In come the painters

It has been over a week since my last update and things have continued to progress (although frustratingly slowly).

First things first, last Saturday I got a call from our painter to advise they were starting that day and should be finished by Friday. No surprises then when I say that they haven't even started to undercoat yet.......Unfortunately it seems our Site Supervisor is also looking after 3 display homes that are being built at Yarrabilba and, as such, our tradespeople are getting pulled off our house to finish the display homes quite frequently - something which both the tilers and painters have told me face to face. Nevertheless, the underside of our eaves have been painted as well as the ceiling of our front porch and alfresco area. Our timber stacker doors have also been stained as well as the frame of our front door (although not the door itself, the pantry doors or our facade as yet). The whole house has had a pre-undercoat spray - the painter said this was to bring up any blemishes in the plastering, of which I counted over 80 that had been circled by the painter and then I circled approximately another 20 myself. The plasterer was back in on Friday however looks like he still has some more touching up to do before the painters can come back and get stuck into it. Our skirting/archivtraves and doors have also all been painted in their gloss coating - we chose Dulux Whisper White for these as it is a little bit "softer" than plain white. The only room that hasn't been touched yet is the Garage.

An update on the tiling front......I met with the tiler on Friday morning. He was more than happy to replace all the chipped and damaged tiles (he told me he already saw them - but to me it doesn't make sense to continue to lay them and grout them if they were already damaged!!). As for the lining up of the tiles on the back wall of our shower in the Ensuite - his response was simply that "it is not Plantation's specification to require them to line up unless specifically stated in the Colour Selection document". A visit to the Display Centre at Rochedale confirmed this however it is disappointing to note that when we were in our Colour Selection meeting, we actually said to our Colour Consultant, Madelyn, that the reason we chose the size tiles we did was so that they would line up along the back wall of the showers. She even acknowledged this was a great idea - however she didn't note it in the document and we weren't aware that it had to be noted. Honestly, having done my own tiling before and assisted my Dad on more than one occasion, it is simply common sense to have tiles line up wherever possible - unfortunately a view that is not shared by "professional" tilers. Once our shower frame goes in, the "lining up" issue will become less noticeable. Finally, as for the location of the feature tile in our Ensuite, the tiler & myself reached a compromise that they would take off the top row of tiles around the whole room (approx 27 tiles), and take approximately 15cm off them, making our feature tile sit "at eye level" which is where I asked for it to be. A full tile (or very close to it) should then fit on top. Our features tiles for the Ensuite (that have been on backorder for 5 weeks) are due to arrive on Monday and the tiler told me they are booked in to come back Wednesday and finish everything off and fix things up.

There is now only 2 weeks left before the Christmas shutdown period - it will be interesting to see just how much Plantation gets done in this time given their lack of motivation over the past 4 weeks. Latest photos are below.

Close up of Front Door - frame has been stained, but not the door

Laundry

Looking through to the Living Area

Theatre

The view through the house from the Entry - I LOVE our square-set ceilings!!

A close up of our niche in the Theatre wall

Kids TV Area - leftover tiles and you can make out the house next door being built

Main bathroom all masked up from the painters

Master Bedroom & 4 of the internal doors all finished

Ensuite all masked up too - still more tiles to go on yet

Close up of the finished skirtings - they look even better in the flesh!

Close up of our stacker doors to the Alfresco area all stained :)

Looking back towards the Kitchen & Dining

Alfresco area from the outside

Full view of our stacker doors