Down light selection - WattSaver

The time has come to pick our preferred down light colours!

We decided to go with the WattSaver Sirius DL7-1400 LED downlights. The main reasons for our choice are as follows;

1. Quality! The build quality and components used in these lights are outstanding.
2. Power consumption for the light output. 
3. Warranty. They come with a 10 year warranty on the lights and upgraded driver.
4. Australian Made. Any chance I get, I try and support the local market. 

Now all this comes at a price, $60 each (with the sealed Gimble and premium driver)! Having said that, the quality is there so we don't mind paying a little extra. After all, for the same amount we were going to pay PD to fit the down lights we are getting much better down lights and more choice in colour. 

Wattsaver offers a service where you can order samples of the down-lights in different colours to compare at home. This is a great idea and we thought we would utilise it. 

We are leaning towards using 'Sunrise White' for the main living space and 'Natural White' for the en-suite. 

Here are some photos I took of the different colour temperatures we ordered samples of. 

From left to right. 

Daylight (5000K) / Natural White (4000K) / Sunrise White (3500K) / Warm White (3000K)

Warm White (3000K)

Sunrise White (3500K)  

Natural White (4000K)

Daylight (5000K)

Weekend Update

Update for the week on the status of our build.

• Sound proofing added to theatre room. Plaster had to be ripped down. 

• TV Pre-wiring, Data points and NBN box has been installed. They forgot to do it before plaster so I can only imagine how fun it was to do it through all the insulation and the frame. They used CAT 6 as requested.

• Internal doors delivered including our internal temporary doors (for fixing of door frames) waiting for the custom ones to come in. 

That's the good stuff... Now for some small issues to add to the list! 

• Missing insulation to the bath tub 

• Gap between alfresco sliding doors and brick. Not sure how they are going to fill these! The rest of the windows are pretty good though. 

• Last but certainly not least, the crew that installed the NBN pre-wiring managed to damage our storm water plumbing. 

I truly feel for our SS. He manages to solve all the issues within a few days and then there are another hand full to deal with. I guess it's part of the building game. 

Bricking - So close!

Our bricking was due to be completed on Wednesday but I assume the weather has delayed it a little. 

Took some photos this morning. Still some bricking to be done to the back right hand side, alfresco pillar and windows. 

Can't wait to see it all done!

Site Clean up in progress

This morning I went to mark out where I wanted our skirting to end in the fish room (for the tank stand) before they started fixing.

Bricking is almost complete. Should be finished off today I hope! Remaining parts to be bricked are the windows, alfresco pillar and rear wall.

Doors were being delivered from Corinthian doors and site clean up crew was there removing the excess bricks, rubbish around the site, excess mortar on the ground and all the rubbish in the cage. Can't wait to see the house's perimeter without any rubbish.

I also noticed that they had taken out the alfresco sliding door to do the brick work underneath it.

Issues Update

Met up with the Site Supervisor yesterday to go through some of the issues we have.

1. Front down pipe outlet in gutter in wrong location. Should be on the RHS of the portico pillar not the front. Roofing company booked in to repair this. 

2. Overhang to the front LHS brick pillar. Slab Supervisor is arranging brick work angles to be installed. Basically this is a metal bracket that is dyna bolted into the slab to support the brickwork. 

3. Missing sound proofing to home theatre. Plaster was ripped down and insulation installed. Sorry I don't have a picture.

4. Missing data point rough-in and TV pre-wiring. Company in charge has been contacted and booked in for Friday to install this wiring behind the plaster. That will be a fun job!! 

That's pretty much it for now. The rest of the build is going quite smoothly. Waiting for the brickwork to be completed so we can really go over it in detail. Site Supervisor has been fantastic with arranging all the issues to be sorted as soon as we raise them.

Fixing booked for this Thursday and kitchen going in next week. Getting there :D 

Our house got plastered!

Went around for a look bright and early this morning and was happy to see that our house has been plastered.

I picked up a couple of issues with the bricking. The one that caught my eye was one of our front pillars is overhanging by 50 mm!!! Will be asking for this to be rectified ASAP. I think the only way is to box up the area and pour some more concrete.

Plenty of photos below.

Fish tank alcove/room.

Living room

Entrance from garage and front door. 

Storage room

 WIP with a centred door! 

Rumpus room

En-suite Niche 

Master bedroom

Cornices delivered

Garage

Brick pillar overhang

Full house shot

Thank you Porter Davis!

Our old BC asked me if I wanted to leave a review for Porter Davis a few months back to go into the draw for an iPad Mini. I rejected the offer as I was having some serious issues with the build and wanted to hold off on giving a review till the end of our build.

However, our SS has been so great and all our issues are being resolved. So when he asked me again to leave a review about his performance, I thought it was the right thing to do. 

Lucky for me, I managed to win an iPad Mini!! This is the first prize I have ever won! Thank you Porter Davis for the generous prize. 

Here it is :) 

I plan on leaving another one after our 90 day maintenance period.