Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building our dream home.. walls no longer bare! 841Nov 01, 2008 5:25 pm Hi VJ,
Just fabulous!!! Congrats on a great looking home. I thought your kitchen benchtop looked great when they made they mistake, but WOW to the 100mm!!! Love it!! Bel Still not in. Don't ask!? Re: Building our dream home.. walls no longer bare! 842Nov 01, 2008 10:32 pm Hey VJ
Great Looking Home Congrats. The issues don't seem major - Good Luck on getting it sorted... My favourite in ur house is benchtop woow the thickness - looks great and is worth all the extra $$$$ And the mudroom too Regards beegee Re: Building our dream home.. walls no longer bare! 844Nov 02, 2008 8:53 am Quote: It all looks fabulous...esp the kitchen. love it all! Thanks, monkeyupatree. Quote: Oh WOW !!!!!! You've done a great job with the colour scheme. That kitchen benchtop sure makes a terrific statement and the bathrooms are just delicious. Thanks for the compliment, Southies. Quote: It's looking great. Hopefully the next couple of weeks will go fast for you. Judie, we've waited for almost a year to have this house... so 2 weeks will definitely go very fast for us.. Quote: OMG my favourite is the mud room Love Love Love the bench top Oh VJ, you must be itching to get in - I would be Paula, i'm so excited to put in the cabinetry to our mud room... will have to decide whether to go for a carpenter or the Ikea cabinets. We'll see. Although we are itching to get in, we would not settle unless the cladding is fixed Quote: I can honestly say that I am ridiculously envious of your kitchen. It's just amazing. buildingadreamhome, thanks for the compliment. 100mm benchtops to my kitchen was one of my must-haves (including the mud room). That's the reason why we didn't upgrade the otherstuff (like skirtings & cornices, etc)... i think it's all worth it Quote: WOW, VJ it is all amazing and yep the kitchen is the best and that benchtop just beautiful. You must be very excited...congrats! Thanks, SuH. I only know one member of this forum who's going for the same benchtop colour - Mink... and yes, I'm vvvvvvvveeeeeerrrrrrryyyyy excited! I even keep on asking DH, 'Is it for real? We're finally going to have our very 1st house here in OZ!'... feels like a dream! Quote: VJ - I remember us talking about our slabs (which went down around the same time from memory) and here we are both at the end (well near enough). Beautiful house and I agree with the others ... the kitchen is gorgeous. Nice arrangement and nice colour scheme. WD DeeElle, yes, I remember keenly following the progress of your build (same with Mrs B), because we had almost the same site start, building double storey, and I like your house! Now we're almost in the fnished line and looking back, we had more issues during the start and you had the issues at the end of your build. Let's enjoy our houses! Quote: VJ well done - the whole home looks gorgeous. Finally someone else has a strong colour in the kitchen !! Your whole family must be so excited that the end is so near...... Thanks, Kyton. Yes, our kitchen colour is not the usual fave (most people prefer white) here in the forum. Ever since we arrived here in OZ and started visiting display homes, I've always been dreaming of having that kind of kitchen (colours, finish & thick benchtop). Even if we changed houses 3x, olive green has always been our choice of benchtop colour. DD is I think the most excited one.. as she's been itching to have her own bedroom with a cabinet full of her BRATZ stuff . Quote: Just fabulous!!! Congrats on a great looking home. I thought your kitchen benchtop looked great when they made they mistake, but WOW to the 100mm!!! Love it!! Thanks, bel. Yes, I think the 100mm benchtop really made the WOW factor. Quote: Great Looking Home Congrats. The issues don't seem major - Good Luck on getting it sorted... My favourite in ur house is benchtop woow the thickness - looks great and is worth all the extra $$$$ And the mudroom too beegeers, i also believe that the issues weren't that major. they just have to fix those visible joins to the cladding and we'll be happy. yes, the extra $$$ for the 100mm-thick benchtop is all worth it. that's what i told DH when I was asking him to upgrade it oh the mudroom... a dream place to have all MY shoes (ooopppsss... our shoes, I mean , right Paula? ) Quote: I have had alot to catch up on and your house just looks AMAZING!! I love your kitchen and all your bathroom/ensuite choices!! Bel, I've been wondering where have you been lately... probably you're busy with your house? Soon we'll be following the progress of your build! It will be your turn now to show us lots of photos! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Building our dream home.. walls no longer bare! 845Nov 02, 2008 8:53 am Quote: It all looks fabulous...esp the kitchen. love it all! Thanks, monkeyupatree. Quote: Oh WOW !!!!!! You've done a great job with the colour scheme. That kitchen benchtop sure makes a terrific statement and the bathrooms are just delicious. Thanks for the compliment, Southies. Quote: It's looking great. Hopefully the next couple of weeks will go fast for you. Judie, we've waited for almost a year to have this house... so 2 weeks will definitely go very fast for us.. Quote: OMG my favourite is the mud room Love Love Love the bench top Oh VJ, you must be itching to get in - I would be Paula, i'm so excited to put in the cabinetry to our mud room... will have to decide whether to go for a carpenter or the Ikea cabinets. We'll see. Although we are itching to get in, we would not settle unless the cladding is fixed Quote: I can honestly say that I am ridiculously envious of your kitchen. It's just amazing. buildingadreamhome, thanks for the compliment. 100mm benchtops to my kitchen was one of my must-haves (including the mud room). That's the reason why we didn't upgrade the otherstuff (like skirtings & cornices, etc)... i think it's all worth it Quote: WOW, VJ it is all amazing and yep the kitchen is the best and that benchtop just beautiful. You must be very excited...congrats! Thanks, SuH. I only know one member of this forum who's going for the same benchtop colour - Mink... and yes, I'm vvvvvvvveeeeeerrrrrrryyyyy excited! I even keep on asking DH, 'Is it for real? We're finally going to have our very 1st house here in OZ!'... feels like a dream! Quote: VJ - I remember us talking about our slabs (which went down around the same time from memory) and here we are both at the end (well near enough). Beautiful house and I agree with the others ... the kitchen is gorgeous. Nice arrangement and nice colour scheme. WD DeeElle, yes, I remember keenly following the progress of your build (same with Mrs B), because we had almost the same site start, building double storey, and I like your house! Now we're almost in the fnished line and looking back, we had more issues during the start and you had the issues at the end of your build. Let's enjoy our houses! Quote: VJ well done - the whole home looks gorgeous. Finally someone else has a strong colour in the kitchen !! Your whole family must be so excited that the end is so near...... Thanks, Kyton. Yes, our kitchen colour is not the usual fave (most people prefer white) here in the forum. Ever since we arrived here in OZ and started visiting display homes, I've always been dreaming of having that kind of kitchen (colours, finish & thick benchtop). Even if we changed houses 3x, olive green has always been our choice of benchtop colour. DD is I think the most excited one.. as she's been itching to have her own bedroom with a cabinet full of her BRATZ stuff . Quote: Just fabulous!!! Congrats on a great looking home. I thought your kitchen benchtop looked great when they made they mistake, but WOW to the 100mm!!! Love it!! Thanks, bel. Yes, I think the 100mm benchtop really made the WOW factor. Quote: Great Looking Home Congrats. The issues don't seem major - Good Luck on getting it sorted... My favourite in ur house is benchtop woow the thickness - looks great and is worth all the extra $$$$ And the mudroom too beegeers, i also believe that the issues weren't that major. they just have to fix those visible joins to the cladding and we'll be happy. yes, the extra $$$ for the 100mm-thick benchtop is all worth it. that's what i told DH when I was asking him to upgrade it oh the mudroom... a dream place to have all MY shoes (ooopppsss... our shoes, I mean , right Paula? ) Quote: I have had alot to catch up on and your house just looks AMAZING!! I love your kitchen and all your bathroom/ensuite choices!! Bel, I've been wondering where have you been lately... probably you're busy with your house? Soon we'll be following the progress of your build! It will be your turn now to show us lots of photos! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Building our dream home.. walls no longer bare! 846Nov 02, 2008 9:06 am Oh BTW, we went to M's display homes in Mernda to check their 100mm kitchen benchtops, as DH was contesting that our substrate should be as thick as the benchtop.
We were happy to see that DH was correct. We just have to print the photos, email to our CSR and ensure that they increase the substrate as per their display homes. Also, we took photos of the tile edge strip in their display homes, as ours (in the bath room) has a join in it. SS told us that the length was standard and so because we had longer bath, they needed to have a join. No-no-no.... all of their baths don't have a join! We took photos with DH measuring the baths and showed all corners not having joins. Will bring photos on the 5th, when Kev will have the inspection, and show it to our SS to dispute it. Will post photos later. Question - SS said that he won't honor any findings that Kev finds on Wednesday, unless they will affect the structure of the house (or major). When we signed that list of known defects during the walk through, does it mean that we can't add anything more (even minor)? Because we pinpointed at least 3 other issues (as mentioned above and the other one is the kitchen window) but he said they can't do anything about it anymore, as it's the material that caused it (say, the max length of the strip is not enough to cover the whole length of the bath, that's why they joined another small piece of strip), and so we agreed that it wasn't defect. Now that we were able to confirm in their display homes that they should have been considered as defects, can we still add them to the list of items that they need to fix prior to settlement? If we find more items during settlement that are not part of the list of defects during walk through, can we still add them? Will appreciate your response on this. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Building our dream home.. walls no longer bare! 847Nov 02, 2008 10:23 am VJ, I really don't know the answer to your questions, but I think you have to try, as I'm sure you will. If you haven't given them the final handover payment yet, it seems like you would have the upper hand?
By the way, what is the substrate?? Re: Building our dream home.. walls no longer bare! 848Nov 02, 2008 12:16 pm Love the colour scheme and as others say the kitchen and bathrooms look great.
regards sean Re: Building our dream home.. walls no longer bare! 849Nov 06, 2008 12:19 pm So Kev did his inspection yesterday at 1pm.
He hasn't come back to me re: the issues that he found though. SS reckons that settlement date is next Friday, 14 Nov. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Building our dream home.. walls no longer bare! 851Nov 06, 2008 9:07 pm Quote: Woooohoo! That is fantastic!! Here's hoping all the issues you noted are fixed and handover is ASAP! Thanks, Bel. We really hope that the settlement pushes through next Friday... Don't know what to expect come settlement day... no idea.. might have to ask other people here. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Building our dream home.. walls no longer bare! 854Nov 07, 2008 9:03 pm DH Quote: Congrats on getting on the home straight must be excited! u can see your house completed, bet your just hanging to move in Yes, very excited woodsey! Quote: Fingers crossed that Kevs report wont find anything that will delay you. Thanks, Paula. Just to give an update...... Kev rang DH today to give an update of what happened during the inspection. Great to hear that there were no major issues found! Although he did say that there were misaligned tiles that need to be ripped off (this could delay our settlement ). To think that same tiler will lay our tiles in the ground floor after handover! We have some outstanding issues with our builder and we are awaiting response on whether they are going to fix or not. Oh BTW, the gas meter had already been installed... problem is, it was installed outside of the pergola post! therefore, it's very visible from the main street and we're worried that some kids might vandalize it in the future . i rang our gas provider and they said it's the builder who decides where to put the gas meter. so i emailed our CSR and request that the gas meter be moved nearer to the house. will post photos tomorrow. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Building our dream home.. walls no longer bare! 855Nov 11, 2008 12:57 pm Just letting you know that we finally settled the issue with the light/dimmer switch placed outside of the HT room.
WE followed up our CM and told him that there are 2 options that would settle the issue: - move the light switch inside the HT room (as per original contract) OR - provide another light switch inside the HT room. CM replied today, saying they have no obligation to move the switch or provide us with another switch inside the HT room. But to keep good relations with us, they have decided to give us another switch inside at no cost. Kudos to our CM! So we've settled the electrical issues... Hope they fix the other main issues: - visible joins to the front Linea cladding, and - additional support to our kitchen benchtop others were pretty minor.. which we think they have fixed already, when we visited the house yesterday. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Building our dream home.. walls no longer bare! 857Nov 13, 2008 8:39 pm We finally received the pre-handover inspection report from Kev yesterday and forwarded it to our builder.
Our SS warned us beforehand that anything our inspector would find during his own inspection (5 Nov) will not be fixed, as they are going to fix only the ones that were listed during our inspection last 31/Oct (our walk through). This afternoon, our SS rang DH about the issues. There was heated argument about it . In the end, what he suggested was for us to list all major issues that we want fixed within next week and that's it. Anything that won't be fixed within next week will no longer be fixed. To give you some idea of the defects that Kev found: 1. The brick sills under the timber window frames of our HT room do not contain sufficient clearance (BCA requires clearances of not less than 5mm to allow for settlement of the timber framing caused by timer shrinkage): http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc22/venielynnr/BrickSillsUnderTimberWindow_NoSuffi.jpg 2. Vertical legs of the soaker flashings are not overflashed where they wrap around the side brick walls... and the top edge of the gutter is scratched through the base metal: http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc22/venielynnr/ScratchedGutterVerticalLegsofSoaker.jpg 3. The top join in the downpipe has pulled apart: http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc22/venielynnr/TopJoininDownpipe_pulledApart.jpg 4. Bifold Timber frame's timber sill do not have sill flashing installed onto it. The frame will have to be removed and sill properly flashed. http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc22/venielynnr/BifoldTimberSill_NoSillFlasshing.jpg For the internal ones, the major ones are: 5. Timber packing strips fitted behind the rear garage door tracks are only normal radiata pine (class 4 durability timber, which normally lasts 1-8 years). It should be replaced with class 1 or 2 durability. 6. there were a couple of walls that are bowed down by up to 10mm. 7. the tiled face of the bath island hob is up to 12mm out of plumb over its short height 8. return air vent has been installed in the ceiling at the top of the stair, which will draw teh warmer air up to the ceiling instead of down to the ground floor. 9. some floor areas are out of level 10. exhaust fan in the ground floor powder room is only blowing into the ceiling/first floor joist space.... hmmm.. wonder if other builders provide ducts to exhaust contaminated air outside of the building? These are only some of the defects that Kev listed... and it's quite impossible for our builder to fix everything in a week. SS said we can go to VCAT if we don't agree with his suggestion of fixing only those that can be fixed within next week... In addition to above, we complained about our kitchen benchtop, in that it doesn't have enough thickness in its substrate. this is underneath our kitchen island benchtop (only the 20mm substrate): http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc22/venielynnr/CD331_BD216_311008_WalkThrough_m.jpg http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc22/venielynnr/OurKitchenBenchtop2.jpg and here is what we found from their display homes (flush substrate): http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc22/venielynnr/KitchenUnderbenchSubstrate2b.jpg http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc22/venielynnr/KitchenUnderbenchSubstrate1.jpg Remember that they initially installed 40mm island benchtop... and they ripped it off and replaced with the correct 100mm.. could it be that the forgot to change the supporting substrate? During our inspection, our SS suggested that we email management about it. We did, unfortunately, it hasn't reached management because we only emailed it to our CSR So we have to re-email tomorrow to our CM. We went to the house today and saw that the HT switch was already moved inside the room... we thought, as per our CM, that they are going to provide another switch inside and leave the one outside (at no cost to us).. but they decided to move it instead. Happy that they fixed it. I'm really keen to hear your thoughts about defects #8 (air vent) & 10 (exhaust fan). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Building our dream home.. walls no longer bare! 858Nov 13, 2008 8:58 pm I can't believe your SS has said he will only fix some of the issues found! Where does he get off??
It is your house and you deserve to have it built to your standards, I doubt he would be paying all the money you have spent for a half finished/fixed house! Not good enough. I would be taking him up on his VCAT offer! I don't know enough about building to understand all the issues you have mentioned, but I think if Kev mentioned them then they need to be fixed. Good Luck VJ My karma ran over your dogma Re: Building our dream home.. walls no longer bare! 859Nov 13, 2008 9:03 pm VJ During our inspection, our SS suggested that we email management about it. We did, unfortunately, it hasn't reached management because we only emailed it to our CSR So we have to re-email tomorrow to our CM. Why not go higher than the CM ? With the internet, you should be able to googled who is the MD of M and send them an email. The email format should be the same whether it is the CSR, CM or the MD. It is just a matter of finding out the correct person. It might get pick up by the PA but then the PA will probably forward it to the one level below which should still be good enough. Chers Re: Building our dream home.. walls no longer bare! 860Nov 13, 2008 9:11 pm Quote: Not good enough. I would be taking him up on his VCAT offer! SS is going to check the report tomorrow and visit the house. He will then decide which ones to fix. If they decide not to fix most of the issues, then our resort would be, as suggested by Kev, get a Building Commission report. Quote: Why not go higher than the CM ? It was our mistake not to email the kitchen issue direct to the CM. We assumed that our CSR would forward it to management.. Yes, if the CM do not agree with us, then we'll elevate to the one higher than him. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair to do it properly you need to dig out the garden and waterproof the outside of the wall. There are some products you can put on the face of the bricks but the water is… 2 6653 I second taking your plans elsewhere. They're yours (unless you ended up in one of those cheaper arrangements where you don't own the rights and the build will be tendered… 2 574 Nope, only on the inside, I've literally has my ears to the brick outside and can't hear anything. I can sort of 'reset' the noise by pressing firmly on the studs. This… 10 14122 |