Still trying to sort through our air con issue. Will let you know how we go.
I have another question. We are going to our electrical appointment this friday. Anything we should look out for or consider? We are planning to have downlights for most of the house, but were thinking of getting an electrician in afterwards to install. Will this be an issue as our house is double storey?
We built single storey, but I think there has been chatter here previously about two storey houses and doing downlights after handover. Apparently (and understandably) its best to get M to do the lower level, as once the ceilings/floors are all done, access is much more difficult. Upstairs should be fine to do yourselves after handover. I'm sure there's lots of Villina builders here who can give suggestions/guidance on this one! One thing I can say though, after handover there will still be lots and lots and lots to do...... I'm glad we didn't need to add "electrician to do downlights" to our list!
Moving things around is no cost, but changing things can be. We changed the position of dishwasher and microwave which cost nothing, I can't imagine moving sinks would cost either. We also received a quote from Artline which had no breakdown as to what each individual upgrade was costing, so requested to the breakdown before we signed off on it. If we felt something was exceptionally expensive we may not have gone ahead with it, but we also felt that we should know how they came up with the magical number on the bottom of the page. They seemed quite taken aback and they apparently had to almost re-do the whole quote. You would think they surely would have figures as to what they are charging for each item you are upgrading, otherwise how did they come up with the final figure? Anyway, we didn't move our sink or add a corner pantry. but here's a few of our costs to give you (or anyone else who is considering such changes) an idea of costings. We changed a couple of double door cupboards to drawers - $525 each set of 3 drawers, twin slide-out bin - $495, downlights to under the top cupboards - $140, increased the height of the upper cupboards to 2400mm - $1600, plus we changed from Createc cupboards to Ultraglaze cupboards - $1239. Hope this gives you some ideas of costs ....... at your artline appointment its worth mentioning that you would like an itemised quote!
And the downpipes are installed from the roof gutters but it's in white pvc which sticks out like a sore thumb against the bricks, does Masterton paint the pipes the same colour as the gutter?
They talk about occupation certificates. There is a large step down from the rear stacker door because the house was raised. I plan to put a deck there later on, would that mean I have to install temporary stairs or something to get issued an occupational certificate?
Yes, they stain/varnish the front door when the painters come. You would have selected the colour/finish at your colours appointment. They will also paint the downpipes whatever colour you chose at colours.
As to occupancy certificate, we had a similar situation. We have stacker doors that lead out to our (now completed) decking, but before the decking was done we had a drop of about 1.2m. We were told that we either had to have temporary steps/decking/whatever to make it safe, have the actual decking and handrails done, or have the door screwed shut (locking it was not an option). It might be worth calling the certifiers to check with them and ask about your specific situation - might depend on height from door to ground and what the best/quickest solution could be.