Counting down 7 days to handover :))

It is an official counting down 7 days until the day we receive our keys to our new lovely home. It has been such a journey from the day we first met Plantation Homes in February 2013. Mostly are on the good sides, no major problem with Plantation Homes. Happy overall, just can not wait to hold the keys in our hands!

Early this morning we had another quick site visit with Andy as he would like check with us with the kitchen island cabinet and the light point at Master Suite WIR that we mentioned. So the cabinet maker has fixed the island cabinet height by cutting from the bottom (instead of re making a whole new cabinet) and it looks MUCH better having it at very similar height to the rear bench (approx 20mm difference). On the other hand, while we were at the kitchen we saw the glass splash back has been installed but guess what? It's NOT the same colour as the sample we got from Cosham Studio!! We showed Andy the sample piece which has the colour sticker name 'Russian Toffee Sparkle' and our colour selection document actually says 'Russian Toffee Mirror Flake'. So Andy is going to investigate and get back to us. He said if this an error they need to break the whole glass splash back and order new splash back which could take up to 10 days. Oh my my.

Issues aside, Stegbar has installed our shower screens, towel rails, vanity basins, mixers, shelves, door handles and removed the clear frosted sticker thing on the windows. Now you can actually see inside of the house from outside clearly. While we were on site, the fly screen man came to install the fly screens so I guess not much left to be done.

Pretty much we are at 98% completion. Next Monday we will meet with Andy again and the painter to go through the touch up. This is where we need to carefully inspect every corner of the walls and tell the painter where to touch up.

1. Painting internal walls - COMPLETED
2. Install island bench, shelves to WIL and WIR - COMPLETED
3. Install Master Suite door - COMPLETED
4. Install front entrance door and stain to rich chocolate - COMPLETED
5. Install kitchen and laundry sink - COMPLETED
6. Install shower screens, bath tubs and vanities - COMPLETED
7. Install kitchen and bathroom taps/shower head - COMPLETED
8. Install fly screens to windows - COMPLETED
9. Install light switches, powerpoints and lights - COMPLETED
10. Install ducted air conditioning - COMPLETED
11. Install garage door and roller door - COMPLETED
12. Install solar hot water bottle - COMPLETED
13. Install gas bottle - PENDING
14. Electrician to move the ceiling light point at WIR to centre - PENDING
15. Andy to advise about the glass splashback - PENDING
16. Andy to advise about the dent on the fence - PENDING
17. Install the last toilet suite - PENDING
18. Install exhaust fan at PDR - PENDING
19. Install window corner frame at front - PENDING
20. Install skylight at Media - PENDING
21. Install laminate piece at microwave - PENDING
22. Install laminate frame under kitchen cupboard - PENDING

 



Ensuite

Ensuite

 

Ensuite



Master Suite WIR

 

Shelves now in the bedroom robes

PDR. Obviously the guys has been using our toilet!

 

 

Bathroom

 

Double towel rail at Bathroom

 

Island bench now at similar height to rear bench

Our incorrect colour splash back. It looks more cream in reality

From the backyard

Side of the house

Our solar hot water

Quick inspection with site supervisor

This morning we met up with our site supervisor, Andy, to inspect around the house as we have a few questions. So Andy advised most of our concerns will be addressed at the final building inspection that's when they go around the house and check every corner if there is something needs to be fixed it will be fixed at the inspection. And about our Master Suite door got delayed until now was because wrong door height was delivered so they had to send it back and apparently these doors were from Melbourne so it took sometimes to get new door in.

Walked around the house did not see a lot was done. Shower and bath mixers got installed at Ensuite and the bathroom only has the bath mixer installed . Still pending for shower screens, vanity basins, shelves and toilet seats to be installed. These will be done by Stegbar and they are booked on 26 June if I heard it right. One of the subcontractor who drilled a hole into the wall tile to install the shower mixer at the bathroom he actually cracked the tile and wrote 'sorry' for the tiler (lol). Well, here come the tiler again :)

So finally our kitchen and ensuite/bathroom caesar stone bench top got installed but guess what!? Our kitchen island cabinet was made at incorrect height!!! Yes, INCORRECT HEIGHT! It was hard to tell when the kitchen cabinet installed until the caesar stone bench top go in then you can immediately see the island bench top is a lot higher than the rear bench top. Approx 30mm difference in height. Apparently, this was the cabinet maker error that they did not refer to the amended drawing that Plantation Home sent and went with the original drawing. So now they have to rip the cabinet apart (keep the island bench top of course) and install new cabinet. On the good side, Andy assured this will not delay our handover date on 3rd July :)

A couple of more photos will be added shortly.

Ensuite shower mixer installed

Caesar stone bench top installed. Pending for vanity basins and mixers

Bath mixer installed. The mixer is a bit long and stick out a bit :(

And finally Master Suite door installed (unpainted)

Garage door installed. The door will be adjusted to touch the ground once electricity is installed.

Roller door installed

Scratched marks on door frame at Garage

Laundry sink and mixer installed

Toilet seats and towel rails to be installed

Semi recessed at Powder room installed. Pending for mixer

Caesar stone island bench and rear bench installed

As you can see the island bench is higher than the rear bench (!!)

Caesar stone rear bench installed

Posh kitchen sink installed (upgraded). Pending for mixer

We got a HANDOVER date !!!

We thought the call we received today from our administrator was about some minor issues that we raised but she actually have a good news for us - our handover date will be 3rd July! Whooohooo! We are certainly excited that its so much earlier than our initial thoughts. So that is 3 weeks away now we need to get onto some important things such as getting quotes for driveway, landscaping, decking, security screens, curtains/blinds and also need to choose our carpet again as the carpet colour we originally chose was too dark. We need something lighter to balance out the colours of furniture we are purchasing. Andrew will be emailing us about the minor issues we raised, do hope they get something fixed before handover.

Still haven't seen much of movement since painting has completed other than solar hot water bottle, garage door and roller door installed. Bathroom items such as bath tubs, toilet seats, towel rails and shower heads are delivered but not yet installed. Still no sign of caesar stone island bench top, shower screens, master suite door and robe shelves. Pretty much only minor things left needs to be done inside. For outside, we're not sure if they going to flatten the soil around the house but let's hope they will.

And finally painting has completed!

Though it has been frustratingly slow but gladly to say the external and internal painting has now completed after an almost 2 weeks. We are happy how the colours turns out especially with the render facade as the first coat looked a bit 'pinkish' but now it looks much better. 

Our front door also got installed and stained. The only door left yet to be installed is our Master Suite. Not sure what is the delay to have this installed.

Not much of a progress other than receiving a text from Origin advising our LPG solar hot water bottle is scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday.

Yesterday, we shoot an email to our administration mentioning a few things we noticed while inspecting the house. Nothing major just things such as alfresco door not locking probably (the frame might be made incorrectly), door to garage makes squeaky sound when opening/closing, paint chips on gutter at front, a metal mesh thing stick out at top of render porch, electrician poked a hole at Laundry to install the light switch at WRONG HEIGHT (higher than all other light switches), etc. So hopefully these get fixed before the handover.

Now back to the waiting game for the followings to be installed:

1. Painting internal walls - COMPLETED
2. Install island bench, shelves to WIL and WIR - PENDING
3. Install Master Suite door - PENDING
4. Install front entrance door and stain to rich chocolate - COMPLETED
5. Install kitchen and laundry sink - PENDING
6. Install shower screens, bath tubs and vanities - PENDING
7. Install kitchen and bathroom taps/shower head - PENDING
8. Install fly screens to windows - PENDING
9. Install light switches, powerpoints and lights - PENDING
10. Install ducted air conditioning - PENDING
11. Install garage door and roller door - PENDING
12. Install solar hot water bottle - PENDING
13. Install gas bottles - PENDING

Photos now includes completed tiling :))

Front door installed (unstained)

Front door now stained

Master Suite

Living

Ensuite with extended mirror (upgrade)

Ensuite (love the sea-shell mosaic!)

Bathroom mosaic (happy with this mosaic as well)

Bathroom

Bathroom

Bathroom

Looking out to the front door

Kitchen sink delivered a few days ago but not yet installed

Metal mesh sticking out



Paint chips on gutter