Practical Completion - Handover

8 months in the making with the slab down on 22 October 2015 and we finally have Completion Handover on 23 June 2016.

Overall, we are happy with the building and the outcome, and had been a really good experience to go through the building process. Yes, there are some things that we would like to have considered but had we known earlier, we would have made the changes. 

Thank you Highbury Homes for making a lovely house for us with minor setbacks.

We are also grateful to our parents and all family and friend who had been sharing and following us on this journey. Thank God for His Blessings and Guidance in this our adventure.

Rear Wall Completed

The rear wall is up and finally finished and rendered. Next up is the front landscaping which will be done once the driveway is laid.

Rear Wall

We have organised for the rear wall to be built together with our neighbour's, with the approval from our builder. They have laid the footing for the wall and the bricks were also delivered. They will be starting to build up the 1.8m rear wall next week.

Preparations on the way..

As we are closing into handover, we have started preparing for the tasks and works that we will be doing at the new house.

Karen's expertise is now in play with the choosing of the interior wall colours.
Simon has started working on the wine cellar rack and completed it after a few weekends and working overtime in the cold garage at night.

We have also started packing up our things which we do not need now in preparation for the move at the end of July. We are getting busier with the preparations but at the meantime are also excited to be moving out to our new home soon.

Side Fence & PCI

Our neighbour have arranged for the pinelap side fence to be installed. The rear wall will be installed next week by developer LWP.

We had our Practical Completion Inspection with Tim on Wednesday and outlined about 12 minor items to be fixed or rectified. They will get these done within next 10 working days after which we will have final inspection to handover.

Pinelap side fence

Home Theater Riser

We have completed building the home theater riser platform.

There are 5 sub-sections (for ease of transportation to the new house) which will then be assembled, joined and secured together to form one complete riser platform. The 5th section will be assembled at the new house for accuracy of platform width, wall to wall.

4 sub-sections side by side.

With step up to platform (to be attached on site).

Fishbone supporting structure.

Ceiling Repairs

The roof inspection was carried out and look like some work was done to patch and fix the ceiling from the water leak last week.

We have not met with HH site supervisor and thus, we do not have the full report on the damage (if any) and what was done to the ceiling and roof space. We should be meeting our new site supervisor Tim this week as Walter has resigned from HH which is not quite a good news for us.

We just hope that Walter has fully handed over all the house details to Tim to follow through.

Practical Completion Inspection (PCI) - Cancelled

We were to meet up with Walter this morning for the house Practical Completion Inspection (PCI) where we will go through the entire house to check and identify any defects that will need to be fixed.

However, on our way to the house, Walter called and said that the PCI is cancelled as there is water leaking from the roof space onto the ceiling, dripping at the master ensuite entrance. Regardless, we went and were disappointed when we saw the puddle of water and water is still dripping.

Finishing Fixtures

We are on the home run stage now where all electrical and appliances are installed and ready for inspection prior to handover.
The scullery sink and benchtop were finally replaced.

The Scullery sink.

Flyscreen & Wardrobe Doors

We have the flyscreen installed to all sliding doors and windows, and the mirror + white kote glass doors were also fixed to the bedroom wardrobes.

They are going to fix the scullery sink this week and that will bring us very close to final inspection.

House Cleaning but with a mistake *sigh*

We are on the final stretch now and they have started cleaning up the house internally. Once that is done, then minor work will commence to install flyscreen, seal bathrooms, knobs and any fittings.

However, we are hit with a small hiccup whereby they installed the wrong sink in the scullery. We wanted a bigger 62L sink but they installed the smaller 44L. To replace the sink, they will have to replace the entire scullery EssaStone benchtop. Sadly, the new benchtop cannot be re-used.This could delay us 1-2 weeks.

On a brighter note, we have engaged a painter to paint the house (after handover) and he has started by painting with undercoat sealer to the internal walls (Allowed by site supervisor). This will save us some time and he can start painting straight away once we have hand over.

Rear Alfresco

Alfresco Paved

We were informed the pavers were laid and completed last Friday. We visited the house today and the back alfresco area looks wide and spacious, much to our surprise as to how the pavers lighten up the area.

Tiles and Cabinets at 98% Completion

We arranged to meet with our site supervisor Walter to have Colin drop by to measure up for our room and kitchen window shutters and blinds.
The tiles and cabinet works were completed and will need to be sealed further once the area has been cleaned.

Karen and the kids in the powder room.

Garage Doors

We, together with our neighbour, have our garage doors installed today but from different installer contractor.

Pavers Delivered

Pavers for the alfresco were delivered, the Brikmakers Vistapave 60 Silver pavers.

The electricians have also attended to install the switches and downlights for the alfresco and dining rack ceiling with 10W LED downlights.

Building our Home Theatre Riser Platform

Our house building is still progressing internally and we are unable to view inside the house on the progress. Electricians will be installing power points and switches and the plumbers with the water taps and fixtures.
At the meantime, we have started building our home theatre riser platform. This will elevate the 2nd row of sofa in the home theatre.
We are pre-building 4 sections and the 5th section will be cut and installed to fit to the home theatre onsite (once we move in). We have done 2 sections over the last 3 weekends which included cutting the boards and pieces.

Wet Areas

More painting to the rendered front and rear walls. The rack ceiling upper glass were installed.
Wet areas tiling is still in progress.

Progression

They have fixed in the glass panels to the top of the rack ceiling after the triangular frame fixture.Tilers have begun tiling the laundry and wet areas flooring.
The garage slab was also laid down and looks good.

Tiles Arrangements

Today, we met up with our site supervisor Walter to finalise on the tiles layout for the wet areas, namely the bathroom, ensuite, toilet, laundry and power room. The tilers will come in later this week to start the work.

Externally, painters are working on painting the front wall. We took this opportunity to look around the house and check on the kitchen, scullery and bathroom cabinets and sink wares.

Essa Stone Top

This week, more work progress on the kitchen and bench tops with the installation of essa stone top. The laundry, bathroom and toilet floors were prep for floor tiling.

Cabinets Installation

They have started rendering to the front walls of the house and will continue onto the rear walls.
Cabinet installation have also started with fixtures to the kitchen, kitchen island, scullery, bathrooms and laundry.

Rendering to the front walls (in white).

Ceiling painted

Karen went by on Tuesday morning and there is the Painter's van parked outside.
The painters are in to paint the ceiling !!

Doors and Shelves

The builder have fixed the front doors and most of the internal doors.
Shelves were also installed to all the wardrobes and kitchen pantry.

Lock Up

We visited the house today and the doors were locked and secured. We  have reached lock up stage and the ongoing work will be mainly indoors for installation of cabinets, wet area tiling etc. They have also started installing the doors.

We will not be able to enter the house from today and could only peek in from the window.

White Plaster Rendering

Another progressive week with the grey float set to the front, rear and alfresco pillars.
They have also started white plaster rendering to the internal walls, starting from the front rooms, passage way, study, home theatre and master suite. The living areas and kitchen were not done yet.

External Walls

Karen drove by the house today and the workers have started plastering the external walls. They are working on the frontage and the rear covering the 4 pillars as well.

Faults & Mistakes

When we visited our house construction site, apart from the energetic excitement of the progress, we will also check to make sure that the building is as per the plan (to the best of our knowledge) and as to what we expected.

As careful as we could be, there were some minor mistakes and faults (some unforeseen by us) to be corrected. It is a good thing that we picked up the problem and fix it now rather than later.

Here are some faults which we have encountered, and thankful that it was easily rectified.

Glass Doors, Windows and Ceiling

It has been a very busy week with the installation of the glass windows and sliding doors (Jason Windows) throughout the house. Glass panels were also installed to the internal wine cellar and activity window.

Then came the drywall installers to install the gyprock ceiling and cornice throughout the house. We did not visit the house whilst this work is going on as they were busy until late evening and sanding the ceiling.

It is 98% completed and need to redo the wall at the AV side to dryline it instead of grey plaster. Overall, we are happy and excited that the ceiling is up and our house rooms are taking shape.

Wall Plastering

The workers were back to work on the house on Thursday and Friday (even though it is still hot but it is windy and not hitting above 35 degrees) and they have started applying internal grey float to the internal walls.

There will be another layer of white plaster which will complete the walls.

Kitchen

Karen by the master entrance

Master ensuite niche recessed wall in shower

Towards home theatre

Karen in home theatre

Heat Wave !!

There was little done to the house last week as the weather soared above 40 degrees Celsius and we experienced several days of heat wave.

We did visit the house later and they have cleared the rubbish and cleaned up inside of the house.

Roof

This week, we have the completion of the roof with the flashings, cappings, ridge capings and valleys installed, and it looks good. The bathroom and toilet vents at the roof were also installed.

They are currently working on the front fascia and capping to the portico at the front entrance. They have also fixed the wall conduits to the correct wall and will patch up the defaulted wall.

There has been light rain over the weekend and the roof (just in time) did it's job in keeping the rain out of the house.

Plumbing works were also completed and they have sealed off the walls where the pipe runs. As for the electrical work, some minor work required as in fixing power plugs at the roof space and junction boxes.

The conduits are now fixed to the correct wall.

Cemented pipe grove to the kitchen sink.

Cemented kitchen cook top incoming gas line.

Master ensuite shower with 2 overhead shower plumbing done.

Bathroom and toilet vents to the roof.

Electrical wiring waiting for power plugs onto the roof space.

Pipes ready for gas hot water installation.

Roof capped at the joints, looking good.

More work at the front portico.