Lee & Willis' Milano adventures

Our driveway has been completed now and we should be able to drive on it tomorrow. I think it turned out quite well and the design is different from what we've seen for pavers. At first we thought the colours might be too dark and the border too close to the main driveway but it's turned out well.

Our pavers arrived yesterday and our paver started today and I think will be finished tomorrow. When we got home last night, it was too dark to see the colours of the pavers but this morning it looked like we had chosen two colours that were almost identical. When we got home and saw the partially completed driveway, you could definitely see a darker tone to the border.

Fairly busy week that has just gone past. The concrete for the driveway has been put down. Now it's a matter of getting the paver out to get the driveway done. The concreters still have to come back and fix some drainpipes at the front of the house. The cement truck just sank in the wet clay soil and destroyed the pipes, including the one that Brett put down during the Christmas break. I spent a bit of yesterday afternoon cleaning down the house with the hose getting all the bits of concrete and dust off the walls and fence (tip of the hat to Jazz for that advice.)

Our curtain installer came early this morning though I didn't get up till he was 3/4's done since I stayed up quite late watching the Reds get one over the Stormers! Lee has been grinning all day and the house looks different with the curtains (in the bedrooms) and blinds (in the bathrooms and family room) installed. Definitely felt a little bit darker but more importantly there is a bit of privacy now. The black curtains in the media room look great - can't wait till June when I can get some home theatre gear!

It's been a fairly quiet week or two since we have moved in. A lot of stuff has been unpacked but there is still a lot more to go. Unfortunately for me, it's all my stuff. My collection of toys and gadgets that I've collected over the years (it's made easier to collect when your parents own a toy store). We are still waiting for a few more quotes on driveways and what not but I enjoy the mini 4WD excursions onto our driveway in the trusty little Corolla each morning and night.

And we have finally moved into the house! We spent the last two days moving, not much packing as most of our stuff was still packed away while living with the in-laws. A lot of yesterday was spent cleaning while the carpet guys installed the carpet. We also had the painter onsite staining the timber stacker doors, staining the front entry and fixing up the leak from the aircon. In the afternoon we had the carpenter come over and install the front door handle. Later that night we got hold of a van so we moved some big things like the fridge and washing machine.

Friday we came a little later though Lee was here at 7am for the pest control guy to spray some stuff. I got a call around 10am from some people delivering the couch we ordered a while back. Problem was that when they unpacked it, there was a small tear in the leather (Lee thinks it might have been sliced when they were unwrapping the couch). We got them to take the couch back and ended up visiting the store as the options were to either take a display model on the floor or wait 12 weeks for a new couch. The display that we saw wasn't in great shape, few scuff marks and dirt. We asked if they had a different configuration in the warehouse but the only other one they had was in their other store downstairs. We went down and had a look and it looked in much better condition. Almost brand new so we asked for a bit of a discount which they are organising and we didn't end up paying for delivery either. They dropped that off in the afternoon which was great and it's looking good in the media room. We had a visit from the curtain installer to do some final check and measures and after that we went back to grab the rest of our gear to move to the house.

I took some photos last night of the house after we had cleaned it. I thought it would be a good opportunity while the house was empty and before we had furniture. If you look closely enough at the floors, you will notice some gaps in the skirting. Our tiler had to lift the skirting in order to get the porcelain tiles in. This means that the skirts have to be sanded and repainted and also need to seal the gaps between the tiles and the skirts. My uncle should be coming over this weekend to help us fix this bit up. When I spoke to our SS yesterday, he said they do a standard 12.5mm lift but the tiler shouldn't have had to lift them.

One thing that has surprised me has been the after handover service that our SS has given us. We've told him of a few things that have needed fixing like the leaking aircon and painting of the stacker doors and he's been onto it very quickly and efficiently. I guess they want to make a good lasting handover impression since if the handover process goes spectacularly bad, it's the last impression that you are left with from the builder. That said, I've noticed that our SS is always very defensive of anything that has come under the work that Metricon do, the above example with the tiler being one. Our tiler said that he could have cut the tiles so they don't fit under the skirting but it would look dodgy and he wouldn't be satisfied with it. We think he is right...

Anyways, here are the photos I took last night. Hope you like our new house:

Main entrance:

Master bedroom entry:

Kitchen and family area:

Kitchen:

Kitchen:

Media room:

Children's retreat:

Hallway down to bathroom, WC and bedrooms 3 and 4:

Bathroom:

Bathtub:

Shower and vanity:

Bedrooms 3 & 4:

Ensuite:

Tiling was completed today and we think he's done a great job. We will still need to put silicon around the edges and also repaint the top of the skirting as he had to lift it up due to carpenter not giving adequate room but it's starting to fall into place. I picked up another box of tiles today (after the 5 additional from yesterday) so that we have enough spare tiles now should anything happen in the future. It pays to get them as quick as possible to ensure that they are in the same batch.

The guys from Duce came in yesterday to replace the timber stacker doors and boy does it look awesome with the screens installed. I think the doors may need another once over with the wood stainer but they look fantastic and will be great when we open up that room onto the deck.

Old doors removed:

One of the old doors:

New doors installed with screens (screen is the last door on the right extended):

Bedroom lights (awesome bedsheet curtain):

Kitchen lights over the bench installed:

So... they say that you get the best feeling when the house is finally handed over and belongs to you. Somehow though we don't feel that way yet... It's a relief that we have the house now but then we think about the mountain of other work to do, I guess you could say, getting to this point is half the battle won!

Handover was at 9:30am yesterday morning, we came a few minutes late but when we went inside, our SS and his customer support person was there. We had spoken to her a couple of times and towards the end I just sent her emails to forward to our SS since any questions we asked her she told us to ask him anyway.

She went through all the electrical appliances and how to use them, how best to take care of them etc. At that point she had to go back up the coast so she collected the final payment cheque and off she went. Our SS went through the rest of the paper work and explained a few things. The timber stacker doors are supposed to be replaced on Friday but I've still to receive a phone call from the installers to confirm this. I have to take Friday off to make sure they come and also so the carpenter can install the door handle at the front so they better be coming on Friday. I'm hoping they finish before 5pm as well since Lee and I are going to Top Gear Live and I don't think traffic on a Friday afternoon is going to be all that great!

We checked over the list that our building inspector wrote up and it seems that most things were done. We haven't had a chance to look over it completely (though most of it was marks on the wall) but we'll have a nice list of stuff come 6 month maintenance otherwise. We asked him about the site peg for our neighbours and he used the guys that were clearing up the a few lots away as an excuse for not putting it place. That's OK because I'll be hassling them or sending them the surveyor's bill if he doesn't get it done when we get the fence up at the latest.

The carpet guy was due to come around 1pm and when he didn't show up around 1:20, Lee rang up and it seems that they forgot all about it. He came over about 20mins later so it wasn't too late plus we were also waiting for the tiles to be delivered. He measured the rooms properly and we chose the colour of the carpet - we also scored a free upgrade to a better premium underlay and he also allowed us to choose a newer carpet range which was more expensive than the one we chose but gave it to us for the same price.

By mid afternoon, we still did not hear any word as to when the tiles were due to be delivered so we gave them a call and we think it seems that they forgot as well... must have been one of those days. We got word back later that they were going to deliver at 6pm so that gave us some time to go to Ikea to pick up some stuff. They dropped off the tiles around 5:30pm - 2 pallets of 600x600mm tiles.

This morning we met with our tiler who gave us some options on the way to lay the tiles and it was when he was checking and measuring that we discovered some dodgy things about the work done.

The slab wasn't really that flat and at some points 5mm variance in height which is a big problem for large 600mm tiles as the joins don't end up being even. They say the majority of the costs in laying 600m porcelain tiles is the preparation of the surface.

The skirts were not raised sufficiently enough for the tiles to fit under. In some spots they would not fit and others they barely fit which meant that it was not high enough especially when the glue adds 5mm to the height.

In the garage entrance, the concrete lies flush with the skirting which means that the tiles would stick out past the skirt if he just put it on.

For the last one, after Lee dropped me off at work she went to Kennards to hire a concrete grinder to cut away the excess so that the tile would like nice and flush when it was laid. I think if it was one of those things that had happened it probably wasn't as big of an issue but a few of them and it really irritated the tiler. "Shocking" "Terrible" "Bad" and finally "Shit" were the words most frequently used by the tiler this morning.

While I'm waiting for this week's Photo Mojo Show podcast to upload I thought I'd post a quick update.

Tomorrow is handover day - I got a phone call from our SS today to confirm. I'd left a message earlier in the morning and it seems he was busy doing a handover today as well. I think it was the other Metricon house in our estate that went up around about the same time.

He said he'd went through most of the list that our building inspector had reported and most was completed. I guess we'll find out tomorrow what wasn't done - he said that he couldn't do the tops and bottom of the doors because they had actually already been sealed with a clear coat and he followed this up with the painter. I guess we'll find out but it would be under their warranty if it wasn't and the doors warped at some point due to moisture.

As mentioned, the front door has been replaced and stained, we still have the replacement door handle but he said he was going to get the carpenter to call us and organise a day to install it. The replacement timber stacker doors at the back is scheduled to be installed on Friday. He was going to confirm today and get those guys to call me during the week to organise a time for them to come install. This will work out fine because we were wondering whether we would need the carpet people to come back another day to do the media room.

Speaking of which, tomorrow after handover, the tiles are due to be delivered in the afternoon. I spoke to our tiler on the weekend and he said to give him a call and he'll come check out the house before he starts work on Wednesday. We'll also be able to lay out the tiles to see how much tolerance there is which will give us an indication of how small the grout can be. We are aiming for 1.5mm width hopefully. We've also got the carpet people coming in to do a confirmation of measurements and are also bringing out the samples so we can pick a colour to match as well.

It's been a fairly quiet time since PCI and coming up to hand over next week. Getting pretty excited though! We picked up the door handle on Saturday and saw that the replacement door is in place now. It hasn't been stained as yet but I'm guessing that's happening sometime this week.

We've been busy organising all the things for post hand-over but it's been happening pretty quickly. Lee organised insurance through QBE the other night as well as gas and electricity through Origin. She called council to organise the bins on Tuesday afternoon and they showed up at the house yesterday. Dang I've never seen council work so fast.

After lunch on Tuesday we went to the Telstra store at Sunnybank to organise landline and internet. As much as I'd like to go with iiNet or Internode for naked dsl, I have to either use Telstra or a Telstra wholesale ISP since the estate is on a RIM which means we have been dudded a full copper line. We ended up going with a landline + broadband bundle which is fairly reasonable especially for Bigpond plus it gives me a small credit off my Telstra mobile for packaging them all up. I'm hoping that we will still be connected at ADSL2+ speeds since the exchange is less than 2kms away cause I'll be looking at getting some XBOX 360 + Foxtel which I hear is unmetered on Bigpond!

I got a text this afternoon and a little bit later, a phone call advising that a Telstra technician will be out to connect the phone line. Hang on a second, 2 days after putting through the order manually, Telstra tell me that they are ready to connect it? This can't be the same Telstra right? right? Apparently not, customer service is a high priority in winning back consumer confidence. My friend today was telling me that Telstra have even started to get technicians out on Saturday's to do connections. It's definitely a different company from when Sol was running it just a couple of years ago. As much as I'd like to have the phone connected and even better, broadband enabled by the time we hand-over, I had to reschedule for the day after hand-over since the house is not technically ours yet. Also, someone would have to open the house for the technician to test and i don't think the SS would be the slightest bit interested.

We had our Practical Completion inspection this morning and it largely went off without a hitch. The only issues that were brought up was a major one to do with the timber stacker door at the back of the rumpus room - like I mentioned earlier, the wrong one was made without the screens. The whole door and frame will need to be removed and the new installed. This may not happen before handover but we've been told it will be noted as an action item post handover.

We didn't pick up too much else but mentioned the missing site peg for our neighbours lot. Initially the ss didn't think it was his responsibility until we showed him on their plans that a site peg was found and as such should be replaced. It didn't seem like he wanted to take on that responsibility but we think we got agreement out of him to at least put a peg there where it was missing - I'll just need to cut the grass marking back site peg.

We booked in a handover date for the 1st of March at 9:30am which is 2 weeks from today. After the inspection, we spoke to our building inspector who picked up quite a few little things that neither of us would have even noticed. Most of it seems minor like little dents or toilet seats loose. The biggest ones I can think of are that the tops and bottoms of the doors aren't painted but should be and one of the rails in a bedroom isn't level. I spoke to our ss before we left and said we'd forward the list to him and he mentioned that they will look at it but aren't obliged to fix everything that's been pointed out. I sure hope for quality sake that they do fix almost everything on that list as it gave the vibe that he didn't really want to do more than he thinks he is expected to for this job.

After the inspection we went and organised delivery for the tiles, carpet and also ordered curtains and vertical blinds for the house. We had ramen at a nice little but busy place in Sunnybank where go regularly and then the final activity for the day was looking for a new door handle for the main entrance. We think we've found the right size handle that will fit OK. Unfortunately due to the position the manufacturer put the door lock, the door handle guy reckons it limited the choice and size because it was in an awkward and strange position. We've settled for a 300mm handle of the same style as the previous one but they didn't have any in stock so it should be there for us to give to the ss on Monday. The original door handle that was fitted was 750mm so it's a big size difference.

Tomorrow is the day we do our practical completion walkthrough with our site supervisor. Should be an interesting and busy day as we also have the bank valuer and our qa inspection guy coming around the same time as well. I was told this morning that the replacement door is due to arrive tomorrow with installation on Wednesday, we'll just need to provide the handle for them to install for us. We'll be doing that after the walk through.

I was told that the timber stacker door that was supplied was actually the wrong one - it's supposed to have the fly screen built in but ours doesn't. The door is currently on order and being manufactured but he doesn't think it will be done in time for handover. He said he'll be making a note that this is one of the things that will need completed after hand over.

Long story short, after a few conversations with various people, Metricon has agreed to replace the door at their cost. We just have to find a door that we want to put on there.

Cliff's notes: The front entry to the house doesn't look like some giants live there.

SS called today to book in the PC walk through. It's scheduled for Tuesday 9:30am. He also heard back from management regarding the door handle issue.

It seems that managements decision is that inaction is better than customer satisfaction. In other words, Metricon have decided to do nothing about the door situation.

Stopped by the house this afternoon to get more quotes on fence and retaining wall and driveway. I think Lee is starting to get tired of all this organising and I was well and truly over it ages ago. Getting the house completed is only half the battle won it seems.

Today it looks like the cleaner has been through again cleaning the exterior of the house and the painter has been back to touch up on all the red dots. There is no where near as many as there was last week and it looks like the timber doors have been re-stained again though who we wonder if it was in vain if they have to be replaced. The piping to the water tank has also been painted.

We think that the developer behind us may have fixed the issue where he was diverting water down through us instead of the proper drain as it was raining a little bit today and was very overcast and there was even less water than yesterday on our site. The little trench that I dug out was completely dry.