Building "The Rendezvous" with Ventura Homes

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2015-08-25T19:02:00.002+08:00

Hi all,

Wow, won't bore you with all the details, but I wanted to take the opportunity to thankyou all for your support. Building that house is amongst one of my best achievements, the new owners will never know how much time, effort and money went into that house (tip: don't spend your whole inheritance on building a house!)

I wish the new owners all the most fantastic life in that house. May all your hopes and dreams come true within those walls.

Now, for the realestate agent's photos - because they look good.

Here is the link to the guys who did a great job selling it: Sold By DQ Realestate

Take a look at the final pics and see everything completed.

Disclaimer: I had nothing to do with the furniture.

Bathroom Tapware Installation

2012-08-09T13:19:00.004+08:00

Long time no post :/ Apologies everyone. I will do a bit of back posting so we can all catch up on what has been going on.

I thought I had better share a very important photo - my basins! It is so good to finally see one sitting on the Essa Stone top paired with its tap. I really like the square taps with the rough cut stone. I was a bit worried about the choice, but I think it works. I cannot wait to see how good it will look when the mirror goes in!

Shanxi Black Dianna Basin from thestonesuperstore.com.au

While I was on site, I saw that the plumber had also installed the shower heads in the ensuite. I like the way that the rain tile shower head sits on the ceiling, it is very discrete and the best part is that you do not have to agonize over the mounting height!

WaterTile Rain Shower Panel by Kohler and
and Kubus shower rail by Phoenix Tapware.

On the downside, the reason for my visit was to look at an issue with my sink. Unfortunately, when the plumber was tapping out the holes for the kitchen sink mixer the sink cracked *sob*.

The plumber has been really good about it and will get me a new one, I am just so sad for him that it happened in the first place. He followed the instructions to the letter and it still broke :( I have contacted Abey to see whether it is just a case of it being dud sink, we will know more on Monday.

Doh!

On the whole, everything is going really well. The electricians are installing the extractor fans and other bits and bobs, and the plumber still has the toilets and a couple of taps to sort out. After that the painter has to come through, appliances need to go in, the ensuite bath, shower screens, mirrors, hot water and solar power systems and a few other odds and sods.

Much Ado About Tiles And Basins

2012-07-06T16:58:00.001+08:00

Area affected by the lack of tiles.

*Sigh* probably not the best way to start a blog entry, but it sums it all up nicely. Our fashionably late Italian tiles have finally arrived, well, most of them. Apparently, the 300 x 300 mm sized tiles have been discontinued. This means, that we are short a few tiles. Thankfully, there are enough tiles to tile all the wet areas besides the laundry.

I am not too worried about the laundry missing out. We are using 600 x 600 mm tiles in the same colour throughout the main areas of the house. Seeing, as we do not have a laundry door, it makes sense that we should continue these large tiles into the laundry.

Our builder has agreed to delete the laundry tiling and issue a refund. We did give them the option of laying the 600 mm square tiles instead, but thankfully, they opted for our preference of tiling that area after handover. Yay!

Not wanting to feel left out; my granite basins are ready for collection. Correction, two of my basins are ready. The third basin, for some reason needs to be re-ordered and will not arrive for another twelve weeks. At least I have two to collect tomorrow.

Hope you all have a smashing weekend!

Not Much Happening

2012-07-04T16:28:00.000+08:00

Image Source: MyShowerGrateShop.com.au

Our build has gotten to the stage where there is not a lot happening. Speedy Gonzales has left the building and his cousin Slowpoke Rodriguez has moved in.

Hopefully, I will be able to pick up our bathroom basins this weekend. I received an email from the builder today to tell use that tiling is not due to start for another week and a half. I still need to measure and order our custom shower grate from My Shower Grate Shop.

If all goes to plan, our shower grate will look like the promotional image on the right of the screen.

The shower grate is the last item that we need to purchase, every thing else is sitting on the floor in our apartment or at suppliers waiting to be delivered.

Update - Essa Stone Bench Tops

2012-06-30T18:46:00.001+08:00

Today, we wandered past the house. As usual we were locked out. A peek through the window revealed our Essa Stone bench tops! It was great to see the kitchen island complete.

I can not wait until our tile meeting (still not scheduled), when I will be able to wander around my kitchen and get a feel for its size. Fingers crossed, perhaps we will hear word of a tile meeting in the coming week.

Kitchen island bench complete with benchtops!

Theatre bar top

Theatre/Alfresco

Update - Base Cabinetry

2012-06-22T13:12:00.000+08:00

An impromptu lunch gathering with mum resulted in a quick visit to the house. To be honest, I did not expect to see anything new due to the tiles being lat, but I was pleased to see the kitchen cabinets installed.

I managed to snap a few photos by pressing my iphone up to the windows. Overall, I am pleased. It is not 100% what I wanted, due to the interaction between cornicing and corner cupboard doors. If I had realised that cornicing would present such an issue, I would have extended the appliance cupboard roller door to the ceiling and done away with the offending overhead cabinet.

This is another example of needing to check every single line on your plans, even the little lines that do not look like much, can end up heartbreaking. So much for floor to ceiling cabinetry *sob*.

The question is, do we run cornice above the cabinets, or leave it as is?

View towards the theatre

Right side of kitchen bench showing fridge/freezer recess

View from the dining room

View from the servery windows, showing the appliance cupboard (yet to be installed)

I also managed to grab a picture of the laundry. The hutches sitting on top of the bench top are for the washer and dryer.

Laundry as seen through the door handle hole

Update - Undercoat And Bifold Windows

2012-06-16T20:57:00.000+08:00

Unfortunately, my cabinetry was not installed as expected *sob*. Perhaps it is due to the fact that our bathroom basins are still enjoying their cruise to Australia. There have been a few bits and pieces done, most notably is that the spray painter has been through and undercoated everything. I hope that the Taubmans 'Crisp White' paint that we chose is actually white like the undercoat. It is supposed to be, but apparently people have had some trouble with it being an off-white/cream instead.

The last of our windows were installed last week - the theatre bi-folds! I originally wanted these in the kitchen, but someone decided he wanted to keep them in the theatre.

Theatre bifold windows

I may not have won the bi-fold window war, but I did get my way with the ensuite and bathroom windows. In both cases I am pleased that we went with large windows, because these rooms would otherwise be quite dark and gloomy.

Ensuite (right) and bathroom (left) windows.

Even though I did not get to see our kitchen cabinets, I did get to see our bedroom doors! I have seen the horizontal striped doors used in a double door setup, but never the doors that we chose. I think it looks great.

Our bedroom doors - Corinthian Deco DEC02

Speaking of doors, here are our front doors, Corinthian Madison (PMAD104). I was hesitant about these doors, but they look great, my OH made a great choice.

Our front doors

Schedule wise, I am not sure where we are. The stone benchtops due to be installed on the 26th of June and the tiler will start some time after the 4th of July. I guess we will wait and see, hopefully our next visit will have photos of kitchen cabinets!

Update - Lockup

2012-06-10T13:23:00.001+08:00

Arriving on site and fining your house locked up is a wonderful, yet disappointing feeling. We were not exactly sure when lockup would occur due to the heavy rain we have been receiving for the last two weeks. It looks like the weather has not held us up at all. I now find myself figuring out new ways to photograph the house, using door knob holes and squeezing the camera in through open awning windows.

As far as the schedule goes, sanitary-ware is being fitted on Monday and the cabinets go in on Thursday. We have not heard anything about our tile meeting yet. I assume it is happening soon?

Hallway as seen from my room

Guest bedroom. Love those doors!

The font entrance hall, as viewed through the door knob hole.

Lockup! Nothing like seeing a pair of aqua doors

Lockup, viewed from the left side

Update - Cornice

2012-06-03T13:31:00.000+08:00

Hello house! I was not going to go an visit you today, but seeing as we had a huge storm on Thursday, I wanted to check that you were ok.

For those who were not in Perth at the time, a large storm front came through mid Thursday afternoon, which resulted in a number of traffic warnings due to flooded roads (about 10 min drive away).

The house looks great and it was interesting to see the distribution of water as it ran out of the hole for the downpipes. We are going to have to watch the down pipe on the threatre wall. I could see the sand had washed down and around the corner onto the alfresco.

As far as work goes, the internal wall render is finished and the cornice is up in the living areas. In those rooms where the cornice has not been installed, it is sitting in the appropriate room, marked and cut, waiting to be installed.

My sunny room and its cornice

View from the lounge room to the theatre, showing installed cornice

We are really happy with the pace at which things are progressing, and the workmanship is excellent.

As an aside, we had never realised that we were going to be having a fancy portico. We always assumed that the portico would have a flat wall on which the roof would sit, just like the Rendezvous behind us. As it turns out, we have a fancy portico and I love it!

I think the little bit of detail, as shown by the second photo, really gives it some character. Its a shame it is so easy to miss. I can see why other houses with this style of portico have stone or wood cladding to accentuate the design.

Unexpected bonus!

Update - Gyprock

2012-05-30T22:00:00.000+08:00

Today, I left work and decided to race the sunset to our house. According to the plumber, the ceilings are up and I just had to have a look at them. They are nowhere near finished but we can now see and feel the different ceiling heights.

It is interesting to see the boundaries between the kitchen and dining area ceilings. I think it makes an interesting space. I never noticed it in the display home, then again, how often do you look at the ceilings in display homes?

Kitchen drop ceiling

One of our favourite features in the display home was the theatre with its bifold windows and feature bulkheads. You can have a field day designing lighting for this room. The display home had starlights installed in these bulkheads. I do not think we will do anything that fancy, but choosing a feature wall colour and deciding whether to paint the bulkhead will be a headache in itself.

Feature bulkheads in the theatre

Another ‘wow’ feature of this home is the entry hall recess. I am looking forward to installing two rows of starlights. Looking at that photo, I wonder how hard it would be to install LED strip lighting, keeping in mind that there will be cornicing installed in the recess :/

Entry hall recess

Speaking of cornicing, look what is waiting in the garage to be installed next week!

The cornice has arrived!

Whilst walking around, I have noticed one oddity. The built in robe that has a standard internal door attached has a lower ceiling level than those that will have sliding doors installed. It is not a big thing, but it just seems weird to me.

Bedroom 4 built in robe (left) has a lower ceiling than bedroom 3 (right).

According to the office, we will reach lockup in two weeks. I will miss being able to visit the site whenever we want. Next visit will be on the weekend. It will be interesting to see what else has been done.

Update - Colorbond Moment

2012-05-26T09:14:00.000+08:00

Just a quick post for today: the roof is on! It is all coming along. Most of the internal render is complete as well as the plumbing. Next steps will be the windows, doors, ceiling and plaster. It looks like we might be locked out soon!

Front View: Our Colorbond Moment

Side/Rear View: Our Colorbond Moment

The underside of the roof. Its a pretty big space!

My kitchen & I

The plumbing supervisor Ella

Update - Covering The Brickwork

2012-05-23T10:11:00.000+08:00

I was hoping to see a roof today, but alas, it was not to be. It must be happening soon because there is scaffolding and metal supports for the roof sheeting in place. We will be visiting the site next weekend. Hopefully, I will have some roof photos to share

Scaffolding

Metal supports for the roof sheeting

On the inside, however, things are ticking along nicely. Workers have been busy applying a concrete layer to the internal bricks and the plumber has been installing the in wall tap ware along with the copper piping for the gas cook top and our external water taps.

Internal wall rendering

External tap

Lastly, here are a couple of photos showing the front and rear render. I am going to need to find a new vantage point for taking photos of the front of our house, because building has started across the road. I wonder what type of house they are building.

Updated front of house

Updated rear of house

Update - Shower-ware Shopping

2012-05-19T12:55:00.000+08:00

The last thing I expected to do this weekend was go buy tap ware. I must admit, I probably should have guessed that any wall mounted tap ware would be needed before anything that is installed on top of a cabinet. When I originally queried the date for when I would need to start supplying tap ware, I was told 12+ weeks from the start of the build. It turns out; I need to start supplying items on Monday!

Thankfully, the majority of items we have chosen are stocked locally (I checked a few weeks ago), so picking bits and pieces up did not prove to be great a problem. Except for the floor mounted bath filler, this was a special order item and should arrive late next week.

I am ashamed to admit, this is some expensive tap ware. We could have saved thousands by buying almost identical tap ware from China, but after looking at some examples that had been on display for a long time; I could see some corrosion around some of the joints and started to feel a bit loose.

After dragging my other half around half a dozen bathroom stores, he decided on the Kubus range by Phoenix Tapware from Reece, whom unfortunately do not offer discounts to the public. If I had my time again, I would look at typically more expensive brands, for example Gessi, which are offered by chains such as Tradelink whom are generally more than happy to strike a deal. Lesson learned.

I must admit, I was very pleased with the quality of the phoenix tap ware, especially the shower rail which is completely made of metal, unlike the crappy one in our apartment that needs to be replaced :/ Anyway, here are a couple of photos:

Shower mixer

Rail shower and mixer

The hand shower comes in a protective bag!

Update - Electrical Cabling

2012-05-18T12:54:00.000+08:00

It amazes me how many little things go into building a house. I never knew that there was metal mesh placed on the corners of walls and picture recesses. It makes perfect sense, but is still news to me. Who would be responsible for that? Would it be the plasterer?

It is also interesting to see all of the cables in the roof, and little white boxes everywhere. Are these the junction boxes for the lights? It is good to see that the cables are nice and neat. There will be twice as many up there once the home network is installed!

Cabling

Theatre feature bulkheads and cabling

Wall and picture recess edging

Update - A Special Meeting With The Site Supervisor

2012-05-14T15:42:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the wonky photo, but here is my cavity sliding door. If there was one part of this build that was going to cause problems, this was it. Cavity sliding doors are not new to my builder, however custom cavity sliding doors from Italy are.

Unlike other systems, which find themselves sandwiched between brickwork, this system goes in-line with the brickwork and form part of the wall. Another feature seemingly unique to this system is the full frame on the left hand side. Unfortunately, this meant that it was not modelled correctly on the plans and subsequently has left us with the situation where bricks occupying the space that should have been left for the frame!

Thankfully, after a quick meeting with the site supervisor to discuss this problem, we concluded that a hammer and chisel is all that is required to rectify this issue *wipes brow*

Update - Roof Timbers

2012-05-13T11:30:00.000+08:00

Today, I popped to the site after taking mum a mother's day lunch of potato and leek soup, fresh German rye grain bread and a gluten free chocolate mud cake. To my surprise the roof timbers, under eves and fascias are up. This build is trucking along. The color bond roof is due sometime in the next two weeks and the electricians should be coming in next week.

As usual, here are a couple of photos. The rooms are starting to look smaller now that there is a sense of where the ceiling will go :/

Kitchen drop ceiling

Bathroom

Master bedroom and ensuite

His room

Hallway

Rear of the house, showing the back of the dining area and kitchen

My little car visiting it's soon to be new home!

Update - Roofing Timbers & Site Meeting

2012-05-09T11:51:00.002+08:00

Today we finally met our site supervisor. This was a very quick meet and great aimed at checking that the correct bricks; mortar colour and style; and window frame colours had been used. The whole meeting was over in ten minutes.

While we were there, we noticed that there are men on the roof! The first of the roofing timbers are going up. I am not sure where we are with the schedule. Apparently, build times are averaging twenty-six. Hopefully, the showers hold off so that the colorbond can go on soon and the brickwork dries out.

Update - The Rest Of The Brickwork

2012-05-04T22:45:00.001+08:00

A couple of photos of the house, it is really starting to come together. There is so much space, I think the few pieces of furniture we have in our apartment will get lost in there!

Entrance hall picture recess

Hallway showing the picture recess and bathroom door

Powder room

Ensuite WC

Theatre

Update - I See Roof Timbers

2012-05-04T14:00:00.002+08:00

Our roof timbers have been delivered! Surprisingly, we have not met our site supervisor yet. I would have though by now we would have. I should have asked the office for his contact details instead of accepting 'we will pass that along.'

Progress on the build has stalled while we wait for our cavity sliding door to be installed. I always knew this door was going to be a problem. It is one of the 'grand design' features of our house. If there is anything I have learned from that show, it is that anything 'bespoke' will always manage to cause problems somewhere along the line, especially when there are rough estimates for delivery time and poor communication.

We are due to meet our site supervisor on Wednesday. I still need to book our private building inspection. I need to give the building inspector 3-4 days notice. The office said to organise it after meeting the supervisor, but I wonder whether that will be leaving things too late.

Update - Even More Brickwork

2012-04-30T12:05:00.002+08:00

Despite the poor weather rooms are starting to take shape. The environmentalist in me loves all of the rain, however the home builder wishes that the clouds would wait until 'after hours' to dump their load.

Here are a few more photos.

Front of house complete with verandah/portico pillars

Master bedroom

Ensuite and walk in robe door frame

Laundry

Bathroom

My room

His room

Update - More Brickwork

2012-04-21T20:10:00.001+08:00

A few photos from today. The exterior brickwork is not yet complete, however given that we had at a good day of rain this week, the bricklayers came close to their target!

The front of our house. A couple of rows of bricks are missing along with the portico/veranda pillars.

The left side of the house, which was virtually non existent the last time we visited.

Our sunken theater.

Kitchen windows.

Servery windows and alfresco pillars.

The sliding doors from the dining room out onto the alfresco.

Update - Kitchen Brickwork

2012-04-18T13:08:00.001+08:00

It is truly amazing how fast two blokes can stack bricks. Popped past the block today to have a look at a few things about how our garage is constructed, and found that my kitchen windows are in. Aren't they gorgeous. I am really happy with the brickwork so far.

P.S Speaking of how fast bricks can be stacked, look at all the houses that are being built on our road!

Update - Brickwork

2012-04-16T11:28:00.001+08:00

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a great Easter. We certainly did, it is amazing how many Frequent Flyer points you can accumulate by using your credit card to pay deposits on things for the house!

We popped past the site yesterday and took a couple more photos. It is amazing how quickly the brick is laid! The builder is expecting to have the exterior brickwork completed this week; the majority of the interior done next week; and, all the odds and sods completed by 3 weeks from today! Time to organise our first building inspection!

We have a garage shell! And a wall.

Piles of bricks

a
Close up of my custom ensuite window. It is a shame that there will be a fence blocking that view.

Update - Concrete Slab

2012-03-26T14:52:00.000+08:00

Popped up to the site with mum today and found a concrete slab. Its a lot easier to see the boundaries between the rooms. I would love to have been a spider on the wall when the concrete was being poured. I am sure the enstuite layout would have raised a few eyebrows! *Fingers crossed* it works out as planned.

View from the from the backyard looking towards the front of the house

Close up showing the sunken theatre and raised areas in the ensuite

Update - Sand Pad and Concrete Framing

2012-03-21T13:11:00.001+08:00

View from the from the backyard looking towards the front of the house

Wow, its all happening! Popped up to the site at lunchtime to find the framing for the concrete being put in by two Italian chaps listening to an Italian radio station. It is starting to feel real. Its amazing how small it looks. I am worrying about how little space there is down the side of the house. Not sure how I am going to squeeze my wheelie bins down there yet!

Estimates so far:

Concrete poured this week
Bricks on site 2-3 weeks
Lock up 12-13 weeks
Complete 7 months