Fence issue

Today I received an email from my builder about the fence. The contractors had removed the fence, WITHOUT asking my neighbour, and now I am being charged for the replacement. Not happy. In fact I wasn't even told about the problem, but just received an email saying this is the letter that we have sent to your neighbour!

So I dropped by the house after work to see if it could be salvaged. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had already started building the frames for DW2. Also the building of the garage brick wall.
Here's the offending missing fence.
Not sure how I'm going to settle it. Guess I'll wait for the quotes.

Lesson learnt: include the replacement of fences in the contract.

Base stage completed

DW1 slab laid today.


Invoice today - 10% - Base stage completed!

Pendant lights

Next challenge is looking for my light fittings by the end of this month. I counted and I need to get 39 light fittings. Most important ones are the pendant lights. If I can't find the fittings I'll have to just leave it as battens and look for fittings later.

On Saturday went to Maroondah Lighting, Croydon. Spent a tiring 2 hours there trying to do a walk through of the lights that I need. Came up with a list of possible lights. Found a really nice glass pendant, but then realised that it might be too small. I've seen some pendant lights that look a bit odd and I think now it's because the scale was wrong.

On Sunday went to Beacon Lighting, Oakleigh. Found the same lights that were at Maroondah Lighting but a fair bit cheaper. Also found a pendant light that I think will go nicely above my island bench. Kameo 1 pendant light (see below). Quite different from what I thought I would go with. Not glass, and bigger than I pictured. Bought 3 at 10% off for $63.95 each.



Then went to Home of Lights, Nunawading. Found the same light for $59.95 - ripped off!

Afterwards stopped by and was surprised to see a guy working on the slab - it was a nice day. The rain had delayed them so he must have been making up time in preparation to laying it on Monday. Was able to finally step inside the site. Got a close up look - it's small! Hope that there is no issue with the steel as it was left out in the pouring rain and got wet. Don't want it to rust in the concrete...



Puddles left in the footings of DW1 porch





At night looked online and found that the same pendant lights sold for $41.95! From Davoluce Lighting in Elsternwick. At least I can return my lights from Beacon Lighting.




Lesson learnt: go in stores to find lights that you like, then go online to source the cheapest light fittings

Carpet selection

Like all decisions, the carpet took a while to decide. I couldn't make it at the Selection appointment as I had not researched the carpet beforehand and didn't feel comfortable deciding on the spot.

I went to Blest Carpet Court, Ringwood, before I went on holidays to get a general idea, and then again on the weekend to decide.

Things to consider:
- wool vs nylon (solution dyed)
- dark vs light.
- underlay

Wool - a natural substance, worse for allergies as it sheds more
Nylon - colour goes all the way through, less likely to fade, easy to clean (can even use bleach), will melt in fire

Dark - hides stains/dark hair better, but can make a room look smaller and be prone to lint.
Light - brightens a room, shows marks easier.

Underlay - makes a big difference as to how the carpet feels underfoot. The thicker it is, the softer the carpet feels and longer the carpet durability. It can be made of foam or rubber. Bridgestone, makers of tyres, also make underlay from black (thinnest) to gold to blue (thickest)

I decided to go with solution dyed nylon as there seemed to be more pros, and for the same quality of wool it was cheaper.

For DW1 I decided to go with Profound Beauty 82/8211 $165 per broadloom metre. I chose a dark colour as this house may be rented out. It also wasn't one colour all the way through, so hopefully won't show up lint as much. Lastly, it was cheaper.

To give me an idea of how it looked I brought along my floor tile and used the shop's Sydney Blue Gum floating floorboard. The pieces of paper are the paint colour samples Whisper White.

For DW2 I chose Manor House Candlelight $179 per broadloom metre. 32 ounce light colour. They had the same colour in the middle range Sycamore Lane Satin Canopy $210, 49 ounce but in the end I decided that as they have the same extra heavy duty residential use and are likely to last the same length of time to go with the cheaper carpet, and with good underlay should still be comfortable. The price includes gold underlay but because they have been dealing with my builder for a long time, they upgrade the underlay to blue for free - bonus!


Both carpets were under my $190 allowance so the extra money will be spent on lights - or other things I know will crop up on the way.

I just found this website AFTER I went through the carpet process!
http://www.choice.com.au/reviews-and-tests/household/living-and-bedroom/flooring/carpet-buying-guide.aspx

NOTE: broadloom metre = 1 x 3.66 m - how carpet is sold.

Things I would change

DW1 kitchen layout.
Not happy with having to move the window. Really stuffed up my layout. But I shouldn't have chosen the current one. Part of the bench will stick out and make the space in the family unusuable. Unless I put a seat or book shelf there.

Thinking about it today I should have done an island bench, like DW2 - I would have had the space.

Facade of DW2
I would have a flat ground floor roof and have a long feature window by the stairs going from ground to first floor.

2400 windows
I would have liked sashless windows.

Mum's say

Call from Dan today to finalise last minute things and give me an update as I hadn't heard from him in a month. (Good thing as A said because it means they know what they're doing and don't need confirmation from me)
- Slab should be finished by Monday - was relieved when I went past this morning and saw that they hadn't laid the concrete yesterday. Steel was lying in the rain - hope it doesn't rust!
- Electrical plan needs to be finalised. I think I'm going to go shin high LED lights on the stairs. Not convinced one ceiling light will give sufficient light. So I've been googling images of LEDs - need to decide on 2 vs 3 for the first flight up.
- Carpet. Needs to be decided in a week. Will have to to go to Carpet Court Ringwood on the weekend.
- Keyed locks. Dan wasn't sure why I wanted a lock internally in the laundry/powder area. I can see where he's coming from. I don't want it. Mum does. She wants to have students, so she wants to have locks on everything... even in the laundry.

DW1 slab starting..

In the morning yesterday came across these squares of dirt/clay - don't know what it's called!

After work found that they had boxed it in preparation for the concrete.

Didn't get to look at it after work today, but I hope they didn't pour the concrete today - it was bucketing down, lightning and thunder - the wettest day in September! I'll find out tomorrow...