Thought I should FINALLY get off my butt and start our own house thread here... Am a bit behind the 8 ball as our house is partially built, but better late than never eh? =)

We've had a bunch of issues with our builder to date, most of these can be read about in the building in SA thread, although I'm happy to copy and paste our entries from there into here if anyone is interested in seeing them collated for easier reading (ie, anyone interested in using this builder and wanting an accurate description of what our experiences have been, but not wanting to go through 1300 other posts to find them all). The fast version is that the SS doesn't like having ANYTHING queried, and has been extraordinarily difficult to get any form of commitment from to have any issues fixed (regardless of how big or small they may be).

We also have a blog at http://house.yeoh.info that goes through progress to date.

Will update this thread shortly with our plans and selections =) But for now, will put up the latest update pics that I posted to building in SA thread yesterday =)

front:
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back:
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gutter colour against house colour:
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The main house colour is called Dulux White Duck (quarter), with the full colour White Duck as the accent on the front bedroom. The gutter, fascias and roof are (or will be) all surfmist - no, we're not keeping the blue fascias We're also planning to have the concrete under the damp course painted to match the house so that we don't have such a stark contrast between the concrete and the render, so that will GREATLY improve the look once the paving goes in at 75mm below the damp course =)

Last night when we went back to check on what they had done we discovered a cigarette butt that had been left on one of our beautiful western red cedar windows, still lit (when it was left there, not when we found it! Very cold and already done the damage by the time we got there), and has burnt into the wood. We're both quite furious, and the SS reaction was "well, it wasn't necessarily one of the workers, it could have been anyone". So we're not sure what kind of fight we're going to have to put up to get it fixed - hoping that he accepts that it doesn't matter who did it and that he is responsible for the work site until handover... Having said that, the roofing guys on site yesterday were smoking while up on the roof doing the box gutters, the window in question is directly under the box gutter, there was no burn yesterday morning and there was a burn there when they left. Doesn't REALLY leave a whole lot of wondering who it was, really... I will update later with a pic.
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Looks great - can't believe the cigarette butt

It does look great why are they so defensive, of course it was a worker.

They're defensive about EVERYTHING. Always have been - the problems we have had have been nothing if not ridiculous. Started with our SS taking 5 days to fix a leaky water meter (at which point I gave up and had it fixed myself) and went downhill (FAST) from there. He's had a change in recent weeks and actually been helpful, although I suspect that this issue may push us back to where we were... I can only hope that it doesn't - it is clearly something that needs to be repaired.

and on a happier note, herewith house plans!!

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and the front (which you've already seen photos of, but this kinda shows my sexy door!):
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The house has been designed to be solar passive (although we are installing an air conditioner just in case we have trouble keeping the house cool enough during our Adelaide heatwaves!!). For the majority of the year we shouldn't need any heating or cooling at all. The plan is that the big wall of windows is north facing, and there will be a big, open pergola the whoe length of that wall. In the winter we should get some amazing sun in through those windows. We're installing heavy, dark, natural basalt tiles to soak up that sun and transfer the heat to the slab so that we can utilise the thermal mass to heat the house. For the summer we will have retractable shade over the pergola which will basically create 4m of eaves and ensure that no sun gets in those windows. If the slab stays cool then we can utilise the thermal mass to keep the house cool. We have several roof windows installed to create heat chimneys to remove the hot air, and really good window placement for cross ventilation.

We have also upgraded our electricals to include a whole lot of cBus automation so that we can monitor temperatures inside and out and have the roof windows automatically open when the outside is cooler than in (or if the evap aircon is turned on). We also have a heap of electricity monitoring going in so that we can track what we're using, when and where. We plan to eventually add in a bunch of PV panels for power, although that will have to wait until we've determined how much power we need to drive the house

We have 44000L of water storage on the site, and the house has been plumbed to separate grey and black water for when SA has an approved grey water system available.

We plan to open the house for sustainable house day - probably from 2011 once we have collected enough data on the performance of the house to be able to talk about how well our greening measures have worked Our builder KNOWS this, yet the SS still insists on being difficult despite how much green cred they may actually be able to get IF we were pleased with them as builders and felt the need to actually recommend them to people. At present, I'd have to recommend steering well clear.

Probably enough bombardment of info for now!! Gotta go read stories to my baby and get her off to bed for the night Will update with selections in another post =)

lol - we received the invoice today for completion of exterior walling and roofing works. This is funny because nothing has changed since my first post in this thread - ie, there IS no roof.

The SS said that the invoice was raised because the contractors said that they would be finished by today. Looks like our roof won't be on before the new year as all the tradies go on leave today as of about 4 hours ago. Head office has agreed that we don't actually have to pay it until the job has been completed in the new year.

A little bit on our selections... Will start with the kitchen.

We knew when we went into our kitchen selection interview that we wanted to make massive changes to the base kitchen that came with the house. So I decided to go in prepared. I used a 3D virtual world (Second Life) to create the kitchen that we want so that I could take a bunch of print outs with me and show them what I wanted our kitchen to look like. I've slightly updated these to include our exact selections (things like benchtop samples, handles, etc). These images and explanations below =)

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This image is an overview of the entire kitchen. The main appliances can be seen in here.

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A view of the cooking area. You can see the "appliance cabinet" to the right of the wok burner which we will be using for cooking sauces, oils and such. Anything that gets used often enough that we want to keep it out without actually having it *out* and on display. To the front of that is an opening hinged door that allows access to a spice rack (beside the fridge space in the photo).

We've upgraded most of our cabinetry to drawers with slow-close mechanisms.

Our first selection of appliances were all smeg (with the exception of a commercial wok burner that we're having installed as a secondary cooktop). The smeg cooktop was a 900mm with a fish burner. Since our selections, Smeg have discontinued these models and no longer have a 900mm cooktop with a fish burner unless you purchase an all-in-one stove/cooktop thingo. We want our oven at bench height for ergonomic reasons, so this was out. So we have had to change all of our selections to another brand to maintain a matching kitchen. We were very disappointed with this, although our new appliances should be lovely nonetheless.

The new appliances are Blanco, and comprise of:
Cooktop: 900mm BCG95XC (stainless steel with cast iron trivets and fish burner)
Oven: 900mm BOSE902X (stainless steel)
Rangehood 1 (over main cooktop): 900mm BRST90X
Rangehood 2 (over wok burner): 530mm BRU53X (stainless steel undermount - so first glance will look like only one rangehood in the place!)
Wok burner: Wards and Cookon WS-1

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This shows the island bench. In here we will have two separate single Fisher & Paykel dish drawers, one at either end of the island bench. We decided to go with this option as we have had dishdrawers since the first came out on the market. We have found that the bottom dish drawer gets used much less frequently than the top, so we wanted them both to be the top This also assists in keeping little hands away from grabbing at the dishes (our 16 month old always likes to try to help).

The sink is an Oliveri Monet double bowl, double drainer. We love the look of the undermount, although my husband isn't capable of refraining from splashing water all over the surrounding bench tops (and rarely manages to wipe it up when he does). Practicality alone called for the full sink with double drainers!

There is also an integrated rubbish bin next to the sink - on the cutlery drawer side.

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The final image shows our *real* appliance cabinet!! We have made the bench follow through into the pantry, and installed a hole in the wall between the kitchen and pantry so that our appliances (mixers, juicers, coffee makers etc) can sit in there and simply slide through to the kitchen when in use. There is a stainless steel roller-door to close it off and hide the mess =) The hole is 900mm in width.

The cabinetry will all be in high gloss white vinyl wrap (we decided against 2-pack due to our young child (potentially young children in future)). The bench tops are essastone Basmati. 30mm on the island bench with drop sides to floor, and 20mm on surrounding benchtops including into pantry. The splashback is in a black mirror finish called "stopsol grey". The colour samples are:
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that is a cool design

that is alot of work in designing the kitchen! I hope it all comes together for you.

Love that splashback! I wanted something like that for mine but couldn't afford it! I can't wait to see what it looks like in so I can decide wether or not to start saving for it!!

I'll be sure to post HEAPS of pics of it

If you like, fire me a PM once we have handover - happy to let you in for a first hand look =) We're expecting May-ish, but really that could mean whenever. Don't think we have any penalty clauses for going over in our contract

We have roof!!!

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This was early this morning. They hadn't done the front at that stage. They have done it all now!! Hubby has all the good pics from this afternoon on his camera, and have been nagging him (obviously not well enough) to get them off and put them somewhere that I can get to them

tomorrow is the capping and finishing off =) I'm amazed - I thought we'd be waiting until next year!

ho hum =)

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very nice....

hi,

are you going to have lighting down that galley like entry, if it were me i would hate to come home and have to walk down it in the dark. just food for thought

regards

MERRY CHRISTMAS

YOur house is looking fantastic! Cant wait to see your finished kitchen. If possible could you please PM me the details of where you got the splashback from and the approx cost?
Cheers,
v

Thx pugs! =)



Yes - the thought of walking down there in the night (unsecured) is also a concern to me... I'm also petrified of spiders, so generally don't go too far after dark where I can't see what I'm about to walk into

We are having lights down there, although we are also having a high fence with security gate at the front of the property, and another high gate at the front of the entry way - also secured.

All the sand - we are getting the splashback through B&M glass in Unley. Happy to pass on contact details if you want them (or they should be the first entry if you google them). I'm sorry, but I have no idea on price as it is all incorporated into our "kitchen upgrade" cost of circa $30k. Having said that, we originally went with a plain glass splashback, the slightly greenish-white one. We were not charged any extra for switching to stopsol grey. I am also very excited to see how the kitchen comes out!

more pics =) :

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I am SO rapt! Can't wait to see it with downpipes and painted fascias =)

Thanks for that i will look them up and give them a call

Hi somewoman, glad to see the roof completed. I was a bit worried that you might get a bit wet today according to the weather forecast.
Everything is looking fantastic.
Love the Surfmist roof, fascia and gutters.
I can't say how much I love the way it shows a different colour in different lighting.

Have fun and enjoy the Xmas break. Next year will be something new and exciting.
Cheers,
Jose

Thats a very sexy front of house you have there!! Love it

Thanks!! Can't wait to see how it looks with our scrumptious front door =))))

Sorry if this is a little wordy... I think the background is important..

We had many versions of our plans sent to us in the process of getting things right. Our builder sent out the "final approved version" before the slab went down. After this time, we were informed that the hot water service was required to be moved as there was insufficient room for it on the southern wall where it was previously located. They didn't send us a modified version of the plan for several weeks after this (and the PCV version number was not changed between this modified version and the previous - we have both copies). So as soon as we received the new copy of the plan, we noted that they had placed the HWS in a REALLY inconvenient location - right outside our bedroom door and in the way of our alfresco area - making it like a feature to our courtyard and highly visible from ALL living areas except my office. We contacted the builder via email, and after a bit of to and fro I received the following on September 28 2009:

"Hi Kelly,

The reason the HWS was relocated from it original position was due the size of the storage unit. The storage tank is 700mm wide and that wouldn’t allow you any access down alongside the boundary. We positioned the HWS in its current location because at that stage the rainwater tank as you mentioned was there. If you would like HWS located closer to the corner that is possible, however it can not be any close than 500mm from the corner.

Please let me know and I will pass on to the site supervisor "

Keeping in mind that we never said that a rainwater tank would be there - the tanks are our responsibility, they just drew one in for council approvals because we need a 1000L redundancy tank or something (baby brain sufferer here - not sure if this is correct terminology). We have 44000L already on site with plans to set it up to fit in with council requirements.

I responded immediately to the affirmative - yes we need it moved. I never received confirmation. Since then, this dude has left the company (we discovered this on 30 November 2009). The SS claims to know nothing about it, however he said that he would read through the emails and action accordingly. In his ever-charming style, he refused to answer just what that action may be and if it involved the move actually happening or not.

So moving on to yesterday. We went out to take a look at our house and we were very surprised to find the gas fitter guy there setting up all the pipe work! Yay!! However, he had already drilled the holes through the external walls for the gas lines - including the HWS in the BAD location. We informed him of the move to the right location, and so he just drilled another hole and ran the line through there. The problem being that the external walls have already been fully rendered and painted, so now there will need to be a patch.

I'm worried on several fronts... How well do these patches come up - will it look awful? Since the SS didn't follow through and tell the tradies about the move, who holds responsibility for it? Them (because we have the agreement in writing?) or us (because we had the tradesman move the point despite the contract plans that he was given)?

The drainage plumbing (underground plumbing) has also been put in the wrong location, however this should be relatively easy to move. Even then, I'm a bit (ok, a LOT) miffed that they chose the new location without consent from us, and certainly without any signatures to that effect.

Cheers!