The Atwill’s Building Blog

Well today we have officially taken ownership of our new home. The process was relatively quick. Being eager and excited first home owners we arrived a little earlier than our SS to scope out the house and make sure the remaining issues had been resolved.

When our SS arrived we went over the previous inspection report to make sure everything had been completed. 95% of the outstanding issues had been resolved and those that were not were agreed upon to be left as is. These included the kitchen window being slightly out of plumb, some of the voids and holes in brick work (very minor) and creases in leisure room carpet. We will wait and see it the carpet stretches out once we move our furniture in. SS said that if it is still an issue at our 3 month inspection we can get it fixed then.

The clean Metricon does on the house is nothing more than vacuuming the floors and quickly wiping down main benchtop areas. All the cupboards still have plaster dust on the shelves along with all the window seals and architraves. So it looks like we are in for a big day of cleaning tomorrow. You would think they would spend a little more time putting some effort into handing over a clean house to you. I guess this is one of those trade off’s to using a volume builder.

That’s all for now. I’m getting back to admiring my brand new home.

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Had final walk through inspection with both SS and Construction Manager(CM) today, only after I got mad at Metricon for claiming my walk through inspection was complete when Big Kev did his building inspection. My argument was that the house was only 80% finished, I had not received my Notice of Completion, and never signed of with SS on an offical final defects list.

After a very heated discussion with a little bad lanuage thrown in for good measure we got our way. Apparently Metricon is now going to change the way they handle independent inspections and final walk throughs all because of us. I don’t have any detail but CM basicaly said that the current policies arround this don’t work and that he is discussing changes with the GM of Metricon. So the moral of the storey is always read your contact and take advantage of the HIA clauses as they are there to mostly benefit the client.

CM was good today as he agreed to about 90% of our concerns and issues however, I got the impression that SS was a bit pissed off with us and may have gotten in trouble a bit for not being present at the initial inspection with Big Kev.

We agreed on a settlement date, but I’m keeping it a secrect for now as I just want to keep you all in suspense. Enjoy the pics and the next post with most likely be on the day of settlement.

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I would like to pause for a moment, take a breath, and forget for a second that my brickie has the mental capacity of a grape fruit. After three attempts to install the articulation joints into the garage walls where the doors go, he still can’t get it right. So just for him I have listed the required steps:

1. Remove bricks from wall where the articulation joints are to be installed.
2. Cut bricks to be 10mm shorter than current length.
3. Relay bricks using appropriate brick ties as per BCA requirements. DONE.

Now was that so hard, apparently so. This brickie thinks that angle grinding the 10mm gap for the joints is more appropriate and that a free floating wall of bricks above the garage door does not need to be held in place. WTF. So when I spoke to SS on Friday I let him have it and that I was in the process of contacting the Building Commission with regards to the issue. An hour later I received a call back informing me that the brickie did forget to install the brick ties and that he will now be doing it on Monday. This is the same damn brickie that stuffed up the blending of the bricks and who decided to change the mortar colour half way through the job. Unbelievable! This guy should have his tickets revoked.

Moving on, as you can see the garage doors have been installed and they look great. The plaster on the balcony roof has also been done and the front of the house now looks complete. What do you think?

SS has said he should have all of the issues from Big Kev’s inspection report complete next week and the house will have been cleaned as well. We received our final invoice and Certificate of Occupancy which technically means once we get the cheque we can arrange for an official settlement date.

The wife and I have a new list of issues that we want rectified before settlement so I think we will still be a few more week off yet. The biggest of which is now a lot of cracked bricks around the house. Yep, that’s right, more brick issues. Others are mostly minor issues but I have heard from a lot of people that Metricon’s after build service leaves a lot to be desired and I don’t particularly want to use up all my annual leave waiting around for tradies to turn up for the next twelve months.

Timber flooring went in a few weeks ago but I have been unable to get any decent picture until now. It looks fantastic and the installers have done a very professional job. I am yet to have a very close look at the boards but the joins are great, under cutting of door jambs are very clean and the boards feel solid with no movement in them when you walk around.

That’s all for now. Thanks for all your comments on the break in post.

I went to the house last night to check on the progress and noticed a fly screen on the ground behind the garage. When I went to place it back on the window I was shocked to see that someone had used a crowbar to force the window open. I then realised that one of the house lights was on and became concerned that someone might still be in the house. So I decided to play it safe and leave.

I immediately sent an email to CSC advising them of what had happened and they called me back first thing in the morning to say that SS was at the house assessing the situation. It turns out all the designer mixers in the powder room, bathroom and ensuit were taken along with the touch screen heating control panel.

It’s a horrible feeling to know someone has violated our new home even before we get to move into it. But apparently this is rife in the industry and is now almost considered just part of the building process.  It’s no wonder we are all paying massive prices for homes these days. They have to foot huge insurance costs.

Oh, and a new settlement date has be scheduled for the 21st of August. I don’t think Metricon is going to be able to meet this with all the work that is still left to be done.

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This week we received the building inspection report and as promised I will reveal the details here for you all.

One thing that the report has highlighted to me is that no matter how great a builder claims to be, and in this case Number 1, they still manage to stuff up the most basic of tasks, and what’s even worse is that they try to pass it off as acceptable craftsmanship.

Compared to many other inspection issues I have heard and read about ours seem fairly trivial. But that does not make them any less important because when we move into our new home we want to feel assured that it has been built to the highest standard of quality possible.

So I won’t ramble on any longer. Here is the list of defects on our house:

• DONE Mortar within brickwork of walls and piers is noticeably different in colour 1600mm up. (dark grey to light grey)
• STARTED Some areas of the brickwork still need to be cleaned down, most noticeably the bottom under edge of the upper window sills.
• NOT RESOLVED There are numerous voids and holes in the finished faces of the mortar joint around the house.
• DONE Missing expansion joints for garage brickwork. Specifically the inside of each garage door opening.
• DONE There is exposed reinforcement across the front portico. If not treated and sealed, overtime the slab will crack.
• DONE Bargeboard capping at top of gable over balcony is open.
• DONE Corner bracket is missing from the internal fascia join on the right side of the balcony.
• DONE Gutter along right side of balcony is dented.
• DONE Electrical meter box door is damaged.
• DONE Clay has been placed over the scoria volcanic rock around the base of the house which will prevent water from draining to the subsoil drains.
• DONE Front sitting room window is dented.
• DONE Laundry doorframe needs infill installed above its head.
• DONE Laundry door handle is acid affected.
• DONE Front entry door pull bar is acid affected and stained.
• DONE Front doorframe is 5mm out of level and the head architrave varies in its set down from 15mm left, 18mm centre, 11mm right.
• DONE Side of front doorframe near keyhole is damaged.
• DONE Powder room exhaust fan is venting into the ceiling only and needs to be ducted so that it exhausts externally to the house.
• LEFT AS IS The powder room doorframe is 10mm higher than its opposing laundry door.
• DONE Powder room vanity top needs to be sealed into the wall.
• DONE Overhead cupboards in kitchen are not level.
• RESOLUTION BEING EVALUATED The feature window in the kitchen is 10mm out of plumb.
• DONE Stainless steel kicker in kitchen is 5mm short.
• DONE The underside of the bulkhead into the entry area of the kitchen is 7mm out of level sideways.
• DONE The right hand side of the rear sliding door has a 5mm bow down it and is 8mm out of plumb.
• DONE Leisure room and linen cupboard wall is bowed and has a hollow of 6mm.
• DONE The tops of the linen cupboard doors need to be aligned.
• MOSTLY RESOLVED The carpet, specifically in the Leisure room, needs to be stretched or tensioned as it is loose along the walls.
• DONE The reveal in bedroom 2 across the bottom of the robe door still needs to be painted.
• RESOLVED Timber balcony doorframe in bedroom 3 has not had its sill flashing installed.
• DONE Timber balcony doorframe in bedroom 3 needs to be adjusted to remove the present rattle.
• DONE The reveal in bedroom 3 across the bottom of the robe door still needs to be painted.
• RESOLVED The MDF window head reveal in bedroom 4 is swollen across its width.
• DONE Bedroom 4 still needs to have the skirting board installed to the right of the door jamb.
• DONE Both shower base surround are short to the floor tiles and will need to be replaced with ones of the correct height.
• DONE There are a number of scratches across the bath surface.
• DONE Bathroom vanity basin needs to be caulk sealed to the top of the vanity.
• DONE The tile under the bath spout has been over cut and has visible grinder marks.
• DONE Master bedroom island wall has a bow in the right hand end resulting in a 6mm hollow.
• DONE Master bedroom robe head architrave varies in height end to end by 20mm. robe install not level.
• DONE The ceiling and cornice line along the front of the island wall to the WIR have a sage of 6mm.
• DONE There are a number of scratches across the spa bath in the ensuit.
• DONE The sliding doorframe into the ensuit needs to have its pelmets fitted to the head.
• DONE The sliding doorframe into the ensuit needs to have the flush pulls fitted to them.
• DONE The door into the WC of the ensuit need to be trimmed down so that it can be lifted off its hinges.

So with all this left to do including the timber flooring, garage doors and plaster roof linings, house cleaning still to be done, Metricon has scheduled settlement for the 12th of August 2009. I don’t think so as I still have to do a PCI and I’m sure that some of the issues above will still not have been resolved.

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Today we had a building inspection carried out on the house with Big Kev and I can tell you it was well worth the cost. We have problems ranging from incorrect mortar colour, bowed windows, untentsioned carpet and sloping wardrobe and front door frames. I won’t go through the entire list until we get the official report back from Kev, but so many thing were picked up we otherwise would not have known about. I can’t stress it enough, use a building inspector that is not associated with your builder in any way. We are all guilty of cutting corner in our own jobs from time-to-time and it’s no different with the sub-contractors doing the work on your house.

On the topic of building inspections, our SS was trying to tell us that the inspection with Big Kev would be our final one and that he would work off that list only and once all the items on the list have been rectified he would arrange for settlement. This didn’t sound right to me and I asked Big Kev his thoughts on the whole inspection process.

I was surprised to find out that Metricon are the only volume builder still doing on site settlements. Apparently this is a trick Metricon use to prey on your emotions on the day and get you to settle with unfinished items from the PCI inspection still to be done. As for this being our final inspection, I can only tell you that unless you have been given a written letter that the house is complete then you are entitled under the HIA contract to further inspections until YOU and the builder deem the house complete. Even once all the items on a PCI have been completed you are yet again meant to get a letter stating the completion of work, then you get to inspect it again. So don’t take any crap from your SS if you use an Independent Inspector and he tells you that you can’t have any other inspections. You are entitled to them under the HIA contract.

This week has seen the driveway poured and stencilled. We love it and they have done a fantastic job. The splashbacks around the feature window in the kitchen have been installed and we HATE them. The colour does not suit the kitchen and they look really out of place. Once we move in we are going to pull them off and tile up with the feature tile we used around our ensuit mirror.

I got a call directly from TrueLoc flooring about the floorboards this week only to be told that they are out of stock and we must wait two weeks before the next shipment comes in. At leats this will give SS plenty of time to fix inspection issues and the tradies won’t be walking all over our new wooden floor.

So where to from here I hear you say? Kev should have the inspection report to us by latest Monday next week. This will be sent to SS and once all items have been rectified and the home is complete (I get my letter) we will organise a PCI inspection to pick up all the dints, dings, scraps and dodgy painting among other things. Still waiting on plastering the garage and balcony roof space, also hope garage doors go on soon.

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I have been busting to write this post all week but wanted to wait until the weekend when I could get some great photos for you all that show the house in all its glory. So without further ado, here we go.

SS called on Monday with the rundown of the weeks work ahead. This involved starting the garage roof tiling, adding the balcony railing, cleaning the site and levelling the lot, and most exciting of all, installing the carpet. All has been done as promised and as a bonus the gas metre was installed by TRU.

After receiving many quotes on carpet installation, we found that Metricon’s price was on par and not excessive for a comparable product elsewhere. The carpet we selected is an 80/20 wool/nylon twist cut pile.  For those wanting to know the colour, all I can tell you is that its number 57 in the Metricon colour selection. The colour is a mix between charcoal and brown that has a slight shimmer in the pile from the twisting of the nylon into it. I was originally sold on solution dyed nylon that doesn’t fade and is static free, but the colours were limited and the cost a little more than we wanted to spend.

The garage is looking great now that the frame, guttering and half the tiles are on. I don’t know what has happened to the tiler as he started on Thursday but has just left the job half finished. This seems weird to me but hay, it wouldn’t be a proper project without some weirdness.

Other worthwhile mentions this week include the installation of the fly screens. I hate making up flyscreens and this was a must for me to get Metricon to do. The expansion gaps in the brick work have be corked and sealed. The internal tiling and showers have been silicon sealed and water proofed. Kitchen sink was installed with mixer. Balcony railing was installed which when I looked at on Friday night seemed brown in colour and I was freaking out that we had over looked its colour in the colour selection. When I went home and checked the contact it stated the rail should be powder coated silver. I was all down about the brown rail but when I retured in the daylight the actual colour was silver. I must have been on something that night because I could have sworn it looked brown. Maybe it was just the dark playing tricks on me.

I have moved out my inspection date with Big Kev to the 22^nd as SS said the timber flooring installation is now booked  for the 16^th and final house clean for the 20^th.

That’s all for now. Enjoy the pics and any comments or questions welcome.

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My addiction of visiting the house every day has returned and tonight was no different. After work I headed straight there with the wife to see how much progress had been made. As usual we were not disappointed.

Nearly all of the internal power points and lights have been installed. We decided to go with chrome down lights instead of white to add a point of difference to the house. It was a bold move that we both worried about but after now seeing them they look great and I would not have wanted white.

We have also left a lot of light fitting as the standard bayonet fittings. This is because we want to use feature lights in key rooms like the sitting room, bedrooms, study and above the island bench top.

We got a fright when we turned on the hallway lights and bugger all light came out. Then as they started to get brighter we remembered that they are energy efficient and take about 30 seconds to reach full brightness. The photos don’t do the lighting justice but let me assure you that the number of light we have is more than enough.

Garage guttering has been installed and hopefully the roof tiles will go on before the end of the week. All the down pipes have been connected up to storm water. This is great as I was starting to get worried that water would start to pool around the slab with all the rain we are getting.

We have contacted Big Kev to book in a pre handover inspection and also started making a list of all the minor defects we know of. I won’t list them now as this may grow and will do a whole post once Big Kev gives me a report. For now Kev is booked in for the 16th July.

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Not expecting much to have been done today being a Saturday and all, I went to the house to let the wife have a look around and see all the electrical work. To our surprise most of the plumbing had been completed.

Externally, gas pipe fittings have been installed ready for the hot water service and the gas metre. The phone line trench has been dough and connected to the house. Both water taps, one behind the garage near the hot water service and the other near the gas metre, have been installed. So the house now has running water.

Internally, the awesome square basins that the wife was not initially keen on have been installed. She now loves them by the way. One of them has either not been installed correctly or the cut out is too big as there is a 5mm gap on the side. Hopefully it will just require the basin to be shifted over to the left a little. All tapware and shower handsets have been installed with the exception of the kitchen. Maybe the plumber just ran out of time to get the kitchen done.

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I stopped by the house tonight to find all the electrical cables poking out of the walls. When we were going through our electrical selection at preliminary contract stage we decided to save some money by strategically positioning our power points. What some people don’t know is that if you are placing a power point on a wall, you can piggyback off an existing one that is on the other side off the wall you want to place your point on.

For instance, all three bedrooms in our house are side-by-side, which means that they all share adjoining walls. Each bedroom came with one power point by default but the points were placed in odd spots. The power points in the first and second rooms did not suit where we would put the beds, but we did see the need to have points in these spots for future use.

So instead of adding two points to evey room, we made sure that there was a point on each of the adjoining walls that could be piggybacked off at a later date in the adjoining room. This saved us a hundred dollars per extra point and we have been quoted by a sparky that they can add them at a cost of $50 each if piggybacking an existing one.

This week as promised by the SS saw the construction of the garage roof frame. It’s really great to see the garage finally taking shape.