Home Stretch

Hello buildees,

Since this post a week ago, there have been some positive developments, with most of the outstanding items completed, and the rest hopefully sorted over the next few days. On top of that, we have been verbally advised of a PCI date of next Monday 18th of April!

We're being cautious about getting our hopes too high about, well, anything really, until the PCI actually happens and we know the outcome, plus that of the council inspection and the private inspection we're organising. Nevertheless, it's nice to finally feel closer to the home stretch.

Here're some recent pics following the internal and external cleans.

Hope you are all getting some joy on your builds.

Lets Blog about our Bog

Hello buildees,

It's been a few weeks since we last had cause to report any progress, and thanks for your interest Rachael and Shayne.

At the start of the week, Sandrine lost her rag with Metricon over the absurd resourcing (1 painter for 6+ weeks), mediocre progress over the last month, promised milestones missed and no communication. (Funny, that sounds much like the experience most of you are also having with your builds!) After many attempts to reach our SS and not hearing back, Sandrine contacted our CSR to voice our concerns and try and get the matter escalated. The responses to this included statements such as "...this is Metricon's policy...", "...resources are allocated on a case-by-case basis..." and "...we at the office have no idea as to where your build is up to" (are you serious?). Hence losing the proverbial rag.

Within 24 hours we were contacted by the construction manager who manages the site supervisors. Although his tone wasn't entirely sympathetic, we did see a marathon effort this week compared to that of the last few months. Way to go, wife!

So, summary of progress this week:

• Painting completed
• Tiling completed (some coloured grouting remains)
• Plumbing - toilets, baths, taps  - installed and connected
• Electrical - downlights, power points, air-con ducts
• Downpipes installed

Here are the pics. Wishing everyone a good week!

Stained stair rails and front pivot door

Downlights and the stained bifolds



Downlights and batons over island bench for post-handover pendants



Kitchen bulkhead downlights



Kitchen mixer



Ensuite feature tiles complete. Waiting on grouting and shower head.



Ensuite bathtub



The girls test-drive their bathtub



Whoops #1 - Stair light misfire



Whoops #2 - Another stair light misfire

Whoops #3 - Gas main takes a bow(!!)

Network ports and FTA socket for family room
( The only reason this picture got through is because The Mrs is not authoring this post ;)

Friday update- Tiling progress

We went for an early tiling stalking session..arrived there just after 7am and our painter had already been working for some time. He was sanding the stairs getting the wood ready for staining.

He believes that there are about two more weeks left of painting work to be done. Two weeks, soo ssllllowwww.

We called our SS to get an update for what was scheduled for next week.

Tilers are now due to finish on Saturday. Shower niche left to be tiled and a little around the window of the kitchen and then grouting in all areas. Raises the question, if so little is left till its finished makes you wonder why they didn't just finish it yesterday or return today to complete..tomorrow it is..

After tiling are done then shower screens will be ordered.

Chris our painter will be around for the next couple of weeks completing all the paint work.

Which reminds me that I called the office today to question the lack of resources at hand...no call back as yet.

Then fitters, electricians and plumbers, wait, correction it will be one electrician and one plumber with one tool that they have to share. Will be on site after painting.

Also at that time the painting of the render will be done.

Here are some pics from today, really really happy with our colours!

Now what kind of pendants to order for the kitchen..time for shopping:)

Main bathroom feature wall
Ensuite feature shower wall
With niche waiting to be tiled
Powder room tiling
Close up of mosaic tiles
Our kitchen window, some tiling left to be done tomorrow
My kitchen, love love it
Love how the colours work together

Have a nice weekend everyone...

Stop, start, stop start tiling

After the poor effort of the tilers last week. We called our SS and we were told that the tiling would be finished by this Thursday...a little hard to believe after that 'one' tile effort on Saturday.... I went to do some tiler stalking today to see how the progress was going...

I was greeted by our painter who was not impressed as the tilers were a no show again today.

Initially the tiling was supposed to be finished last week, and they apparently haven't showed up since Monday.

The painter has to work around them, doing bits of painting and staining of our front door and bi fold doors. When the tilers come back he goes away and comes back again as they cannot work in unison because of the dust issue.

This stop start is such a waste of time and is driving me bonkers!!!

Word is that if the tilers are offered cash in hand for a job, they will not show up for a builders job and go for the $$.

So far they have tiled the powder room floor tiles- no feature mosaic around the mirror as yet and no grouting of the floor tiles.

• Tiling of the laundry is nada, no wall or floor tiling.
• Ensuite wall and floor tiling is done - no feature tiling of the shower wall and no grouting.
• Main bathroom floor tiling done, bath hob done, no grouting and no feature mosaic tiling on the shower wall.
• No tiling done in the kitchen

We were told by our SS that there is not much we can do about it...we are feeling a little deflated and the excitement of moving into our house is being over shadowed by the lack of communication and the lack of wanting our house to be completed asap. At least that's how we feel.

Its been 14 months since we started this process and we desperately want to be in our new home!!!!

For anyone about to sign up with Metricon and have one of the consultants pushing you to sign up with the latest promotion before the promotion ends..and promise you to be in your new house in 7 months time...it takes Metricon 7 months just to get the contract and the final drawings ready, then its another 7 to 8 months for construction, then factor in the rain and other things they throw into the bag...Sorry for the rant. But all you fellow buildees understand...

Here are a few pics from today..

Powder room floor tiling

Main bathroom tiling, but no feature wall tiling yet...

Main bathroom bath hob

Ensuite wall and floor tiling

Ensuite bath hob

Feature wall tiling not yet done...

Close up of ensuite wall tile.

It's not the quantity, it's the quality...

Hi everybody, hope you've had a good week.

We did the usual drive-by of the house on Saturday morning only to find it quieter than a library. Interestingly, we were inspired for a second detour that way during the afternoon and were pleased by the sight of a couple of tilers on site ... well, eating their lunch in the garage at least.

So I wandered inside to inspect, and found that the first solitary tile (in the whole house) had been laid between the late morning arrival and breaking for lunch - hilarious!

Still, at least good to see that more paining has been done, all the tiling surfaces have been prep'ed and loved seeing this luminous glow effect at the entrance through the opaque glass.

That's all for now. Good luck for the week ahead everyone.

Wednesday update-Painting continues, caesarstone installed

Went to the house bright an early this morning @ 7:15am, for an appointment with our painter. This mtg was scheduled after a phone call late Tuesday night with our SS to question one of the colours on the stairs...

The painter picked up a mistake made by Studio M!! They had our stairs with the dark oak stain for the hand rails and 2 bottom risers as well as the zig zag pattern on the side of the stairs which was all OK. But the bottom hand rail as Dulux Lexicon Quarter not the dark oak stain as it should have been. I'm very grateful that the painter questioned this on his sheet, instead of just painting it anyway. It would have looked awful and I would have gone totally bonkers!! Just ask Craig :)

After this almost disaster, OK slightly exaggerating a little..... was rectified, we had a quick look around the house..

This is what has been done so far since my last post...

All the ceilings throughout the house have been painted, as well as the undercoat of the downstairs and upstairs areas. Architraves, skirtings and cornices also under coated. He started on the doors today, and will continue that till the end of the week. As well as staining of the stairs and all the wooden doors, including our front door.

Will have to make a trip back on Friday to check out what the stairs look like stained. We wont have all the stairs stained, as it will be carpeted for the kids safety. Afraid that now that we have two kids, some of the 'oh that would look so fab' factor has to take a back seat over, 'oh the kids might slip down the stairs' factor. Will still look fantastic, I hope.

Caesarstone benchtops have been installed in the kitchen, bathrooms, powder room and laundry,all looks great. We went for Osprey with all the Concept Oak cabinetry and 'Ivory' for the kitchen benchtops. Thought that it might be too white, with the white cabinetry and wanted something a little warmer. Sinks have also been installed in all the wet areas. Except for the main bathroom.

Cardboard stuck on the bench tops for protection

A lift of the the cardboard reveals the beautiful 'Ivory' colour caesarstone bench tops

The splashback mosaic tiles for the kitchen, can't wait to see these up

The kitchen sink

Laundry sink
Laundry, wishing that I had more cabinetry here, will do that after handover.

Ensuite sinks and bench tops, just beautiful..

Powder room sink and bench top

As we were leaving the truck came to deliver the sand for the tilers tomorrow. Can't wait to see the tiles. Very anxious to see that all my colours are coming together.

Watch this space for the next update:)

Fixing and water proofing

After a week of not much happening, we have some things booked in for this week and next week...

Week before last they started on the fixing, kitchen and installing the ensuite, bathroom and powder room cabinetry as well as the laundry. The doors and architraves were installed and cornices and skirtings were completed.

We met with our SS on site last Friday (for the first time in 6months). He mentioned that the Caesarstone people will be coming to the house this week to measure up for the bench tops, and they will be fitted in the next week or so..

We are missing a few doors, they ordered the wrong doors for the powder room and butlers pantry..they are supposed to be the upgraded ceiling height, the ones delivered are standard height.

They also ordered the wrong doors for our master bed. This has held up the tiling in these areas as they cannot do the tiling before the doors and architraves are on.

I understand that the tiling cannot be done for the powder room..however this should not hold up the tiling start for the kitchen and ensuite bathroom..i'm quite annoyed about this!

So instead of the tiling starting this week. The painter started this morning and will work this week on the undercoat throughout the house. Then the painter has another job to finish at the end of this week, not sure when he will be back. Guessing that the painter and tilers cannot work side by side, due to the dust when cutting the tiles.???

What I don' t understand is why they have only one painter for a double storey house. Come on Metricon, you can do better than this.

We haven't been given an exact date on when tiling is due to start, we hope that when they start they stick with us till its finished and don't go to another job.

Our SS will not give an approx date for completion, his response is that once painting and tiling is finished, he will then be able to give us a realistic estimate for completion. The frustration there is that we cannot give a tentative date for all the post handover things that we need to organise. Arghhh.

Ensuite cabinetry. Love the Concept Oak colour! Think it will look great with our osprey Caesarstone bench tops.

The bath hob will be tiled in the same colour as the wall tile.

Missing door to our Master bedroom. We need this door to keep the kids out:)

The main bathroom, our girls bathroom

Powder room, will have feature mosaic tiles around the mirror.

Other than that we had a great weekend with great friends and cannot wait to entertain our friends and family in our new house. We know that it will all be worth it!!

Our 4 year old daughter got her first valentines present...yes at four years old!! Will have to build a big gate to keep the boys away :)