Builder mistake #1 and #2

The tradies have officially stopped for their Christmas break, and will be back only around 12 Jan 2009.

The roof tiling has been completed (except for the garage), and the scaffolding had been removed. Here are the pic from different elevation.


Front Elevation (Balcony and garage on the right not done yet)



Elevation B (Left side)



Elevation C (Back)



Elevation D (Right side)



The gutters had also been done earlier and guess what, it was wrong material and wrong colour. It should be ColorBond in Woodland Grey, but they've installed Zincalume in some silver colour. We've called SS to tell him the mistake, and his solution is "...will paint it Woodland Grey...". Errr... don't think he is kidding. Contacted CS on this issue and they've come back that they'll remove and replace with the correct material/colour when another scaffolding is put up during bricking stage.

Another mistake the builder made was actually during the slab plumbing stage. The vanity pipe in the Power Room was in the wrong position. As seen in the photo below, it should be on the right side of the frame. SS said they'll jackhammer that part of the slab and re-do the plumbing. *sigh*

Frame fully completed

Our roof truss has finished on Tuesday, so officially, the framing stage is completed. PD has been efficient enough to send us bill#2 which we've received it today.

We've meet up with our SS this morning to have a walk through the building and raise any issues concern. He has run through what has been done, and also what are the tasks following. He mentioned that a frame inspection has already been made and he'll also check the frame himself to make sure everything is OK before X'mas. Anyway, we've also called BigK for the inspection on frame stage. He should be here on Monday.

We've missed out asking PD to do the insulation/soundproof for sub-floor, and SS is kind enough to help us call his contact from CSR so that we can get a quote from them.

Up to this moment, we're happy with the people we've dealt with from PD (CS, SS, etc). The experience so far is very different from what we had when we built our first house with $imond$. Just hope it stays this way!




This is not the actual "completed frame" photo, will upload the actual one soon.



One important point SS brought up was that this newly titled stage of the estate has no power yet, and the building guys currently run on generator and it cost them $100/day, and if it goes on after some time, PD is likely to charge us in order to share the cost! A quick call was made to Peet and was told power only comes in Feb 09, and they'll not compensate us if the builder starts to charge for the generator. Not happy with that answer!!!!!

Not too bad week

Few things had been done this week.

When we spoke to the frame guy on Tuesday morning, he said the frames should be finished in 3 days. We thought... "yeah right"... but hey, he's right!


Windows and sliding doors had been delivered


The guys started to work on the frame for upstairs




Ground floor windows and sliding doors installed






Half-way there..


Nearly there


There!


Scaffoldings up too




The roof truss had been delivered, should be starting on Monday.
Also, will be meeting SS for the first time on Thursday to walk through the place.

Hit and Miss

Progress has been S.L.O.W past few days.

On day 1 of framing there were 6 guys, then 2 on day 2, zero on day 3, 2 on day 4, and today there were 3.

Anyway, the guys were fitting the boards for the upper floor today, and we noticed there were quite a fair bit of nails that were not nail correctly. Not sure is this an issue.








[edit] Had a look from upstairs, the frame guys had re-nailed the missed ones :)

Ground floor frame

Today's progress was not as "wow" as yesterday, probably because there were 6 guys yesterday but only 2 today.

With the powder room walls and the walls between stairs and kitchen/pantry done, the frames for ground floor are completed now (I think), and the guys have started on work for the "ceiling" (?) of the ground floor.






The main entrance door frame and the translucent sidelights are in. Without any protective layer on the glass sidelights, we're keeping an eye on when the glasses will start to get scratches.



Door frame for laundry is up too.

Here comes the BILL... and the frame

We've received the bill for stage 1 from PD today. Not as efficient as we thought :)

Had a quick chat with SS this morning. This is our first chat and he sounds like a nice chap. Was asking him is it possible to add some noggins and few other things, and he's alright with that.

Anyway, there has been a good progress in the building. The guys arrived early and started on building of the frames. By the end of first day of framing, the ground floor is almost completed, except for the powder room walls and the walls between stairs and kitchen/pantry.











Happened to notice the pipes in kitchen are slanted, and there is another one behind, probably for the gas. Not sure is this ok... need to have a chat with SS when meeting him on site.

Concrete Slab Done

Drop by the lot this morning not expecting much happenings because the frame for slab was completed yesterday and according to PD, pouring of slab will only happen next Monday.

However, a big thingy has parked next to our lot and few guys standing in our lot were ready to get their hands dirty. That's right!! They were waiting for concrete from that big thingy!

Now that we have a slab, I wonder how efficient will PD be in collecting $$$ for the first stage...

248 Days to Complete

Received a letter from PD today to confirm the start date of the construction, and will take 248 days to complete. Why 248?? According to the contract, that includes public holidays, wet weather allowance etc? Will there be extra delay due to Christmas/New Year break?? Not sure, will have to check with CS from PD.

Based to PD's schedule below, we're kind of ahead of schedule... not surprising when work actually began before the official start date.

WEEK 1
Site start is the day that all construction starts on site, usually when home is set out on the block. Hire items will be delivered, any excavation work done, under slab drains are laid and electrical connection cable is laid.

We're now in concrete slab preparation. The formwork and steel reinforcement were done this morning. Here are some pics.

Final Drawings

Here are our finalized the drawings


Facade - Arlington



Elevation B



Elevation C



Elevation D



Floor Plan - Ground Floor



Floor Plan - Upper Floor



Electrical Plan - Ground Floor



Electrical Plan - Upper Floor

Today Is The Day!

Today is the official start date for our 30 week building process.

Though we have not receive any calls from the site supervisor, but work had already begin at our lot few days before the actual start date.


Stakes that form the outline of the plan (?)



Temporary fencing set up



Plumbing work before slab pour



End of Day 1