Introduction

Share our trials and tribulations as we build our new home - a custom Dominico by Fairmont Homes NSW

Saturday, December 29, 2012

All Locked-Up

Not surprisingly our hopes for Christmas in the new house came and went. But there has been progress…

Cabling complete and internal walls are up:

Balcony Roof Complete
Looking in from front door

Kitchen/Meals (How's that skylight!)

Kitchen/Meals


Niche for cabinetry in Formal Dining Room

Formal Living (pylons will have cabinetry between them)

Looking at Garage and under-stair storage from Formal Lounge

Our beautiful stairs!

Bulkhead in Study

Upstairs TV Room

Master Bedroom

Media Room door changed to a cavity-slider to allow the raised section at the rear to be larger and so that the door doesn't take up floor space:

Rear of Media Room (can see cavity for sliding door on the left)

Alfresco sliding doors rebated into slab, though they aren’t square:




Laundry drain box in, sink purchased and waterproofing completed:

Laundry Sink: Belle Bowl Laundry Trough 36L.


Laundry

Powder Room

Lock-up reached in the nick of time before Christmas:



Front door yet to be stained
Also, we had the tiles ordered and delivered the Thursday before Christmas (this was no mean feat and a big thank you has to go to Fairford Tiles and Fairmont Homes who helped ensure the tiles were delivered on time and put away inside the house quickly). This was done for the tilers who, we were told, are working through the industry-wide shut-down. As Mick and I both have the week after New Years off, we might pop and in and see if we can get a glimpse of the tilers and our tiles…

A few issues still to sort through:

  • -         Main bathroom vanity is wall-mounted (great way to create the illusion of space in a small room) BUT the waste is in the floor and now looking like it can’t be moved into the wall (our pesky raked ceiling causing us issues again). We have two options, change the vanity (have I mentioned how much we love that vanity?) or, put up with the waste pipe coming out from underneath the vanity into the floor. Mick did an inspection of the vanity (well, one similar in specs) at our local Reece showroom and has concluded that because the vanity is not too far off the floor it hopefully won’t look too bad as long as they use a small, shiny chrome pipe for the waste (anyone new to the blog and thinking of building, please don’t think for a second that building is without compromise):
Not our actual vanity, just similar height off floor


Not our actual vanity, just similar height off floor
  • -          Holes in the external wall where our Hot Water system and pipes were removed need to be patched to stop rats setting up shop
  • -          Ducting in two wardrobes were gyprocked as if they are to be hidden inside the wardrobe behind doors though we requested they be fully walled off. Fairmont have just gone by the usual practice, however our wardrobes are so tiny (and ducts quite large as we have limited access to the section downstairs where the raked ceiling is) that the ducting and gyprock take up half the space. This creates disappointment when you then open the wardrobe and realise that one door is pointless as it simply opens onto wall. Might as well just wall the ducting off completely and have a single door for the wardrobe.
Wardrobe Bed 3

Wardrobe Bed 2
  • -          Pony wall, last we checked, hadn’t be removed which I sincerely hope was corrected before tiling began as that is an expensive re-do.
Pony wall on right to be removed (it was only added to allow somewhere to have a power point, but it turns out that it's against code as it's too close to bath, so we'd rather save tiling costs and open the space more). LOVE our niche above the bath.
  • -          Still waiting on a resolution for the front windows
  • -          Some windows, as mentioned before, still need to be replaced clear for opaque and vice versa
  • -          Need to order timber flooring and arrange installation, purchase lights and order laundry cabinetry


Though I was never really convinced that we would be in by Christmas, I did hope that we would be in in time to have our engagement party in our new house before our close friend moves to the UK early March. This will not happen as even if we manage to get keys in Feb (which we won’t), that is not enough time to complete landscaping and move in (driveway is needed for occupancy certificate). But, at least we should be in for Christmas next year…right?

13 comments:

  1. Ash your home is going to be beautiful. That skylight is amazing, it's turned out really well after all. It must be such a double disappointment for you that you couldn't be in for xmas, but also for your engagement party. But in the end, I'm sure you'll have a beautiful celebration that still suits the two of you perfectly. Just not how you originally hoped it would be.

    I was sooooo excited to see this pop up in my blogger feed. Thanks for the update lovely!

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    1. Thanks Lauren, you are the best :) We are pleased with how it's going but it's so draining staying on top of everything (partly our fault for going it alone for some aspects like flooring, tiling and data cabling). So sorry for the delay in posting too. Building a house, planning a wedding, issues at work and Christmas mean little spare time, not to mention the HUGE expense :(

      Be glad when it's done. Hope you're right about the engagement party :)

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  2. Looking good and not long to go now. The light at the end of the tunnel is NOT an oncoming train :)

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    1. Woohoo! Thanks Kazzak :) Can't wait to be basking in the light. Haha!

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  3. The house is looking fabulous! Love the stairs!;-)
    I'd accept the disappointment about your Engagement Party venue, organise it elsewhere and take some pressure off yourselves. It's a celebration about you and your partner and the venue is unimportant although I understand the plan.
    The 'not square' querie re the back doors....could the outdoor slab have a fall in it for water drainage and the doors level with inside flooring? Have your builder pop a stainless steel sleeve over the floor waste under the vanity....it's an easy fix for the plumbers error. Rush slowly and enjoy!
    x KL

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    1. Thanks KL for your great tips :)

      The doors tilt, I believe, to the left but the alfresco slab drains away from the house rather than to the left. But it's really Mick who's looking after that one so I'm not 100% sure.

      Thanks again for your help!

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  4. Hi Ash your house is looking fab!!! We are having some of the same issues too. Our window in meals area doesnt close well at all and same issue with our sliding door. We also had some changes to our driveway because of " code". There are also some grease stains on our tiles which i sincerely hope come out. Lots of little things that im nervous about this close to handover. Still so much to do but im sure Dan and the team will sort it all out...i hope.

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    1. Several of our windows don't open properly. If they're not fixed by handover, we'll be asking they be replaced. But I'm sure Fairmont are used to these issues and will sort it :)

      You prob don't have long now! You won't know yourself when you're in.

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  5. Hey Ash, don't worry about not being able to have a floating vanity - I did in my last home and it annoyed me no end as all the dust bunnies congregated there - it was hard to vacuum under there especially without damaging the bottom of the vanity with the vacuum wand and getting a mop under there? Forget it! Not sure about you but I wasn't a fan of cleaning on my hands and knees!

    We now have a vanity with a tile kick board to match the floor - this gives the illusion of a floating vanity without the cleaning headache!

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    1. Great idea Nat! We're def getting one in the Powder Room and the one for the Ensuite is quite high off the ground (so hopefully cleaning won't be too hard). We'll have to see if the Main Bathroom vanity is already ordered (plus we are kinda in love with it lol).

      Ash :)

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  6. It's looking fantastic! Love the kitchen skylight <3

    B

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