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.

Now waiting for an interim occupancy

All of our perimeter fence screening has now been finished and we now have a back gate. Part of our outside work was included in the tender with Brilliant Homes as we really wanted the house and surrounds 95% complete. Apparently this was the first time that the builder had also included outside work and I’m gathering from the results it won’t be the last time. The boundary fence looks fantastic and so many people that have passed by have commented on how great it all now looks.

We walked through the house today testing most of the electricals from power points, light switches to data points and found that there were a couple of lights and data points that weren’t working. Unfortunately there is still a long list of others to test but these will have to wait until we move in.

We have put together a comprehensive list of issues and defects and these have been sent to the builder with the hope that they will be actioned prior to us moving in.

Brilliant Homes have told us that they are in the process of collecting all of the required certificates in order to provide us with an interim occupancy certificate and that we are days away from moving into our new house.

Certification

Anyway the private certifier finally walked through the house on Monday and was happy to grant an interim occupancy certificate, so we should be in very soon. The only thing we need is our perimeter fence to go up so that no one accidently falls off our site.

On the inside we have walked through the house without the builder and have started to make a list of defects – most of which are minor. The only major defect at this point in time that we can see is that the ensuite toilet is leaking from the in wall cistern into the toilet bowl continuously and at a rate of an open tap so we have had to turn the water off for this toilet. Hopefully a plumber will be out shortly to rectify this.

We finally have a tiled pathway to our front door! Hip Hip Horray

The renderers are back today to commence work on the perimeter walls. Apparently they have 3 - 4 days worth of work but the forecast is for a week of rain! Just our luck. 

 
At the same time we have found ourselves a local landscaper “Mike’s Property Solutions” to build our planter “Heron” block walls and lay our turf for us. We have agreed to have him start late March once the fence has been done and the site has been cleared of rubbish.

Still more to go

The motorised roller blinds and external awnings were installed earlier in the week but unfortunately the electrics to the house was not turned on as phase 3 needed to be switched on at the power pole. This was done on the Tuesday so the Sparkys returned to finish off any work and test all electrics in and outside the house. 

On the Friday the blind company returned to install the plantation shutters and calibrate the blinds only to find that the external awnings were not feeding into the track correctly. So a return trip was needed to fix these and calibrate the internal rollers as well once the fabric has straightened out. I must say the shutters look fantastic!

The repainting that was required was done during this week, plus the external doors and garage façade was also completed. Overall unfortunately we haven’t been impressed with the painting quality nor timeframes. They really dragged it out and we have found a number of spots where only 1 (possibly 2) coats of paint were applied when there should be 3. Also they dripped paint onto our floors and fittings – not impressed!

Driveway is poured!

As the week continued the concreters managed to beat the weather and poured the crossover and our driveway plus other colored areas all by the Thursday! All I can say is it came up better than what we expected. I have attached photos. Eleveneen Pty Ltd worked with our builder and the council representative to give us a driveway that looks good and is functional. The council wanted us to drop the elevation of our driveway to the guidelines apparently so that our car would not be scrapped, but this meant we had to excavate at our cost. Our concreter managed to convince the council inspector that he could give us a driveway that wouldn’t scrape our car with a higher elevation that would slope us up to our garage and still have water drain into our trench on one side of our driveway and boy was he right.

 

Back on the inside, work was continuing with the stairs being sanded and polished; whilst the cleaners were busy re-cleaning the internals ready for caulking.

The Sparkys are now back for another 3 days installing power points, data, tv connections etc. With this build we have been very fortunate that the builder has allowed us to come onsite and deal with the tradies directly for any questions they may have. This has allowed us to check firsthand what products they are installing and using throughout the build. There was a mix up with the 3 in 1 heat lights for our bathrooms, our contract stated that we would be receiving IXL branded 3 in 1’s however the sparky turned up with the Arlec branded versions which are one third of the price. After a couple of phone calls, discussions and emails we ended up with 2 IXL’s and the third one for downstairs unfortunately was left as an Arlec as the ducting (which would prove too difficult to change) had already been done at the rough in stage to suit this other brand.

So lesson learned – keep an eye on what is in your signed contract/agreed inclusions are and what actually goes in.

Are we there yet?

Last Friday and Saturday Stegbar came to install our built in robes as we opted to not go with the builder’s standard robe company. Anyway the robes look great and I must say this was a hassle free experience with Stegbar and would highly recommend them for any future robe work. They came when they said and they cleaned up after themselves and worked 2 solid days installing our robes.

The mirrored splashback was also added to the kitchen on the Monday along with a couple of other internal missing glass work pieces. The Sparkys today are busy installing power points, data plus other electrical work but unfortunately can’t test their work until the power to the house is turned on. We also hit another issue with our feature lighting installation where our pendant light was deemed to heavy/big to be installed by the electrician without additional ceiling support and a scaffold. So this was put on hold until we could come to an agreement on how much more this should cost us even though the electrical contract included the installation of 2 chandeliers. 

Work has started to progress on the outside with concrete planter footings, air con and a garbage slabs all being poured. The curb and layback was also done and the driveway was approved ready for a pour.

The new year has started

So the holiday lull is partly over, some trades/suppliers are staying closed until after Australia Day whilst others are just starting up again. We came back to the house today to find that the painting unfortunately is still underway with 2 coats of the walls and a final coat of the timber work still to be done. The paintwork had to stop as the timber floors (excluding the stairs) were scheduled to be polished and the house had to be locked down for the week.

Once the house was re-opened and the floors could be walked on the painting continued. The plumber also returned to install the water heater, taps and toilets.