Wow thought I was looking at a picture of my own foyer! That's exactly how mine look, same colour pretty much, same size as well...I see your haze, but I know what you mean it's hard to see on photos. It's worst in the front foyer because of the light coming in from the door. Are all of your tiles like that?

Yes every single one .... the Tile Council chaps even tested one of the spares and it was the same The giveaway is the packaging .. as I have said before/elsewhere.

It appears good as the one in 'Beaumont tile' shop!.

Very shiny. I felt it was on David Jones.

yeah, I think I agree with Apue - the tiles look good (at least in the photo!). I read somewhere that tilers pick out the ones with haze, then bundle them all together in a batch which gets sold at a cheaper rate (but the haze is therefore consistent across the batch). I would have to see them in person myself to know if I didn't like it or not. But certainly people on that other thread I posted were not happy. Not sure much can be done about it though... McLaren knows more about it than me.

Was the haze visible when you made the tile selection?

I didnt notice a haze when I chose the tile. When we picked it Andrew said he had picked the same one for his place but didn't mention that he had the same problem when we asked him about it. Guess I'll look into it further.

Sounds like everyone's builds are going well which is good to hear

oooooh - we might have the same tile! 600x600 Caesarstone #M0601. Does that ring a bell? (Slight stoney / caesarstone look, little speckles). I loved it when I saw it, but that was back in .... mid last year sometime

T,
Those photos are McLarens tiles, blockbuster was saying hers looked the same, I could see the haze they are talking about 2-3 tiles in from door, it definitely looks hazy, it is making me worried, I wonder if it shows more on a lighter or darker tile

Quite possibly! 600 x 600 and sort of a greyish colour.

Yes ours are awful but if you can check the packaging that should tell you if it's a bone fide product:-

The tiles are not 1st quality product if they do not have:
a manufacturer's name or trade mark,
a work size,
the country of origin,
whether they are glazed or unglazed,
rectified or whether they are modular or non modular,
the mark of 1st quality,
or the type of tile and reference to the conforming Standard.

Hi Zenner
Questions about working drawing etc.

Can we change the plan layout after the drawing and BASIX were submitted for CDC?
Do we normally resubmit when the position of building is changed?

I am not entirely sure about CDC, but I expect internal layouts could change but not external and not position of the house footprint. (Is this because of your tree)? BASIX could be affected if you chance windows etc. Far better to get the right external plans and windows now. As they say... a stitch in time saves nine... But then again I did Council approval. It might be different for CDC, in that provided any changes are still compliant within CDC you might be OK.

quick question for any plumbing experts (I am thinking of gogo here

Does anyone know whether you need extra outlets for the dishwasher? We assumed you needed two outlets each for the kitchen sink and then dishwasher beside it. Here is a photo of our plumbing rough-in for the kitchen sink. A dishwasher is supposed to go beside it. What do you think? Do they both utilise the two outlets or are we missing some?

[ img ]

Hi Sunshine
I've been following your build. Love your outlook through big glass.
Re: plumbing outlets... I was looking at our place and it looks like they utilise the same hot/cold points and drainage.

Yes, I believe one cold outlet is fine. The height wise it seems correct.
They put an 'T' shape extension tap after the first tap for the dishwasher. Even my new APT, it's got only one cold outlet then extended for the dishwasher. We even extended the one tap for a filtered water tap.

Thanks Apue. I hadn't thought about filtered taps. I just asked DH and he said yep, definitely want that. Great - he could have told me earlier! As for one cold outlet to the dishwasher, so does that mean you only have cold water in your dishwasher? Shouldn't it be hot as well?

AFAIK, most dishwashers require only cold water tap.
It uses electricity to heat up the water. So you'll need a power point under sink.
I wish to know if there is a dishwasher to use 'Hot water' which will save some energy cost.

hm... I hadn't realised it was electric hot water Apue (we haven't had a dishwasher until now in this rental, so I am going to see if I can see behind it to check). We have already allocated a powerpoint there for the dishwasher, but I assumed that was to run the dishwasher. Just goes to show I had no idea!

Sunshine,
All dishwashers run off cold water and heat the water using electricity, you can do the same with washing machines and run purely off cold water but the machine heats up the water if you want a warm or hot cycle, however most people connect to hot and cold water as it is more energy efficient(I think )
You don't need an extra pipe for filtered water they just put a connection off your main water pipe.

thanks gogo! confirmation much appreciated. clearly I had no idea

good news on all the plumbing advice above means that our plumbers look like they are 95% done (they worked 2-3 days). Only thing left is to attach shower pipes in powder and raise shower roses to 2.2m (which was our fault as we specified 2.0m but now height phobic DH wants them higher. We are also going to have those wide shower heads which are heavy so drop down, whereas most shower heads can easily be adjusted up, hence the height issues with DH at 6/4" ). Deck and roof due to happen next week for us, here's hoping!