Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Re-surveyors, QA & Planning Permit Submission

Just a quick general update.

Now that the old house has been demolished M has arranged for the block to be re-surveyed and soil testes to be finalised.  A little bit of duplication on what they have already done but with a house sitting on the block I imagine its difficult to get accurate surveys etc.  Anyway all done now, just waiting on final results.
M has received the relevant documents re the sewer points as to their depth etc.  They are 3.1m below ground level.  The contract detailed additional costs would be incurred if its below 1.5m.  At the time I didn't give it much thought as expected it to be within the contractual range.  Stuffed that up - oh well lets just wait and see what they want to pin us for that.

We were contacted today by our CSC and advised our contract had been reviewed by M's internal QA team - ensure all our variations have made it in the final plans and are realistic etc.  They picked up on a few very small things such as M's door supplier is no longer Corinthian but rather is Hume Doors & Timber (same door but advised different supplier - no big deal but good to see M are being upfront about the change in supplier) and where we want the mirrors within the ensuite and bathrooms were too low to cater for our selected tap ware (again no big deal but good to know up front).  

Also, all our plans have been submitted to the council for the issue of a building permit.  Our CSC tells us all could be finalised and in order for final sign off pre-commencement meeting as early as next week.

A September slab pour seems a realistic target..... the end date is anyones guess.....

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Tile Selections Complete

Cam and I (& Hamish) spent Thursday morning at Beaumont’s Tile Studio choosing our tiles for all the wet areas of the house.

It certainly helped that Cam and I spent a few hours there last Tuesday and by the time we got started with Julie, our tile consultant we had a pretty good idea about the majority of the tiles.

As we have already upgraded the downstairs flooring to bamboo floors, we didn’t have a huge area to choose tiles for. This was fantastic as Cam and I chose the tiles we wanted with little or no regard to the price. In total we added over $3000 of upgraded tiles but in my opinion it is totally worth getting the tiles you want as they are so difficult to change. Everything was an upgrade except for the tiles on the front balcony.

Here are the selections…

Laundry
FLOOR - Aristo Cement Porcelain tiles with rectified edge 300mm x 600mm.
WALL – Gloss White Rectified edge 300mm x 600mm.


Gloss White 300 x 600mm tile for all walls except features. ..sorry for dodgy photo:(...
 Powder Room
FLOOR - Aristo Cement Porcelain tiles with rectified edge 300mm x 600mm.
WALL – Mosaic Fingers Charcoal Lustre 22mm x 145mm around the windows, mirror and vanity wall returns

Lovely cement floor tiles with Mosaic Finger Charcoal Lustre wall tiles... I love them!


Bathroom
FLOOR - Aristo Cement Porcelain tiles with rectified edge 300mm x 600mm.
WALL – Gloss White Rectified edge 300mm x 600mm.
FEATURE WALL in SHOWER Aristo Cement Porcelain tiles with rectified edge 300mm x 600mm. SAME AS FLOOR, this will be the floor tile continuing up the wall

Our stunning cement/porcelain tiles for the floors and continuing up the wall for the feature walls in both showers. LOVE LOVE LOVE!

Ensuite
FLOOR - Aristo Cement Porcelain tiles with rectified edge 300mm x 600mm.
WALL – Gloss White Rectified edge 300mm x 600mm.
FEATURE WALL in SHOWER INCL. NICHE Aristo Cement Porcelain tiles with rectified edge 300mm x 600mm. SAME AS FLOOR, this will be the floor tile continuing up the wall.

Texture of floor tile...
Kitchen
RETURN AROUND WINDOW SPLASHBACK – Mosaic Fingers Off White Lustre 22mm x x145mm.

Off White Lustre Mosaic Fingers for around Kitchen splashback


Master Bedroom Balcony
Lifestyle Charcoal 400mm x 400mm (Standard Silver Range)

Balcony Tiles 400 x 400mm

We are very happy with our selections and don’t feel like we compromised on what we wanted nor did we select tiles that will date easily. A win-win situation…

Kirsten  xoxo




Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Cleared Block......

While it doesnt take long to demolish an old weatherboard place....

What it was...........

What it was internally...... as purchased



What happenned step 1 - after salvaging anything of value including leadlight windows, lightfittings, gas log heater, floorboards etc....  (same room as above)

What happened - step 2....smash it all up and drag it away....
What it is now..... view from rear to street

What it is now.... view from front to rear

Very happy with the job the guys did.  The block looks huge empty but hopefully not empty for long.
Now back over to M to arrange re-surveys to finalise slab etc.
And I need to sell the rest of the salvaged materials to offset the demo costs - ebay here I come.

Until next time Cam

Friday, August 12, 2011

D-DAY has come and gone... the house is no longer!



 Yesterday morning at sparrows, Jim the Demolishers team knocked over our old weatherboard house in less than 2 hours! I know, we couldnt believe it either...

 Cam spoke with our neighbour and she mentioned that they got there at 7:15am and by the time we arrived with the boys to take photos at 9:15am this is what we saw...



The guy operating the big digger was so skilled that he used the massive claw to pick up a single redgum stump and drop it into a different pile. The waste is separated into trees and garden, general waste and bricks.

It's amazing that it only takes a few days to knock over a house but so many months to build a new one. The block looks nice and big too.

When we return from the snow on Monday another driveby is on the cards and hopefully it will be a fully cleared block.

Some more piccies from Cam's phone...






\

Kirst xoxo

Friday, August 5, 2011

Demolition is GO GO GO!

Cam and his Dad have spent the better part of today at the old house ripping our potentially valuable things to salvage…



Stained glass windows



Stained glass doors


Colourbond gate





Lighting sets


Old kitchen benches


And the other day we managed to sell the gas log heater (a Fitzroy Cannon which retails new for over $2000) for $1230 on eBay to a guy from Ballarat who picked it up this morning. Hopefully we can sell some of the other stuff too. I think a guy is coming to get the floorboards too.

THIS IS WHAT OUR QUAINT ("its a dump") LITTLE HOUSE LOOKS LIKE NOW.... in one week this will hopefully be a clear block... YAY

The temporary fencing is going up on Monday, the asbestos guys are coming on Tuesday and it looks like Jim the Demolisher will be coming in the later part of the week to roll over the house.

I would love to take our little boy, Lachie to have a look at the house being demolished as I think all little boys love diggers and trucks etc but alas we are going to Mt Buller late next week and won’t be around. So photos might be hard to come by…

Stay tuned
Kirsten

PS i forgot to ask... did anyone else get a groovy Metricon Briefcase to hold all your documents? (sorry about iPhone pics)


SUPER STYLISH... Dont you think?



Final Contract = TICK…

Last Tuesday we finally signed our final contracts at Metricon HQ. Everything was in order and our final figure was a great deal below what was in the first draft of the final contract. Which was fantastic!!! We spent a huge amount of time combing through the contract, crosschecking drawings, discussing things and in the end we ended up picking up quite a few mistakes. They charged us for 2 ceasarstone waterfall edges on kitchen island bench, added a $950 shelf above some cabinets in the kitchen I didn’t ask for, charged us an extra $1040 for Cat 3 Austral bricks when the Selkirk Cat 3 were cheaper, miscounted the number of doors to upgrade (there were 18 not 20), charged us for stain on the balustrade when we are leaving it clear lacquer.

We have decided to remove the garage extension instead going with a standard width but adding 2 x 620mm wide doors to the rear. This freed up about $18,000 (can you believe it?) and meant that we could add a few more little luxuries like painting of feature walls, a broom cupboard, upgrade the finish on the laundry cabinets, and my favourite little inclusion… a pull out pantry cupboard like this…


As Cam mentioned in the previous post we let Metricon know we were unhappy that the build period was over 400 days! After objecting to this on the basis that their own literature supplied to us during the sales consultations clearly stated 8-9 months build time on a double storey, we negotiated to have the build period reduced to 370 days including 71 for holidays and weekends and 25 days for weather related stoppages. Although 370 days is still 12 months, we were happy to have a little win on that issue.

The other little win that we had is the installation of our own power pit (about $2500 rather than the $6000 Metricon wanted us to allow, which included $1000 for them for filling in a form??!!). We are also providing our own crushed rock which meant we are not paying the highly inflated $1200 for them to provide this!!! It is a nice feeling to have avoided paying that exorbitant cost J

What a relief it was to finally have the contract signed off. Studio M is nearly signed off and tile appointment is in a bout 10 days time.

Happy Building!

Kirsten

PS Ive decided to make the front door red afterall... Dulux RED BOX in gloss!