More damage and trying to settle in

This last week we have been busy moving things and trying to get settled.

This afternoon we removed the glass globes for the hallway lights from the laundry cupboard and attached them to the pendant lights.

My heart sank this afternoon (it's happened way too often with this build!!) when we pulled out the glass globes for the hallway pendant lights to find that one was broken :( So we couldn't fit the globe to the bedroom light :(

I'm extremely upset about this as I checked each and every one of them before the builder's cleaners came through, and we popped the three boxes in the top of the laundry cupboard to keep them safe. These glass globes are packed very well with a fair bit of space between the top of the box and the top of the glass globe. In order to break the glass the top of the box would have had to have been hit very hard, or it would have been opened before being hit... 

Here is a photo with the lights turned off. 

Here is my poor broken glass globe. You can see that someone has knocked it on top...

In other news we finally had the downpipe connected at the front of the house last week. Although he didn't actually connect it to the stormwater... You can see the stormwater pipe popping up in this photo. It needs to be moved around to align with underneath the downpipe and then connected. We have been promised that this will be done 'tomorrow'. We have heard the word 'tomorrow' since last week... It has been a common occurrence with this build, things will always be done 'tomorrow'. 

We are still also waiting on Melbourne Stairs to come and fix some squeaky steps between the garage and the house. The original stairs had to be replaced as they were 2mm too high to pass the building inspection. When they removed the old stairs they also had to remove one side of the skirting boards on the landing. We are also waiting for the builder to replace this. Once these stairs are fixed the builder has to arrange the stairs to the polished/lacquered. I'm a little disappointed this hasn't been done yet as I had this week off work and it would have been perfect for the stairs to be fixed this week as I could be home to arrange access for the trades. Now it will be more difficult for them to get access. 

You can also see our German Shepherd lying around here. 

Last week we also had a subfloor ventilation fan fitted. The builder had to fit these as the bricklayer placed the front ventilation grates in front of the joists/bearers so they can't actually work... Anyway, it's great that they finally fitted the fan, and I can just barely put up with the hum we hear when its running but I'm not happy about the ongoing power bill to run the damn thing! Especially because it was something we had to fit because someone many months ago stuffed up.

There are many other things outstanding which I won't go into detail with today. I think I'll reserve them for future posts! 

Hubby and I are looking forward to the day when everything the builder is supposed to do/finish is finally done so we can concentrate on other things such as landscaping. 

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Small steps and more damage

The last few weeks have been fairly slow, but then again, can we expect anything else!?

We finished the install of the split system heads in the bedrooms and downstairs as well as finished the install of the ducted reverse cycle system to the living areas and front study/spare room.

We provided these units ourselves and used our own aircon guy to finish the install and hook them up to the external units. 

This is the head in one of the bedrooms. Bad iPhone photo! For some reason the colour is off too :-/

This is the control panel for the ducted reverse cycle system. We did test out the heating and it kicks in quite quickly. The area heated up within a few minutes which is great. 

Caulking was finally done so the corners of the tiles look a lot neater now. 

Except this bit on the base of the ensuite shower where the caulker didn't smooth the silicone...

The front porch deck is finally finished so we can now get from the driveway to the front door. This is a terrible photo which makes the steps look like they're on an angle - they're not, it's just a really poor photo!

The deck off the laundry is almost finished. They still have to finish the steps from the garage down to the deck and the stairs from the deck down to the ground. You will notice that the steps overlap the window slightly. This is because there is a 200mm variance in the finished floor level of the garage and the house which meant that we had two options - have REALLY steep steps or have them overlapping the window slightly. I chose the later as 1. I don't want to fall head first down the stairs, and 2. The washing machine will (hopefully) the disguise the fact the stairs overlap the window.

We have also had our rangehood installed. The white protective film is still on it.

Not impressed that the tiles I had to import from Italy were scratched/marked during the install :'( If I want this tile replaced (they're over $200 per tile!!) I have to import it and wait 3 months :( I've tried various cleaners without luck. 

We also noticed that a chunk was knocked out of our retaining wall :( not happy! It appears that it was knocked by an excavator. We did flag this with the builder and asked that he fill the hole up as we intend on rendering that retaining wall. 

There is still a long list of things for the builder to complete and fix prior to handover. I hope my next post will show much more progress - and less damage!

Comedy of errors

The last few months we have lived by the saying "if you don't laugh, you'll cry". That has definitely been the case for us for quite some time. 

We have tried to remain positive but find it increasingly difficult given that we have encountered just about every error that is possible when building a home. 

We have heard every excuse. On occasion we have had emails unanswered. Put simply, we have had enough. 

We are building this home with the intention of it being our 'forever home'. My next home will be a coffin. Bearing this in mind we will ensure that all issues are fixed. 

I think I'll let the photos speak for themselves. 

Rain head collector spot be moved to the side if the parapet. The right hand side of the parapet to be tidied up.

Cracks appearing in front porch pillar. 

Somone didn't nail in the 'skirting timber' (not sure what it's called) on one section of the eaves. 

Cracked WIP door frame

Kitchen wall is not straight, causing the architrave to sit out. 

Rear sliding door is about 10mm out of square. 

Just some of the damaged door frames and window frames/sills

The hole for the aircon/heating vent. Someone tried to turn this into a manhole and started cutting around it. 

Damaged internal door

Wall not square. Or skirting. Unsure which...