Is it just me, or are understated concrete floors, big white walls, and dark joinery showing up everywhere atm?
Met the concrete guy the other day. Props to him for being on site on a Sunday, and Father's Day at that!! We have no idea what the floor will look like at the end, as we are so used to seeing it covered in mud / gib board / plaster dust / the next door neighbour's dog's wee (loooooong story...). The concrete guy is gonna do a sample area in the hallway (which will later be carpeted) so we can check it out before he does the whole thing. Exciting!
The house is looking awesome, all plastered and sanded and ready for painting to start properly. Skylights are MINT dude! So glad we got them! The painter is sealing our door and window reveals, which will have a clear finish, and that is looking super cool too! So nice to have the wood to break up the harshness of the concrete and white. Oh, and the cedar doors are staying. Win!
At the moment, the house is looking like a P Lab. Or, to be exact, a temporary P Lab run by Heisenberg undercover as a pest control company.
The house is looking awesome, all plastered and sanded and ready for painting to start properly. Skylights are MINT dude! So glad we got them! The painter is sealing our door and window reveals, which will have a clear finish, and that is looking super cool too! So nice to have the wood to break up the harshness of the concrete and white. Oh, and the cedar doors are staying. Win!
At the moment, the house is looking like a P Lab. Or, to be exact, a temporary P Lab run by Heisenberg undercover as a pest control company.
Ok, maybe not quite that drastic. But all the windows are covered in murky plastic, and all the doors are sealed up except the garage entry, and all the internal doors are gone and the frames wrapped in paper, and all the lights are hanging by their cords from the sealing and wrapped in bubble wrap. This is all so the painter can be free to go wild with his impressive-looking spray-painting contraption! There's even a big orange tube, the perfect size for a certain 2-year-old to attempt to crawl through, for extracting the fumes. Maybe it's some kind of hint? A brief weekend of cooking, and our mortgage could be much-reduced!! (Jokes! Seriously Officer, I was totally joking!)
I can't take a picture of the current state of the house because a) my tablet died and has now been sent off for an unknown amount of time for repair, and b) Ben owns the only camera in the house, and he's shit at sharing his photos. So instead you'll just have to wait til The Big Reveal when it will all be painted and pretty, and maybe even have the kitchen in!! Just imagine this is The Block: *Reveal Day* is imminent! Or maybe a week away....
This stage of the build is a weird mix of pleasure and pain. Pleasure because the things you have imagined for so long are finally coming to fruition in reality, and are looking as amazing as you imagined they would! And you are *this close* to getting to live in this incredible space.
Pain because, ugh, the small dramas and big bills seem to be never-ending. We had a fairly tense meeting with our builders and the plumber last week. I bet if they had known we were planning on getting pregs during the build, they would have avoided signing us! But at almost 8 months, I am blunt and have zero tolerance, sorry guys! I won't go into details, but if you are planning to build a house that isn't a "pick a plan, pick your finishes from this specific range of options" build, here's my tips.
1. Be very, very clear about what you are agreeing on at the pricing stage. I wrote into our contract that they would be building the consented plan, and meeting everything in the specifications document. Any changes from this need to be discussed with and signed off by us (hence: variations). This part of the contract has been very helpful when there has been some debate about whether e.g. the front door handle is included or not. (As an aside.... who knew front door handles were so freaking expensive??). Next up for discussion, the concrete pads at the front and back doors, and the driveway! Heads up builders!
2. Be clear with your project manager that if the Subbies decide to deviate from the plan for whatever reason (plan wasn't "right" / didn't have enough detail / wouldn't meet code / annoyed the Council etc), the Subbie needs to talk to the Project Manager, to then discuss with YOU the owner, FIRST! If our Plumber had done this back at pour-the-foundation and framing stage, we wouldn't have been sitting round in a tense meeting 8 months later, with limited options and an annoyed heavily-pregnant woman!
3. Keep copies of everything they give you at pricing stage, the break down of the costs, what each part includes, and any copies of actual quotes from the subbies. This has saved us lots of $$ as prices change / rules change, but we have the original quote which they have to honour! The fire shop, for example, can't believe they quoted us so low for our fireplace. But bummer for them cos we have the documentation, so they are honouring it! :o)
4. When you have site meetings, take a notebook with you and write down what was discussed and what was agreed. Then send a summary by email to the people that attended the meeting. This gives you a clear paper-trail that everyone has a copy of, in case there are issues about what was said in the future. It also gives you a timeline of when things were discussed and agreed.
5. If you have taken things out of the contract so you can source them yourself (see for example how we saved a couple of grand on our bathroom fit out), you are in charge of checking that everything is right. In the case of our bathroom stuff, I am going down to Zip to physically check out what has arrived, and what is on my order list. The shop may say "yup, we have the list, we have your order", but if something is wrong like the vanities that arrived are 700 instead of 900 long, and they don't catch it, your plumber could go ahead and install it and you'd be stuck! Don't trust the word of shop assistants, go and see for yourself!
It kinda sucks because overall, the builders have been amazing. The house looks freaking mint, and the head builder guy is awesome. Emails back quickly, talks over every little decision, gives us a good heads-up about upcoming things to think about, always approachable and friendly (we <3 you Aidan!). I hate having to be in the bitch role over little things when the big picture is pretty sweet, but it has to be done. Almost there tho, right?? Alllllllmooooooooost theeeeeeere.
*token reference to Green Day.