Thanks Duke.
I'm not particularly keen on having the vent in the ceiling, but if that's what the rules say, then I suppose I'll have to get used to it.

Any news on your ceilings? I'd still like to see your plans and elevation drawings to see what's going on there. I was looking at all the ceilings in my place when we were up there yesterday. Our walk in linen and pantry are both 28c, the same height as the rest of the house.

What stage are you at, and where are you building?

We just happened to drive past a Granite showroom over the weekend... n i was tempted to have a look. Oh the benches were looked so gorgeous so much better than the CS tho'. I thot only if we cud afford it. Luckily I had the drawings in the car, n the sales guy said he can quote me. I was surprised, I cud get 40 mm Premium Granite with bull nose just for the same price of 30 mm CS. or just a couple $100s more.
Do u think it woud be oK do granite ?? I mean wud DAH negotiate to let other tradies in for installation ??

They may or may not let them in. Just read your contract because it does state in there somewhere that if you supply anything or have anything installed yourself, it needs to be insured. It would suck big time if you had your benchtops installed and some ahole came in and stole them or smashed them.

When we went to the seminar up at DAH, they did talk about the process that has to happen to let other trades in. There are forms and stuff that need to be filled in. I *think* that whoever goes in has to have a blue card or green card or whatever it is because its a building site. I can't remember the logistics of it as I knew we wouldn't have to worry about it.

What stage are you at now, OH? Has your prestart been finalised?

Just a quick update from me too - as always, the CLO was quick to respond to my email this morning. SS has given us responses to all of our issues. He and CLO are booking in meeting times tomorrow, so our tiling/lockup meeting is not far away.

Oh ok, such a big headache...Yes the sales rep did mention about $100 + 1% for material value for Insurance which wud be good enough. Any way we'll bring it up @ Prestart n see what they have to say.

We had to get a written consent from our immediate neighbour as we'll be having Zero width boundary wall which means removing his fence until our garage comes in. So thats done without a hassle.
We have to read and sign the 3copies of the drawings and contract n submit to DAH, I suppose prestart would be within 3 wks time. Fingers crossed !!

Emailed a batch (3) issues through to CLO today - they are pretty good at getting onto these things quickly (fingers crossed as I don't want to jinx it given we are so close to the end!)

Render colours are:

Main Render: Solver Lundy Grey
Contrasting Render: Solver Smokey Grey
Gutter: Solver Pompei Ash
Fascia: Solver Lundy Grey
Window Frames: Silver Lustre
Roof Cover: Colorbond Loft

Here is a better photo of the colours (obviously identical to the Lakeview display):
[ img ]

The tiling came out looking good. We needed to use the metal beading strips on the edge of the piller as it is not possible to get a clean finish with the glass mosaic tiles (We wanted the edges mitred) - I think the strips actually make it stand out a bit more, and will match well with the future shower screens. If I had my time again though I would probably just use 100% matching mosaic tiles on the piller - like in the Nautilus display.

RE: the gap under the island bench - it is on the plans as 10mm, and thats what it is, so I won't complain about that - I think it looks worse in that photo as I was standing on the very low sand outside the house - when standing next to the bench it isn't as noticable. Might be something worth checking on your plans (if you are having a kitchen bench like ours and the displays) if you do want a smaller gap (I think 5mm would look perfect) - it is shown on the kitchen elevations section. I am thinking about using it to my advantage and running some neutral colour LED strip lights through both boxed ends and across the back of the bench to give it some wow factor! What do you think?

Nah, our bench is totally different. We didn't think we'd be able to afford stone to start with, but managed to get it on. 20mm on both island and back benchtops. DP was a bit worried about the look of it, but after seeing 20mm in other displays he's happy with it.

We did notice the strip on the pier, I like it. We did notice that you haven't gone hobless. Again, DP really likes the look of the hobless showers, so we've got them in both bathrooms. I was going to say something else, but I can't remember what it was

Got a phone call from SS today. He's on to it all as usual. After a bit of poking around, the missing power point has been found. The shower outlets will be fixed when the plumber goes back. The misaligned window was apparently caused by it becoming 'unclipped'.. there are now a couple of gouges out of the plaster where he has played with it, so plasterers and renderers will be back to fix that up.

He said lockup will happen next Friday (THIS Friday we think!). Then hopefully tile meeting the week after.
It's nice to think we're going on to the next stage.. but of course it means we won't be able to get in anymore!

I think we are very much like yourselves, we've had issues (most of them very minor) but CLO has always replied promptly, and SS has called us to reassure us. Everything seems to be dealt with very quickly, which is the most important thing.

Excitement is still creeping up again

Our house spec actually included hobless showers, we chose to remove them (so to speak) and have the hobs instead. I like the look of them and think it provides a nice transition on the tiling between the bathroom and the shower, but most people are the opposite . Plus I seem to be overly cautious regarding all things flooding.

I'm beginning to think DAH (and trades) must have had one heck of a big End-of-financial-year party - as there doesn't seem to have been any movement at the house this week. Its a pity to waste such beautiful sunshine! ... maybe they don't like working in the cold

Actually...I lie (sorta) - the Telstra people have obviously been as we now have a Telstra box on the wall near our power meter. Hoping against hope that I can get good quality ADSL at this house. ADSL2 is out of the question as we are on a sub-exchange (stupid Telstra) and worse still we have no fibre in the estate (that I am aware of) and seem to be in one of the known blackspots for Vivid wireless (Little bubble of 'no-coverage' seems to surround my house!)... Maybe it just wasn't meant to be. When I move in you all may never hear from me again!

Well, it appears we had a brick clean today. A few mortar joins that will need to be fixed up, and a quick glance found 2 bricks with deep ridges/ruts in them at the base of the double sliding doors to the alfresco.

They've done a bit of a clean up inside (read: quick sweep which included sweeping dust and crap into the bath dig out, which is already murky with the rains we had a couple of months ago).

The door delivery people turned up while we were there. We received our invoice for lock up 2 days ago which stated "due for lockup on 29th June".. the first time we've received an invoice when it hasn't 'reached' the stage yet. According to SS lockup should be tomorrow.

Also had a couple of other visitors in the past couple of days. SS dug around and found the missing GPO near the gas bayonet connection in the living room. Plasterers/renderers were back to patch up the non-conduit conduit point, the 'unclipped' window frame in Bed 2, and the patch of chipped wall near the missing gpo.
Welders have been to grind down the yukky looking weld join on the alfresco pier.


P1T, like you, we are hoping like mad that we can get decent ADSL. We're moving to a newer part of the suburb we're already in, but will be on a different exchange that apparently doesn't have ADSL2. Our home based business started trading today and we absolutely HAVE to have the internet to be able to do our work. If we can't get ADSL, we'll have to go mobile broadband Fingers are very tightly crossed!

I know what you're talking about P1T. We're currently enjoying the benefits of BoB, but when we eventually make it into the new house no more ADSL2 for us

In other news, got a call from DAH today to say that our council approval has come through, so now it just needs to be 'processed' (whatever that means???) then we might have some siteworks hopefully in the next few weeks. Yippie!!! Finally some light at the end of the paperwork tunnel

Wondered where you were, Lis! Everyone keeps saying it, but yes, you're slowly getting closer!

I personally think it is absurd that the thriving newer suburbs have such poor connectivity in place for 'reasonably priced internet' - so not talking about Telstra fibre here (dont have that many $$$ to invest each month) - The old Sub-exchanges (that most of the new suburbs run from) need to be upgraded!

Glad to see things are moving for you Lis, and you Oceanus - the doors are an exciting part of the process, yet somewhat sad because you cannot get in anymore. In my experience the doors semi-frequently get left open at night, so when I go down in the evenings (4-5PM) I always check.

On that note, I got in last night and it seems I was a little premature in my comments about DAH trades not liking the cold. The plumber had been yesterday to move things towards completion, meaning we now have all our tapware installed, and our showers (which look AWESOME!) - I got a heap of better pics so I will need to update my blog tonight.

One observation is that our kitchen sink mixer is massive - it is ALOT taller than what we thought it would be, not sure if it is just perception or not though... will let you all give me some advice later

Just took a ** peek at your blog P1T and it's all looking great Really like the idea of the shower nook - wish we'd put those in.
I haven't even started the physical build yet and already I'm coming across some 'coulda-shoulda-woulda's'

Well had my first F-up that I am aware of!

Was told the blue colour was originally and undercoat but some deeper digging revealed it was in fact the final colour. So told them that I want it corrected because the house is meant to be an olive green colour and a darker version of that for the mouldings. So hopefully that will be fixed.

Think I am going to get a building inspector to have a look at the house at the PCI with me, any recommendations SOR?

P1T Looking really good, really like the Nautilus might look into it for my next build

Cheers

Hi duke

Just catching up on our thread and noticed you're not sure about your pantry ceiling height - at pre-start I asked DAH that my pantry, WIR, linen cupboards and even built in robes ceilings must be at 28c. As standard they are at 25c - you just need to ask them and make sure that this is noted on the drawings and in the pre-start variation - there's no charge to have these ceilings changed to 28c... hope this helps

Just got a call from Prestart Admin. Its booked for 20th Jul 9am...
Need to look back into my notes ....excerpt from all DAHers experiences ..

OwnHome I recommend you ask your sales rep and get the addenda for Nautilus and the one you are selecting your front elevations colours.

Go through these addendas - make sure you know what you want as it will take forever at pre-start if you are not decided.

I did the same - had transferred one addenda in excel format then added my selections against each line - that was my check list.

Another thing to consider is the electrical - some of us added JB (junction boxes) in the ceilings for future downlights after handover – consider conduits for future network cabling, multiple switches, and conduits with box for A/C, Intercom and Alarms controls, etc etc.

There is a lot of info re pre-start on H1 threads which did help me a lot.

And whatever you do make sure you have your b/fast before you go to DAH 

Thanks Bagheera, Will email for the addenda now. we have added a few bits n pieces on our electrical drawing, will upload tonite to get some feedback.
Only thing is I'm still waiting on the granite guy & Stegbar wardrobe fitouts for the quotes

Hi!
I posted ages ago... and just thought I'd pop back in and say 'Hi!' Hope all the builds are going well... huge progresses on a lot of the builds since I last looked in... exciting times!!

A big thank you to all you for sharing your experiences here... I've picked up so many helpful hints and tips!!

We're building in Baldivis... still waiting on the titles to be released *sigh* It's been ages... the developer said April... and I'm beginning to wonder whether they have a different calendar to the rest of us! lol
We've had our pre pre-start... and I guess we're just waiting for the titles before we can move on.
I'm having a great deal of trouble deciding what tiles I like... whether to have the Ceasarstone or Granite... the list goes on... I think there's far too much for me to think about all at once! lol

are you building with DAH?