or so???

The cupboard shelving was also finished on Thursday and on Friday the electrician was in! Sonia and I managed to see the interim results and were generally pleased with our choices.  We have chosen down lights throughout the ground floor with feature pendants at the kitchen bench and dining area.  There is also a large pendant in the void and having spoken to the electrician we are optimistic that he will fit that for us tomorrow which will avoid a BIG headache for us.  We would need to hire scaffold to fit that.  So off we popped to Beacon Lighting tonight and bought an LED 'filament' bulb with a 3 year warranty - we don't want to be replacing the bulb anytime soon.

Also on Friday, guttering and fascia were fitted to the garage.  

Anyway, here are the pics from this week.....

Another beautiful morning in Sanctuary Lakes

Another delivery!

Garage roof starting to take shape

Roof trusses up

Garage looking towards roller door

Alarm touch pad

Multi mode heating and cooling controller - we have 2 zone heating. 

Laundry cupboard

Pantry

Master WIR - with lake view (trust me!)