Staircase

The staircase has also been put in. This was pleasant surprise, we weren't expecting it to be put in for a while yet. We're really pleased with how it looks. It should be really nice once it's been stained and varnished.



There will be a doorway put here for under stair storage.

Cornicing

We had a look around the house on Sunday and noticed the cornice had been cut ready to put up. All the gyprock had been sanded as well, which they made a good job of.




We went to the house again on Tuesday evening and all the cornice had been put up.

We noticed they still installed the cornice at the area where the ceiling was bowed. Not sure why they didn't leave this bit as they still need to put the ceiling right. They have now marked the ceiling at the area where it bow's down.

We also noticed that all the wet areas had been sealed. The picture below is the ensuite bathroom.

This is the main bathroom.

This is the Balcony.

Gyprocking

The gyprocking was completed this week. We're very surprised by this since the brick work at the back of the house is still to be resolved. We were told by Customer Service at Allcastle that this would start on Thursday, nothing has happened as of yet.

We would have been really please to see the gyprocking go in but the workmanship has been disappointing. As you can see from the picture below, the ceiling is not level. WHAT THE HELL, how can they get it so wrong. I guess you need a Site Supervisor to be around to make sure things are being done properly, I guess ours is too busy with other sites. Another issue to bring to Allcastle's attention.



The sheet is catching on the lip of this flange. All they needed to do was cut the gyrock out around the flange and it would have sit flat.



Another issue we need to bring to Allcastle attention is the hole in the floor in the main bedroom. Not sure how they intend to fix this one as they have gyprocked the ceiling under this flooring. They now don't have access to the hole underneath. It seems like a lot more work to us to resolve a small issue now. If this was fixed before the gyprocking it would have been a lot easier.



We have also notice a lot of the window sill's are bowed. We're not happy about this either. We hope this is standard builders practice and it will be rectified with out us having to make a complaint.







Bedroom 2



Upstairs Living Area



Garage



Main Family Room



Kitchen

Internal wall Insulation

The house comes with insulation in the upstairs ceiling and external walls but not the internal walls. We thought it would help a bit with sound proofing in the bedrooms if we put insulation in the internal walls upstairs and the study downstairs. This was an after thought since signing the contract. We put R1.5 insulation in the upstairs internal walls which is the same as the external walls.









We also put sound screen insulation in the study walls.

Additional wiring

Any additional wiring such as phone points, extra TV points & speaker points had to be arranged by ourselves, as they are not included in the contract. We put in a total of 4 phone points, in the TV room, Living area, upstairs living area and main bedroom.

We also put in surround sound wires in the TV room and wiring for 4 ceiling speakers in the Living area. Also extra Cable TV points in the Living area and upstairs living area.

The position of the speakers are marked on the floor so that we know where to cut out the ceiling for them.

Electrical rough in

The Electrical rough in was done on Friday. This is where the Electrician runs all the cables required for power sockets, lighting and TV point. This has to be done before the walls are gyprocked, whilst there is still access.





The picture below shows where all the wires go to on the outside garage wall.



This is the meter box on the outside of the garage wall.



This picture shows where the kitchen floor has been chased out for the cables running to the island bench.



We also noticed that the ducting had been installed for the air-conditioning.

Brickwork modification - Part 3

We hadn't heard what was going to be done about the brickwork at the back of the house since we first emailed Allcastle. Yesterday we received the invoice for the next payment for completion of the roof and brickwork. We found this very annoying, as to us the brickwork is not finished. We spoke to Allcastle expressing our disappointment that nobody had contacted us about how our issue with the brickwork was going to be resolved and yet they had sent the invoice requesting payment. We sent an email stating we would defer payment until the issue had been resolved.

The next day (today) we received an email stating that the brickwork would pulled down from above the LHS doors and the steel lintel raised to the same height as the Steel beam above the RHS doors. The brickwork would then be re-laid the same as above the RHS doors in soldier course.

We are now pleased that the matter will be resolved and the brickwork at the back of the house will look even.