Browse Forums Building A New House Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 82Jun 20, 2021 10:44 pm Flamingo week50,it seems a bit long, I am also planning KDR, contract states 43 weeks, is it not realistic? Assuming a double storey house being built in Sydney... 43 weeks is quite unrealistic in the current climate as all builders are very busy and also dealing with crazy material shortages. If that's your expectation and you manage to get it done then well done I say. During the last busy building period (circa 2016 - 2017) I closely monitored half a dozen Rawson builds around our area and none were completed in less than 1 year and 3 months. We feel fortunate that our build was done during a quiet period, avoiding most of the current trade and material shortages. Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 83Jun 21, 2021 10:48 am robw17 Flamingo week50,it seems a bit long, I am also planning KDR, contract states 43 weeks, is it not realistic? Assuming a double storey house being built in Sydney... 43 weeks is quite unrealistic in the current climate as all builders are very busy and also dealing with crazy material shortages. If that's your expectation and you manage to get it done then well done I say. During the last busy building period (circa 2016 - 2017) I closely monitored half a dozen Rawson builds around our area and none were completed in less than 1 year and 3 months. We feel fortunate that our build was done during a quiet period, avoiding most of the current trade and material shortages. Hi Rob, thanks for the information, I think I need to have at least 12 month rental lease in this case. I was wondering if its too long to sign a 12 months lease, lol. Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 84Jun 24, 2021 12:37 am robw17 Week 50 Construction It was a short working week (because of a public holiday on the Monday) and also our new site supervisors first week on the project, so things were a little bit slower this week. Nonetheless, some good progress was made...
Regarding the electricity meter... it took 9 weeks to get the electricity meter installed (our retailer, AGL, advertise that it should take a maximum of 6 business days). It was a bit of a novelty to be able to turn on some lights. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Rob, its great to see your progress. The house is looking good and looks like your in the final stretches. I just stumbled across your thread and had to post (first time) because im also doing a KDR with Rawsons. We are about 3 months behind you, we just finished second stage waterproofing. The coincidences are definitely remarkable and experiences are very similar. We also used Eco Demolition and similar to your experience, I found them very good. Although they are not the cheapest, they delivered as promised and had no hidden costs. When our SS found a few pieces asbestos accidently left behind a fence, they came back immediately to collect it. Similar to you, our pre construction administration stage was very painful. Everything was very slow and it was impossible to talk to our pre construction administrator on the phone. From paying the tender fee to fence on site took us 9 months (private certifier/not council) even though id always respond to her emails/documents within 24 hours. Was yours longer than ours? Im pretty sure we are same area and had the same SS (TJ). Moving to construction stage was definitely a big improvement. Our SS would give us updates at least weekly and he would always pick up the phone and respond to emails quickly. It was definitely disappointing for me to have our SS resign midway through the construction process. I thought he was reasonable and always delivered as promised. Im definitely not as experienced as you are in building/engineering. We also got an Independent Inspector too. Id say most of the issues the inspector found were fixed by Rawsons. A few weren’t as Rawson insisted it wasnt their usual procedure/work method. From the photos it does appear that their work process are different to what the Independent Inspector said. It seems the AGL meter was a big issue for you. Did you have to organise the meter installation yourself? I thought this would be organised by Rawsons. Im definitely not across this and if i had to organise for it, i should jump right on to it. Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 85Jun 24, 2021 9:32 pm wowKDR Rob, its great to see your progress. The house is looking good and looks like your in the final stretches. I just stumbled across your thread and had to post (first time) because im also doing a KDR with Rawsons. We are about 3 months behind you, we just finished second stage waterproofing. The coincidences are definitely remarkable and experiences are very similar. We also used Eco Demolition and similar to your experience, I found them very good. Although they are not the cheapest, they delivered as promised and had no hidden costs. When our SS found a few pieces asbestos accidently left behind a fence, they came back immediately to collect it. Similar to you, our pre construction administration stage was very painful. Everything was very slow and it was impossible to talk to our pre construction administrator on the phone. From paying the tender fee to fence on site took us 9 months (private certifier/not council) even though id always respond to her emails/documents within 24 hours. Was yours longer than ours? Im pretty sure we are same area and had the same SS (TJ). Moving to construction stage was definitely a big improvement. Our SS would give us updates at least weekly and he would always pick up the phone and respond to emails quickly. It was definitely disappointing for me to have our SS resign midway through the construction process. I thought he was reasonable and always delivered as promised. Im definitely not as experienced as you are in building/engineering. We also got an Independent Inspector too. Id say most of the issues the inspector found were fixed by Rawsons. A few weren’t as Rawson insisted it wasnt their usual procedure/work method. From the photos it does appear that their work process are different to what the Independent Inspector said. It seems the AGL meter was a big issue for you. Did you have to organise the meter installation yourself? I thought this would be organised by Rawsons. Im definitely not across this and if i had to organise for it, i should jump right on to it. Thanks for your comments, it's always good to hear from others who are also building. There's certainly a lot of similarity in our experiences. We're very happy with how our house is turning out, hope yours turns out great also. What design are you building? ECO Demolition... they certainly are very good, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. Time from tender fee to fence on site... for us it was much, much longer than your 9 months so please understand why I don't wish to get into the details about that... it was painful enough the first time, we've vowed not to relive it. From the day construction started we've only been looking forwards. Yep, TJ was our site supervisor so we mustn't be too far away from each other. He's quite good at what he does, and we're already missing him. Our new SS is AC. An independent inspector is a sensible precaution. I've seen other builds in our area that were completed with no inspections except for the PCI walk through. By then it's too late and the owners have had some disappointment. For us, there's been a steady stream of issues identified. To some extent that's just the nature of construction. So far Rawson have been pretty good about fixing most issues. Don't worry about the meter, Rawson will arrange that for you. Ours was an unusual case... we didn't want the clutter of the usual private pole in the front corner, especially as we have a street pole on the nature strip only 3 metres away from where the private pole would be. Our electricity connection goes overhead direct from the street pole to the eaves. This is against Rawson standard practice and we had to get the Rawson state manager to authorise it. We also had to arrange the electrical connection (and meter) ourselves, which didn't go as smoothly as expected.. but we got there in the end. Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 86Jun 26, 2021 4:30 pm robw17 wowKDR Rob, its great to see your progress. The house is looking good and looks like your in the final stretches. I just stumbled across your thread and had to post (first time) because im also doing a KDR with Rawsons. We are about 3 months behind you, we just finished second stage waterproofing. The coincidences are definitely remarkable and experiences are very similar. We also used Eco Demolition and similar to your experience, I found them very good. Although they are not the cheapest, they delivered as promised and had no hidden costs. When our SS found a few pieces asbestos accidently left behind a fence, they came back immediately to collect it. Similar to you, our pre construction administration stage was very painful. Everything was very slow and it was impossible to talk to our pre construction administrator on the phone. From paying the tender fee to fence on site took us 9 months (private certifier/not council) even though id always respond to her emails/documents within 24 hours. Was yours longer than ours? Im pretty sure we are same area and had the same SS (TJ). Moving to construction stage was definitely a big improvement. Our SS would give us updates at least weekly and he would always pick up the phone and respond to emails quickly. It was definitely disappointing for me to have our SS resign midway through the construction process. I thought he was reasonable and always delivered as promised. Im definitely not as experienced as you are in building/engineering. We also got an Independent Inspector too. Id say most of the issues the inspector found were fixed by Rawsons. A few weren’t as Rawson insisted it wasnt their usual procedure/work method. From the photos it does appear that their work process are different to what the Independent Inspector said. It seems the AGL meter was a big issue for you. Did you have to organise the meter installation yourself? I thought this would be organised by Rawsons. Im definitely not across this and if i had to organise for it, i should jump right on to it. Thanks for your comments, it's always good to hear from others who are also building. There's certainly a lot of similarity in our experiences. We're very happy with how our house is turning out, hope yours turns out great also. What design are you building? ECO Demolition... they certainly are very good, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. Time from tender fee to fence on site... for us it was much, much longer than your 9 months so please understand why I don't wish to get into the details about that... it was painful enough the first time, we've vowed not to relive it. From the day construction started we've only been looking forwards. Yep, TJ was our site supervisor so we mustn't be too far away from each other. He's quite good at what he does, and we're already missing him. Our new SS is AC. An independent inspector is a sensible precaution. I've seen other builds in our area that were completed with no inspections except for the PCI walk through. By then it's too late and the owners have had some disappointment. For us, there's been a steady stream of issues identified. To some extent that's just the nature of construction. So far Rawson have been pretty good about fixing most issues. Don't worry about the meter, Rawson will arrange that for you. Ours was an unusual case... we didn't want the clutter of the usual private pole in the front corner, especially as we have a street pole on the nature strip only 3 metres away from where the private pole would be. Our electricity connection goes overhead direct from the street pole to the eaves. This is against Rawson standard practice and we had to get the Rawson state manager to authorise it. We also had to arrange the electrical connection (and meter) ourselves, which didn't go as smoothly as expected.. but we got there in the end. We are building Shorehaven 35, modified alot. I was pretty happy with Rawsons and how much changes they were willing to accommodate. We fell in love with the stairs and window at the display home up in central coast. Unfortunately the exact display home one was too expensive so we had to tone it down a bit. So far the construction is going good and I’m happy with it. Yeah AC took over our site as well, I think they did a 1 for 1 changeover. Yeah I do agree that in all work, particularly construction work, there will be some misses and issues. To me the most important is the response of the builder to issues and their willingness to rectify. TJ was pretty good at that, most issues were fixed up and he sent photos to me when things have been fixed. I went on site yesterday with the new SS and first thing I looked was the meter box. Looks like the electricity meter has already been installed. I remember a few weeks ago when we were on site with TJ he was on the phone with a person who I think was his manager. He was talking about a site which had very complicated electrical issues and he was telling his manager that he got the client’s electrician to talk to Rawson’s electrician to expedite stuff because it was easier for sparkies to talk to sparkies rather than having him in the middle. At the time I was thinking to myself I thought Rawsons didn’t allow client electricians to work at same time as Rawson’s electricians. I guess now I have my explanation.(i was secretly hoping they'd allow me to get my electrician in to install some stuff prior to handover) I noticed you have a lot of photos of your site. Do you go on site every few days? Id like to go more often then my 2-3 weeks but I find it a big hassle to organise a visit with SS every time. Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 87Jun 27, 2021 6:10 pm wowKDR robw17 wowKDR Rob, its great to see your progress. The house is looking good and looks like your in the final stretches. I just stumbled across your thread and had to post (first time) because im also doing a KDR with Rawsons. We are about 3 months behind you, we just finished second stage waterproofing. The coincidences are definitely remarkable and experiences are very similar. We also used Eco Demolition and similar to your experience, I found them very good. Although they are not the cheapest, they delivered as promised and had no hidden costs. When our SS found a few pieces asbestos accidently left behind a fence, they came back immediately to collect it. Similar to you, our pre construction administration stage was very painful. Everything was very slow and it was impossible to talk to our pre construction administrator on the phone. From paying the tender fee to fence on site took us 9 months (private certifier/not council) even though id always respond to her emails/documents within 24 hours. Was yours longer than ours? Im pretty sure we are same area and had the same SS (TJ). Moving to construction stage was definitely a big improvement. Our SS would give us updates at least weekly and he would always pick up the phone and respond to emails quickly. It was definitely disappointing for me to have our SS resign midway through the construction process. I thought he was reasonable and always delivered as promised. Im definitely not as experienced as you are in building/engineering. We also got an Independent Inspector too. Id say most of the issues the inspector found were fixed by Rawsons. A few weren’t as Rawson insisted it wasnt their usual procedure/work method. From the photos it does appear that their work process are different to what the Independent Inspector said. It seems the AGL meter was a big issue for you. Did you have to organise the meter installation yourself? I thought this would be organised by Rawsons. Im definitely not across this and if i had to organise for it, i should jump right on to it. Thanks for your comments, it's always good to hear from others who are also building. There's certainly a lot of similarity in our experiences. We're very happy with how our house is turning out, hope yours turns out great also. What design are you building? ECO Demolition... they certainly are very good, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. Time from tender fee to fence on site... for us it was much, much longer than your 9 months so please understand why I don't wish to get into the details about that... it was painful enough the first time, we've vowed not to relive it. From the day construction started we've only been looking forwards. Yep, TJ was our site supervisor so we mustn't be too far away from each other. He's quite good at what he does, and we're already missing him. Our new SS is AC. An independent inspector is a sensible precaution. I've seen other builds in our area that were completed with no inspections except for the PCI walk through. By then it's too late and the owners have had some disappointment. For us, there's been a steady stream of issues identified. To some extent that's just the nature of construction. So far Rawson have been pretty good about fixing most issues. Don't worry about the meter, Rawson will arrange that for you. Ours was an unusual case... we didn't want the clutter of the usual private pole in the front corner, especially as we have a street pole on the nature strip only 3 metres away from where the private pole would be. Our electricity connection goes overhead direct from the street pole to the eaves. This is against Rawson standard practice and we had to get the Rawson state manager to authorise it. We also had to arrange the electrical connection (and meter) ourselves, which didn't go as smoothly as expected.. but we got there in the end. We are building Shorehaven 35, modified alot. I was pretty happy with Rawsons and how much changes they were willing to accommodate. We fell in love with the stairs and window at the display home up in central coast. Unfortunately the exact display home one was too expensive so we had to tone it down a bit. So far the construction is going good and I’m happy with it. Yeah AC took over our site as well, I think they did a 1 for 1 changeover. Yeah I do agree that in all work, particularly construction work, there will be some misses and issues. To me the most important is the response of the builder to issues and their willingness to rectify. TJ was pretty good at that, most issues were fixed up and he sent photos to me when things have been fixed. I went on site yesterday with the new SS and first thing I looked was the meter box. Looks like the electricity meter has already been installed. I remember a few weeks ago when we were on site with TJ he was on the phone with a person who I think was his manager. He was talking about a site which had very complicated electrical issues and he was telling his manager that he got the client’s electrician to talk to Rawson’s electrician to expedite stuff because it was easier for sparkies to talk to sparkies rather than having him in the middle. At the time I was thinking to myself I thought Rawsons didn’t allow client electricians to work at same time as Rawson’s electricians. I guess now I have my explanation.(i was secretly hoping they'd allow me to get my electrician in to install some stuff prior to handover) I noticed you have a lot of photos of your site. Do you go on site every few days? Id like to go more often then my 2-3 weeks but I find it a big hassle to organise a visit with SS every time. Evening fellas, I've loved following this thread and seeing your progress Rob. I've just hit the pre-construction phase with Rawson and something wowKDR said caught my eye. I've been wondering whether or not Rawson would let me bring in my own sparky during the roughing stage - is that a conversation with the SS? Any pre-construction tips? Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 88Jun 28, 2021 12:27 am Week 51 Construction It was a relatively unproductive week. I think it's a combination of the new SS not yet up to speed and the house being mostly finished. At this stage there's just bits & pieces to attend to, so it's a bit frustrating, as we just want it finished so we can get on with the post handover things we need to get done so we can get the occupancy certificate and move in....
Nothing that happened this week was worthy of any photo's, but... some months back I decided to get a 360 camera (Ricoh Theta SC2) to document the location of the services (plumbing, wiring, etc) prior to the linings going in. This worked even better than I hoped and I used the same camera this week to take 360 photos of each of the rooms. As far as I can tell, this forum's not setup for 360 panoramas, so I've uploaded them to a 3rd party host (KUULA) where you can scroll around them in all directions...
Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 89Jun 28, 2021 12:38 am wowKDR I noticed you have a lot of photos of your site. Do you go on site every few days? Id like to go more often then my 2-3 weeks but I find it a big hassle to organise a visit with SS every time. We live around the corner in an adjoining property to the new house, and with all the working from home (due COVID), we rarely fail to notice when someone's at the site working... so we just drop around to see what they're up to and snap a bunch of photo's of everything. We're not supposed to be there without the SS, but TJ never seemed to mind. Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 90Jun 28, 2021 12:46 am Hi Kofi, Great to hear you are starting the process. In general i think they dont let you get your contractors on site until after handover. In fact on the electrical plan it says only Rawsons electrician can work on the project. I assume Rob has a unique situation. We got Rawsons to do all the electricals (except some feature lights not available from Rawsons where we got them just to put in a "temporary" batten/junction box) Tips. 1. be as prepared as you can be. Although they have some selections available at Rawson studios, dont wait till you turn up at the presentations/selections appointment to start deciding.Rawson will tell you who their suppliers are and you can usually go to the displays to look at it. We ended up going to the tiles place 3 times, bricks place like 3 times, ceasarstone place 4 times before we chose our things. 2. You need to know what you want. Their staff typically dont suggest things for you. Either that or possibly i was too prepared and they didnt need to suggest. 3. Their pretty good at accommodating most requests. But when its hard they'll typically refuse initially. However if its really important to you, you need to insist they typically will find a solution for you. 4. If you have the time, definitely simulate everything in this app "Live Home 3D" (https://www.livehome3d.com/) . The app is $20-80 depending on what features you get. It was well worth every penny and can convert 2d drawings to 3d walkthroughs with furniture etc. . See below a 2 simulations from the program and photos of progress to date. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 91Jun 28, 2021 1:18 am Kofi B I've been wondering whether or not Rawson would let me bring in my own sparky during the roughing stage - is that a conversation with the SS? I very much doubt it but it doesn't hurt to ask. The NSW state general manager told us he was the only one who could approve it. Ours was an unusual circumstance and we're only doing the wiring from the grid to the meter box which is a bit different to what you're proposing. Kofi B Any pre-construction tips? Depends on if you want any non-standard upgrades. If not, then just make sure you get everything written down and documented accurately. Otherwise... we learnt early on that if you wanted something that was outside their standard inclusions/upgrades then best to do your own homework and feed all the details back to them. Don't rely on them to figure out what you want. For instance, Rawson had difficulty understanding what we wanted for the staircase so we visited the manufacturer, got them to write it all down and send it to Rawson, and we made sure that it was documented properly in a variation. That kind of homework and attention to detail saved us approximately $10k on the staircase, I kid you not. Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 92Jun 28, 2021 1:34 am robw17 Week 51 Construction It was a relatively unproductive week. I think it's a combination of the new SS not yet up to speed and the house being mostly finished. At this stage there's just bits & pieces to attend to, so it's a bit frustrating, as we just want it finished so we can get on with the post handover things we need to get done so we can get the occupancy certificate and move in....
Nothing that happened this week was worthy of any photo's, but... some months back I decided to get a 360 camera (Ricoh Theta SC2) to document the location of the services (plumbing, wiring, etc) prior to the linings going in. This worked even better than I hoped and I used the same camera this week to take 360 photos of each of the rooms. As far as I can tell, this forum's not setup for 360 panoramas, so I've uploaded them to a 3rd party host (KUULA) where you can scroll around them in all directions...
Rob,Your house looks amazing. Love the kitchen/living area. it looks fully finished and ready to move in. Has AC told you when they'll give you the keys? I thought Rawson does everything to the point where they get you partial OC so that its ready to move in. The other stuff you can fix up later to get the Full OC. Is that not the case? We were hoping to move in once Rawsons gives the keys. The 360 photos from 360 camera are amazing. I wish i saw this earlier. I spent so much time taking videos and photos hoping to catch all the services before they lined it. Still now im not sure if i missed anything. Do you just need to put the camera on a tripod and it takes it for you or do you hold on to the camera and spin around? Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 93Jul 04, 2021 9:33 pm wowKDR Rob,Your house looks amazing. Love the kitchen/living area. it looks fully finished and ready to move in. Has AC told you when they'll give you the keys? I thought Rawson does everything to the point where they get you partial OC so that its ready to move in. The other stuff you can fix up later to get the Full OC. Is that not the case? We were hoping to move in once Rawsons gives the keys. The 360 photos from 360 camera are amazing. I wish i saw this earlier. I spent so much time taking videos and photos hoping to catch all the services before they lined it. Still now im not sure if i missed anything. Do you just need to put the camera on a tripod and it takes it for you or do you hold on to the camera and spin around? I have to admit I'm a little fuzzy about the OC process. Best I can tell, you used to be able to get an interim OC that allowed you to move in and complete some stuff later (like for example the landscaping), but that seems to have been changed in 2019 (see here... https://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/-/media ... .pdf?la=en ). I guess we're going to learn all about this real soon... Regarding the 360 camera, it works best mounted on a monopod. The camera is designed to automatically eliminate a slim mount (like a monopod or selfie stick) from the photo's, although in the photo from the shower room you can see the camera and monopod in the reflection in the mirror. For recording the location of the various services (plumbing, wiring, etc) it's been fantastic. Prior to the 360 camera, it seemed that no matter how many conventional photo's I took, the thing that I wanted to see was too often just out of the frame. Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 94Jul 04, 2021 9:37 pm Week 52 Construction The main thing to report this week is that we were advised the house will be ready for the PCI walk through next week. That's great news as we can expect to get the keys soon and be able to get on with the various post handover things that we need to get done so we can move in. Other than that, it was another week with nothing worthy of any photo's. With handover just around the corner I found myself browsing through the 360 photo's I took back in the pre-lining & the rough-in stages and reflecting on how far we've come since then... Pre-lining Stage... Ground Floor ENTRY https://kuula.co/post/N4FRg Ground Floor BEDROOM 5 https://kuula.co/post/N4FRK Ground Floor SHOWER ROOM https://kuula.co/post/N4FRv Ground Floor DINING https://kuula.co/post/N4FRL Ground Floor ALFRESCO https://kuula.co/post/N4F3r Ground Floor FAMILY https://kuula.co/post/N4F3s Ground Floor KITCHEN https://kuula.co/post/N4F3c Ground Floor BUTLERS PANTRY https://kuula.co/post/N4F3f Ground Floor LAUNDRY https://kuula.co/post/N4F2R Ground Floor GARAGE https://kuula.co/post/N4F2X Ground Floor WORKSHOP https://kuula.co/post/N4Fww First Floor HALLWAY https://kuula.co/post/N4Fw7 First Floor LEISURE https://kuula.co/post/N4FsQ First Floor BEDROOM 1 https://kuula.co/post/N4Fsz First Floor ENSUITE https://kuula.co/post/N4FsR First Floor WALK IN ROBE https://kuula.co/post/N4Fs8 First Floor BEDROOM 4 https://kuula.co/post/N4Fsh First Floor BEDROOM 3 https://kuula.co/post/N4Fjs First Floor BEDROOM 2 https://kuula.co/post/N4Fjb First Floor BATHROOM https://kuula.co/post/N4Fjf Rough-in Stage... Ground Floor ENTRY https://kuula.co/post/N4FMj Ground Floor BEDROOM 5 https://kuula.co/post/N4FM8 Ground Floor SHOWER ROOM https://kuula.co/post/N4FMH Ground Floor DINING https://kuula.co/post/N4FMD Ground Floor FAMILY https://kuula.co/post/N4FMK Ground Floor KITCHEN https://kuula.co/post/N4FMF Ground Floor BUTLERS PANTRY https://kuula.co/post/N4FMv Ground Floor LAUNDRY https://kuula.co/post/N4FMP Ground Floor GARAGE https://kuula.co/post/N4FM0 Ground Floor WORKSHOP https://kuula.co/post/N4FML First Floor HALLWAY https://kuula.co/post/N4FMh First Floor LEISURE https://kuula.co/post/N4FHQ First Floor BEDROOM 1 https://kuula.co/post/N4FH3 First Floor ENSUITE https://kuula.co/post/N4FH2 First Floor WALK IN ROBE https://kuula.co/post/N4FHj First Floor BEDROOM 4 https://kuula.co/post/N4FHH First Floor BEDROOM 3 https://kuula.co/post/N4FH1 First Floor BEDROOM 2 https://kuula.co/post/N4FHv First Floor BATHROOM https://kuula.co/post/N4FHk Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 95Jul 06, 2021 10:47 am robw17 Week 52 Construction The main thing to report this week is that we were advised the house will be ready for the PCI walk through next week. That's great news as we can expect to get the keys soon and be able to get on with the various post handover things that we need to get done so we can move in. Other than that, it was another week with nothing worthy of any photo's. With handover just around the corner I found myself browsing through the 360 photo's I took back in the pre-lining & the rough-in stages and reflecting on how far we've come since then... Pre-lining Stage... Ground Floor ENTRY https://kuula.co/post/N4FRg Ground Floor BEDROOM 5 https://kuula.co/post/N4FRK Ground Floor SHOWER ROOM https://kuula.co/post/N4FRv Ground Floor DINING https://kuula.co/post/N4FRL Ground Floor ALFRESCO https://kuula.co/post/N4F3r Ground Floor FAMILY https://kuula.co/post/N4F3s Ground Floor KITCHEN https://kuula.co/post/N4F3c Ground Floor BUTLERS PANTRY https://kuula.co/post/N4F3f Ground Floor LAUNDRY https://kuula.co/post/N4F2R Ground Floor GARAGE https://kuula.co/post/N4F2X Ground Floor WORKSHOP https://kuula.co/post/N4Fww First Floor HALLWAY https://kuula.co/post/N4Fw7 First Floor LEISURE https://kuula.co/post/N4FsQ First Floor BEDROOM 1 https://kuula.co/post/N4Fsz First Floor ENSUITE https://kuula.co/post/N4FsR First Floor WALK IN ROBE https://kuula.co/post/N4Fs8 First Floor BEDROOM 4 https://kuula.co/post/N4Fsh First Floor BEDROOM 3 https://kuula.co/post/N4Fjs First Floor BEDROOM 2 https://kuula.co/post/N4Fjb First Floor BATHROOM https://kuula.co/post/N4Fjf Rough-in Stage... Ground Floor ENTRY https://kuula.co/post/N4FMj Ground Floor BEDROOM 5 https://kuula.co/post/N4FM8 Ground Floor SHOWER ROOM https://kuula.co/post/N4FMH Ground Floor DINING https://kuula.co/post/N4FMD Ground Floor FAMILY https://kuula.co/post/N4FMK Ground Floor KITCHEN https://kuula.co/post/N4FMF Ground Floor BUTLERS PANTRY https://kuula.co/post/N4FMv Ground Floor LAUNDRY https://kuula.co/post/N4FMP Ground Floor GARAGE https://kuula.co/post/N4FM0 Ground Floor WORKSHOP https://kuula.co/post/N4FML First Floor HALLWAY https://kuula.co/post/N4FMh First Floor LEISURE https://kuula.co/post/N4FHQ First Floor BEDROOM 1 https://kuula.co/post/N4FH3 First Floor ENSUITE https://kuula.co/post/N4FH2 First Floor WALK IN ROBE https://kuula.co/post/N4FHj First Floor BEDROOM 4 https://kuula.co/post/N4FHH First Floor BEDROOM 3 https://kuula.co/post/N4FH1 First Floor BEDROOM 2 https://kuula.co/post/N4FHv First Floor BATHROOM https://kuula.co/post/N4FHk Can I ask how it was done ? Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 96Jul 08, 2021 9:19 pm Renman Very cool links to the photos. Can I ask how it was done ? The photo's are taken by a 360 camera, in my case a Ricoh Theta SC2. The camera has two lenses, one on the front and one at the back, each of which captures 180 degree's of a sphere which are then stitched together by the camera into one 360 degree sphere. The 360 photo's produced need to be viewed on a phone, tablet or PC using an app or uploaded to a site that displays them like the app would. The process is the same that professional photographers use to produce virtual walk throughs for real estate marketing or for volume builders marketing of their display designs (i.e. https://captur3d.io/view/rawson-homes/b ... d4TuFufhie ). The professionals use more capable and more expensive cameras (thousands of dollars) vs the budget camera I have (which was about $400). The professionals typically use the Matterport site to host their photo's, paying monthly subscription fees of around $70 to $300 per month. Whilst Matterport also have a free plan, it's very limited on what you can upload and do and there's been a bunch of alternative sites start up that have better free options. In my case I loaded my photos to a site called Kuula so they can be accessed publically. Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 97Jul 11, 2021 9:52 pm Week 53 PCI Walk Through This week we had the PCI walk through and we also had our independent inspector carry out a PCI inspection. I want to firstly say that we're very happy with the house and looking forward to getting it handed over soon so we can get on with moving in. Having said that, there's a long list of alleged issues. I say alleged because we're yet to receive a response from the builder on what they think. Very few of them come as a surprise to us, certainly none of the more significant ones, as we've been keeping a close eye on the build throughout...
With construction complete we're allowed to take down the fences for the tree protection measures. The weather wasn't very cooperative this weekend (frequent rain showers) but nonetheless we got the tree fences down, what remains of the front lawn mowed and started cleaning up the front yard. It's starting to look a little bit better already... BEFORELike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ AFTERLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ BEFORELike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ AFTERLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 98Jul 20, 2021 9:06 pm Week 54 The builder has started working through the list from the PCI walk through....
Also, after the formwork was stripped from the driveway crossover a 6" to 8" wide by 4" to 6" deep trench remained either side of the new concrete. As landscaping is not in the contract scope the builder just removed the formwork and left it. It's quite a trip hazard out on the public nature strip so I'm a bit surprised they're not more concerned about it, after all they're still in control of the site so if any one gets hurt it's on their insurance. Anyway, we got some rolls of turf and leveled it all out to make sure no one could get hurt. The NSW government has now shut down construction for 2 weeks to get on top of the latest COVID outbreak so handover is on hold until construction works are allowed. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 99Aug 22, 2021 10:18 pm Week 59 So the two week shutdown of construction due to the covid outbreak went longer than expected. Reminds me of the wisecrack Josh Frydenberg made this week... "the hardest thing about the one-week lockdowns in Victoria is getting through the third and the fourth week"... and it appears we're no different here in Sydney, these lockdowns seem to be going on forever. Fortunately the construction bans have been relaxed (subject to a bunch of vaccination requirements) and the builder has restarted working through the list from the PCI walk through...
Also, the project arborist completed his final inspection and certified that all the trees have been suitably protected as per the conditions of the DA.... this is just the first of a long list of things we need to supply to the Certifier. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: KDR - Rawson Balmoral (Modified) Sydney NSW 100Aug 31, 2021 12:49 am Week 60 The builder seems to be coping with the new covid construction rules and is continuing to work through the defects list...
Also, the Tesla gateway cabinet has a decorative glass cover which smashed into about a thousand pieces when the door was left poorly secured by one of the contractors and flapped around during some high winds. I guess it's better that we learned this lesson before we had handover. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Hi all, We are looking to build a new two storey house in western Sydney. Can anyone recommend a smallish builder to go with? We are trying to stay away from the big… 0 12179 Just started the Build process for Chifley 42 with Rawson homes, will keep you all posted with the Build progress. 0 2576 We were lucky in that our old house was so small (86 square metres) compared to the new house, they were able to take enough readings around the old backyard house before… 8 37258 |