Hi

Got key handover on Friday 14th Oct - any advice for the final meeting at house prior to key handover at DAH head office. Hubby away, so my brother and I going to meet with the SS. There are a few things we are waiting on being finished, but hopefully they will be done by Friday. Any advice welcome. Thanks

Pops xxx

Hi

Got key handover on Friday 14th Oct - any advice for the final meeting at house prior to key handover at DAH head office. Hubby away, so my brother and I going to meet with the SS. There are a few things we are waiting on being finished, but hopefully they will be done by Friday. Any advice welcome. Thanks

Pops xxx

Pops - I hope you are meeting the SS at the house before going to the office. You need to take with you the list of fixes from the pre-handover inspection and check that everything on the list was done. Anything not done needs to be listed again to be done after handover.

I'm assuming you organised the house insurance and got the last cheque - you can get the cheque from the bank ahead of the handover - saves you time to have to go to the bank in the same day.

Apart from that - enjoy and hope you get a nice present

Thank you Bagheera. Yes, we are meeting him at 7.30am at the house. We are hoping he has completed the list. He appears to listen but I think it is 'in one ear and out of the other!', which is a shame as the build looks so good. I just havn't got along with the SS from the beginning. He just doesn't work to the high standards I would expect and does not appear to be driven! Having said that, the house is looking good now - I just hope it doesn't fall apart when we move in

DAH have damaged my neighbours retic and stonework driving over his land and also removed his fences - put them on the front of the house - and they were taken away!!! The SS has said to him to just present him with the invoice once he has replaced them - I think this is DAH job, not his! The SS refused to give him his mobile number too. Our neighbour has been so nice about this - he is a lovely man. I have just formalised the damage in an email to DAH as I am sure that they have no idea about this!

So, hopefully all will be happy on Friday - I am sure it will. As for a gift - mmmm the SS is unlikely to leave us one as the working relationship has been strained from the beginning. I am driven and give 100% to everything I do, he is not!

Thx Pops xxx

Definitely get DAH to reply in writing that they are going to meet the costs of the fence and stonework - you don't want to upset your neighbours as DAH have the ownership of the property until the handover.

When I said Gift - I meant the gift DAH usually gives the clients at the end of the build... I got a Curtis Stone chopping board, a stainless steel oil canister/pourer and a cook book.

Don't forget to take some photos so we can enjoy seeing your beautiful house.

Good luck and congratulations.

Make sure you fill out the questionaire. I said on mine that I will never build with or recommend them again. Got a phone calls a couple of days later from SS's boss. I also posted my disappointment on DA's Blog page. It looks like I wasn't the only one I had the same experience as you with my build but my SS resided with the fact his tradies control him and not the other way.

Hello everyone.

As a part of the team at Dale Alcock, I’m going to be around on the forum to answer questions you have about building your home with us. I’m here to chat and listen to anything you want to discuss about the building process, such as meetings you’ll be attending, materials and décor, tips on what you can look forward to and what you should be aware of, and just about everything to try and make your experience as good as it can possibly be.

Please feel free at any point to send me a private message – I’m here to help as best I can.

Cheers for now.

Jemima.

Hey Pops.

Just wanted to see if everything went well with your key handover? Did you take a note of everything that was discussed so you can refer to it at a later date? It's always a good idea to keep a record of everything

Cheers,

Jemima.

Hi again Pops.

Sorry to hear about the damage to your neighbours premises. If there's anything I can do to help out, such as following up on the email you sent, then let me know.

Cheers,

Jemima.

Starting to feel like we are finally starting our building process. Plans drawn, preselection (had a fantastic pre-selection consultant) and colors selected, now the big job of moving so the demolition can take place

Hi Rustypup.

Good to hear you've done your pre-selection and all went well. It looks like you're doing a demo and build - I hope everything is in place for your move. Are you going to be taking any photos of the whole process and posting them anywhere? I'd love to see how it all goes!

Best,

Jemima.

Hi Althom.

I'm sorry you have experienced some disappointment whilst building your home with Dale Alcock. Perhaps you could kindly drop me a private message or email me at thedacrew@dalealcock.com.au, outlining any current or unresolved issues you are facing? That would greatly help me in assisting in trying to find a solution.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Jemima.

Anyone can recommend a good plumber to install a open shut valve off the mains for retic?

Hi jemima, yes demolish and build. Why not add extra stress. Prestart booked for early jan with demolition due to start next week. Will b taking photos of process to keep as a reminder

Just curious, did anyone else remove lighting and replace with junction boxes. If so can you remember how many required. We will be putting in led down lights after handover except in the raking ceiling.

Cheers

It depends on how you group your light you want to turn on but usually make sense to have one box per switch

Hello Rustypup.

Sounds exciting - starting the new year with your new home! It's a really good plan to take photos for your records as well as memories.

Good luck with it all and if you have any queries about your build at any point, please let me know and I will happily assist. And please feel free to share some photos of your building journey.

Best regards,

Jemima.

Hi all, sorry I haven't been around here as much lately, we've been busy enjoying our new home for the past 12-months and I've been keeping in touch with some via private messages and email.

Anyway - thought I would take the opportunity to vent here once more as I've just been out shopping for some lovely Vintec wine fridges to fit in my lovely (but currently rather empty) wine fridge recesses. Anyone who has been to the Nautilus displays would know the recesses and fridges I am talking about.

So the fridges at the moment are quite cheap (about $2300 for the pair) and I was close to biting the bullet today, however I thought I would do a quick measure back at home just to make sure they would fit as expected. Turns out that was a good move - the wine fridges are 595mm wide each, two requiring 1190mm in total, plus clearance space on the side. As it turns out, the lovely recess that DAH built for me is actually only 1190mm at the top, just, and 1185mm down the bottom - in other words, no chance that these fridges will fit and I'm left with an empty space I could rather do without (this photo from my blog shows the recess in question - http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YuLxK3-OngA/T ... ished5.JPG).

...And so just to cancel out any visions I had of trying to modify the width of the cabinet, upon measuring the height it turns out my recess has a 65mm fixed trim panel to the top, which means an overall height from the finished floor of 510mm - the fridges at a minimum are 520mm. I had to laugh at that point - even if I could get the fridges under that panel - I would never be able to open the doors

Ahhh...the joys of building... Now of course, I could tell you that the depth was pefect and that there was adequate ventilation in the recess as per the manufacturers instructions (here in case anybody needs it - http://www.vintec.com.au/siteimages/ins ... _specs.pdf) but alas, it appears that even if I could chisel the sides of the cabinets to fit the width and the chop off the levelling feed to fit the height... the recess still wouldn't be deep enough for the cabinets to sit flush with the front cabinet work (trim panel) - in fact they would stick out by approximately 20-mm and have zero ventilation which means my warranty on over $2000 worth of wine cabinets would be void!

So just a quick thank you to the team at DAH for putting such great attention to detail into your plans and works. To make use of this space that was specified specifically for these fridges I am now faced with having to organise a cabinet maker (ever reliable types ) to quote on putting in some form of customised cabinetry and glass doors to suit the space which is probably going to cost me about $2000 at a minimum (and the head-ache or accommodating multiple trades-people) and leave me with no climate control for my wine collection.

I suppose at least I will always have this image to tell me what my kitchen should have looked like
[ img ]

Yep, trade quality sadly lacking. Just started hanging pictures and wished I hadn't - not a square wall in the house. Went out to buy a light fitting for the toilet - purchased the smallest DIY available and yes you can't shut the door with it fitted so I'm stuck with a +$100 oyster in a toilet!

That's really sucky P1T. Really really.