Building the NBG Ellington 25E - Pics of kitchen & plaster

Well since my last post not much progress has been achieved. Roof was completed, bricking was finally finished, and the external doors were installed which means we're at lock up.

Unfortunately things are still moving along reallly really slowly, i keep waiting for things to pick up but it looks like things will move at this pace all the way till the finishing line. I keep trying to looks at the positive side of things and telling myself as long as the product is good i don't mind waiting that little bit extra.

Our SS is extremely slow in getting quotes back to us. We requested to get the door widened to 1m before our frame was even complete, and we did not receive the quote back until after it was installed and we were then shocked to find out it was $680 difference! is that normal? $680 for 20cm extra door?! what made me most frustrated was the fact i didn't know this until after the door was installed. I was advised by several people not to do anything until i knew the cost of it beforehand i should have listened. Its funny that when it comes to paperwork, quotes, call back it takes days and sometimes weeks, in my case months to be replied to , but the invoices for the stages of completion always seem to arrive ON THE DAY of completion, very efficient. Sorry everyone, i feel like i needed to release some of that frustration.

some of you may remember i requested to get an area of our living/dining used as a storage space, well the quote for that finally came back at $900 but without the shelving, he needs to go back and do that, i have to say im quite happy with that.

Will try to post some pics tomorrow of the doors

Sorry to hear things are still moving slowly Abbey.

How long has it taken to get to lock up so far?

Our site was scraped 13th of May and got the slab in early July. Bricking was meant to take 1.5 weeks but ended up dragging on for a month due to them running out of bricks twice. We're not getting any flooring done by them so you would think it shoudl take 18 weeks to complete the house, but he's allowed himself 30 weeks to finish it off, and the way things are going i dont know if he can get it done even in that time!

Hi Abbey,

Unfortunately sometimes the builder's admin person is slow In our case, I can't fault the builders admin person as she is superfast & efficient with everything, If we asked for a variation in the morning, we usually get the variation by noon. That said, the build time for us was anything but fast (contracted finished date was 10/08/09 i.e. over a month ago) Believe me, I have wished more than once that it was the other way around but I guess you can only take what you get.

At the end of the day, the only thing that kept us sane was the fact that the quality of the home we were getting was up to Australian Standards. We found that stressing about the delay only led to hair loss & no gain , plus it made us feel a little better that interest rates were at an all time low and that we would be getting some penalty payments knocked off the final invoice.

Why did your builder proceed with installing the bigger door without your approval? If you haven't signed any variations, you can dispute the installation and request for the original door to be installed. Do you think the door may have cost a bit more perhaps cause it had to be custom made to suit?

Would love to see some photos of your build.

Hi blessedpeople,

Our builder unfortunately doesn't seem to even have an admin person which is why paperwork and follow ups never get done. He told us at the start his wife sometimes helps out sounds like for the past few months he's been trying to juggle everything on his own, i honestly dont know much longer he can do that for.

I can't complain about the quality of work thats been done so far, which is good, i would prefer delays rather than an inferior product like you said. I honestly dont mind if hes a few weeks off the contract date (last week of november), but i definitely don't want to get to the christmas break and wait a month or two for the holidays to be over, at the rate that his tradies work we wouldn't get the house then till close to mid next year!

I haven't posted many pics due to the lack of new updates on the house, we were told we should have downpipes and clean bricks by end of this week, but went past and got dissappointed once again. These are some pics of the doors.

1. Front door


2. Internal garage door access


3. laundry door, sorry i forgot to rotate it before uploading


4. internal garage access door again


5. ready for the bath

Its looking good Abbey,

No admin person..wow...in that case your builder must be somekind of superhero to do all he does

Sorry to hear about the slow progress. We experienced the same. However, when the tradies do work, they get a lot done. But I do understand the feeling when you drive by day after day and see no progress, it does get frustrating.

To give you an idea, we had no action between slab to frame for 4-5 months. And then Frame to lockup took another 2 months with very very slow progress. I mean weeks would go by with nothing much done. And then once we got to lockup, its like things finally started moving along. Honestly, architraves, skirtings etc were all completed in less than 2 weeks. Painting took slightly less than 1 week. Tilling in 3 days.

Therefore, try not to feel too discouraged as even with the current rate of progress, from our experience above, your contract end date of November is still very much achievable. Keep your eye on the prize.

I haven't posted anything in a while because sadly again dont have much progress to report. builder was on holiday for the last two weeks and it looks like all the tradies thought it would be a good time for them take a break aswell. There were some things that were due to be finished by end of last week but nothing has been done. Husband went past this morning and found the builder there noting down what needs to be done, and discovered some bad news, looks like our house has been subjected to copper theft, and done in a really cruel way. They've gone around snipping pieces here and there, builder is sure it's copper theft. So now all the electrical work needs to be looked at again!

We are still due to have the plaster done by the end of this week. Bricks were cleaned today finally, and plaster arrived later in the day so im hoping the electrician can come fix the electrical wiring tomorrow so that plaster can start on Wednesday.

That's horrible Abbey and you are really some luck to turn around things.

I hate to say this but in a couple of years you will remember this time and have a giggle but it is certainly not funny now.

My thoughts are with you and fingers crossed for a turn around soon.

Harribeka

I am sorry to hear that Abbey... the people responsible are just horrid. Unfortunately, such thefts occur frequently during building. Try and not to worry too much about it, as these things are factored into their margins. But good to hear that your builder is on top of it. He will be sure to keep an eye out for any faults.

I have alot to update since my last post, its been hard to get time to upload some photos, but i will try to get some posted up over the next couple of days.

Our build finally feels like its all systems go, it has to with only 6 weeks left for the contract date!!! After the destruction of all the electrical wiring, theres been someone on site almost everyday including weekends doing work on the house, and it certainly looks a lot different for only 2 weeks of work.

- the electrical wiring had to be done all over again
- ducted vaccum piping got installed
- Alarm wiring went in
- Plumber cam back to fix some tap placements
- Gas pipe damaged along with the electrical had to be fixed
- Plaster arrived and was put up in just 1 day! four blokes arrived very early on a sunday morning and worked until 7.30pm and were completely done, was very impressed
- The entire plaster job was completed in 3 days. cornices started right after that and were also done in 2 days.
- Downpipes installed
- Mouldings are the front windows done
- bathtub and laundry trough delivered

Carpenter is due to come in on Monday to start fixing which is meant to take only a week according to the builder, so getting excited about seeing all the cupboards etc going in.

Painting is due to start the following week.

So plenty of action finally which we are very pleased about, it finally feels possible that we can get the keys on time hopefully if they keep working at this pace.

Will definitely post some photos up soon

Well here are the pics finally. Went past today and was pleasantly surprised to see that all the cabinetry was installed

Theatre room:


Master bedroom (Left door leads to ensuite, right door lead to WIR):


Downpipes:


Looking into master bedroom:


Sitting room:


Ensuite:


Theatre room fitout:

Kitchen:

Bathroom:




Living/dining area:

Abbey it's all looking really great. I'm glad they've picked up the pace. Can't wait to see the place painted and with benchtops etc.

Wow Abbey - great to see some progress!!!

Wow Abbey, Looking absolutely fantastic. With the cabinetry in...it feels like home!

So glad to hear that the copper theft hasn't hindered the progress much. Don't you just love it when the builder picks up speed when things go wrong to make up for lost time...it almost feels like you're in a fast moving train cause every visit you make to the house, you see something new Our final leg i.e. lockup to fixing & to PCI was under 6 weeks (double storey). I am sure yours will be done prior to that if your builder continues with the excellent progress speed.

Hi Abbey,

The pics are great and your house is coming together nicely

Your ensuite vanity colour looks very similar to what we used in our kitchen. Were you able to pick different colour cupboards for the kitchen or did you have to pay extra to do so?

Can't wait to see more unfold, especially the red splashback (that I desperately wished we went for now )

Thanks mundie mansion the ensuite and bathroom vanity colour is shadow, it does look very similar to yours, do you still remember the colour you picked? We didn't have to pay extra for the two colours which was good. The colour we chose was quite dark and theres quite a bit of cupboards in that space so we thought if we put a lighter colour on the top it would lighten it up a bit and of course show the capsicum red once it goes in, i can't wait to see it all come together. Your kitchen looks fantastic though, you have nothing to be sad about



6 weeks for a double storey!!! wow you've definitely made me feel more positive about getting this house on time now, its hard to believe that the house could be ours in just 5 weeks!. Last week it definitely felt like we were riding a fast moving train, it was quiet for 3 days, called the builder yesterday and was dissappointed to hear that no one would be coming until friday or monday next week. I drove past anyway this morning and to my surprise the carpenter was actually there! he had already done quite a bit of work and he said all he needs is 3 to 4 days for all his work to be done.

Abbey, you're really on a roll. Our builder really picked up the pace towards the end as he was already clocking in penalty payments Can you believe that the inside of our home was done under 6 weeks while the external (which is usually the quicker part) took over 9 months ? But you know something, once you're in your home, its all worth. Every evening, as I drive into our garage, I am still in awe...the house is just gorgeous. Still can't believe it is ours. Soon you'll be enjoying that same feeling

We are building the Ellington too. Do you have updated photos as you would be in now I hope.