Planting mostly done

Over the last 4 weeks we have been busy filling our planters with soil so that we can have our pants in and be well on our way to getting a final occupancy certificate issued. We have opted to do this ourselves so that we can save some money. Last weeked we spent a good day planting the majority of our hedging plants that we sourced from “Austral Nursery” in Liverpool (australnursery.com.au) which we found via google & gumtree. The price, quality and size were excellent and we are very happy with the results.

Below are a couple of photos of the 8 inch (20 cm pots) plants provided - Buxus, Murraya etc.

We have also been busy getting quotes from stone suppliers/installers for our outdoor granite kitchen BBQ bench.

10 year storms

Well the storms hit us hard. That night we didn’t sleep as we had water flooding our subfloor area and if we hadn’t continually bailed water would have flooded our downstairs rumpus, foyer, stairwell and garage. The AG line that had been installed in the subfloor area was not keeping up with the water that was coming in from the southern side of the house. Water was steadily making its way through a gap somewhere and travelling down to the lowest point in the sub floor. The next day the drainage guy came to troubleshoot and found that the AG line was severely blocked by brickies mud and was thoroughly incased by cement installed behind the rainwater tanks on higher ground. We insisted that a proper drain be installed at the lowest point of the subfloor that would take the water out of the property without having it pool and travel across the subfloor.

The water flow through the subfloor area has continually been an issue with this site and this was raised during the planning stages and continually throughout the build and we were assured that this would not be an issue with the new build, unfortunately this has not been the case. 

At the moment the subfloor area is very damp and does not appear to be drying out. The builder has been asked to find and seal the gap from where the water was coming to prevent a re-occurance of the river that we had that night and to also ensure that adequate ventilation has been installed to keep this area dry.

A couple of other issues also emerged from the stormy weather. Water dripping from the foyer feature pendant light (so water is somehow getting into the roof space) and no weather seals fitted to the laundry external door which means water was coming in under and flooding the laundry floor.

In a way would could say that this storm was a lucky for us as it highlighted a number of key issues that we would not have found.

Finally an interim!

After 6 longs weeks of waiting for certificates to be collected we were finally issued with an interim occupancy certificate. We took no time to organize a removalist and had ourselves moved in and settled within a week. Now we begin our 3 month (12 week) maintenance period where we note all issues that need to be rectified.

Our cable internet connection went really smoothly with the technician agreeing to run the cable to our new power pole and underground through to the house.

Blinds and landscaping

So after 3 return trips from the Blind company our outside awnings are working but not perfectly as they still get stuck in the channel track 80% of the time. Unfortunately this is as good as we are going to get so we have settled the account.

The outside landscaping, planter walls and turf are now complete. The landscaper “Mikes Property Solutions” did a fantastic job and knocked the work off all in a week. Below are some photos of the front and back areas.

Last minute

Unfortunately there was a mix up with our linen cupboard, we thought this would be done as part of the cabinetry inclusions, but Brilliant Homes thought that we had opted to go with Stegbar for this. In hindsight we should have done this with Stegbar as it would have been done weeks ago and not at the last minute. Anyway the chippy’s spent a day putting a built in linen cupboard in place with adjustable shelves.

The painters also returned to do some touchups.

Due diligence

Today we decided to take on some due diligence and have an independent builder walk through the house and perform an inspection. Overall he thought that the build was of a good quality and standard but he did find a couple of issues that needed to be resolved so it was well worth the money spent. Some of the issues included: lack of brick cleaning, missing weep holes, messy roof insulation, skewed back door and sub floor ventilation that did not meet the BCA requirements. The report was sent to the builder to review and action.

Still waiting

Well the pendant light saga finally came to end with us reluctantly agreeing to pay more to fund the scaffold and additional support that was required to install our feature light even though the contract included the installation of 2 chandeliers. I happened to pass by the house on the day that the installation took place and low and behold there was no scaffold, instead the electricians had set up a ladder on each side of the stairs with a plank across.  

The plumber after returning from his holiday, fixed the leaking ensuite toilet and it now works as it should. 

The Velux skylight blind which we have been waiting for was finally installed in the main kitchen skylight.

The BBQ bench cabinet has been done and we have used the same Ekowood screening materials as the perimeter fence.

We also moved all of our other home items out of storage and mainly into the spare rumpus room so that we could stop this additional cost.