Hickinbotham Torquay Mod - Rear Verandah done

driveway - check
now to clean up my garage so i can start parking in it after easter

love the dark concrete for the driveway. starting to look a lot more finished

yep it is. Seeign the way it looks now i have decided once the house on the left is done im going to do white stones around the edges for about 2 feet but coming down level with the mailbox on the right side and then artificial lawn for the area outlined by the white stones .
The white stones will continue all the way down the side of the house and along the back fence.

I am so over dust and also chasing up builder over the few remaining issues - i dont even bother following up more than once a week now, but will not be as patient at the 3 month mark. but at least the list if getting smaller each week

Just want my brickwork fixed up - the holes and the non compliant window sills. (one side of house has 3 windows and all are at different angles (2 of them are almost flat)
they also need to come back and do more intense clean on several sections of my bricks - the maintenance guy has cleaned my porch bricks twice now and while you cant see the marks then as soon as what he uses dries they come back as even bigger smudges - most of the marks are a result of paint or grout on tiles with some being mortar stains as well. Have drawn their attention to the photos in my inspection report that show the same marks on the bricks

had a big huntsman next to my side table as i went to bed last night - saw him when i plugged my phone charger in
Lucky for him he co-operated with my broom and went out the front door.

We have had absolutely nothing fixed since the end of February! 😡 ss ignores us,maintenance keeps following up but still no reply or anything. Absolutely useless!

well electrial work fixed up and now have conduit behind my dishwasher and the electricity monitory device i was required to spend $436 dollars on as part of the estate requirements is as i half expected a piece of s***

why did the electrician bother installing something that is not solar compatible in a house with solar panels installed
would have rathered being given the box and giving it to soemone else to install who could have benefited from it.

with nothing turned on it shows my usage at 4.2kw.
turn on the AC and it drops to 1.2kw usgae despite my solar system telling me i was using 4.5kw and exporting .5 to the grid still
Made it clear upfront their was a solar system installed on premises and trust the fronius smart meter connected to my inverter over this crap

now i will have to pay to get it removed so that i can give it away
but will test it again tonight to see how accurate it is by night time anyway

well the device gives accurate data at night time
estate encumberance manager advised he will look into the updated devices
no response from builder though as expected

and on a positive note the house next door started siteworks today
wont be to long now till i can get my side secured and fence finished off.
and once their driveway is done i will do my front landscaping

well the holes in my brickwork where patched and look as if they never existed








Fedup1 - that last picture showed the weepholes in my front porch area - all my paving and concrete is between 75mm and 80mm below dampcourse. Picture was just showing result of the builders maintenance guy cleaning my bricks - just creating a bigger grout smudge

all resolved re my window sills. the one that looks flat and i was advised might need remediation work is actually correct angle but only protrudes half the standard distance due to garage door which makes it look flatter than it actually is.

all i have oustanding now is my laundry tiles to be checked by tiler and then the timber that has been put under my kitchen bench supports to be removed and the bench support height rectified

and slowly making a list of things for my 3 month defects list - looking hard for anything i can.

Someone recently decided to take a spin down my footpath using a caterpillar track vehicle. starts site next door and goes past me and another house then onto vacant land. Made a mess on the sidewalk - looks like mostly dirt though but did put a 4inch long chip in my driveway crossover - not happy.
havent been able to pin down who or when either but it is being looked at - occured sometime prior in the week prior to monday lunchtime or so but expect more recently has i would like to think i would have noticed it (i think monday morning myself)

That is terrible that people don't take more care

yep - meant to put up a picture



there is actually a footpath under this and you can see the ground compressed where whatever it is was unloaded/driven down the footpath

It is being looked at by the Developer

Good you have pics of damage and the tyre tracks

I have made a habit to take pictures of every little thing.

well nothing eventuated about looking into the damage as expected. could not pin it down to anyone so i get to wear it. Will get it fixed when i'm doing my landscaping which will be as soon as neighbors build is done and i am looking forward to that as my front yard is a bit of an eyesore but will do small cleanups to try and tidy it up a bit beforehand when time and weather permits but i have cleaned out and sorted my garage now and that extra space i added has certainly come in useful for a freezer, small workbench, tools and bike storage

hard to believe its been over 3 months now but have finally collected my last boxes from storage and unpacked them.
going through my defect list i'm convinced i'm missing stuff as it doesn't seem very long so having a last look for issues this weekend before sending it in

Sent of my defect list today - was sent nearly 2 weeks late but they where aware and had advised no problems
I kept delaying it looking for more issues as couldn't find many to document other than the few remaining issues left over from my handover inspection plus 2 doors that have bad hinges and have come out of alignment - leaves me worried about other doors down the track

however have noticed another small indentation in my driveway will get my concreter out to look at it next week and also repair the damage from last month

can see some stark differences between builders currently
house next door (different builder) was slabbed last weekend in april and has been at lockup since last week at least. 3 doors down by same builder as me was slabbed one week later and is being lined this week but still has no bricks delivered let alone started.

well builder has rectified some of my defects so far but a few from handover still remain - apparently their kitchen supplier and also tiler will be in touch . meanwhile they sent out a post defect fix survey form, wont be doing that till my remaining ones are done - i was originally told tiler would be in touch at least 2 months ago

And to top it off in the last week or so i have started turning of power points a lot more frequently when im going out and realized today that the double power point used in my study doesn't turn off. both of them are on regardless of the switch position.
Will be escalating this tomorrow for an Immediate fix as consider it to be a safety hazard.
at handover i checked all power points worked but obviously didn't check all of them to make sure they where off when turned off

I never would have thought of checking the powerpoints like that, but will now for ours. Hope the rest of being the defects done gets done quickly now

was very quick response and electrician was here by 12. only took 10 minutes - was a faulty wall socket. but they did another minor piece of remediation (cleaning up loose electrical cable left in roof by aircon installer) and asked if any other electrical issues while they was here - didnt have anything else though

well down to last 2 things on my repair list and had a good talk to the carpenter/maintenance guy who came round this morning and got advise on best way to fix up my skirtings - joys of doing skirtings after handover

noticed today that my concreter has come back and fixed up the dent in my crosover - cant even tell unless looking closely that it has been patched.

like i have read here in other posts less than 5 months after handover and all the stress i had during constructions about progress and what was being done or not being done is a distant memory.
Amazing how 6 months ago i thought I had minimal furniture yet somehow i have still managed to end up filling this house up.
while i have had thoughts of things i would have liked to have done differently i am very happy with the way things have turned out and if i ever built again would probably choose hickinbotham again.