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!