Tiling completed and painting has started

So tiling was completed on Monday with the grouting and everything. We are very happy with Rick the tiler he does a fabulous job for our wet area. Love how the tiles turn out as well. It was hard to picture the tiles together when selecting at color selection but very glad the tiles we selected went well together so that's a big relieved.

Painting has started last week and they have painted the façade, external eaves and downpipes, internal doors, the ceiling, first coat for walls as well as stained the cedar cladding/pantry door/bi fold doors.

There are still a few things on the list we are expecting to see in the next coming weeks. We still haven't received the handover date but thinking real soon when internal painting is completed.

1. Render and paint the façade - COMPLETED
2. Stain cedar cladding, pantry door and bi fold doors to rich chocolate - COMPLETED
3. Install kitchen and laundry cabinet - COMPLETED
4. Install shelves to pantry - COMPLETED
5. Painting ceiling and internal doors - COMPLETED
6. Painting internal walls - ALMOST COMPLETED (two coats to go)
7. Install island bench, shelves to WIL and WIR - PENDING
8. Install entrance door and stain to rich chocolate - PENDING
9. Install kitchen and laundry sink - PENDING
10. Install shower screens, bath tubs and vanities - PENDING
11. Install kitchen and bathroom taps/shower head - PENDING
12. Install fly screens to windows - PENDING
13. Install light switches, powerpoints and lights - PENDING
14. Install ducted air conditioning - PENDING
15. Install garage door and roller door - PENDING
16. Install gas bottles - PENDING

Plantation Homes has advised they going to have the fence rectified near the end of the build close to handover so everything works out well.

We noticed the sub-contractor dug out part of the concrete base to install the down pipes to the in-ground pipe and we a bit concern it might affect something in the future so we might give a call to our site supervisor to check just to be on the safe side.

We pop in today to take some photos and surprisingly the painter was on site installing internal doors and front entrance door so we had the chance to take some photos inside :)

Façade painted and cedar cladding stained

Subcontractor car on site



Close up to cedar cladding

Temporary front door. Glass front door to be installed and stained. Porch ceiling/cornice installed and painted. 

Internal doors painted



Completed tiling at Ensuite but covered up for painting

Kitchen all covered up for painting. Pantry door stained

Wall damage fixed

Ceiling and cornice painted

Wardrobe doors painted

Internal door installed

Bi-fold doors stained

Looking from the backyard. Ceiling and cornice at Alfresco installed and painted

Ceiling and cornice at Alfresco installed and painted

Downpipe installed to in-ground pipe and our concrete base was dug out

Cabinets are in!! But not all tiling :(

So the kitchen, laundry and vanity cabinets went according to plan. These got installed around Thursday or Friday. The downside is the tiles did not go according to plan. Rick the tiler was saying it's going to be completed yesterday but they only completed the Ensuite and did not touch the Bathroom. Another delay to next week!

We're glad Plantation Homes did not stuff up the order for our kitchen cabinets as we requested the island bench to be at same height with the rear bench instead one being higher than the other (cost us $250 admin fee on the variation for this change along with small change of floor tiles). We also upgraded our top cupboards to gloss finish and the cabinet portrait doors to pot drawers so our kitchen cabinets are made correctly.

A few things they haven't installed this week which we thought they would:

1. Caesar stone island bench top with 40cm thickness (upgrade)
2. Shelves for WIR and WIL
3. Laundry and kitchen sinks (Kitchen sink upgraded to Posh deep 1 3/4 bowls)
4. Vanity basins

They probably install the above next week. With the cabinets are now in we going to wait for the pantry door and bi fold doors to be stained to rich chocolate color to see how dark the area going to be with the imagination of timber flooring (install after handover) we may need to be very careful with the furniture colours we are buying. Got to say without knowing about interior design at times it is difficult to make decision which furniture is safe to buy early. Some are currently on sale which we don't want to miss out and especially end of financial year sale is coming up soon too!

Here are some photos that we were unable to take at dark hours. We are very happy with the rendered facade. It looks incredibly nice. It still needs to be painted we believe. We don't think the colour we chose is that light!

Rendered façade. The porch will be painted with another colour after handover

Garage

Kitchen

Gloss finish cupboards. Empty space for rangehood

Pot drawers. Empty space for gas oven

Pantry shelves

Electrician poke holes ready to install light switches and powerpoints

Light switch at Entry 15cm away from edge

Our Ensuite feature wall :)

Ensuite

Ensuite

Ensuite shower niche. Love the mosaic!

Laundry

Bathroom 

Bathroom

Powder room

Laundry sink and semi recessed vanity for powder room delivered

 

Little progress on tiling

Early morning we made a phone call to Rick the tiler to see if he can tile the walls all the way to the cornice and we pay him some cash. Unfortunately it was too late to have this done as the cornice was already installed, it needs to be removed and he also would need to remove the tile skirting which he need to charge extra for remove and redo. After all, it was too complicated and costly so we left it as is. Rick told us that the vanity will be delivered today so tiling will be completed Friday.

After work we snuck in to see the progress of the tiles since they stopped last few days for the floor tiles to settle. Well, they done our shower niche mosaic and apart from that only a small wall section of timber wall tile installed at Ensuite. Wonder if they going to finish on Friday as said!

So the electrician started to pokes holes around the house ready to install the light switches and power points. With the light switch at the Entry he poked 15cm away from the wall as per our request (supposed to be 20cm but it is still better than right next to the edge) and he didn't charge us extra. pheww! Now it looks much better!

Dent on fence and render completed

So first thing this morning we emailed our construction administration girl about the dent on our colourbond fence and also to have an update on the construction as we NEVER receive any phone call since the construction started unless we call up and ask. So much of the introduction call/letter 'We will call you every couple weeks to give you an update on the construction'. So the admin girl replied and said she will pass the message to our site supervisor to investigate the dent on the fence. With the construction update - tiling, kitchen cabinet, laundry cabinet and vanities will be completed this week. Painter is booked for next 2 weeks (estimating it takes 10 days to complete) and at this stage it is difficult to estimate the handover date until the painting is completed. Until then our site supervisor will be able to calculate and advise the handover date.

We are hoping our handover date will be by end of July. Considering how much left to be completed on the house we think 2 months is a reasonable time to finish the rest. Fingers crossed though!

As we have guessed, render may have started today which it did and completed on the SAME day!! Pretty quick actually. It was dark we could not take any photo so we got to wait until the weekends to upload some photos of the rendered facade. Its already look different in the dark can't wait to see it during daylight.

Photos to be updated on the weekends :))

And... not much of progress

Not much progress on the tiling since Thursday we met with Rick the tiler. They only completed the floor tiles. Assume they need to wait for the floor tile to settle for few days before they step over and continue tiling. Guess we were too excited to see the completed tiling so soon :)) 

We noticed the down pipes were installed (must have been just yesterday) and bags of render was delivered and placed at the garage. Does that means they going to render on Monday???? Whooooo!

Well, we took some photos of the completed external eaves that we forgot to take the other day. As we took the photos we realised another DAMAGE - there are a couple of dents on our colourbond fence on the side!! It's either the brick layer guys or the guys installed the downpipes tripped or whatever and fell against the fence. We going to bring this up with Plantation Homes to investigate and have this fixed for us. It should be an easy fix. They just need to buy new panels with matching colour and replace it.

Down pipes installed at Garage (well not fully)

External eaves completed (to be painted)

At backyard. As you can see the dent on the fence!

Close up of the dent

Done the ceiling but not the cornice at Alfresco

Same as the front porch. Cornice not yet installed

Tiles moved inside so no one can steal

Bags of render delivered and placed at the garage

Bricks are done and tiling is starting!!

This morning we met up with Rick the tiler to check on the tiles before they start the job just to ensure all tiles are correct. We supposed to meet with him on Monday but the tiles didn't get delivered on that day so it got delayed until today. So all the tiles are correct except Rick was given non updated plan and colour selection as we made a couple changes on the variation. So we had to go through with him where each tile goes. We got to say Rick was great. Professional and helpful. He explained to us about the tiling options to assist us making decision how we want the tiles laid. We are pretty glad to have him as our tiler and confident he will do a good job.

Afterwards, we had a quick look around the house before heading to work. We noticed they have fixed the bottom of the plaster niche at the Dining and installed the skirting around but then they DAMAGED the plaster walls corners!! Unbelievable, fix one thing and damage another. Rick the tiler told us not too worry about the damage as before the painting job starts the painter have this laser machine thing to scan the walls for uneven surface and patch it up before painting. So we left it and didn't bring this up with Plantation Homes.

Apart from that, we noticed the followings was completed from past week:

1. Facade completed with ugly bricks for rendering
2. External eaves completed (forgot to take photos)
3. Cedar cladding installed at front porch
4. All internal doors including the pantry installed (except for front entry door)
5. Waterproof around wet area

Soon we will be seeing the followings next on the list:

1. Render the facade
2. Stain cedar cladding, pantry door and bi fold doors to rich chocolate colour
3. Install kitchen cabinets, island bench, laundry cabinet and vanities
4. Install shelves to pantry, WIL, WIR
5. Painting the walls, ceiling and internal doors
6. Install light switches, powerpoints and lights
7. Install ducted air conditioning
8. Install garage door and roller door
9. Install gas bottles

We are pretty much at 80% completion. Just 20% to go hopefully this doesn't take too long.

Facade completed with ugly bricks (to be rendered)

Cedar cladding installed (to be stained)

Rick the tiler

Tiles delivery

Our selection of porcelain tiles and mosaic to shower niche

Glass-shell mosaic to shower niche and timber tiles for the Ensuite feature wall

Close up to Glass-shell mosaic

Mosaic for Bathroom shower (running as vertical strip)

Waterproof completed at Ensuite

Waterproof completed at Ensuite (our shower niche)

Waterproof completed at Laundry

Waterproof completed at the Bathroom

Waterproof completed at the Bathroom

Damage at the bottom of plaster niche at Dining

Damage at the bottom of plaster niche at Dining