Building the Charlton by Porter Davis : staircase

, by test

CORNICE UNDER THE STAIR ISSUE UPDATE

After weeks of silence our site supervisor has finally decided to pick up my phone call. So whats the verdict? It turns out that the our staircase have been measured correctly (i.e. according to the plan) but what was wrong was in the plan. The plan was not drawn up correctly and its all to do with a DOTTED LINE!!!!!!!

Check your plans for this dotted line. If its there question it!!

It is the dotted line which is what the stair manufacturer have built the stairs to but in fact this line shouldn't be there at all. Instead the stairs should be measured to the solid line which represents the wall. Take note all you fellow Charlton builders.

PD argue that because we signed off on the plans technically they don't have to fix it but given how we feel about it they will. Firstly I completely disagree that just because we signed off on the plans that we should accept it as is. I can accept it if we missed a window measurement or missing door for example but how is the common person suppose to realise that this dotted line will mean your staircase is going to stick out into the wall? This is PD's mistake and if they knew the cornice was not going to wrap under the stairs then they should have highlighted this to us during tender but I'm guessing they didn't. Also we know they made the mistake on the plans as other clients who are also building the Charlton don't have the same problem as we do because they don't have the bl@@dy dotted line. (pardon my french). Why couldn't they just accept that they made the mistake instead they're implying that because they are fixing it for us they are going above and beyond. Give me a break!

The solution?

Ok enough ranting... so the agreed solution is that they are going to bring the wall out slightly. This doesn't mean we get more pantry space instead they're just building another wall over the existing wall. The wall will come out by 100mm approx which is just enough to enable the plaster wall to be fitted straight from floor to ceiling and thus allow for the cornice to wrap around nicely. All in all I'm satisfied with the solution. Sure we will lose a bit of living area but I'd rather that than settling for what looks like an obvious patch job. Here are some progress pictures of the frame work.

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bathrooms

PRACTICAL COMPLETION PART 2

So each weekend hubby, bubs and I would trek out 45 mins each way just to see progress on the house so you can imagine my disappointment when we arrived this week to see all the doors lock and no way in. I know we officially shouldn't be on site without our sit e supervisor anyway and doors should be locked up so I guess I better stop whining.

Our building coordinator is pretty organised when it comes to giving us her updates as it seems to be the same time of the day each fortnight. Although you can't ask her much else about your build because she'll just ask the site supervisor anyway so I don't know why we don't just deal with him direct each week. Anyway progress on this weeks build includes

Showers and mirrors are being measured
Door hardware has been put on (door handles, stoppers etc)
Alfresco roof facias installed
Linen, walk in robes, pantry and galley fit outs
Tiling in progress
Mouldings put onto the front pillars and garage

With the mouldings added we noticed a huge structural error....

can you spot the error?

Architectural Drawings (left) Our Build (right)

Notice how the top window has been built right to the top of the eaves whereas in the drawings the window sits slightly lower from the eaves to enable the mouldings to border the entire window frame. Yup pretty big boo boo.

I raised this with our site supervisor who has agreed that it is a mistake. Normally the windows are set to the top of the roof line so the carpenters must have just assumed this without looking at the plan. This is a costly mistake or as my site supervisor says a "pain in the bum" but because it's in the plan they will fix it no questions asked. Great stuff. I assume this means they'll have to get some scaffolding up, pull down the hebel, plaster and all to redo it all again...such a bummer indeed. A bit suprised this wasn't picked up by our site supervisor earlier?

Stair Cornice Issue Update

If you have been following my blog you'll know that I'm currently trying to sort out an issue I have with a wall below the staircase whereby the supporting beams under the staircase protrude out past the wall preventing the cornices from being able to fully extend to the full length of the wall.

The picture below is is the current solution which I'm not too happy about. What's strange is not every Charlton being built has the same issue so what is so unique about our build? Add to that there is proof (thanks to other fellow Charlton builders out there) that a staircase can be built without the beams sticking out past the wall.

Patch of plaster to make it look like a cornice

and then they try to pretty it up with a cornice end and some paint work.

So I made a trek out to the display and this is how their wall looks. (Yes we have the same floorplan configuration).

Display Home - Of course they would get it looking perfect in the display right.

A huge thank you to all of you that have responded and supported me with this issue. So glad to know that I'm not just being difficult. As I understand our site supervisor is still investigating and will compare plans between our build and that of the display as well as other Charlton builds currently in progress either that or he has gone silent.

Mouldings put on garage and pillars
We made an error in provisioning the light fittings higher than the mouldings instead it should be the other way round.

Grand Alfresco - Roof in progress. Roof tiles booked in for this coming week.

Excuse the poor quality of photos as they were taken from outside as I am now locked out of the house.

Tiling in progress

Tiling done!
National Tiles: Como Grey Matt 450 X 450 with light grey grout

You can see they have also tiled the laundry wall
white matt tiles in subway or brick lay with iceberg white grout

Downstairs bathroom

Shelves fitted in the Kitchen Galley

handover date?

With the build in its final phase you can start to expect an approximate handover date, ours has been set for mid January which to be honest with you is pretty hopeful. I'm no builder but there seems like an awful lot to do. Let's see

Fix stair/cornice issue
Alfresco roof
Downpipes
Bathroom/plumbing fitouts
All electricals
External rendering
Install Garage doors
Complete garage roof
Fix Master room window
Floor leveling
Staining/painting of doors, stairs and other places
Flyscreens on windows

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, by test

doors

FIXING STAGE - FINAL PHOTOS & FIRST FURNITURE PURCHASE!

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, by test

Classic Hamptons

COLOUR SELECTIONS - DECEMBER 2014

After making our first initial deposit we were soon booked in to the world of style to have our colour appointment. Here are just some of the colour selections I thought that were worth sharing.

Our style is classic hamptons with a hint of french.
The colour palette is whites and greys

Delux Champignon - Render Colour

Elebana Roof Tiles - Barramundi Colour

Garage Door Color - Monument

Garage Door Profile - Standard Inclusion

White Aluminium Framed Windows - We chose to change to a 'Hawthorn' style window to give it a more Hamptons feel.

90mm Sydney Cove Cornices

67mm Replica Architraves

Our internal wall paint colour is Wattyl Dhimba which should provide a good contract against the white skirting/architraves and cornices.

If only they offered architraves/skirting and cornices like these I'd be in heaven. We will be trying to find a similar grey to paint our internal walls - love how it makes the white stand out.

These iron doors were our first choice but are no longer available through Corinthian

Sticking to the standard door and having them painted Woodland Grey.

Classic Staircase option 2- We chose a PD Black stain with white risers.

Love this staircase.

Drooooool

We're using the same profile for all our internal doors also. (but painted White)

Bathroom Tiles - National Tiles Simplicity Dark Grey - Happy that these were a standard inclusion. We did pay extra to extend tiling to the height of the ceiling.