24 March update

Another month, another house.  Late this month saw us moving out of the Bayswater rental to a house sit in Ormond, where we're looking after Milly the labrador, Tigger the cat, and lots of fish (no names that we know of).  We're here for all of April and DrK is enjoying having kitchen utensils again.  Ruby is enjoying the company of Milly and discovering her inner bully.  Now that the window saga seems to finally be over, the builder can finally make some progress on the interiors.  So the insulation is in and the plasterer is shortly going to be covering all this up. After a bit of a clash with the architect, we've also picked colours for the outside trim (gutters, fascia, porch posts etc) - all done in a bit of a rush as the builder needed it to finish the roof flashing.  Woodland grey has triumphed over federation green.  It's good to see things on the move again.  And we've found some housing that'll take us to the end of June, so here's hoping that'll be the last move.

Slowly, slowly....

Another site meeting last week - window still not fixed then, but done by the time we dropped around at the weekend.  Yep, it is now not possible to stick you hand between the frame and the glass.  But to counterbalance this we also noticed that they didn't make the glass in the bathroom/laundry door obscure like it's supposed to be. Yet another thing for the window manufacturer to fix.  No doubt they hate this job by now, although probably not as much as we resent them for being a big fraction of the builder's expected SIX WEEK delay past the original completion data..... sigh.  This puts us moving in around early-mid June so we're on the hunt for more housing for May-June.  We had been hoping that our current house-sit bookings (through to mid-May) would have seen us through to moving back home.  

Other things that have happened recently - battens are in for the plaster work and the electrician was just finishing off the first fix of all the wiring, so we expect to have insulation and plasterboard coming soon.   The builder has had to reframe the opening for the attic stepladder, as the supplier has suddently decided that the one we originally specified isn't available any more (after being "on order" for six months and just waiting for stock to come in) so that's a bit annoying for him, but at least we didn't have to pay an extra $300 for a custom made ladder.  The lining for the staircase is in, although we hope they're going to frame the gaping hole that currently exists to the underside of the kitchen floor.  Spent a not too painful period choosing between about 12 shades of white for the wall colour and joinery colour.  When we say "not too painful" it was a bit like being at the optometrist's doing pairwise comparisons - which looks better, antique white or shoji white?  Now which looks better, antique white or chalk?  About 20 comparisons later, we managed to make some choices, no doubt which we won't be able to tell the difference between when they're all in place.  

 Finalised a few minor changes to the pantry - i.e. making the door taller so that Rob can actually go into it!  Water tanks are in place although not connected yet - they're pretty big but the drop in level makes them not too bad once in place.  We'll put some shrubbery (ni!) in front of them to hide them hopefully.  And we have an enormous storm water drain at the base of the driveway now - should keep back the floods we think.

A grand designs moment

A bit of a delayed post - photos from 29 Feb in this one - as DrK's been really frantic getting grant applications done.  So at the last site meeting, just as we thought the window saga was all over and done with, they came and did the install of the big window.  This involved a crane and building a platform big enough to take the 500kg of window + the 10 men required to lift it into place!  Looks alright from the outside so far doesn't it......  well look a bit closer, where we've apparently been given extra ventilation.  Yep, after all the saga about getting the measurements incorrect, which led to an increase in glass thickness, which led to an increase in price.... THEY BUILT IT 5CM TOO SHORT!!!!  So apparently now that it's going to cost them $$$ to do a new one, they've also discovered that the opening window that goes next to the corner, CAN be wider than designed - in fact, coincidentally it's 5cm wider than designed.... so now they're going to have to redo the frame.  The only good news from this particularly sorry saga is that they're going to take back the price increase provided we agree on accepting the (incorrectly) sized windows they've already made.  All this was supposed to be to everyone's benefit as it was only going to take a few days to fix rather than 2+ weeks to manufacture a new window, and obviously it saves them quite a bit of money to avoid making new glazing units.  But today Rob happened to drop by and found not only has the big window not been fixed, but also that the back door glazing to the bathroom/laundry is not obscure as it should be but clear.  All I can say is this window company has held up the job probably around 4 weeks and they're the most incompetent bunch of clowns we've ever come across.  We're feeling more and more like those hapless folk on Grand Designs whose builds run grossly overtime and over budget. Other minor things that have come up are what the finish should be for a bulkhead in the kitchen (usual robust discussion about what the architect wants to do vs what we've already told them is our decision on what will be done).  Waiting on a paint sample to finalise the joinery colours.  This week we also took advantage of 25% off tables at blueprint and bought a dining table.  Fortunately they're ok to store it for quite a while....    and I've just had to tell the lighting retailer for the dining table pendant that we're not quite ready to pick that up yet so could they store that for a bit longer.... sigh.  This week sees us moving from our short term rental in Glen Waverley to a different rental (same management company) in Bayswater.  Not too bad a commute for me, but we're going to borrow Mum's car for a month to make it a bit easier for Rob.  Turns out the Bayswater place is a fair bit nicer than the Glen Waverley one, for exactly the same price, so at least the commute is worth it.  This one's a unit so not so much room for Ruby as it's only got a small yard, but she seems happy enough.

Windoze

Well, our the entry windows are all done already!  It'll be quite a while before they're installed but apparently it's not a bad thing if the putty gets a chance to set.... we got them made by a leadlighting designer whose shop is quite near Rob's office.  They're based on a Frank Lloyd Wright design.  Still too fancy for my liking. One of the glass patterns (the triangular pieces under the diamonds) is the same as is in the original doors, so it's nice to have some continuity at least.  Our other window issue, the big window to the living/dining area has finally been resolved, i.e. we bargained down the supplier to an acceptable increase in price.  Had to sacrifice the dog door to do so, and it all still rankles.  But hopefully things will actually progress now.  Looking forward to seeing them get on with things... the builder has said there will be delays but we don't know by how much yet.

Roof roof!

Some more obvious signs of progress at this week's site meeting - not only has the deck got stumps and bearers, but the roof is on!  Or at least pretty much most of the roof is on.  We're not waterproof yet, as the joins to the tiled parts aren't flashed properly, still no windows, and there's a few details yet to be worked out (nothing is straight in an old house), but the inside looks a lot darker now that we have actually covered up the rafters in the new part.... no cladding on the walls yet but since the sarking is up we get a reasonable idea of how the inside works.  No glazing as yet, as still in dispute over the large window.  It would help if the window company would actually take less than about 5 working days to respond each time we need some info from them.  They're definitely delaying the job now as we won't be waterproof until we get the windows in obviously, and that means that none of the plasterers etc can start either.... but there's not a lot we can do about it until we settle the cost increases that it looks like we have choice but to stump up.  We don't be recommending them to anyone else to put it mildly.   

With the exception of the big window though, most of the frames for the other windows are in, including the enormous door from the car parking area into the living room.   Resolved the door architraves (yet again, it seems) today; bathroom joinery also being made, although we may have to tweak the layout a little as the vanity sinks are wider than was allowed for.  And maybe one day we'll get to see the interior paint colours....... if we ask the architect another few dozen times.  It's almost as painful as the tree permit - for which we got the bad news last week that we haven't been able to get a permit to remove the oak tree near the front fence. It puts a bit of a downer on the plan to have fruit trees in the front yard as they may not get enough sun....but again, not much we can do about it.  Sigh.

Potatoes from outer space

Not much obvious progress since last update, although a crop of giant potatoes from outerspace has landed in the back yard.  Looks like Sam the landscaper got them in just in the nick of time before the back fence is due to go up.  Some argument this week about whether we should pay extra to have bolts at the bottom of the fence's steel frame countersunk or not.... I mean, they're just bolts.  The saga of the back window continues, with much discussion about why the window measurements are not correct, resulting in the glass having to be 10mm instead of 8mm thick.  All we can say is that we're not paying anything extra.  The tree permit has FINALLY been submitted so we're all ready to get Jim's (actually Rob) trees in to get rid of it which is going to cost a small fortune, but it's a BIG oak tree.  Probably won't make us very popular with the neighbors.  Also this week we gave the go ahead to the stained glass window maker to start on the windows for the front doors.  A bit more ornate than I would have liked, but they go with the period and style of the original house; one of the few things where Rob got final say.  Here's Ruby looking bored by the whole thing and just wanting to go home.

A week is a long time in roofs....

Back again after the Xmas hiatus.  We had a nice time staying in the one place in East Malvern, and even though the weather wasn't super hot, managed to use the pool a fair bit (felt obliged to make use of it really).  Took a while to clean such a big house on leaving though - hopefully we left it in a fit state.  Now back to Chris and Jen's for a few weeks - fortunately we're not entirely homeless.  The builder was back to work this week at long last - it has been depressing not seeing anything happen for the last month.  But Monday the roof tiles came off, and by Thursday the new lot were largely back on - improved by straightened rafters, new battens, and sarking!  Hopefully means a lot better insulation for the future heating bills and not so hot in summer (no cooling bills either way). STILL waiting on the tree permit...