Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Sahara Q1 - Post handover journey 3122Jul 26, 2015 8:09 am knyght sassid PhoenixAlessi The estate I'm building in enforces the landscaping guidelines. They send out fines and cut access to the lifestyle centre just for having one weed in your front garden!! Wow that is harsh. Fair enough if they can cut your access to the lifestyle centre (which you probably pay a fair bit annually for), but how can they enforce fining you? Caroline Springs was originally like that also until it passed from developer to council. Now all council does is puts something on your property (can't think of the phrase) which shows up on title search when trying to sell. I honestly prefer developers/council having strict guidelines. It enforces everyone to have a nice house and protects your investment. Also stops homes turning into dumping grounds/backyard garages etc. Likewise, wish they enforce estate guidelines on all houses in same way. It's terrible to see few houses in every street, growing their weeds collection for future generations. We don't want such exhibit in front gardens at least. Another thing which you will notice after handover. Builders asked to clean site and get rid of grass and weeds before site start or they will get this done and bill you for this? correct. But on handover, you will find your lovely grassy nature strip totally ruined by builder's rubbish bin. All contractors love to through all kind of crappy liquids on nature strip and it looks like a dumping yard. But they will simply remove their rubbish bin and rest is now all your responsibility to fix. We have a descent size nature strip and clean, remove all contaminated soil and refill with top soil and put grass back on, who would be paying its bill? I would be going DIY way but it still cost and takes some reasonable time. TBH found it very unreasonable practice by builders and their tradies. Re: Sahara Q1 - Post handover journey 3123Jul 26, 2015 8:25 am mirz knyght sassid [quote="PhoenixAlessi"]The estate I'm building in enforces the landscaping guidelines. They send out fines and cut access to the lifestyle centre just for having one weed in your front garden!! Wow that is harsh. Fair enough if they can cut your access to the lifestyle centre (which you probably pay a fair bit annually for), but how can they enforce fining you? Caroline Springs was originally like that also until it passed from developer to council. Now all council does is puts something on your property (can't think of the phrase) which shows up on title search when trying to sell. I honestly prefer developers/council having strict guidelines. It enforces everyone to have a nice house and protects your investment. Also stops homes turning into dumping grounds/backyard garages etc. Likewise, wish they enforce estate guidelines on all houses in same way. It's terrible to see few houses in every street, growing their weeds collection for future generations. We don't want such exhibit in front gardens at least. Another thing which you will notice after handover. Builders asked to clean site and get rid of grass and weeds before site start or they will get this done and bill you for this? correct. But on handover, you will find your lovely grassy nature strip totally ruined by builder's rubbish bin. All contractors love to through all kind of crappy liquids on nature strip and it looks like a dumping yard. But they will simply remove their rubbish bin and rest is now all your responsibility to fix. We have a descent size nature strip and clean, remove all contaminated soil and refill with top soil and put grass back on, who would be paying its bill? I would be going DIY way but it still cost and takes some reasonable time. TBH found it very unreasonable practice by builders and their tradies.[/quote] A great point Mirz! I had never thought of that. Makes me a little mad to think about the condition of my nature strip. May see if/what PD will do about it. Regarding Estate Guidelines, I found council did nothing unless notified by a resident. I regularly contact council about unruly front lawns and nature strips and find something gets done. In fact I have done this in LOTS of issues (broken playground equipment, smoking in school areas, parking in disabled spots without permit, broken footpaths etc). Download an app called "SnapSolve" which enables you to post issues direct to council and track the progress of the issues. My Waldorf 48 Blog: http://gisbornewillows.blogspot.com.au/ Sahara Q1 - Post handover journey 3124Jul 26, 2015 8:26 am Double post My Waldorf 48 Blog: http://gisbornewillows.blogspot.com.au/ Sahara Q1 - Post handover journey 3125Jul 26, 2015 8:27 am Double post My Waldorf 48 Blog: http://gisbornewillows.blogspot.com.au/ Re: Sahara Q1 - Post handover journey 3127Jul 26, 2015 10:23 am That's the way. I'm doing very same thing to keep surrounding clear out of mess. We had two big truck left across the road for over a month. A phone call to local council removed both of them within a week. That's not builder specific, you will notice similar practice by most of builders. They take nature strip as war zone and leave them for owner to sort out after them. I noticed builders are very careful with footpaths and crossover. Council must be hitting them at hip pockets for breaking or cracking them. At handover day, builder rep will take photos of footpath and crossover as proof they handed over in good condition. So pls keep an eye for broken footpath or crossover on handover day. Anything reported after that, you would have to pay to council. Re: Sahara Q1 - Post handover journey 3128Jul 26, 2015 10:54 am You can climb up to check in start. Also make sure all ducts are 8" in diameter and not 6". Here is pics of upgraded unit: Thanks Mirz, Ducts seem to be R1.0 rated and start at 14" then taper to 8" so looks ok. Need to check the unit to ensure it is the higher spec'd unit. cheers ------------------------------------------- Build Thread - Mainvue Emporio ER430 KDR https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76790&p=1332227&hilit=mainvue#p1332227 Re: Sahara Q1 - Post handover journey 3129Jul 26, 2015 10:56 am I did notice that our council took note of the damages to footpath and crossover before the builder started...not sure if there was any note of the condition of our natures strip...it's close to extinct now See the pink markings there - that's when they made a visit for re-establishment.. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Build thread of our Monaco Lux Q1 - https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=76750 Update: Handover - 2 Sep Re: Sahara Q1 - Post handover journey 3130Jul 26, 2015 2:52 pm mirz For Sahara Q1, Henley is using HX30i not HX35i. If you ask your admin, she should be able to tell you exact upgraded model for your house. In tender documents, it only reads 5 star Energy rating unit, with two zones, and two network controllers. It doesn't state exact model. Heating company initially installed standard unit, with no zones and one basic controller downstairs. Basic heating unit has no model number written over it. You can climb up to check in start. Also make sure all ducts are 8" in diameter and not 6". Here is pics of upgraded unit: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ and here is photo of zoning motor Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Sahara Q1 - Post handover journey 3135Jul 26, 2015 8:01 pm Hi Mirz, I have just recently started following your journey and am about to commence building Sahara Q1 with henley. I have finalised sales paperwork and now awaiting colour appointment. Can I please ask, with your kitchen - did you pay to increase your island bench width? (make it wider for base cabinets to line up with the benchtop?) Can I ask how much this was?? I think it looks much nicer how you have done it. Re: Sahara Q1 - Post handover journey 3137Jul 26, 2015 8:30 pm Izzyb hi Mirz does the manual day the model number? You will receive two manuals, user and installation. But both are general, and covers all Brivis models. These manuals won't tell you which model heating unit is installed in your house. Re: Sahara Q1 - Post handover journey 3139Jul 26, 2015 9:10 pm SamiraC Hi Mirz, I have just recently started following your journey and am about to commence building Sahara Q1 with henley. I have finalised sales paperwork and now awaiting colour appointment. Can I please ask, with your kitchen - did you pay to increase your island bench width? (make it wider for base cabinets to line up with the benchtop?) Can I ask how much this was?? I think it looks much nicer how you have done it. Congrats on finalizing your house. Exciting times ahead for you. Our kitchen benchtops are in standard width. Only change we made was thickness of island benchtop to 40mm. That was around $900. We have only two heating zones, upstairs and downstairs. To get zoning you'll have to upgrade heating unit too. It costs us around $2100 which included following: 1. Upgraded heating unit to 5 star rating unit. 2. Two zones. 3. Two network controllers, one for each floor. Also we paid around $220 on top of that to have extra heating duct in common bathroom upstairs. Re: Sahara Q1 - Post handover journey 3140Jul 26, 2015 9:16 pm confused_fhb_2015 I did notice that our council took note of the damages to footpath and crossover before the builder started...not sure if there was any note of the condition of our natures strip...it's close to extinct now See the pink markings there - that's when they made a visit for re-establishment.. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Don't think council or developers take any notice of nature strip before and after build. Everyone thinks here comes another fella, he will fix it, lol. On a side note, make sure your fixed Site covers boundary re-establishment fee. We were lucky in that our old house was so small (86 square metres) compared to the new house, they were able to take enough readings around the old backyard house before… 8 37292 The concreter will take and reuse. In my case I bought structural LVLs and scraped them back and used them as joists. 1 5191 you need to understand the breakdown of warranties. 90 warranty is considered as minor defects rectification period where as the longer ones are more major/structural… 1 5374 |