Building a Home

[travelislife]

Are the windows in the living area frosted or is that just the protective film?

 

[samh004]

Are the windows in the living area frosted or is that just the protective film?

That's the protective film. Additionally, all window openings will come with roller-blinds pre-installed at handover.

The front door actually has frosted glass, as I've seen quite a few houses where you can literally look straight into the house from the street. Not a fan!

 

[samh004]

It is now day 67 of the build, almost 10 weeks. All of the tiling and some of the painting has been done.

 

[cove]

Brilliant progress @samh004.

 

[Quickstatus]

Well done @samh004

As usual it is all the extras which eat into any spare budget.

I would recommend if you can spare some $$$ a Steam oven which will also do a Sous vide.
And some roof fans with eaves grills. (not whirlybirds - the solarking type). Makes the roof space a lot cooler and by extension your house cooler in summer.
Also it draws moisture from bathrooms up and away
Double GPO instead of single GPO.

 

[samh004]

I would recommend if you can spare some $$$ a Steam oven which will also do a Sous vide.

Bit late for some of this to be added now, but already have a sous vide machine that works well for me, from Anova.

And some roof fans with eaves grills. (not whirlybirds - the solarking type). Makes the roof space a lot cooler and by extension your house cooler in summer.
Also it draws moisture from bathrooms up and away

May look into a roof ventilation fan in the future, but can't really change things at this stage in the build. There is one whirlybird. I suppose an eaves grille would be easy to retrofit after the fact. All wet areas/bathrooms have exhaust fans that vent to outside fitted.

I should get new photos tomorrow, they usually appear on Thursday for me in my online portal.

 

[love_the_life]

Any photos yet? It's exciting to see the house as it 'develops'.

 

[samh004]

Any photos yet? It's exciting to see the house as it 'develops'.

I have some I may post this weekend, but not a lot has changed as they paint. I think a little of the electrical/other fit-out will start next week, but then end just as quickly as they break for Christmas. I've already been told no photos from next week and not until they come back in the new year. But tentatively, should be in the first week of March!

 

[love_the_life]

I have some I may post this weekend, but not a lot has changed as they paint. I think a little of the electrical/other fit-out will start next week, but then end just as quickly as they break for Christmas. I've already been told no photos from next week and not until they come back in the new year. But tentatively, should be in the first week of March!

Like I said to Drakula - I bet it won't come quick enough! Hard when you see the house 'almost' finished,

 

[samh004]

Like I said to Drakula - I bet it won't come quick enough! Hard when you see the house 'almost' finished,

Actually, the biggest upcoming issue is the carefully choreographed timing of HomeBuilder grant being received, handover being completed, work starting on side gates and decking and then moving in. They all sort of interrelate in the sense that we intend to use the grant to finance the outside works, but none of that can start until handover anyway. So even if it all goes to plan, it might be late-March before we move in. We can't move in without side gates with two roaming dogs.

The following photos are from day 73.

 

[Pushka]

Actually, the biggest upcoming issue is the carefully choreographed timing of HomeBuilder grant being received, handover being completed, work starting on side gates and decking and then moving in. They all sort of interrelate in the sense that we intend to use the grant to finance the outside works, but none of that can start until handover anyway. So even if it all goes to plan, it might be late-March before we move in. We can't move in without side gates with two roaming dogs.

The following photos are from day 73.

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It's hard getting all the tradies to align their planet even with a small reno like ours. Add in Covid and shipping companies completely changing their overseas shipping patterns on the spot, and our schedule walked out the door. Currently our shutters, instead of following a logical shipping path of Fremantle - Adelaide - Melbourne - Sydney decided that a Fremantle - Sydney - Melbourne - Adelaide made for a better experience.

 

[VPS]

It's hard getting all the tradies to align their planet even with a small reno like ours. Add in Covid and shipping companies completely changing their overseas shipping patterns on the spot, and our schedule walked out the door. Currently our shutters, instead of following a logical shipping path of Fremantle - Adelaide - Melbourne - Sydney decided that a Fremantle - Sydney - Melbourne - Adelaide made for a better experience.

OMG I hear you

 

[samh004]

So, I didn't expect to get any photos today, but some turned up this morning and we took a drive to see the finished outside at last (in terms of paint at least). It is day 80 of the build. They finish on day 82 and then I'm not going to count the 3 weeks they have off for Christmas, so day 83 will be in January – I think that's fair.


Yes – that is the final colour of the door. I wanted to be different.


Naturally I am looking forward to some flooring in the new year, and to see the kitchen appliances go in!


Ensuite – just missing some glass!

And now, onto the not so good news. When we arrived the workers had already left for the day, but we found an extension lead plugged into our meter box and running down the road to another house. I'm not going to go through the exact chain of events, it's all a mess, but they claimed our site supervisor gave them permission, our site supervisor claims he did not, but stressed that in the early stages of my build they "borrowed" someone elses power in the same fashion. Either way, if you had permission from the site super, would you leave this on the ground by the meter box?



As you may recall, earlier in this thread I queried to myself when I'd be receiving a power bill and who would be paying. My eventual response was that I would be paying as it's not one of the things they cover. This brings me to the tricky situation that the builders a few doors down have either been stealing my power for quite some time, or my site supervisor has been giving away my power to them, but it's not his to give. From what I can tell, theft is theft and I can go to the police, even if this is 'common practice' in the industry.

It's not left me very impressed right before Christmas, despite the wonderful progress made on the inside of the house.

 

[RooFlyer]

Yes – that is the final colour of the door. I wanted to be different.

Isn't that the colour it comes from the factory? Very similar to what I see at Bunnings.

The power thing is pretty crook. I guess as its still the builder's site, you couldn't simply unplug anything. I guess you photographed everything in sight - that 'note' seems pretty damning. I'd be seeing the site super personally, with all the evidence and let him know that he's up for the power bill. He might call your bluff and not pay I guess ...

Police? You are right, it is theft, but I'd consider:
* The police reaction is likely to be "try to sort it out yourselves in the first instance"
* If it is the builder's site, and the site super gave permission, then I think the Police would find a way not to progress it.

But then again, per chance the bill turns out significant, then a police report would be a good back-up for any power company discussions.

 

[Pushka]

Isn't that the colour it comes from the factory? Very similar to what I see at Bunnings.

The power thing is pretty crook. I guess as its still the builder's site, you couldn't simply unplug anything. I guess you photographed everything in sight - that 'note' seems pretty damning. I'd be seeing the site super personally, with all the evidence and let him know that he's up for the power bill. He might call your bluff and not pay I guess ...

Police? You are right, it is theft, but I'd consider:
* The police reaction is likely to be "try to sort it out yourselves in the first instance"
* If it is the builder's site, and the site super gave permission, then I think the Police would find a way not to progress it.

But then again, per chance the bill turns out significant, then a police report would be a good back-up for any power company discussions.

How can you build a home but not have power connected? Isn't that part of the deal? (Yep, our doors were that colour before they were painted).

Or is it a case that the house hasn't been sold so the Power connection account isn't in anyone's name (would have thought the developer/builder would have had to create an account) so the power is still there but not yet in an account.

Is it a case of builders helping other builders out so it's a case of giving consent but you aren't responsible for the consequences of paying the Bill?

At the end of the day because it's in your name you will be responsible for ensuring the bill gets paid. But I think it's pretty rank.

 

[blackcat20]

The power thing is pretty common, as is water usage. The house behind used our power earlier this year to run their tile machine because the power to their site wasnt working. We happen to have an outdoor power point out back. They offered to pay and delivered $20 to the front door.

Its probably such a small amount dollar wise I wouldnt bother about it, and certainly not the police.

 

[chelzmalee]

re power, we had that on a house where tenants had moved in and the builders next door were still connecting an extension lead to the outside power point of the house we managed - because they were both built by the same builder. Once it was complete, builder dropped some cash off to the tenants and they were happy. It's all kind of give and take I guess.

 

[DC3]

Building a house is stressful enough. I would just continue to concentrate on the big picture.

 

[VPS]

It's looking good. I'm about to paint my front door bright red

 

[RB]

We built in NSW. The total power used during construction was around 500 units