Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 321May 15, 2015 8:32 pm Gosh I would be annoyed with those trades too, whatever happened to customer service??? The paving looks great, I would be happy too. You will have to share another pic once it's cleaned up Our garden is slow progress. The builder did all the stormwater and concreting so that is done. Apart from the grass we have put timber in as a barrier between grass and garden bed. I have just put 4 citrus trees in our back garden. In June I will be getting 3 stone fruit trees for the back garden and one to be the centre piece of our little front garden outside our bedroom window. Next year we will line the long driveway with ballerina apple trees and under the tree in the front garden I will fill with bulbs. Need to spread out expenses and workload. Between now and next year we will prep the soil and put a watering system in. We are also purchasing a dog, yippee, more mess in the house, he he. I am enjoying taking my time living in the property and really thinking about what we want. Another good thing about mitcham council area is that all the plants seem to grow really well. So far this is proving true for our garden too Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 322May 15, 2015 8:51 pm Ohhhh love your pavers charlston they look fantastic, it's all coming together beautifully outside. Good news trades are returning but with out there brains isn't helpful. I don't think I would of been impressed with the insulation dude just helping himself either. What are your thinking of planting as a screening tree? Lilly pillys are excellent for privacy and hedging but be warned they grow super fast and unruly. Agree with fairmont that the older the kids get and more comfortable they are they will venture off and play more, unfortunately that's my whole problem they go off playing together and then kick into seek and destroy mode . Re: Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 323May 18, 2015 8:06 pm Thanks TW, FairmontSA & Tribe! Fairmont SA - I love all the fruit trees you have already put in or are planning. Ballerina apples are fabulous! We're thinking the same, lots of fruit trees! Tribe - we haven't decided yet. We planted Lilly pillys at a previous house, and they were great while we were there but I have a feeling they'd be a handful eventually. But they do look really pretty & grow so quickly! Over the weekend we moved the flattened boxes out of the garage & made room for us to park the cars in once we get the ok to drive on the paving, and we started organising the shed a bit better, and generally did a whole heap of little jobs. A hilarious thing happened though. Living in Adelaide means you meet people you know at unexpected places, or meet people who are friends with your friends etc. but how's this? I got chatting to this lovely lady at a 5yo birthday party at our neighbours house on Saturday. We were chatting about various things, and then she asks how I knew the birthday girl. I explained that we live across the road, and had gotten to know the family in the last few years. The lady then said 'are you on homeone?' Long story short, I was chatting to FairmontSACustom!! We'll knock me down with a feather! She noticed our house when she rocked up at the party & recognised it from the photos we have posted. And then out of all the people at the party, it was her I got chatting to! Awesome! So FairmontSA - it was lovely to meet you! I still can't believe it happened though, what are the odds of that?! This week we are getting the rainwater tank installed, the faulty laminate cupboards in the kitchen replaced, and a few random jobs. Our SS actually rang, organised to pick up the kitchen doors, and will deliver them again once they're finished! Very happy with that! The SS is having issues with the joiner being too busy, from what I gather, so he took the iniative and is taking the doors to them instead. Yay! Re: Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 324May 18, 2015 8:49 pm Great story about meeting FairmontSA, what are the odds!! Good on your SS for working on those doors, great service, have to be happy with that! What colour rainwater tank are you going? We've been asked and I'm thinking of matching the bricks, want it be be fairly light and not stand out. Custom build Northern NSW viewtopic.php?f=31&t=72217 Re: Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 325May 18, 2015 10:02 pm That's great about meeting another h1 member Re: Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 326May 19, 2015 8:21 am I know, what a lovely suprise TW & Yvonneh. TraceyWayne Great story about meeting FairmontSA, what are the odds!! Good on your SS for working on those doors, great service, have to be happy with that! What colour rainwater tank are you going? We've been asked and I'm thinking of matching the bricks, want it be be fairly light and not stand out. Yes we were quite impressed with that offer from our SS, that's good old fashioned service! We have gone heritage green tank, which wouldn't be my first choice, but we are surrounded by heritage green colourbond fence on each side. So we went heritage green shed and tank because it made sense. Given a choice I would've picked something that blended in with our house colours too. Really glad they finished the paving last week, because it rained bucket loads last night and this is our front yard this morning! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ It's a shame the tank wasn't connected yet to catch all the glorious water, but I'm sure there will be plenty more to come! Re: Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 328May 19, 2015 9:14 pm Yes charlston get that tank collected and put that water to use Good call about the tank colour in your case, I'll try to match my brickwork with a colourbond sample. Custom build Northern NSW viewtopic.php?f=31&t=72217 Re: Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 329May 24, 2015 8:20 pm It was wonderful to meet you and your home looks even better in real life Re: Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 330Jul 09, 2015 10:14 am Hi Charlston01 Ive been reading your posts your house is fantastic we are also building with DH and are nearing prehandover in a few weeks. You posted about scratches to your windows. We have aluminium windows and also have scratches was wondering what DH ended up doing in your situation not sure its an easy fix? Also how have people found DH with the 3 month defects list ? Iam concerned once I pay the final cheque a lot of issues discovered after wont be corrected Cheers Re: Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 331Jul 09, 2015 10:33 am Hi Richards, thought I'd pop in as we are coming up to 4 years in our house and we have been very disappointed with the quality of work and still continue to find things not done properly. The latest was a leaking shower in the ensuite, my hubby eventually fixed it with some silicone in the seal between the glass and the frame. The carpet in the master bedroom looks terrible - it wasn't laid properly and has lumps and bumps which apparently happened because the carpet wasn't laid/stretched properly so we are thinking of replacing which is ridiculous after only 4 years. I can't stand looking at the floor tiles in the ensuite, there are so many marks that we can't get rid off - some of them look like tread marks from boots. We try not to look too closely at things as it's just so distressing. We had some small scratches on the front windows which they offered to replace but when you are on the verge of handover it just seems like it could do more harm than good to pull the window out and replace it and then fix up the plasterboard, etc. Of course, the windows should have been checked and replaced much earlier in the building process which is what should have happened to our family room window ... it wasn't straight from the day it was put it but nobody did anything about it until we saw it at PCI and that would have been a massive job to replace so we didn't. We also found that you don't really see what's wrong until you're living in the house and then it's too late. We had a massive list of things to fix and they did fix most of them but in the end you just want your house back and not to see the tradies anymore. I hope this doesn't sound too negative but we were unlucky I guess but we still love where we live. Good luck with your handover and let us know how you get on. For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! Re: Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 332Jul 11, 2015 2:43 pm Hi Richards, We had scratches in the windows and the frames. The windows they agreed to replace, and large scratches in the rear stacker door they had to replace (this was a nightmare but due to A&L being difficult and continually sending wrong parts). The smaller scratches in the windows were never fixed, like McLaren said it would've caused more issues to remove them and reinstall. With ore handover and PCI - be strong. Our SS kept saying I was being too picky, but I stayed firm. There are rules for their defects, but don't let them push you out of it. Our SS laughed at me as I went over everything with a fine tooth comb (and yet still missed large scratches in the ensuite tiles) and brought a hairdryer to plug in and check every electrical socket, but I didn't care how silly I looked. Our 3 month has been delayed twice, I don't think they are a high priority for them. But that doesn't bother me, it gives us more time to find issues. The most troubling issue is our sink is leaking into the cupboards and rusted out a whole heap of cake tins etc because we didn't notice straight away. And the cupboard is warping due to the moisture. They said it was a priority and would have someone out straight away but that was a week ago now. The other issues are only minor, like locks sticking and doors dropping slightly on their hinges. We've known people who've built with other builders who've had much bigger issues. We'll post more when we've had maintenance which is not until August 5th I think. Good luck! McLaren - that's awful. You shouldn't have to replace carpets so soon! How frustrating for you! We didn't have our carpets installed through D. We have a heap of scratches in the ensuite tiles too, the light was so poor on he day of handover and I just didn't notice them Re: Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 333Jul 11, 2015 2:52 pm We've been slack with updates lately sorry. We're plugging away slowly at our big 'to do' list. We've done the loam and rolled out lawn in the front and backyards which is finally making a difference to the amount of dirt that was being tracked inside. I can't find a pic of the front yard but when it's not pouring with rain & hailing, I'll get one and post it. But here's the backyard http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj551/emz763/2682132c85fe5abad266aeae2c542ff0_zpsbjnahbio.jpg We're thinking of a retaining wall at the back along the fence line, when funds permit (so not any time soon! ) cubby house and sandpit on the right hand side, and a clothes line on the left side In front of the rainwater tank just out of the picture. We'll do some garden edging, vegie patches and a pergola too. This week we finally got approval from council for the pergola - yay! planting a will wait now until spring, when the soil gets a bit warmer. Re: Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 334Jul 11, 2015 4:47 pm Fantastic update Charlston ... Back yard lawn must be so nice to have. Looks great! Re: Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 335Jul 11, 2015 8:05 pm Lawn looks fab charlston, great space for your poppets to run around in. How's the play room going are they using it now? Baby charlston crawling? That's a really good idea about the hair dyer, I'm going to do that . Bugger about the scratches to the tiles in the ensuite, hope they come and fix the leak soon that's really not on. (Damn about your cake tins too) Re: Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 336Jul 11, 2015 8:37 pm Thanks TomCat. I love our back lawn, bring on spring so we can use it more! Thanks Tribe. Yup, the kids have settled into the playroom now. Yup the littlest a Charlston is off on a slow crawl. Maybe I should get one of those mop suits so she can clean as she goes! These floorboards just don't stay clean! Yeah I'm a bit disappointed about the sink leaking, since it's not the pipes, it's the seal (or lack thereof) which shouldn't have occered, but it could be worse. Re: Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 337Jul 11, 2015 8:47 pm Good to hear they have settled in and are using the space. Hahhahah a mop suit that's funny, you would have sparking floors that's for sure. Do they always seem dusty? Keep on there backs and get them to fix it, your right the seal shouldn't be leaking. Have you got a pic of your shutters to the play room? Would love to see how they turned out Re: Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 338Jul 11, 2015 8:53 pm They do seem dusty all the time, but the carpets also seem to shed a bit, as well as the new rug in the playroom. Combined with our labrador, kids, and the mudpit that used to be our backyard.... Well the place never stayed clean for long.
There are pics on the bottom of page 15 of the playroom shutters but only from the outside, I need to take pics of them from the inside. I also need to get pics of the hallway pendant and the dining pendant which I haven't gotten around to putting on here yet. Re: Building in SA with Dechellis: Moved in! 339Jul 11, 2015 8:56 pm They do seem dusty all the time, but the carpets also seem to shed w bit, as well as the new rug in the playroom. Combined with our labrador, kids, and the mudpit that used to be our backyard.... Well the place never stayed clean for long. There are pics on the bottom of page 15 of the playroom shutters but only from the outside, I need to take pics of them from the inside. I also need to get pics of the hallway pendant and the dining pendant which I haven't gotten around to putting on here yet. Hmmm, I have checked your past posts and it seems that you are in NSW, not WA as I had thought. It pays to show your State in your avatar. Retaining wall regulations… 5 7866 Hi, you've probably already resolved this, however, Commbank will probably pay the funds to you after you send evidence the work is done regardless the change in the quotes. 1 35332 Ideally you would engage a landscaper to give you some insight what they may need in the space to make your vision come to life… 1 13645 |