KDR Henley Reserve (MainVue)- Aegean 38

I don't think that they looked up to see where the downpipe was going to run when they did the tap, such a shame as it was in perfectly. The best thing tho is that our SS picked it up and we didn't have to say anything.

For the front pillar, when I was completing a walk through with our SS, he advised that it had to go to engineering to be reviewed, I just asked for the report to be provided. I just followed up via email so that there was a record of my request and it was sent through once the fix was completed as well as photos during the fixing. It all looks good now.

Not being able to see everything is the worst part, as for the photos I found that putting the phone right on the glass reduced the reflections and glare and you could get a decent pic. My hubby calls me a stalker of our build but then his job takes him past the house a couple of times a day, so it's a matter of pot calling the kettle black, from where I stand.. lol.

My son's recovering, but is having issues eating as he can't bite with his front teeth as their sore. He's such a trooper tho and we relented the other night and bought Maccas as it's so soft. He got out a knife & fork to chop it up. I'll be making a big pot of soup over the weekend with heaps of veg, chicken and noodles to get some goodness into him.

I have come to the conclusion, that with this build that I have now have a love\hate relationship with Fridays.

I don't want Friday to come along as this means that I can't follow up with companies for the things that I need want and desire for our home. Deliveries cannot arrive over the next couple of days from couriers or AusPost. Yeah I know that the AusPost delivery centres are still sorting mail and packages over the weekend but just not delivering to my house. Calling for quotes, arranging for people to come onsite is generally not done over the weekend, so Friday is my last day of the week to organise for the upcoming week.

As I finish work at approx. 2pm after a 6am start, I have three hours to make all my calls for the next week. By 5pm, I'm stretched to the limit with being oh sooooo nice, and my brain aches, as I don't necessarily get the responses that I want and expect. Yeah - I'm a very demanding person.

Now the flipside, is that I love Friday as I do start early and finish early, so the weekend starts and I have business hours time to chase things. I have the weekend ahead of me to be Mum (unless there is things that I have to do due to working in IT, and updates\changes\installs have to be managed cause over the weekend is the only downtime we can get, or it the least business impacting time).

If I want to, from Friday afternoon, I can just stop and not think about the house anymore.

So this afternoon, I have completed the manic house calls.

Enquired about where the gas line and meter is at, so far from my calls this week there has been NO response from any of the escalations. So a call was made from the gas company to the planner of the company that has not been responding.... we have progress, the gas line may go in from any time between 7 May to 18 May. That's good news - a date is all that I have wanted, I can live with this, well, at least until 18 May.

Next call to the council - was told that the approval should be done by now but it hasn't but I should have a response on Tuesday. Then I just need to take all the paperwork that the council provides with the letter of approval, with my concreters quote and indemnity insurance to the council offices, where they will review and give me the permit for the crossover. YAY! Hoping that by this time next week it's sorted.

Next..... rang a plumber as we need a CCTV check of our storm water from our existing garage, to ensure that their has been no damage done via the build and from there we need a quote for a few risers to go in before we concrete the driveway. Plumber says to give him a call when we are ready to do this and has provided a quick estimate via text. That was easy!

Rang the bank to find out where they are at with the valuation and preparation of the final check. Sadly to say that this is a big fat, not done. So even if we could and wanted to, we would not be able to get our keys on Monday with NHP being completed. Oh well, never mind. I guess at least that decision is now out of my hands. Kinda relieved actually, at least when I stop and think about it for a bit.

Oh and our SMEG oven is discontinued, so we are getting the newer model - more building variations to sign and get back to Henley, confirmed all good to order the oven.

Last call was to confirm timing for our furniture delivery tomorrow - thank goodness this is between 9 - 12pm tomorrow and we can get on with our day. We'll be cleaning tomorrow morning so all good.

And best of all for Friday - as I have been typing out today progress report we have received our certificate of occupancy, with a few stipulations, this being that all cooking appliances, and hot water appliances have to be operational prior to occupancy.

Really, really, do ya think I would move into a home in Melbourne, just as it is coming into winter without gas hot water, cooking appliances being in, and no gas heater...

but then I gather that there are others out there that are quite desperate to move into their new home. Thank goodness we are in a position where we have budgeted to be able to pay rent and two mortgages. Did I say that we have no tenant in the investment property for a couple of weeks... - that's maybe something for another day.


Ahhhh today, I think I love Friday.

Furniture got delivered this morning, and it's all in boxes. This means that it can all be stacked - YAY!!!!!! The two couches fit perfectly in the gap that we have in the garage, on top of one another. The two chairs and ottoman fit in the trailer, which means that our garage now is officially full. Thank goodness that everything is in boxes, I was so thrilled to see this when the delivery guys opened the back of the truck. One problem solved.


Had to get to food this morning as we have family over tonight to celebrate the three birthdays next week. Our niece's Birthday is 8 May and then our daughter is 9 May, sharing that date with Hubby's brother's Birthday as well. Too many Birthdays together.

Anyways - we had to go past the house, in a round about way , as you do when you are stalking your build.

The front lights are back on the pillars but are now silver - not the black ones we chose, that will need to be changed.



And looks like the gas line will be going in very soon as the markings for the meter have been painted WHOO HOOO!




The front of the property is also all drawn up with blue spray paint by our concreter in anticipation of the new crossover to go in and the curb and channelling to be put back after the old one is removed. I have sent them a text not to start as we still don't have permits and also don't have keys yet.

Very impressed tho with their planning ahead though, just a couple of week to early............

Best of luck for your NHP today!!! Looking forward to the inside pics of the house.

Hi there Rachel. Watching this thread with interest. Just curious to know how much you are paying for the new crossover and the approx. dimensions? I gave the go-ahead today to do a crossover replacement (eastern burbs Melb) but I think I'm paying above market rates.

Thanks Firsttime - I'm afraid there are no more inside pics as the stairs were completely covered in cement dust so was not worth taking a photo. As there is no flooring, we only took lots of photos of defects tho. As soon we get keys and get the floors in I'll share pics.

Hi Barry - I hope that I haven't bored you to much with my brain dump of our build and I'm happy to share costs.

Our crossover goes from 5m at the street to 3.2m at the footpath, and is 2.8m long. The existing crossover will be removed and 5 linear m of curb and channel will be installed. Crossover will be built to council regulations and will cost us $3390 but the total concreting that we are having completed is $20690.

We choose the middle of the road quote but have also seen the work first hand from a number of concrete jobs that this company has completed on a small and large scale.

Did you get a few quotes and have you seen the quality of the work from the company that you have chosen?

Hey Rachael, how did the NHP go?

We have the usual list from the building inspector, some things not fixed from the last report and so more added.

Marks and scrapes and fingerprints on paint work, paint missing from the bottom of the external doors, grouting and waterproofing around tiles to sorted. or have caulking to be redone. Missing screws in our roof, clips on gutters to be installed. Dents in the stacker doors, to be sorted and gaps under the windows to be sorted on the outside, just really most of it is niggle bits and pieces to be sorted. Nothing dramatic really.

Report has been sent through to Henley last night as soon as we got it so will take it from there.

As you can imagine - now that we are waiting on the gas line - Henley has time to sort it all out.

We have received approval again from the council to have the crossover moved, as this had expired from last year. I already have the certificate of currency from the concreter and just need to find out from the council if I complete the indemnity form or if the concreter does this. If I have I have to fill this in, then I can go to the council and finalise the consent this afternoon.


Still waiting on the gasline and meter, so I'm guessing that the yellow markings last week was just a complete tease. Will ring utility company today to find out what's going on.

Will be heading to a fencing showroom tomorrow to see what options are available and what we like. For me I'd love to get some wrought iron gates for the side of the house but they will be too heavy and would need brick pillars, and unfortunately there is not enough space for this. Hubby said last night I should go by myself and choose fencing and gates. I don't think so, not after the debacle with window coverings, I'm not up to doing things twice. He can get his butt into gear and come with me.

Yet another weekend being taken up with house stuff. At least we will be good to go once we eventually get defects fixed, gas in and the magical things call keys.

On a positive side of things, we received a letter this week for the window coverings and were advised that the plantation shutters are in manufacturing and will be ready in 6 - 8 weeks.


Just waiting around for a gas line and meter...... ho hummm
.

Rachael, what's happening? Do you have a gas meter? Hope things are going ok.

Hey Bri - yeah nothing happening, Hubby is seeing other gaslines go in and was talking to someone that had said he had been waiting 4 months for detached units that he had built to have the gasline in. I rang during the week to get an update and had the rudenest person that said it was booked to go in by 18 May - two months after the request was made and guess what no gasline. Will ring on Monday to get a new date......


For the first time yesterday we had tradies onsite to start on the work on the defect listing. To get an update, I rang our SS on Thursday, so that said that I'm having to chase.

I'm quite deflated this week, we have issues with the shower backing up in the rental that we are in and whilst the agent had a plumber out the other week this was only fixed for 24hrs, so back to the estate agent but were just advised that the owner wants to get a quote from a different plumber to repair, no plumber has been out yet.

The issue is the rental was extended and the plumber can't get to the pipes under the bathrooms. We have dumped a truck load of draino down all pipes and so far this has cleared the blockage for the past two days. We also have water flooding the blind side of the rental and its pooling near the clothes line - so the plumber checked this out when he was here the other week and all the storm water pipes which are terracotta are busted.

So with blockages and pooling water, and now with all this wet soil the house is shifting and the doors are now not able to be closed - am over this and just want out.

Sorry for the rant - you just asked if the water meter was in.

How's your home going? I showed your galaxy rug to my family and they loved it and want one - they have been advised if they can find it, then it can go into the upstairs lounge.

Have you go your internet in yet?

I don't know what is going on but they are having major issues installling gas lines. SS was telling us that he's heard where houses on opposite sides of the road applied at the same time. 1 gets theirs within weeks and the other is still waiting months. It makes no sense.
Fingers crossed yours goes in this week.

oh we were having the same problems. The rental shower wasn't draining properly. Draino wasn't helping either. Thankfully we moved out before it became a bigger issue. Sound like it's a big issue there.

Is everything else with your new house done? We were able to sign to say we understood there wasn't a gas line, meter and therefore not gas appliances so that settlement could go ahead. Rather than twiddling our thumbs waiting.


No problem. Rant away. That's what this site is great for. I've ranted plenty during this process.

LOL. Rugs Galore in Dandenong South, lol.

Internet is all sorted. Yay.

Any updates for the gas line? Is there anywhere you can escalate the issue (ombudsman or gas regulator) to get a straight answer on the delay?
I’m sure if it wasn’t for home one there would be many homeowners going absolutely crazy. You’re not the first and definitely not the last to have a rant on this forum, it’s part and parcel of the build unfortunately.
Hoping for some good news this week for you. Before you know it you’ll be relaxing in your brand new house and you’ll look back at these days and they’ll be a distant memory.

Today's update - NO GAS LINE.

This is not an issue with the provider but their distributor - I have lodged a complaint with Energy and Water Ombudsman, so will see where this gets me, probably put to the bottom of the queue or with a suspect connection.


Another day of waiting - so over this.

I did call the bank yesterday to find out where are final payment cheque is at and was told that this is available at our selected branch as of last Monday - funny about that, I rang last Monday. Apparently they sent a text advising of this - the phone number that they sent it to is not one of ours. I was advised that this might have been our broker - um we didn't go thru a broker. Anyways will pick up the cheque on Saturday.

So was talking to Hubby las night and asked if we should name the house and get a little sign made up - he said we should call it Cursed.... hmmmmm not sure I'm sold on this. Might need just a few days...…………

Digging today …



resulted in...


Storm water pipe being broken






but the gas line is installed



Now pending meter to be installed.


Waiting, waiting, waiting...….

How Frustrating Good Luck!!!

Drove past the house yesterday morning and as there was a tradie van and the front door open, thought that we would pop in.


The back stackers are being repaired as there were dents and dings where the come together in the corner. So those tracks were being replaced.

I'm concerned that our beautifully stained stairs are getting trashed as the mud, complete with little gravel pieces, is trailed into the house and then up the stairs. So not looking very good at this stage.





We were surveying the back yard and the house at the back fence had a site scrape about a year or more now and the earth is falling away from the fence. Have called the number for the builder from their temp fence and have been told that the contract has lapsed but he will contact the owners for us about this. We have to have this fixed before we can move in otherwise our dogs will dig underneath.






You can see in the bottom pic where the bottom rail for the fence has dropped down into the neighbours property.

Also noticed that one of the side fences is also on the lean, so another thing to have fixed.

We have also had the pleasure of someone dumping their concrete into the backyard along with other rubbish, just can't believe this. How can people live with themselves. So selfish.


Not sure if I have posted a pic of the house with the render completed so adding here.




I have also booked our flooring to go in at the end of June, to try and be a little more optimistic about getting keys by the end of the month. Guess that this was spurred on by picking up the final cheque yesterday morning.


Will start packing up the house next weekend to put some positive vibes out into the universe that we are ready to go.



Let's see what this weeks holds - might get a gas meter and driveway in. Fingers crossed.

House looks beautiful. All the best. Hope you get to move in soon!!!