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.
Saturday, 28 February 2015
Wednesday, 18 February 2015
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.
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.
Friday, 13 February 2015
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!
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!
Monday, 9 February 2015
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.
Thursday, 5 February 2015
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 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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)