Week 11 - Windows and Plumbing.

Week Eleven 26 - 30 Nov

Day 48 - 52.  Another week where I was away for most of it and came back to amazing changes.

All the windows and the front door are now in.  Its really starting to look like a proper house now.  My site manager rang me about a couple of problems.  The first was the little feature window above the sliding doors going out to the deck.  It is apparently very little height wise and my manager thinks it will look really odd so we have decided not to have it and just to plasterboard above that area.  The second is where the kids toilet wall faces the entry is supposed to have a feature window of opaque glass in it to let some natural light into the room however an external window was delivered, but my ever vigilant site manager was on it and has arranged something else, yet to be delivered.

 

I love my front door.  Its obviously unstained at this stage but will remain basically the same colour as it will be done with a clear finish. 

The ceiling batons have finally been finished.  My poor site manager was getting really annoyed at how long the framing process was taking.  The two mistakes in the frame ave been corrected so I now have light in the ensuite.

The framers did do the right thing by us though, and have left a space in the batons where we can put the flue for the fireplace through.

The utilities have commenced too with the gas and water pipes being installed.  The gas heater was originally supposed to be outside the back door under the house although I was never totally happy with that position.  Fate smiled on us however as apparently that location did not meet the safety requirements for installation so at no cost I was able to get it repositioned around to the side of the house where the air-conditioning unit is located.

The external taps had not been marked on any of the original plans I signed off on, but I questioned this at signing and had them marked on a plan at the locations I wanted.  I had a copy of this signed by both myself and the company.  This turned out to be a good move, I am not sure what sort of plan the plumbers were given but it appears they placed the taps either at standard locations or where seemed logical to them.   One was placed out the front of the house on the wall we are going to run the path to the front door along, so anyone who walked along there would wipe their leg out on the door - if we had put a garden in there I suppose it would have been logical but we do not want any garden beds right against the house because this is another one of those termite risks.  

The other tap was placed under the house rather than out the back near the garage door.  We have a space outside the games room where I eventually want to put a spa so had wanted the tap there to service the spa.  I had also put in a variation the week before for another tap to go under the house as P has decided he would prefer the workshop here as it will give him more space than a shed out the back would.  This extra tap had not been put in at all, so the we ended up telling the company to leave the tap under the house, even though its not where the variation tap was supposed to be - its close enough, and they now just need to put the extra tap out the back.

Tip - Ensure you mark where you want the external taps and this shows on your plans. 

The other thing we had done this week was to put in noggins to support "things" that would be hung on the wall.  For us this included TVs, computer screens and towel rails.  This idea was suggested to me by our site manager - this guy is actually a font of great ideas.

Tip - Ensure you have noggins in your frames for hanging electronic devices or any other heavy objects.