2 years of occupation

Firstly, apologies for slipping away quietly there.  Its been two years since we first occupied our new home.  And guess what, we only just got the final occupation certificate in February 2012!  The replacement of the footpath out front was the cause of the delay but other than that, we are still very happy with our home.  The experience has been an interesting one and if we were to build again, we would know what to expect now and how to avoid those problems (or at least get them resolved a little faster). 

We first started contacting the council about the footpath last August 2011.  And council being council, they were pretty slack getting back to us.  They eventually sent someone to check out the damage to the footpath and concluded the whole thing needed replacing.  We could choose to let council do the work or if we hired our own subcontractors, they would have to leave a $5k deposit!  The cost that the council quoted was just over $6K! At this point, we just wanted it done and let the council do it as they were the ones that would have to approve the final thing.  Even the subcontractors that the council hired were flabbergasted as to why we had to replace the whole footpath when only 2 sections were damaged.  They even rallied against the council for us but council were not to be budged. 

So finally we have a brand new stinkin footpath in the front and the final occupation certificate YAY!

but the million dollar question... would we build again???  ABSOLUTELY!

PS - where has the builder gone?

BTW, the builder is just as difficult to get a hold of! We had the 90 day check about a month ago and nothing has happened since. They have only just sent the kitchen appliance people back to fix up the rangehood piping. Its the builders who are slack in contacting their subcontractors. We are still also waiting on our kitchen window to be replaced to glazed window instead of clear to satisfy the occupation certificate. This issue was first raised in Feb! A couple of other fairly minor issues that we can live with or fix ourselves but its like they have disappeared off into the sunset since handover!

Photos!

Ok. a lot has happened to the house since now and these photos are prob 6 weeks back so not entirely up to date.
Here is the kitchen, you can see we have roller blinds now and white porcelain tiles. The downlights haven't been put in yet, you can just see the battens still.

Here is the area in front of the kitchen, the living area, we painted that feature wall ourselves and this gives a better view of the tiles. I was worried about white tiles showing up all sorts of dirt but its actually not too bad and gives me motivation to sweep and mop. I love these white tiles!

The area in front of the kitchen... oh, no blinds yet here...

The entry/hallway, you can see the living area to the left has been carpeted now a charcoal colour... we were thinking of tiling the entire bottom floor but now i'm glad we carpeted that area as it makes the hallway more like a path and provides a bit of comfort away from the tiles...

The stairwell... this photo was taken just as the carpet was laid so we hadn't vacuumed yet and carpet had bits of cuttings, the layers didn't really clean up the bits of cuttings they left!

The upstairs living area showing carpet... and feature wall to the right...

Master bedroom showing feature wall again, carpet and roller blinds. We changed our minds several times about what parts we would paint on the feature wall, ie just that framed area or just inside the framed area. In the end i think we made the best choice and painted the entire wall.

Backyard, decking still to be done (even now) but turf laid. In future if we ever build again, I think we will request access to the backyard to maintain it as it had been left for over a year and the grass had grown so thick and unmanageable and all sorts of rubbish from the builders had been left for the grass to grow over it...

We have since finished downlights now and just got the driveway and side path color concreted. The colour is bluestone with cobble type stencil and we also got the front fence bricked to match the rest of the house. Next steps is setting up the garden, deck and automatic gate for the front fence but not necessarily in that order!

its now ours! yay!

We just the got keys delivered finally with a folder of all the stuff we need and a gift basket of some bath and hand towels!

now time to start packing and organising the flooring to be done! photos to be up shortly.

Finally the final!

Final payment was made on Monday yay! now trying to organise the handover meeting with the builder. Yesterday we went to look at the state of the backyard which is now a jungle after almost a year of no maintenance. We struggled with some yardwork but I've since come to the conclusion it will be worth paying someone else to do it hehehehe. The kikuyo grass is almost waist high in some areas and the ground is not level and there are bits of rocks and pipes and mesh buried here and there. Since we want to turf, and it looks like the only want to clear it is to do it manually with a matic, then i think its worth paying someone to do the backbreaking work.

getting quotes now...

signing off...

Well, we have finally signed off that all items are complete two weeks ago. Finally! Although at the time there were outstanding items (the painter came back 3 times!), these were completed the following day. We have also received the interim occupation certificate last week, 1 month after we sent all the paperwork to the certifier so that took two weeks longer than expected. Currently the bank is now doing its valuation to check that all work has been completed before the final payment can be release. We're expecting this to be done this week provided all is satisfactory. Then we should be able to get the keys!!!

We've visited the house again, there is a lot of cleaning up work in the garden as the grass is knee high and we will have to landscape every inch of the place but I'll be happy when we can finally say it is completely ours to landscape!

another change in mgmt??

Well finally got someone to give me an update and lo and behold, we've had another change in our construction coordinator. So far we have had two construction coordinators who keep shifting their 'roles' in the office. We have swapped between the two ladies 4 times now... why??? it is mind boggling.

Anyway, our 'new' (make that previous but now current once again) coordinator has said we are waiting on two windows to be glazed as per our DA??? Where did that come from? and why wasn't it done correctly to begin with? I have also asked about what our completion date for the house is in the last 5 emails to our builder and it has been repeatedly ignored which leads me to believe they either don't know, can't tell us or don't want to tell us, either of which reason is ridiculous. Our 'new' coordinator also said she'd get back to me that day to tell me when this glazing of the windows would be done but of course, she didn't do so.

I also left another message to our site supervisor but that was just for routine as he never returns my calls. I never expected him to despite his voicemail saying he would. LIAR!

I shall be ringing them again on Monday.

once again...

here I am again, blogging after almost a month of very little activity on the house... i still can't believe i thought we'd be in before xmas.. the amount of work that has been done could have been done in two weeks max since xmas, but no... its almost 4 months after. It is true what they say, after they get the majority of the house (and their payment), the builder just drags it out. I have rang, emailed and left messages to the site supervisor and also contacted the construction coordinator who says she is and the site supervisor is aware of my efforts to contact. Well????

When last I posted there was some painting to be done, the rain water tank to be delivered and the interim occupation certificate. Well the rain water tank was delivered and we have sent in some signed documents to obtain the interim occupation certificate but the paint has yet to be done. Its almost been a month, certainly long enough for these things to have been completed.

its disappointing to say the least...

Final inspection...Part 1

We just had final inspection this morning and there were a few bits still missing that hadn't been completed due to problems with their subcontracted tradies etc but another step closer hopefully. Supposedly the inspector for the occupancy certificate did his bit last week so we should hear something by the end of this week about it. We will meet again at the end of the week (or so we plan to) to see if those last bits were completed.

Presumably we will be given an interim occupancy certificate which should be enough to finalise payments and do the whole handover shebang.

Hank is looking awesome though Nora could do with a bit of a clean up, cannot wait to start decorating and landscaping!

oh the house next door which was sold about two months ago appears to be finally occupied, we saw the new owner mowing the lawns yesterday.

and then...

so 10 days ago the drainage for the rainwater was completed... also the security system was put in as well as the phone and tv ports and our doorbell. Last week I emailed the construction coordinator on Monday to see what was happening for the week since the drainage was done. Heard nothing until Friday when she said the site supervisor was away and would tell me this week what was happening.

So i will see today if I can get more information about when final inspection will happen. The last time we checked, the paintwork still hadn't been fixed up yet inside the house from our first inspection visit. It has been 5 weeks since first inspection when we were given the expectation that final inspection would happen two weeks after first inspection.

I wouldn't mind so much if our expectations weren't being set by the builder themselves!

still waiting...

So, the mains were connected last Friday hooray! do you think i could get in touch with the site supervisor to tell him he could now go ahead with installing the security? NOOOOOO... left voicemails for the last 3 working days. No callback.

I emailed the construction coordinator who managed to get in touch with him and she said they are waiting to get the rain water tank and drainage done. Once this is done, we should be ready for final inspection. But she gave no estimate as to when this would be done. So i sent a follow up emailing asking when exactly this might be happening. End of this week apparently.

Stay tuned.

I also rang around for a particular type of tree that we need to plant in the front of the house prior to occupancy. Don't know how strict they are but council reqs say it must be at least 2 mtrs high. Flower Power say they can order me one so I will have to follow up on that.

Searching for carpet last weekend. There are very little choices for a cool white interior. We like a charcoal color carpet so now are hunting for the best price for a middle range carpet.

ok now in limbo...

So we had the first inspection a couple weeks ago as noted in my last post. It was pretty ok, just a few painting spots here and there and couple of scratches on the poly kitchen which will be replaced. So now what you say? when do you get to move in? well here's the deal, supposedly it should have taken 7-10 days to fix up the stuff from the inspection. In the mean time we were to get the mains hooked up to Energy Australia. Easier said than done? Right on! After contacting Energy Australia and trying to chase down the right construction coordinator (there have been several changes in structure at the builder's company), we finally figured out what needed to be done and raised it with the appropriate people. If we had left it with the builder to inform us (as we had assumed would happen), we probably would not have been contacted about it til much later despite several emails and phone messages. Haven't heard about the final inspection time either even though i've tried contacting the site supervisor.

So here's what we're waiting for in order to move in (at least this is my current understanding although our understanding always seems to change as we move along in the piece). We first need to get the mains connected, then its best to get the security in place so at least the house will have some security while there is noone in there, then the final inspection where hopefully all the faults have been fixed, then we need to satisfy certain criteria to obtain the certificate of occupancy. We checked out our DA and as far as we can see, we need to put a house number up, plant a particular type of tree out the front and put a privacy screen on the side of the alfresco. Hopefully this is it and then we will be able to move in!

But before we move in, we need to get the flooring done (tiles on the bottom floor, carpet up top). But we can't do this until we get handover.

So how long do you think this will all take? I had hoped to be in by end of Jan? now I'm hoping to be in by end of March. Remember when I had posted that we would be in by Xmas? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

oh on a positive note, have found a nice porcelain floor tile that goes with our colour scheme, we had picked a white tile previously because no other tiles seemed to go with our cool white walls but the last place we looked had this lovely light grey tile with a little bit of pattern which goes lovely with the kitchen and wall and will be easier to keep clean as white tiles show all manner of sins! Would like to plug Ritz ceramics on Woodville Rd for the lovely lady who helped us out.

breath running out!

ok the final inspection did not happen today, yesterday our site supervisor rang and said the cleaners were not able to do a final clean prior to the inspection but he was still happy to do the inspection or we could postpone til monday...

i was happy to postpone til monday....

and then....

he rang to say his manager scheduled a meeting first thing monday morning so while he would like to attend, he would still see us on Monday but if its alright to make it tuesday instead.

we knew there was still the final coat of painting to be done as well as a few other things so I said I was fine with tuesday...

here's hoping ...

holding our breath!

ok, this Friday will be the final inspection! can't believe we're finally here although i'm sensing there may be a few weeks after final inspection until we get the occupation certificate and handover but still! Admittedly we've been able to get in there and have a look since the last lot of photos i posted and things have been looking pretty good and we've heard our site supervisor is a strict guy so the workmanship seems to have been ok to us.

stay tuned!

an early xmas present?

Well, there is a week to go until xmas but we're still not sure if we will get handover before then, the tiling was getting done this week and i'm pleased to say it is looking fabulous! We're really happy with the tiles we've chosen (we agonised for over 2 hours choosing tiles) and now that we see it in place, all my worries about how the colours would go together are gone. The house is looking very good now and we're happy with all the choices we've made.

We will be going on holiday for a week in early Jan so hubby says he'd rather handover was after xmas anyway as the builder will be closed for the hols and we may not have tradesmen available over this period to do the work we need done like the driveway etc

Anyway a few more weeks is not a problem for us. A few pics for you but in no particular order :), these were taken two weeks ago so there has been more work done since then (mainly tiling, battens for the lighting.

The master bedroom on the first floor, you can see the walk in wardrobe and the ensuite, tiling and tub have been installed by now

First floor family room, you can see the top of the stairs and the metal and wood banister. The balcony can also be seen and the doorways into two of the bedrooms on this floor (4 bedrooms up here)

First floor bathroom, the tiling and tub have been installed now though

the living and dining room, the kitchen island can be seen here and the alfresco area though the sliding doors

The laundry with nice big storage cupboard, floor tiling has already been done though and the sink has been installed already too

The kitchen, splashback tiles have been done

Entry way and lounge room, the door to the study which we converted into a room can be seen near the front door. The lounge room windows were made smaller and raised due to council restrictions about privacy but in hindsight we may have been able to use bigger windows with obscured glazing instead as its a bit darker than we'd like here

Next photos you will see will be the handover photos...

the home stretch...

Hubby went past today and dropped in asking if he could have a look around ... the kitchen is in! also the vanities in the bathrooms are also done and the doors have been installed! Everything is looking great and we're getting excited. It has been so worth it now at this point. We're very happy and relieved that the colours have come together nicely so far. There is still a fair way to go before we can move in as we are doing the flooring, landscaping, decking and fencing etc ourselves but at least the builder's job has been moving at a rapid and reasonably well done rate. Will try to schedule a visit for next week and take some photos.

Hubby is investigating options for the front fence which we want done in matching brick and metal fencing with automatic gate. He's currently replacing the side gates for our current home so the handyman in him is gonna be getting a good workout in the next few months.

We had originally asked the builder to tack the skirting boards on as we are doing the tiling on the ground floor ourselves (or rather getting someone else besides the builder to do it) and they were happy to do so but when hubby checked today, they had nailed it in fully but left us a gap below the skirting boards so the tiles would fit. Hopefully this will be ok when we get the tiling done.

there still needs to be painting, wall tiling, some electrical and plumbing and some finishing touches to do but this shouldn't take that long.

Inside and out!

After what seemed a few weeks of not much happening after our first tour, this week the gyprocking has been completed and wet areas sealed... yay!!! The verandah has also received its railings and a little ornamental metal grill has been placed outside the study window. We're very happy with the colors of the bricks, roof, guttering and fascia.. its all coming together nicely and we're told it might be finished by xmas! it would be a very nice xmas present indeed.

We drove past and saw a truck outside so stopped and had a sticky beak from outside the fence since we had not scheduled a visit. But after a bit of ogling and dawdling, the work person who was finishing up for the day asked if we were the owner and said we could go have a look.

SOOOOOOOO exciting!!!! but also know there is still a bit of work ahead of us after handover... fingers crossed!!

Hank's a shocker now!

We have electricity! and also the airconditioning has been done and probably a few other little internal things that we can't see from the front fence hehehehehe

back view
front view
next week they will probably start on the staircase

latest photos

Living room

Garage

Front with guttering

Meals/Family

Kitchen/Meals

Back/Alfresco

Master Bedroom

Upstairs Lounge

Front

Back

Our first meeting with Hank

We had our first site visit today. So far the bricking has been completed and the roofing has gone up. The roof was completed this week, bricking last week. Doing the eaves later this week. Alfresco roof still needs to be done.

The first visit went well, we are happy with the progress so far. Everything appeared as expected, the workmanship seemed fine (not that we'd know any better) and I took pictures of every room which I will upload at a later blog. The study/5th bedroom seems smaller than expected in real life but it is supposed to be a little room really. I noticed that the alfresco would have been more open without the side columns but its too late now to change. They are a bit obstructive but anyway.

And the great news is that our site supervisor thinks if all goes well, we will have handover in 10 weeks or so.

We asked about tacking the skirting boards so we could put them over the tiling which we are doing outside of the builder and the supervisor said this was no problem although I am always skeptical! But overall we are happy with the colours we have chosen so far. The house is really big, which is much needed since we have our extended family living with us plus two kiddies. Its quite exciting and I can't wait until the interior has been done and is looking more like a home.

We should be shopping for floor tiles for the bottom floor soon and carpeting for the top floor as well as getting some quotes for the driveway and front brick fence and automatic gate. Hubby says he will do the alfresco decking himself (I won't hold my breath!) plus we'll have to see what kind of retaining walls we will need. Also have to consider the landscaping and the mandatory items the council has requested.

If all goes well we may move in next Jan!

** photos to come soon!