Our Bountiful Beauty: September 2014

...well, the floors anyway!

The tilers have been and gone, and boy are we happy! They still need a real vacuum to get rid of the dust and probably a good few mops to get rid of the final grout haze, but they look great already!

Crosby Timber Tiles in 'Cherry'

We are super glad we made the decision to continue the tiles out into the alfresco, and absolutely love the effect it gives! The whole place looks even bigger, which we didn't think would happen either, so we've been pleasantly surprised by that!

The stonework was also finished today, and we hold high hopes that the painting to the front elevation will happen tomorrow.

Archistone Cleft Face Stone in 'Colorado'

Our carpets are also going in tomorrow, so we're excited to see how they look!

We want to move in next Friday, so I asked the builder to issue the final claim, and have sent that off to the bank so they can get the final valuation arranged and the funds cleared in time for us to get keys next week. We're now sitting with bated breath, hoping the final items will be done before the inspection so we don't have to cancel moving trucks and annual leave.

I have a meeting with the site supervisor tomorrow morning so will be giving him a little rev up if needed.

Fingers crossed it may not be needed...

Stay tuned!

...Part II

After I gave the Builder "The List", I was expecting a call to meet on site, and go through each item. I was also fully expecting that when we did meet on site, that I would be met with many excuses and a lot of the builder trying to convince me that the items on the list were acceptable industry standard.

To my surprise, no phone call or meeting was forthcoming, until earlier this week, and was really a result of us telling the builder we have our floor tiler organised to go in next week and that the builders trades were not going to be allowed access while they were there.

All of a sudden, the builder decided we need to do a Practical Completion walk through, to cover themselves against any damage our trades may cause. Totally understandable, and probably the smartest organisational decision they've made through the whole process!

So, I met with the site supervisor, and the construction manager on site yesterday. I don't know how they ordinarily carry out the walk through's, but this meeting was run by me. I took my list, and I walked through the entire house checking off item by item. The supervisor then transposed any items which were still outstanding onto his official PC paperwork for us both to sign at the end of the meeting.

I was pleasantly surprised that there was very little complaint about the items I had listed. By this stage, I suspected they were going to do the majority of them anyway, as if they wanted to argue the point and get around any of them, it would have been brought up for discussion prior to now, but I still went armed with my industry standard info, just in case!

All in all, the list is much smaller than it started off, and to be fair, the items that have been attended to so far did happen quite quickly and are of a satisfactory standard.

The way we see it, the Builder wouldn't present these items in one of their display homes, so why should we accept it in our home.

The external works are still in progress, but most of the internal works are now done, with the exception of some minor painting issues to be remedied.

The stonework hasn't yet been completed as the contractor wasn't provided enough stone to complete the works, but the additional product is now on site and waiting for another fine day to complete the works.

The garage door has been installed though, and its looking exactly as we envisioned, which is always a good thing!

Centurion Garage Doors - Leeuwin Profile in Cedar

The small amount of paving we have in a path down the side of the house from the Laundry, and in the portico have also gone in.

Looks better close up without all the yellow sand on top!

Most importantly though, the Pièce de résistance has been installed. Our fantastic robe fitout from the gang at Lifestyle Wardrobes went in on Thursday, and we are thrilled with it. Well, by we, I mean "I". I love it, the husband probably doesn't have any strong feelings one way or another! I can't wait to stack all my pretties on the shoe shelves!