DYI Temporary Blinds

We are moving in very soon. As for many many people building a house window covering is one of these things left "for later". We need some privacy though.

Enter the temporary blind.

We search for those pleated sheet of paper made by Redi Shade. It is an American product which used to be distributed by Bunnings. We could not find any in the local Bunnings so we decided to make our own.

It is not very hard and extremely cheap. Materials: a stack of butcher paper sheets (you can get these in Storage place), some paper glue and Blue Tak. Here is the result:

Powder Room

 Bedroom

Looking from outside

Let's put some flooring

This week is a bit hectic. The bamboo floorboards got installed on Tuesday. I went at the house at 7 AM to open the door to the installer before heading off to work.

We had a bit of a drama with a couple of doors having not enough clearance to put the floorboards (they are 14 mm thick + 3 mm underlay). Metricon said there is nothing they can do about it as it was not written in the contract that we were going to put floorboard. We had to remove one door (we will get it fixed later) whilst the other one would touch the floor if opened fully. Lesson learnt: put every single detail in writing in the contract!

The same day I had Hans from Wizcrete coming to look at our front yard and discuss our driveway needs. He seems to know well his stuff and committed to deliver a quality product.

Pack of floorboards ready to be installed

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The work in progress. We had to remove the storage room door.

 The finished product - looking towards the entry doors (need to clean the dust)

The kitchen bathed in the late afternoon light

 Steps between the living area and the front of the house.

Today the carpet layer was on site from 6:45 AM. I am glad I both live and work only 15 min driving from our new house! He almost finished his work and will come back tomorrow early morning again.

I ordered a new telephone connection last Friday. The necessary site appointment has been rescheduled twice already! Now we have to wait until the 12th October to get a phone line and more to get Internet.

In comparison I called Jim's Antenna after lunch to get our TV antenna. Their local technician went to measure the signal strength in the afternoon and will be back tomorrow at 6:45 am to install the antenna. How good is that!

Carpet section at the front of the house (Study)

Front bedroom with the balcony

 Upstairs "leisure" room

It's ours!

This is it! Yesterday we had handover. What an exciting time!

We met our site supervisor, John, at the house. After a quick walk around to check all the items from the PCI have been fixed we were presented all the certificates and warranties documents. We then exchange a cheque for the final payment with the keys.

John had a welcome gift from Metricon: a set of 4 Royal Doulton champagne glasses. How nice! (although the bottle of bubbly is missing :-)).

John has been a excellent site supervisor. I think we are lucky to have him looking after our build. He delivered a quality house in time with very little issues along the way. Happy customers.

Today we went back to the house to give a good swipe. Although it has been cleaned it is by now means spot less (that's what they called "a builder clean"). There is fair bit of dust which we want to get rid of before the bamboo floors and carpets are installed next week.

One thing we did not notice at the PCI is the alignment of the downlights in the hall way. They don't form a perfect straight line. It is hard to see during daytime but becomes apparent at night time. I wish I had that on my PCI check list.

Still lots of dust (that's from a floor area of about 16 sqm)

Downlight alignment - I wish I had checked that at the PCI. Too late now.

Sun setting down on our backyard

 Nice light throughout the living area

 Looking at the Blue Mountains from the master bedroom.

Two more sleeps and it's ours

Yes, we have a handover date! Today we received our occupancy certificate and Metricon has completed all the PCI work on the house except for some minor paint touch-ups (this will be fixed tomorrow). We made an appointment with our site supervisor for handover on Friday.

What a relief! I won't have to cancel the floor installers booked for Monday (unless of course there is a massive stuff up at handover).

We have to think about what style of driveway we should have. We were tossing the idea of an exposed aggregate (also called pebble crete) but I only found one guy doing that in our area and it's not cheap. Plan B would be a coloured concrete. Which one will it be?...

DIY Privacy Screen

There we go: the house is now fitted with that privacy screen required by the council. After multiple trip to Bunnings (their staff was very helpful in guiding us in our very first DIY job) and a good two hours of measuring, cutting aluminium and drilling, we have completed the job. It's not perfect but looks quite ok.

The council requested a 800mm high screen on top of the balustrade. Supposedly this is prevent us looking into our neighbour's house. Here is the result:

 View from the balcony. Our neighbour's house (at least their roof) has gained some privacy

 

Viewed from the street. The colour does not perfectly match but it is close enough.

The certifier has been re-booked for next Tuesday to check this out. If it's ok, we will get our certificate of occupancy.

Privacy Screen

I spent the beginning of the week inquiring about privacy screens and getting quotes. The screen the council requires us to put on one side of the balcony is 1200 mm wide by 800 mm high (it will sit on top of the balustrade).

It turns out that screen installers (usually fencing companies) are either not interested in such a small job or will charge a prohibitively expensive price. I have been quoted anything between $1,400 and $2,000! No way I am going to fork out that much money on this.

My next option is a DIY screen. I bought one of these. It looks easy enough to assemble (just click the slats in pre-cut holes) except that I need to cut it to size. I am hoping to be able to install the screen this week and get the private certifier authority to give his signature early next week. That will make the bank happy so I can pay Metricon and received our long awaited keys!

I talked to my site supervisor today and all the issues found at the PCI are almost all fixed. If all goes well I will be able to get my bamboo floor installer on site the following week (they are booked for Monday 19th).

Moving forward

There are some great news today!

First we received the report from our independent inspector Howard Ryan. He found a few other minor issues we haven't noticed at the PCI. But other than that the report gives an award to our site supervisor for delivering a house of a high standard of finish. Given that's the 14th award of this type out of 8000+ inspection he gives, this makes us very happy to know Metricon has delivered a quality product.

The second good news is that the road block we were stuck in has finally cleared. The bank insisted the occupancy certificate must be obtained prior to sending the final payment, while we can't obtain the certificate until a privacy screen is installed, which we can only do after paying Metricon. However today Metricon's management decided to give us access to the house prior settlement so we can install that screen.

Next mission: find a supplier and/or installer for privacy screen...

Chicken and Egg

Nothing can ever be simple when building a new home. We learnt that our Private Certifier Authority (PCA) cannot issue our interim certificate of occupancy until we comply with condition #25 of the council's development consent. Condition #25 is the addition of a privacy screen on our front balcony.
This screen is to be added by us after handover. That would not be a problem... except that our bank wants to have a copy of the certificate of occupancy before releasing the funds for the final payment, and we cannot access the house until we pay Metricon and get the keys.
So there it is: we are stuck in an administrative road block until someone make a compromise. The PCA won't move as they are bond by the regulations. The bank or Metricon will have to do something about it.

PCI

Today was our PCI (Practical Completion Inspection). It went for a good two hours at the end of which we had a list of 10 or so issues. Not much, really. We are quite happy with the quality of the work. Well done, Metricon!

I made a checklist for this exercise. Basically we methodically visited each room checking that doors and windows open/close smoothly, that each power point works (using a night light), each switch is wired correctly, opened the taps checking for leaks, checked the paintwork and verified any extra item from our contract has been installed. The checklist was useful helping not to forget anything.

We put many blue stickers to point any scratches that will need to be patched. Our SS himself added a few we haven't even spotted. He was quite helpful and really trying to make us the customer happy. Nice.

So what are the main issues found today? The big ones are:

• a missing mirror in our bedroom
• a missing integrated drain tray in our Ceasarstone kitchen benchtop (carved into the stone)
• front door "sticking" - need to be adjusted
• a double power point installed in the wrong spot

These can be fixed relatively easily except perhaps for the Ceasarstone benchtop (it may not be possible to do it on site).

Later this week we will have our independent inspector Howard Ryan having a look at the house. Let's see what he will find...

Pre-PCI Inspection

I went to the house today to meet a new landscape designer we are hiring to review the levels, retaining wall and plant selection of the landscaping plan that was lodged with the DA. He is going to re-design the original plan to reduce the number of retaining walls (that will reduce the landscaping cost) and basically try to make a better use of the outdoor space.

I took the opportunity to have a look at the exterior of the house. This time I had some not so good surprises. Yes, Metricon made another mistake (the first one was the recycled water tap instead of potable water). They have installed a reticulated chemical termite barrier when we had specified in our contract a physical barrier (Granitgard). Problem is it is almost impossible to install Granitgard after construction because the system is installed between the slab and the first two brick courses. I suppose we will have to ask for compensation (I am thinking of the cost of recharging the chemical system every three years, which does not apply for Granitgard).

Apart from that they have not yet installed the air-conditioning compressor, the hot water system, nor have they carved the integrated drain on the kitchen bench slab.

It looks like it will be a little while before we can move in. Our floor company (Accent Bella Vista) has been booked for a big job in September. They are available a couple days the week after PCI otherwise we will have to wait for 19th September. I can't see Metricon handing over the keys one week after PCI. My bank is another potential problem, as they require the occupancy certificate, which I haven't got yet received from Metricon.

What is that orange pipe?

Oh no! that pipe is Termguard, a chemical termite protection. We asked for Granitguard, a physical system (no chemicals, no need to recharge every three years)

 The kitchen bench is supposed to have an integrated drain. It looks all flat from here.

 The neighbours have started bricking. Our new landscape designer is proposing to lower our entire backyard, with some large steps from the alfresco down to the back.

It looks like to repainted the stringers the correct colour (same as the walls)

 Balcony beam has been painted but apparently in the wrong colour (it is supposed to be same as for the timber posts above)