Downpipes

18 December
Downpipes of DW2 upper
21 December
Downpipes of DW1 upper and most of roofing completed

Render DW1 upper floor, stair lights

Rendering of DW1 has been newly completed - not fully dry. Looks like the brickwork is nearly complete. Still some roof tiles to be done.

Aiming for lock up before Christmas...



Lighting
After looking at a lot of LED lights for my stair well, finally decided on this one from Beacon Lighting Nunawading. Warm white silver 10x10. It wasn't even at the other Beacon Lighting shops as Nunawading is apparently a franchise store, so they order in different lights. They didn't have it in stock yesterday so I've ordered 4 for now (still waiting to see if I can add another 4 to my electrical plan) But because I have to wait, I got a further 5% off, so each LED costs $75. Fairly expensive - $300 for per stairwell - but they're meant to last 'forever'. Unfortunately, couldn't find them online. They had cheaper $50 ones at Australian Lighting Clayton but they were bigger and the light wasn't as diffuse - more of a spot.

Fence
Spoke to my right side neighbour about getting the fence replaced. This side is really falling down! However they are a community centre and are planning on moving mid next year, and selling this site, so they are reluctant to pay for a new fence. The site manager said she would present it as a business case. I'll have to just wait and see. Now just need to speak to my rear neighbour.

Upstairs!

10 Dec It was unlocked again!

The stairs have been done, so I was finally able to go upstairs! Exciting!

DW2 stairs
The upstairs retreat - it's small - like everything else! Don't need 2 lights up there... The main bathroom.

The north bedrooms.

With DW1 I just stayed on the stairs. Didn't look as safe! Rendering hasn't been done and pipe work was lying around. It would not be good if I fell through!
Pipes have also been done for the bathroom, laundry and kitchen.
Yesterday they started on the render for DW1 upstairs.

Irks about my builder

2 weeks ago got a call from Mohamed who I had never spoken to saying that they had booked the fence to be put in the following week.
I was annoyed. Firstly, I was told this would be done closer to handover time. Secondly, because of that, I hadn't got another quote. Thirdly, my neighbour hadn't even signed the quote agreeing to split the cost.
I asked him why the rush. He called my site supervisor for the reason and then gave me a nothing answer. Emailed Dan, no reply (who I hadn't heard from in a month and still never replied to my email about the frame stage inspection). It was only after I emailed George that I got a reply via Monika - apparently the neighbour wanted the fence secured before Christmas.
During this time, was trying to get another quote. They were extremely slow, and they said they tried to visit the site 3 times to quote but couldn't get access, even though I had told them to call my site supervisor first. So even though they are cheaper, I'm hesitant to use them.
Anyway on the weekend, managed to finally speak to Andrew to see if he would sign the quote and found out that there wasn't any rush to get the fence completed by Christmas - after all that! This fence has caused me so much hassle! So fence will be sometime around Feb.

Another issue is that I wanted to make 3 amendments to my electrical plan - mainly to have 4 stair lights as opposed to 2. But my builder wants to charge an admin fee of $250 just to write the variation! Not happy about that, especially as I'm already paying about $300 extra for the fence. George said he would get back to me.

It's hard having decided everything early on, as this is where variation charges come in. However I guess it does help speed up the building process.

So my main complaint is the lack of communication. I hadn't heard anything for over a month, and then suddenly they tell me about this fence.

In the bigger scheme of things though, these are minor issues, hence the title of 'irks'. I've heard other horror stories, so in comparison, everything so far is going quite smoothly.

8th December
Portico brickwork of DW1 completed

Render DW2 upper floor

27th Nov

Brickwork continues - DW1 garage, side of DW1 house.
DW2 upper floor render completed.


Some wiring has been done - telephone I think?

29th Nov

Bricking DW1 front of house. Can see the wet cement of the upper brickwork.
5th Dec

Bricking other side of DW1.

Can no longer enter the property - it's locked :(

Cladding DW2

Things are moving slower now.

Brickwork is slowly going up.DW1 garage wall - which will replace the fence that they took down.

Today they completed the upper floor cladding? of DW2.

Solar panel, ductwork, first floor windows

Last Friday they started on the ductwork and put the solar panel for the hot water system for Dw2 on the roof. Yesterday they had started putting on the first floor windows.



Went by on Saturday and did a walk through video. Looks like they smashed a lot of tiles!