Driveway

We started the block paved driveway last weekend and managed to get it finished today after a few hard days work. We're really pleased with it and it was worth all the hard work.

The following pictures show how things progressed each day.

Day 1 - Saturday

The pavers had been delivered ealier in the week.



We hired a bobcat to remove the unwanted soil and rubble.





Day 2 - Sunday

We managed to finish removing the soil to the correct level ready for the roadbase.



Day 3 - Monday

We laid some weed fabric to prevent unwanted weeds growing through the pavers.



The roadbase was delivered.



This was then spread and screeded to the correct level.



Day 4 - Tuesday

Once the roadbase had been screeded it was compressed with a compactor plate. The river sand was then delivered.





This was then screeded ready for the blocks to be laid.



The blocks then began to be laid.



Day 5 - Wednesday





Managed to get the main part of the driveway finished on Christmas Eve.



Day 6 - Thursday (Christmas Day)

Day off :0)

Day 7 - Friday (Boxing Day)

We began to cement in the borders and cut the blocks for the curve of the driveway.



Day 8 -Saturday

We made a start on the path at the side of the house.





The roadbase was put down and compacted.



Day 9 - Sunday



The blocks were layed on river sand and washed sand was brushed into the gaps of the pavers.



Here it is finished off.

Carpet laid

The carpet arrived today. We have had this laid in the downstairs study, TV room, the staircase and in all the rooms upstairs. The guys did a great job installing it, no damaged to any walls or staircase.











We shall be putting wood flooring down in the hallway through to the main living area and kitchen. Hopefully start this next week.

Final Inspection Part 2. We have KEYS!!!!

We had our final inspection today with the site supervisor, we’re amazed they have completed nearly all outstanding items on our snagging list, in total 48. It was a hive of activity at site, painters, plumbers, cleaners all working to get everything sorted. While we were there the electrician arrived to connect the power.

The only things still outstanding are:- leveling off the floor to the island which is a little high on one side.

Replace the trim to the main bath which is discoloured again after being replaced already.

We only notice today one of the panels to the sliding doors was scratched, which we missed on the first walk through. This will be replaced in the New Year.

Since there were only one or two items that needed to be resolved and this could be dealt with in the New Year, we signed off.

Now all we had to do was get the Bank to make the final payment which was proving to be more difficult than we first thought. Anyway, to cut a long story short we have the keys.

The house is ours. We did have the carpet booked in for tomorrow but thought this maybe cutting it a bit fine. We decided to change it to Tuesday next week. We plan to start the driveway this weekend weather permitting.

Now the hard work starts trying to sort out the garden!!!!!

Final inspection - part 1

We had our first walk through with the site supervisor today. We had already made a snagging list a few days ago and gave it to Allcastle on Tuesday. We thought the sooner they know about the things we are not happy with the more chance they have of getting them put right before we sign off. It also gave us a chance to go through the house throughly and less chance of missing things. Our original list had 78 points with needed to be addressed. This sounds a lot but probably 90% are paint touch ups.

There are a few more serious ones such as the 2 roof apex tiles have not been cemented down probably.



Also a few issues with the tiling. The silver trim around the bath still hasn't been put right, even after we spoke to the tiler. It's also become discoloured in patches so it needs to be redone.



The tile below was installed after the splash back had been put on and the kitchen tiles re-done. Why bother putting a tile on thats chipped in the corner???



The picture below shows the Stainless Steel splashback now installed.



Plus a few holes and gouges in the floors upstairs which would prevent the carpet from being laid.





During the walk round we went through our list and by the end of it, the list was down to 45 items. So they almost halved it in 2 days, not bad going. We are still hoping to sign off before they shut down for the Christmas break. We will have another walk round next Wednesday and if we are happy we will pay the final payment and arrange to collect the keys on Thursday. We're not planning on moving in straight away but it will give us a chance to do the wood flooring downstairs and have the carpet fitted upstairs. We can also crack on with the landscaping as well.

Water tank

We now have a water tank. I shouldn't take too long to fill up with all this rain lately.

Point of connection

We had a bit of a shock at the weekend when we noticed a rather large bracket had been mounted to the top of the garage roof.



We soon realised that this is where the point of connection will be for our 3 phase supply to the house. We could not understand why it had to be where it is. We phoned the site supervisor first thing this morning and he said this is the only place it could go to comply with Australian standards. We decided to look into it further and found out that unfortunately this is true. The problem is the point of connection has to be accessible by ladder and due to the roof above the garage door, a ladder cannot be set up to the correct angle if trying to access the top roof gable. Unfortunately you are not allowed to have the point of connection on a balcony either. The only other solution is to have a pole mounted in the corner of our block. A cable could then be run from the top of the pole to the house underground and the point of connection would then be to this pole.

We are a bit disappointed that this wasn't pointed out to us sooner and what our options were, as we could have had the pole installed sooner rather than the overhead bracket. We have decided to put up with it for now and look to get the pole installed at a later date. We will just need to make sure suitable conduit is installed underground before the driveway is laid.

Doors & Electrical fit off

We had another look inside the house today and were surprised to see all the door handles were on and the wardrobe clothes rails had been installed.









Also the electrical sockets and switches had been fitted off. They have installed standard bayonet light fittings for now in the kitchen and main living area. These will be eventually be replaced with energy saver down lights, along with the heat/extractor fan lights in the upstairs bathrooms.





The meter box is now ready for connection.

Tiling - Part 2

We stopped by the house at weekend and had look inside. We noticed that the walls of the bathrooms had been tiled. We are a bit disappointed with what we saw. There are a few tiles which don't line up and the silver trims around the baths are cut very poorly. We have contacted our site supervisor and explained our concerns with the tiling. We said we thought it would be best to highlight the issues before the tiles are grouted and he agreed. He said he would inform Beaumont tiles and asked us to send Allcastle an email. Hopefully it will be dealt with soon as the house will be cleaned next week ready for our first inspection.






The pictures below show how the silver bath trims have been cut and aligned poorly. These are quite sharp as well and not ideal for small children climbing into the bath.







This is the floor tile around the drain in the ensuite shower. You can see how half is raised up and is quite sharp.