Day 206: Grouting to tiles & expose aggregate work

Hi friends,

More work was done today with the tiler grouting all the tiles, the only thing he has left to do is the tiling around the vanities in the laundry, bathroom, and ensuite. In addtion, I think the concreter washed away the top cement in order to expose the aggregates but not sure if the concrete had been sealed.

Day 205: Driveway concrete poured & tiling continues

Hi friends,

There was a surprise today with the exposed aggregate concrete poured to the driveway, porch and path to porch, we thought it would be done further towards the hand over period and didn't expect it be done this early but we are very happy that it was done so another item off the list. The negative to the concreting is that it doesn't look as good as we expected because the area between the porch and driveway is not level due to the porch being higher than the garage, oh well as long as the water is directed away from the house and garage than it's acceptable. The colour is standard black like the rest of the neighbourhood.
In addition, the tiler layed the tiles to the showerbases in the bathroom and ensuite. Our site supervisor is powering things along so a big thank you to him for his work.

Day 204: Rendering & tiling continues

Hi friends,

The following works was achieved today:

- Completion of laying the tiles to the bathroom and ensuite
- Waterproofing of the showerbases in the bathroom and ensuite
- Additional coat of render to the facade
- Installation of the ceiling fans and related powerpoint switches
- Installation of the stainless steel laundry tub
- Cabinets and vanity door handles installed

Day 203: Rendering work started

Hi friends,

The build is progressing well with the following items been completed during last week:

- Painting has been completed around the house except the porch ceiling
- Screeding for the showerbase in the bathroom and ensuite has been completed
- Installation of remaining boundary timber fence and the timber wing/side gate
- Electrical fittings been partially installed e.g batten light holders, powerpoint covers etc.

Today they started the acrylic rendering work to the front facade with a coat of render around the external front bedroom walls. The render seems to be very thin as the brick mortar can still be seen, I'm not sure if they will apply another coat before they paint but hopefully they will. In addition, tilings to the bathroom, ensuite, laundry, and toilet has started. They also started installing the fitting for the ceiling fan in the meal room.

Day 196: Painting continues

Hi friends,

The painters continued painting the house, I can't see what has been done inside but in the garage they had painted all the walls, ceilings, architraves, and skirting. There are still some spots that needed painting such as where the walls cut into the cornices and also where the walls cut into architraves. We are getting the 3 coat paint system which is standard with our builder. The paint colour we chose the ceiling was Wattyl Magic White and for the rest is Wattyl Magnesium, let's hope the colours turn out good especially the Magnesium.

Day 193: Waterproofing of wet areas & painting begins

Hi friends,

More progress was achieved today with the wet area waterproofing started and the painters came to start painting the doors, ceiling, and walls. I was told that the method of painting will be spray painting not using rollers therefore the painters covered all the windows and sliding doors with plastic drop sheets to prevent any paint spots on it. In addition, I think rendering to the facade will start next week.

Things are progressing well and site supervisor has been very easy to deal with so we are happy so far.

Day 192: Cement sheeting to porch & front eaves

Hi friends,

Another step closer to completion with the installation of cement sheeting to the porch ceiling and the remaining front eaves done. Other works completed today was the caulking of the articulations joints and installation of remaining architrave and skirting to the garage walls. In addition, all the internal doors was taken off, I think painting will start soon.

Day 191: Cabinets and vanities installed

Hi friends,

Things are progressing well with all the kitchen cabinets, ensuite, bathroom, and laundry vanities been installed. I can't really see the colour because it was dark but hopefully I can take photos of it in the daylight so stay tuned. The island bench looks really big and we can't wait to see how it will look when the granite benchtop is installed. At the moment our SS is doing a good job with keeping things moving so hopefully the speed won't slow down and we can move in soon.

Day 186: Front facade bricking completed

Hi friends,

The front porch and facade column has been fully bricked and it looks big so we are very happy how it turned out so far, now we need to wait to see how it will turn out after the rendering so fingers crossed that it will turn out good. The masonary blockwork turned out bigger than I thought so it's great. Our original masonary blockwork colour was Charcoal but they ran out of supply so we had to choose another colour, we chose Ivory instead. More work was done inside with the cutting out of the ceiling plaster for the heating vents. Things are moving along nicely with the new site supervisor who was originally are first one, so a big thank you to him.

Bricking to porch and facade completed so now we wait for the rendering.

Day 183: Permanent front entry door installed

Hi friends,
Things are cruising along nicely with the installation of the permanent front entry door and the cut out to the plasterboard for the powerpoints completed. We upgraded the front entry door to a 2040mm x 1020mm Corinthian PMAD 104 pivot door with translucent glass, however we initially wanted the door to be 2040mm x 1200mm but was told it is not available. The door will be painted red and the door handle will the push bar type with a bolt cylinder deadlock. In addition, the masonary blocks has been delivered, so now we are waiting for the brickies to return to lay it.

Pivot front entry door

They installed the architrave to the gap between the garage brick and cement sheeting.

Day 182: Skirtings and remaining doors installed

Hi friends,

More progress was achieved with the completion of the skirting, remaining architraves, door jambs and doors, only the architraves/skirtings around the windows still needs to be installed. The skirting, architraves, door jambs, and internal doors are all builder's standard, the skirtings are 67mm x 15mm MDF bevelled edge, the architraves are 67mm x 15mm MDF bevelled edge, the door jambs are 110mm x 19mm MDF, the internal doors are Corinthian Readycote Flush panels, pretty much standard stuff so nothing to exciting. On a different note one thing I noticed around the house was that the insulation which was put around the external doors was pulled out, I am guessing they did it to make the installation of the architrave more easier e.g the insulation could cause the architrave not to be flush, I don't know why they did it but I don't think it is right. Anyway, it is getting closer to the exciting stuff the internal colours and fixtures such as the installation of vanities, cabinets, tapwares, and painting of the internal walls.

Skirtings to one of the minor bedrooms
Door jambs and architraves to all the internal doors. Pics below are toilet and laundry.

Bathroom

Hallway leading to rear of house

Double doors to master bedroom

Day 179: Architraves and doors partially installed

Hi friends,

The architraves and doors was installed to the all the minor bedrooms, toilet, laundry, linen cupboard, broom cupboard, built in robes, and pantry. The remaining places that needs the architraves and doors are the front entry linen cupboard, walk in robe, living room, family room, and ensuite. They have placed all the required materials in each of the remaining spots ready to be installed.

Day 178: Cornices installation completed

Hi friends,

The cornices has now been completed. The architraves and skirtings has been delivered and probably get installed tomorrow. The floors has been quickly swept but it's not fully clean still have some mud residue/dust left in some places.

Entrance hallway looking towards rear of house
Entrance hallway viewing from rear of house

Kitchen

Feature niche and living room

Alfresco

Garage

Day 177: Cornices half installed

Hi friends,

The cornices was installed to all the minor bedrooms, the robes, the linen cupboards, pantry, fridge space, laundry, broom cupboard, toilet, bathroom, and the ensuite. It seems they are installing all the smaller areas first and the larger areas later, I guess the larger areas might require more workers to hold the cornices as the lengths are longer. The cornices are builder's standard which is the 75mm Scotia Cove.

Ensuite
Built in Robe

Bathroom

Bedroom

Day 176: More plastering work done

Hi friends,

The plasterers cleaned and then applied the basecoat to some part of the plaster joins yesterday 05.07.2010 and today 06.07.2010 they taped up the joins in the corners and apply the base coat to it as well. In addition, they cut the cornices into the required lengths ready to be installed.

Day 171: Metallic edge strip to plaster installed

Hi friends,

More work was done with the partial installation of the metal strip to the edges of the plaster, I think this is to protect the edge of the plaster from chipping when something hits it. There's still a few spots that need the metallic strip so I think it would be completed tomorrow and maybe they will start installing the cornices.

Ensuite

Entrance hallway

Living room bulkhead

Feature wall niche

Kitchen

Day 170: Plasterboard installation completed

Hi friends,

The remaining areas that requires plasterboards was completed today, the wet areas such as bathroom, ensuite, and laundry was installed with Aquacheck plasterboard which is a moisture resistance plasterboard and the rest of the house has the standard. I'm not sure why they didn't install the Aquacheck plasterboards to the kitchen and the main toilet area as these places is considered as wet areas. Anyway hopefully they will install the cornices tomorrow.

Ensuite: The Aquacheck plasterboard colour is sort of bluey grey colour

The bulkheads to the living room.

The fridge space and pantry (short one)

Kitchen: Can you see the colour difference between the Aquacheck and the standard plasterboard, the standard one are creamy/white colour while the Aquacheck is the bluey/grey colour. You can see the colour difference between the spare Aquacheck plasterboard leaning against the wall with the standard plasterboard installed. I believe they are suppose to install the Aquacheck to the kitchen wall where the sink are which is the panel underneath the window.

Hallway leading to the bathroom, laundry, toilet, and smaller bedrooms

Bathroom

Toilet: I believe they are suppose to install the Aquacheck plasterboard instead of the standard one.

Day 169: Plasterboards partially installed

Hi friends,

Things are starting to pick up with the plasterboards installed to the garage ceiling, all internal house ceiling, alfresco ceiling, entrance hallway, master bedroom, walk in robe, living room, and family room wall adjoining the bathroom, and fridge space. The remaining places that needs to be plastered are thebulkheads, ensuite walls, kitchen walls, bathroom walls, and back half of the house. If they work tomorrow the plastering should be completed. In addition, the fibre optic cabinet box was also installed.

Fibre optic cable cabinet installed
Master bedroom window Walk In Robe

Entrance hallway viewing from family room hallway

Living room

One of the incomplete living room bulkhead

Feature niche wall separating the living room and meal room

Entrance hallway linen viewing from living room Meal room viewing from family room

Kitchen

Family room

Day 168: Insulation installed & plasterboard delivered

Hi friends,

Today the insulation batts were installed around all the external walls of the house. In addition, the plasterboards and cornices were delivered and are waiting to be installed. Other work completed today was the bobcat came to clear all the rubbish at the front of the house left by the site cleaners on Saturday.

Day 163 & 164: Duct heating vents installed and lock up inspection

Hi friends,

I had a pre-plaster inspection with my independent building inspector on the 23.06.2010 and there were a number of defects found some are cosmetic and some are structural, most of them are easily fixed. The serious ones are: some of the wall bracings had been cut therefore new ones need to be installed, in some places the truss is not sitting on studs therefore extra studs are added to the existing studs that are close by for support, missing noggings etc. Most of the other defects are acid stains to brick mortar, crack brick mortar in some places, acid stain to bricks, gaps between gutter barge and wall, eave corner was installed short. Also the heating guys were there installing the duct heating vents.

Today 24.06.2010 the carpenters came to fix the internal defects found at the lock-up inspection , the external defects hasn't been fixed yet but hopefully soon. A big thank you to my new site supervisor acknowledging and accepting to fix the defects without any hassles or complaints and for getting the carpenters in quickly to fix the defects.

Other works done were the electrician came back to re-install the alfresco powerpoint as it was to high, install electrical junction box above the kitchen side sliding door for future external light fitting.

Day 161: Install cement sheeting to eaves

Hi friends,

The cement sheeting was installed to the eaves around most of the house, the plasterers also installed metallic strips to the ceilings ready for the installation of plasterboard later on.
Below are photo's of the bricks after they have been washed.

Garage
Bedroom 2 window

Rear garage door

Alfresco

Living room sliding door

Rear of house

Bedroom 3