Wednesday, March 28, 2012

PCI completed, 2 weeks max until handover

The sun came out and made it much easier to complete our inspection today. It took 2 hours. Would have taken longer but we were all over the external already.

We have 9 items that need attention before we will take possession:

1) glass window scratched & and architrave needs painting in front bedroom
2) toilet lid scratched in w/c
3) glass window scratched in study
4) ceiling in back bedroom needs smoothing and then reprinting
5) reclean sliding doors tracks and handles and bricks
6) kitchen tap not working, back tap leaking
7) ceiling insulation needs spreading out on not floors
8) front right window scratched and needs paint on external side
9) driveway needs resealing

They have two weeks to complete it all so doesn't look like an Easter move unfortunately but the end is near so very happy.

PCI tomorrow!!!

Well am rather excited at the thought of PCI tomorrow and then only max 2weeks til handover.

Got my check list and ready to go testing every window, every door, every tap, every light and every power point. You get my drift. We know of 3 issues for the externals:
Leaking tap
Bricks, alfresco & porch need cleaning again due to mortar
Driveway needs sealing in a section

As for the inside, we haven't been inside for well over a month so will be lots more careful checking required.

Also the fly screens got installed today so reinspection for certifier tomorrow too.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Final Invoice received and PCI Booked

We have now received our final invoice (no surprises fortunately) and PCI is booked in for this Thursday. We are pretty sure that we won't be handing over the bank cheque on the day. There just seems too much to still be done betweeen now and then especially since nothing was done all week last week! However we are hoping it can all be done before easter (they will have til 12th though).

Still to be completed

Cleaning inside
Cleaning outside windows
CLeaning outside brickwork (including treatment of acid burn and removal of paint and excess mortar)
Paining and touch-ups of Moroko bagging
Removal of rusting drill-bit from air-con unit
Fixing patchy driveway

There could be more to do inside but we haven't been in since Feb so I guess there will be things found at inspection.

On another note, we had our first mail to the house today...our electricity bill! I guess it's good that it has come direct as this way we aren't going to be charged by the builder (with their mark-up). I will have to check what gas company they have been using, would be great if this was the same also!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

not long now but some issue to fix

I spoke to my SS on Friday and was pleased to find out he has booked our handover inspection for 29th March so less than two weeks away. They then have 10 days to fix any defects before handover.


Today we went around to have a good look at the ouside as we thought better to point out anything in these next two weeks before we even get to the inspection as more time to fix things. Unfortunately we found a few issues...

The ceiling in the alfresco is not level in one section:

A drill-bit has been dropped into our outside air-con unit and is rusting:

Something has happened to the mortar in the bricks - only on one section of the house on two rows of bricks but does not look good. Not sure what has happened though:


And our beautiful new driveway has gone patchy. Actually we think that the driveway may have splashed with paint and tried to clean but has removed the sealant (he was there only two days after the driveway was done) and now looks yuck.

I will contact the SS tomorrow to raise these issues, hopefully they are all easy to fix.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Moving along again :-)

Today the carpenters were back installing the last of the bulkhead and cornice work in the kitchen. Hopefully that means the painters will be back in a few days to get to all the bits and pieces yet to be painted.

Also on a positive note, we have reached a compromise with our neighbour on our fencing so now I'm ringing back the fencing contractor and hoping they are not booked out and can do our boundary fence ASAP. That will give us some privacy and security. After handover hubby will commence work on the landscaping and get or the levels and ag pipes for drainage down and then we'll get final side gates and fencing installed.

Monday, March 12, 2012

The driveway is completed

Today we were lucky and the rain stayed away after a glorious weekend and the concreters came.

The result a brand new driveway....YAAYYYY!!!



Still to be completed
Bulkhead and cornice in the kitchen
Painting of pergola
Paining of water pipes
Lots of touch-up paint
Installation of fly screen windows and doors
Cleaning

We are hoping to be in by Easter so we have the break to really settle in but will just have to wait and see what happens from now on in.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Just frustrated with the wait

The build
After a pefectly clear sky on Monday (and no one on site) we finally got confirmation that the concreters would be on site to commence on Tuesday. Much to our luck the rain stayed away and they dug the driveway and completed the site clear. All this was complete by around lunchtime so we were thinking all was looking good for the concreting. Alas today no one on site. I rang my SS to let him know cause this was the 3rd time now for a now show from the concreters. Unfortuantely I was met with the news that they had met yesteday and decided not to book in the concreting for today as the weather forecast was predicting heavy rains. Well the day is over now and guess what no rain all day and was perfect conditions (not too hot, not too cold etc). All I got was the reassurance that they would be there on the next good day, my issue with that is if they are basing that of future weather forecast rather than the day itself that could be anytime!

Don't get me wrong I do understand that they don't want to lay the concrete for it to be ruined and have to be redone, that would be pointless. My issue is if they had turned up on the other times when it was all okay they wouldn't have had to make the judgement call about today (which was the wrong call).

Fencing
Still trying to sort out fencing with my neighbour also. He called two weeks ago to discuss which we considered the options and I emailed back the very next day and since I have heard nothing, I sent a follow up at the start of the week but no response. We may have to follow that up with a phone call (although really want anything agreed to in writing). It's just not looking promising that it will be an easy task. At least we have done the right things...got quotes, sent formal notification to the neighbour etc.