You have to be kidding, right? | Day 269

So, we are in, we are settled, we love our new home, we just wish stuff would stop happening to damage it.  Our defect list with the builder is still at about 20 items.  We are slowly working our way through them.  Our Site Supervisor has been amazing, coming and personally rectifying quite a number of outstanding items personally, helps that he was a plasterer back in the day.  Huge kudos to Rikki, especially as he has started a new job within PD but is still looking after us and listening to us whinging about all the things that have gone wrong.  Have to say that yesterday I hit rock bottom, was just over it.

Over the last four weeks these are some of the worst things that have gone wrong.

1. 3 Days before handover, the pressure tested the gas, and it leaked.  Turns out there were 2 screws in the gasline, so big chunks of Hebel and Gyprock were sacrificed in fixed the leaks.  The Hebel installers had to repair it twice as they did a terrible job the first time.
2. Day before handover, our carpet installer, nothing to do with PD, dragged the carpet up the polished stair case and damaged the polish.  Yes, Harvey Norman will fix it, at a cost of more than $2k, but we won’t be able to use our stairs for 3 days when they do it.
3. Weekend after handover, heavy rains showed bad leaks in the roof of the garage.  Roof fixed, still have the rescrew and paint the gyprock ceiling.
4. First day of move – my wife sliced her hand on a stanley knife and had to undergo surgery.  Thankfully no nerve or tendon damage, but a huge inconvenience for her.
5. Second day of move – the removalists put a huge hole in the wall with the fridge.
6. Third day of move – the removalists put a couple of huge gouges in our polished and stained staircase with the piano.
7. Around this time we noticed that the electrical safety switch was tripping every few hours – electrical short.  After more than a week of the electricians and plumbers blaming each other our own electrician proved it was electrical and PD’s electricians come out and bypass the faulty circuit reducing us from 3 power circuits to 2.
8. Next was the bobcat driver preparing our driveway snagging the water mains, South East Water have now come to repair the mains.  Neither the bobcat driver, the concrete company or the builder will accept the costs for this.  At least the tradies fixed my side of the meter at their cost.
9. Next was the leaking hose under the sink, we have now been without hot water in the kitchen for four days.  The shelf is all expanded and needs replacing.
10. Yesterday the curtain installers were moving a curtain that had been installed incorrectly and found that a screw was in another gas line, so more plaster ripped out and a night without gas, therefore no hot water for about 18 hours.
11. Oh, and instead of coming home with one kitten on Monday, we now have 2 new kittens.

There’s more, but these are the major challenges we have had.  Just an average everyday few weeks really

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It’s ours!!! | Day 250

So, it is Sunday morning, and the good news is that handover occurred on Friday morning.  So, after 248 days, our house has been built.  We are so happy with the way that it has all come together.  PD still have a few little things to fix up this week, but it is all coming together nicely.

Now comes all of the post handover stuff.  We had the carpets installed last Thursday and the installer completely wrecked the varnish on our stairs, so now Harvey Norman has to pay for them to be redone.  They are not quibbling over it, so now it is just timing.  The challenge is that we will have to live downstairs for 3 days whilst it drys.  So annoying.

We had 90 items of Ikea cabinetry delivered on Friday to build the storage into the rumpus, so we have started building them now and that will take quite an effort, but it is going to look awesome when it is done.

We have tiling, curtains, fencing and removalists booked this week, and then the week after the electrician and concreter are coming.  At the end of the month the back yard will get landscaped, we will get our brick letterbox built and somewhere after that the tiler will be back to tile the alfresco and the porch.  At some point Mirvac will come along and landscape our front yard, but that could take up to 3 months.

It has mostly been a positive journey and our site supervisor has been a really decent bloke to work with.  Overall, at the end of the day, would I build again – yes, would I use Porter Davis again – yes.

Now for the heavy lifting.

 

Looking good | Day 242

Just wandered past the house and grabbed a few images of it with the final site clean completed.  Just a small amount of render on the front to finalise and all the stuff in the last post.

PCI has occured | Day 241

Woohoo, PCI is done and dusted.  We are on track for handover next Friday 2nd November.  Pretty excited.  This morning they topped the concrete at our front door which looks much better, also installed the water tank.  Our list of items to be rectified is just 14 fairly simple items, apart from some more paint touch ups.  Site clean occurred today and is looking great (forgot to take pictures of the completed site).  Just a few little hurdles to go – gas meter, last couple of downpipe connections and the occupancy certificate.  Appliances will go in on Thursday and then on Friday it is all ours, well, with a portion owned by the bank.  Then comes all of the post hand over joy – carpet, curtains, light fittings and fans, concreting, landscaping, moving in and a few other bits and pieces.  Taking two weeks off to try and get as much of it done as possible, the rest to happen over year end.

Painting make a difference | Day 239

We are slowing getting there with it.  More delays, but hopefully still on track.

PCI Booked – Rain GO AWAY!!! | Day 235

So close… so close.  Just need the rain to stop for a few days.  PCI is booked for this coming Friday 26th October.

Inside – finished except a few paint touch ups, trim adjustments and the laundry trough & taps.

Outside – finish render, pour a top coat to the concrete floor to the front porch, install downpipes and rainwater tank, finish plumbing and gas fitoff and painting for the moulding on brickwork and ceiling to porch and finish alfresco trim.

This needs to be followed by a final site clean and inside clean.  Hopefully we will get an occupancy certificate this week and after PCI it is just the appliances and gas meter.

Handover is booked for 2nd November.  They best keep that date as we have carpet, curtains, fencing, removalists, concreters and landscapers all lined up and ready to go the following week.

View from across the reserve, hopefully they finally develop the reserve before too long.

The machinery gives some hope that they will build the park very soon.

Garage door and porch roof

For some unknown reason they have ripped out some hebel which will need to be reinstalled – not happy Jan.  New meter box door – other one was damaged since the slab pour.  Some of the base coat render work on the ground floor.

No Fence | Day 231

So, today was very very wet.  So, no garage door as planned.  Good news though, they did deliver the colourbond for installation tomorrow (depending on the weather and any delays from today’s weather – tomorrow’s forecast – up to 10mm rain).

They appear to have done another house clean, or maybe not, but a sign on the front door says not to enter with dirty boots or you will be sent the bill.

The big news of the day is the removal of the site fencing.  We are so close, but this rotten weather has come just at the wrong moment.  There appears to be about 4-5 days of outside work to be finished and then the house is ready for PCI.  Perfect timing for 3 days of rain. NOT.  Oh well, we will get there.

Cleans up OK | Day 230

Some more developments today.  All incremental, but helps to bring it all together.  They cleaned up the site and got rid of the smelly port a loo.  No sadness at seeing that disappear.  They installed the ceiling to the front porch, before the roof – hmm, interesting.  They also installed the rear garage door and I am assured that the main roller door will be installed tomorrow.  All going well the colourbond capping will go in on Wednesday or Thursday (weather permitting, supposed to be storms) and then the Hebel can be rendered.  Apparently that will be finished by the end of the weekend and then the downpipes will be finished on Monday.  After that it will be some painting, a bit of concrete repair and a clean up, then hopefully PCI!  Inside is just some painting touch ups and a good thorough clean.  Sooooooo close.

Countdown | Day 228

We were due to have handover in just four days time, on 17 October.  Due to delays, we are now expecting handover in the first week of November, i.e. 5-8 November.  We are really hoping it will be a little earlier than that.  We are getting into the home straight that is for sure.  When I meet with the Site Supervisor on Thursday, hopefully things will be clearer.

In the last 3 days, there has been a bunch of stuff done including skirting boards and paint inside the garage, some rendering around the garage door opening.  All going well we will have a garage door on Monday, and maybe even the rear door to the garage will be installed.  We are due some pretty heavy rain on Tuesday so it would be nice to have it waterproof by then.  The NBN cabinet and security are now installed.  The cameras are working, so smile if you are on site 🙂  The second row of mouldings have been done and so has the silastic, the towel rails and a few other bits.  From what I can figure out, the remaining stuff on the outside is the colourbond capping and flashing, the render (it always seems to be delays to do with the Hebel, so much for it being the quick option) and some paint.  Ok, so the ceiling to the porch, a fresh skin on concrete to the porch and then the site and house clean.  Inside it is pretty much down to cleaning and touch ups of paint.

Action stations | Day 225

So, the last three days have been productive, apart from rain halting works yesterday.  The scaffolding is up for the colourbond capping works, the rendering has started on the lower floor, the house has been cleaned and excitingly, the ELECTRICITY was commissioned today.  The chippy was meant to come and do work today, hopefully he will do his bit tomorrow.  The guy who does the silastic around all of the tiling and shower screens was also due today, but he didn’t appear either.  To be honest, the inside will get there first, so fingers crossed for more fine weather so that the Hebel gets finished.  Meeting my site supervisor tomorrow morning and hopefully that results in a PCI date.  The biggest delay at the moment seems to be getting a water tank!  Of all things.