Slow and Steady...

...wins the race?

After the last post where we thought the cornice debacle was sorted, we hit another minor hurdle. The Jazz cornices we had selected had been discontinued. A phone call from the site supervisor advised that we could now either have a smaller 75mm 3-step cornice which was similar to the Jazz, or a larger 100mm 4-Step cornice by Boral, called Cairo. He advised me the 4-step was more expensive, to which I replied, in slightly nicer terms, that I would not be paying for their mistake. I advised the supervisor that I don't mind which way we go, and I would let the builder weigh up whether it would be more cost effective to go with a smaller cornice and need to pay the ceiling fixer more to patch where the cornice doesn't cover the area the incorrectly installed cornice had been removed from, or to put the slightly larger more expensive 4-step in and cover the potential patch area. He was going to speak to the Construction Manager and get back to me.

On a visit to the house a few days later we discovered the decision had been made, although we hadn't been informed, and the new cornices were up. We were very happy to discover the 4-step had been installed, and we love it even more than the original selection!

Boral Cairo 4-Step Cornice

Master Bedroom Passage

The cabinets have now gone in, and I love, love, love my kitchen! In fact we are falling in love with our home more every time another stage progresses! 

Kitchen with Essastone Benchtops Installed

Kitchen - Before Stone Benchtops in)

Master Bathroom Cabinet

Ensuite Cabinet - Offset from each wall by 150mm to allow for towels to hang

Laundry Cabinet

The tiling is well underway, and we are really looking forward to seeing them all grouted. The best decision we ever made was tiling our ensuite floor to ceiling. Adds that little bit of luxury! 

Ensuite Wall Tiles

Ensuite Feature - 'Porcelanosa Qatar Nacar'

Master Bathroom Feature - 'Impulse Dolphin'

Laundry Floor Tiled

The painter has also started. The ceilings look even better in perfect crisp white! 

Ceilings Painted (and a better view of the Kitchen)

The Solar hot water unit is in, and the carpenter has been to hang doors and put in robe shelving. Except for our WIR which has a custom fit out, that I have booked the site measure for on Wed 02 July.

Chromagen Solar Hot Water Unit

Linen Closet - Vinyl Sliding Doors, still to be installed

Its all starting to come together now, and I'm estimating we should get the keys in late July at this stage.

Exciting times!

A Minor Setback...

...Rip out the Cornices!

With such a smooth run so far, we were bound to hit a speed bump eventually, and today was the day that bump reared its ugly head.

A quick inspection on my lunch break discovered that all the cornices had been installed. Yay.... at first. Until on closer inspection I realised that in all the areas we had paid to upgrade the cornice from standard cove to an architectural design cornice, the wrong design had been installed.

We had upgraded to have Jazz cornice installed in all the areas we had raised or created feature in the ceilings, being the entry, main living/dining/kitchen, theatre and also the games given its directly off those areas without a door to segregate it.

Jazz Cornice

Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, the wrong product arrived on site, resulting in the installation of Concerto instead.

Concerto Cornice

Whilst the Concerto is lovely, its really not the look we're going for. If it had been a close style to what we had chosen, I may have considered allowing it to stay, but with such a stark contrast, it meant a lovely little email to the builder. But not without double checking my paperwork to ensure that the prestart consultant hadn't written the wrong name down when I pointed to a style in the selection room, and that I hadn't signed it off not realising the name of the style we wanted. Luckily, we had the correct details on our documents, so the issue is at the builders end.

Concerto Profile [fridge recess]

Concerto to Bulkhead over Kitchen

Concerto to Theatre

An apologetic phone call from the site supervisor this afternoon confirmed that when the order had been placed, somehow it had been ordered as "Concerto Jazz" and with Concerto being the first name on the order, it seems the supplier, whoever accepted the delivery, and the ceiling fixers all missed the fact it should have been the other. Obviously nobody was cross checking the other addenda and variation paperwork, as it was clear as day on there! Not to worry, its not a huge issue in the scheme of things, and the cabinets are still booked to go in tomorrow, which is very exciting! 

Today also saw the front elevation receive its render, which totally changes the look of the house, and I'm getting more and more excited to see the stone cladding installed, where the render isn't applied in the below picture.

Front Elevation Render

Piers Left Bare for Stone

In other news, the deliveries seem to be coming thick and fast, with all the tiles being on site, and the beginning of the plumbing fixtures and fittings.

Plumbing Gear

Ensuite Feature Tile - Porcelanosa Qatar

Kitchen Splashback Tile 

Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to see some cabinets going in!