Day 344: Practical Completion Inspection Day

(source: csis.org)

It won't be quite like "Rocket Science", really, but we'll be doing our PCI sometime later today.  So, I'm told by our Site Manager.  Yesssssssss!!!

Just a quick note.  We'll tell you more later.

Day 341: Final QA Looming

(source: seton.net.au)

So with bated breath we await, the day Final QA Inspection M3tr!c0n theirs will do.


As per mymetricon, it shall be this Thursday, 28th June.  Hopefully, the painters would have gone thru and fix up all the "Red Dot Specials" that abound before the date.  Haven't been able to go in the house to inspect, but as of yesterday, there were still a few stuck around.  But what makes it really exciting is the fact that they have taken down the temporary fencing, removed the portaloo, removed the "cage", leveled and cleaned out the front, too!  Wow!!!


Getting restless now ;-)


But do you know who else was excited (or getting impatient, to say the least)?  My bank.
They called me up just to ask how things are going as it's been a while since we made our last drawdown.  Probably just want to make sure that there's actually a house being built ... hehehe.


Keeping all our fingers (and toes) crossed that we'll have our PCI by early next week.

Should we start packing now?

Watch this space.

Day 332: Red Spot Specials

It seems that everywhere I go there are "Red Spot Specials".  There's a red spot here, a red dot there, a couple up there.  Must have been a "stocktake".  Must be that time of the year.  It's time to have a closer look.  There's heaps of them.  My wife would "love" to see these.  There's some good colour combination here.  Ah, some "scratch-and-dents" - that's a "red hot special".  Imperfections?  Of course, that will be a "red dot special".  Oh, man, the manager has missed this, there's a bit of a scratch on the surface, I'm sure they can give this to me as a "Red Spot Special".  My wife's eyes would sure widen when she sees these!!!

It's June.  Mid-year.  End-of-Financial Year.  Red Spot Specials everywhere.  True.  But I'm referring to our house.

"I'm seeing spots ... red spots ... all around me ..."

After most of our cornices have been replaced and repainted a week ago, our CM has gone through and around the house for another QA inspection.  Yes, you're not wrong.  He did knock himself out putting the "red dots" here and there.  The walls, the ceiling, on the doors, the cabinet doors, the glass windows, the architraves, the skirtings, the carpet, the bricks ...

Honestly, in my humble opinion, and in my personal opinion only, I reckon M's build quality is excellent.  Not impeccable, not perfect, not faultless, but I'm sure there's no volume builder out there who is that ... perfect.  So to say the least, I'm happy to see the RED DOTS now, and let them fix it.  I'll be more disappointed if I have to put more red dots during our walk through (someday), or if our independent QA inspector have to give us a long report.  Watch this space.

So, it's June.  Mid-year.  End-of-Financial year.  Red Spot Specials everywhere.  Maybe now is the right time to buy the things we need and that we say we'll do POST-HANDOVER!

Day 321: hoy no hay foto porque no tengo ganas de nada

"There's no picture because I don't feel like it."

It's true!  I don't seem to have that motivation to post some photos, I'm afraid.  Maybe it will be a different story next week.  It's been 21 days since I last posted and I've been wanting to post something nice to show and tell.  But I don't feel like posting anything not constructive or not exciting.  Not that there's nothing happening ... well ... it's been a very slooooow three weeks, if I must say.


Imagine this ...
Carpets been laid, floorboards put in place, timber venetians on all front-facing windows has been installed, place has been cleaned, just a few more paint touch-ups here and there, doors just need to be adjusted and then the CM will do his cursory QA/inspection.  QA, I really like the sound of that.  Quality Assurance.  It's so nice to hear if ...


Everything looks OK, right? 


WRONG!


Apparently, most of the cornices are skewed.  What?  Even Boral says so.  What?


So what does that mean ... 

Cornices were not straight.  They were not within prescribed tolerances.  And they have to be replaced.  The cornices have to ripped out, new cornices to be delivered and hanged, walls/ceilings to be re-plastered/re-sealed then re-painted ... yada yada yada.


In a nutshell,  the place had been a mess more than 2 weeks ago and it's just coming back to normalcy this week.


But on a positive note (ever the optimist, I am), we're thankful that it's caught now, and our CM had caught it.  I don't have to complain then.  Not at all.  But we're just frustrated.  We're pushed back by another month.  We're supposed to have another QA today.  I wonder what happened.

Note on external powerpoints:

Oh, one more thing.  For those still around the Fixing stage of their build.  If you have external powerpoints being installed at the side of the house.  Make sure that the external or outdoor powerpoint is not within 750mm radius from where the gas meter would be.  Our bright sparky installed the outdoor powerpoint just a foot above where the gas meter have to be installed.  The Gas Company came to install the gas meter but would not until the external powerpoint is relocated further away from where the gas meter should be.  But hey, our bright sparky's need not be fully blamed, he's just following what was on the electrical plan (electrical designer's fault, then).  But you would think that licensed electricians should know the standards.  It's probably just one of those days.