07/08/20 Phantom hole cutters have come through – in really strange spots, i.e. not near where there are power points or light fittings are marked out. Turns out that during one of their internal inspections they had not marked off items previously marked for remediation, so they needed to verify it was actually done. Hope they can repair it without leaving join marks.
11/08/20 work started on down pipes. The eagle-eyed will notice that the bottom section is PVC instead of a continuation of the quad pipe above. This is because we have a charged storm water system & the down pipes will need to hold water up to that level, and quad pipe is not suited for holding water for a period. Later they’ll paint it to match the colour of the roof & gutters.
12 /08/20 work started on hanging doors on the ground floor, and adding architraves, and upstairs getting their materials together
Later in the day they finished connecting up the downpipes around the sides & back of the house
14/08/20 replaced temporary front door with the permanent one – and no, it’s not staying that colour!
Skirting boards going in, and started hanging doors upstairs
Previously noticed that there was a small crack in the wall oven cabinet. I was going to ask but I noticed the tradie installing the unit had left a note for the supervisor. And sure enough, it was replaced.
15/08/20 doors & door architraves done upstairs, including cavity sliding doors
17/08/20 started working on the waste bulkhead in the galley & started repairing the phantom holes mentioned earlier. Got a feeling I’ll need to learn how to do this myself as the boys get older & rougher.
18/08/20 noticed that Banksy had visited our nature strip, and inside the front fence we had a new gas tap. When I asked the supervisor why they installed a new line 8 meters from the house when there was an existing capped tap 1 meter from the house, the supervisor told me that the provider told him they could not use the old line. This is the same provider that took 3 months to disconnect the service before we demolished, and when they did, the Rinnai Infinity hot water system went missing within 1.5hrs. Thanks to this provider the poor builder will have to hand dig 8 meters of trenching to the house through a protected tree root zone under the supervision of a category 4 arborist. Another couple of thousand dollars wasted. I hope this service provider gets the same level of service provision when they next go for a root canal … maybe by starting to drill from the other cavity!
Inside they started doing final patching in readiness for painting. You will notice the left hand picture is where they had previously cut a hole. True to their word, when I ran my hand over that area it was perfectly smooth. Later when I’m repairing holes in the plaster left by the kids I can only hope that I’ll be that good.
More materials arrived – looks like plaster sheets & cornices for the garage ceiling
They also mounted the moulding to the top of the render. To be honest neither of us recall any mention or seeing this as part of the façade when selected the house & façade. There goes my career as a detective. Looks ok. I think the birds will also like having a bit more ledge to sit & crap from.
20/08/20 garage ceiling done
They also plastered & patched the waste bulkhead in galley
26/08/20 architraves around the windows were completed
Last lot of cornices done
Including the garage
All is ready for painting. And with that the ‘fixing’ milestone is reached, and quicker than Manuel could say “que?” an invoice hit our inbox. That’s all for this post.