Day 182: Half a Year

It's been half a year since completion. How time flies. Nothing major is happening with the house lately. I'm waiting for the weather to get better to start working on the backyard, will have to do retaining wall at the back of the house before we can do any work on the backyard at all.

Got our electricity & gas bill yesterday, was surprised with the amount payable. Despite having a 5 star rated home, the energy bill is hardly any better than what we had previously. I guess having a bigger house costs more to heat & all the gadgets we have use more electricity as well.

Day 146: Night Time Photo

Photo of facade at night. Love the up & down lights.

Day 138: Maintenance Completed

Trueloc came to check the floorboard last Wednesday & he gave the floorboard a wax. He told us to wait for few weeks & if we are still not happy with how it turns out, they'll get it replaced. Not sure whether I want it to be replaced, the inconvenience of having to take a day off & waiting for them to come & replace it is just not appealing.

The leak on the roof cannot be fixed. The maintenance guy came out for the 3rd time last Friday & he told me that everything was done to the standard. He suspected the leak happened during a very heavy storm (which it was) & the wind blew the water back into the roof from the valley - I suspected this all along but I still want them to give me some explanation & check the work. I will keep monitoring this matter & if it doesn't leak under normal condition, then I'll leave it.

Day 120: Latest nearmap photo

Latest Nearmap photo, fencing & driveway have been done.

Day 119: Maintenance Work & Leakage Discovered

The Alfresco door was fixed, they adjusted the door so now it can latch properly without being dead bolted. The also clean the tarnish handle so it looks like new now.

The plumber also came & he unfortunately didn't discover the source of the leak in the bathroom. I had to pointed out to him that the back of the basin wasn't silicon sealed so probably that was the reason of it. It is sealed now.

Floor board hasn't been fixed, the people from Truelock didn't come or probably the PD's Maintenance department didn't get them to come. I'm following up with them now, email & phone call yet to be returned by them.

I also informed them that there was a leack on the ceiling. They sent someone to check it the next day but couldn't find anything & they thought it might be caused by the antenna installation. Anyway, I wasn't too satisfied with the explanation so I went up to the ceiling/roof cavity when it rained last night & found the leak, it was nowhere near the antenna.

Look up & you shall find. Wet roof trusses, must be a gap in the roof.


Found this on the ceiling, a small poll of water.

We were almost flooded

Heavy rain around Melbourne yesterday & I woke up at around 2am to find a leak in our family room, nothing major & I called PD yesterday to get them to have a look. They sent someone there to have a look & he said it might be caused by the antenna, i.e. there might be a tiny gap whan the antenna was installed. He told us to keep an eye on it & probably to go up the roof space when it rains.

Some 40 years ago, where my neighbour house is, it used to be a creek there & they filled the creed & built a storm water drain at the side of their property. We had some 51mm or rain in probably just over an hour & obviously the storm water drain wasn't able to cope with it & unfortunately for our neighbour, his property was flooded. The water then had nowhere to go, it went to our side yard through the fence. Our backyard was flooded, the water was about 2cm from entering our house through the alfresco & laundry doors. I had to open the garage door to let the water flow from the side of the house through the garage to the front of the house. I also had to open the side gate to allow the water from the other side of the house & the backyard to flow through to the front of the house. We were lucky not to be flooded, not so our next door neighbour & the house accross the street.

We've been trying to get Whitehorse City Council to fix this storm water drainage problems for a while now & so far we haven't been able to get them to do anything, not even to get them to do an assessment of the situation.

Day 98: 3 Months Maintenance

Had the 3 months maintenance done. Nothing major & nothing that can't be easily fixed:-

The bifold door doesn't latch properly, i.e. we cannot close it without using the dead bolt. They'll get someone to come in & adjust the bifold door to fix this.

The handle for the bifold door is tarnished. They'll replace this with a new one.

Ensuite toilet, the flush doesn't hold. They'll get the plumber to have a look.

Leak from the sink in the bathroom. They'll get the plumber to have a look as well, I think they just didn't seal it properly.

Floorboard is a bit rough on one of the surface in the living room, not sure what they'll do with this but they'll get trueloc to have a look.

Overall, we've been happy with the house & haven't had any problem with it at all.

Day 71: Fencing Done

Fencing was completed last week. We have a secure front yard now for the kids & dog to play. Thinking to stain the picket fence instead of painting it, I kinda like the wood colour. Probably will do it this weekend or next weekend.


Thinking of what to do with the landscaping. Will be very carfeful with what we do because a client & a colleague of ours got movements on their slabs & PD been blaming the landscaping as the cause of that. Will be following their cases & make sure we'll plan the landscaping in accordance to CSIRO's recommendation http://www.publish.csiro.au/Books/download.cfm?ID=3612

Day 60: Shutters

Shutters were installed on Friday, the house looks so much better now. It is so good that we can open the windows & adjust the amount of lights we want, the house simply looks brighter.


Still waiting for fencing to be completed, will never recommend those people to anyone, they are getting subbies to do the work & the subbies simply are the laziest tradies I've seen. Hoping for the front fence plus gates to be finally done sometime early this week.

Day 50: Driveway Sealed

The driveway was sealed yesterday morning. The rain last night shows the water beads on the driveway.

Day 49: Concreting is done

After a long wait due to Christmas/New Year holidays & the wet weather we had, the concreting finally was done last week & today.

Side of the house - plain concrete


72mm mesh


Porch & Driveway


Driveway


Driveway


I'm happy with the quality of the driveway & the director came out to inspect the work this afternoon & he was happy with what he saw.

They were not the cheapest quote I got but they were the most professional & they delivered what they promised. Start & completion dates were delayed by 3 weeks due to the weather, better be safe than sorry.

Day 37: Still Waiting

Concrete hasn't been poured yet. It was scheduled for this week but the rain on Monday plus Australian Day public holiday pushed it back to next week.

The Steel Mesh & expansion joint have been delivered this afternoon, so hopefully we'll see some action soon.

Looking forward to the moment I can park my car in the garage, or at least on the driveway.

Day 27: Concreting

The concreter was back on site & laid the crushed rocks.

Side of the house, behind the garage


From the house looking at the driveway & cross over


Driveway


Concrete is to be poured next week, the concreter apologised for the delay due to the heavy rain last week, they are playing catch up now.

Day 26: Driveway

Finally we are going to get a driveway & cross over soon. They came to cut & fill the site yesterday and I'm hoping the concrete will be poured at the end of the week or early next week. We have to wait for the Council to give a green light with the base work for the cross over before the concreter will pour the concrete.

Rain Rain Go Away

Been busy moving into the house, we did the big move on 27 Dec 10.

The Roller Blinds for Bedrooms 2, 3 & 4 plus bathroom & toilet was installed last week. Roman Blind for the Bifold door was also installed on the same day. The Shutters for the reminder of the house will have to wait until end of this month/next month.

Fencing work was started on Monday, 10/11/11, they are taking their time in doing it. Back & Side Fences are up, but no gates yet.

Driveway is supposed to be done this week, however it has been delayed to next week due to the rain we've been getting. Which means another week of muddy shoes & house.

Still thinking of what to do with the landscaping. We'll have to do retaining walls for the side & back of the house & have to excavate about 50m3 of soil from the back of the house.

Day 148: Hand Over Day

Met the SS on site this morning. Everything was pretty much rectified. 1 of the window that they have to replace hasn't been replaced because they brought the wrong type of window. They brought in normal window while the one we have is double glazed.

Didn't check the ceiling insulation. Only went to the roof cavity after the hand over, they still haven't put additional insulation, the insulation stops about 20-30cm from the side top plates. Emailed the CSC & SS, they said they'll get CSR to fix it in the new year.

Hand Over went smoothly. We gave them the bank cheque & they gave us the keys.

We put up the temporary blinds today & I also managed to do the grout seal for the showers in the ensuite & bathroom. Have to do the rest of the tiles area next time, it took me much longer than I anticipated.

Removalists have been booked for Monday, 27 December 2010. The landlord has been notified that we'll terminate the lease 3 months earlier. Hopefully they can find a new tenant very soon.

Day 147: Notice to PD of intent to claim Damages

Hand over is scheduled for tomorrow morning. I went to check house & found out the windows haven't been fixed & there's no traces of insulation been fixed.

Sent my CSC an email notifying them of my intention to claim damages if hand over doesn't happen tomorrow:

"We refer to your letters dated 28 July 2010 and 10 September 2010.
Based on the above mentioned letters, the building works is supposed to be completed in 140 days. Calculating from the start date of 28 July 2010, 140 days would fall on Tuesday, 14 December 2010 (inclusive of both 28 July 2010 & 14 December 2010).
We refer to the signed HIA Building Contract Schedule 4 'Special Conditions' and Clause 1.0 'Definitions' which define the meaning of "Completion".
During the hand over inspection on Thursday, 16 December 2010, we have discovered the building works had not been completed as per definition of completion mentioned in the above paragraph. We have therefore decided to defer the hand over until the building works is completed, which is supposed to be Wednesday, 22 December 2010.
A hand over inspection has been arranged for Wednesday, 22 December 2010 at 9.00 am. We are hoping that all the items to be rectified have been rectified so that we can have a completion of building works.
We refer to the signed HIA Building Contract Schedule 1 '9. Agreed damages for late completion of Building Works' and Clause 40.0 'Owner's Claim for Agreed Damages'.
We wish to advise that should the building works is yet to be completed by the hand over inspection tomorrow, Wednesday, 22 December 2010 at 9 am, we are going to claim for damages for late completion of building works with effect from 15 December 2010 until the completion of building works.
We will deduct the amount of the damages from the Final Payment as per Clause 40.1."


And the following is the reply I received from the CSC:

"Please be advised that the final cheque must be the same amount as your final invoice.
We can raise a Variation for you if we do go over Construction days when that so occurs."


And the following is my reply to the CSC's email:

"You've gone over the construction days. As per my email, 127 + 13 days = 140 days which was Tuesday 15 December 2010.
And as per signed HIA Building Contract Clause 40.1 the damages is to be deducted of the Final Payment."


And finally this is from the CSC:

"I will ask Management if we are able to process your payment in this way and get back to you tomorrow."


Will be an interesting day tomorrow. I do intent to claim the damages & if they are asking for extension of time, I'll object to that.

Day 146: Feature Walls Painted & Hand Over is Schedule for Wednesday, 22nd December 2010

Feature walls were painted over the weekend. The colour didn't turn out the way we wanted, way too light & almost can't be seen as feature walls, might have to repaint it ourselves after hand over.

I emailed the SS yesterday asking him whether we are still on schedule to have the hand over on Wednesday. Received his reply this morning & he said that everything will be rectified by Wednesday & we'll have a hand over on Wednesday.

Day 142: Hand Over Day - Delayed

Hand Over is supposed to be today but it has been delayed because PD cannot rectify everything that were listed in PCI & Independent Report. Hand Over will now be on Wednesday, 22 Dec. They can't delay it again this time because if they do then they'll be responsible for the house during the holiday period & it seems that they are trying hard for that not to happen.

Day 139: Garage Door

Garage door was installed today.


Nothing else been done to rectify the PCI, makes me wonder whether we'll on schedule for the hand over on Thursday.

Floor Board was installed last Friday