Handover Tomorrow!!

Yes, we can hardly believe it too. I think we'll definitely be pinching ourselves if everything does to plan.

Following more screwups by tradies last week that put things in jeopardy again, it took some pushing and shoving to get the SS to agree to having the council inspection on Monday. Thankfully, it did happen, and passed.

Some wisdom we've gleaned about these final stages of the build, all of you whom have reached this stage will no doubt relate to:

• Expect that nothing you've been promised will actually take place, then you might be pleasantly surprised on some rare occasions. But you all know that already. :)
• Organise bank settlement request (and valuation inspection) early. In our case it was almost 10 days between submitting the final invoice and being able to collect the final cheque.
• Do not expect the same expediency of the builder's admin and accounts departments in issuing the aforementioned final paperwork as they do with issuing the progress payment invoices.
• Don't expect the builder's QA processes to be adequate.
• Don't expect that an independent inspection will catch everything either.
• Don't expect that the builder will agree to fix everything, there will inevitably be some compromises.
• Do organise telco and pay-TV connections well in advance.
• Expect to have "fun" trying to guess the handover day (officially, we had TWO days notice) and keep flooring/blinds/landscaping/furniture companies on "hot standby".
• Do expect that eventually The Day will arrive and you won't believe it's finally here either. 

Stay tuned...

PC Aye Aye

Hi All,

Just a quick update on developments over the last week.

Last Friday morning Tyrrells performed a final inspection report on our house, which arrived by email on Saturday morning. In all there were 40 external observations and just over 100 internal observations! Thankfully, the majority of these were superficial - pertaining to painting and plastering quality issues, scuff marks, and miscellaneous fixups. Others, like "missing sink to main bathroom" and "ensuite shower wall ungrouted" we had not expected this late in the piece, particularly with PCI scheduled for Monday.

The PCI walkthrough with our SS went for over two hours, not surprisingly with so many items on the inspection report to review. Some of the more obvious items, including the two above, had been resolved by the time we arrived, which was a good sign. We also found plenty more examples of paint quality issues that neither Tyrrells nor the SS had noticed. You may recall that the sole painter assigned to our job took 6+ weeks - allegedly for a superior result - though even consistently clean lines between wall and ceiling were hard to come by. Some items our SS did not agree to, like conspicuous chipping on many of the Brampton bricks in visible areas (e.g. near front and rear entrances) - that were apparently within the "acceptable threshold" for this type of brick (future buildees take note!)

The good news was that we received assurances that the rectifications would continue over the coming days and that the council inspection would be booked. If that happens as planned, then next week should see bank inspection and final internal and external cleans. Fingers crossed for a handover in the next fortnight!

Wishing you all a very relaxing and safe Easter! :)

Home Stretch

Hello buildees,

Since this post a week ago, there have been some positive developments, with most of the outstanding items completed, and the rest hopefully sorted over the next few days. On top of that, we have been verbally advised of a PCI date of next Monday 18th of April!

We're being cautious about getting our hopes too high about, well, anything really, until the PCI actually happens and we know the outcome, plus that of the council inspection and the private inspection we're organising. Nevertheless, it's nice to finally feel closer to the home stretch.

Here're some recent pics following the internal and external cleans.

Hope you are all getting some joy on your builds.

Promises, promises

Hello buildees,

Same as all of you who are at these final stages, we're getting served numerous promises - virtually none of them delivered - and a whole lot of nada happening on site.

After an uneventful week last week, at the start of this week we were assured that the following would take place:

• Door handles installed
• Garage door installed (has been promised for a couple of weeks now)
• Safety fences down
• Site clean
• Perimeter pest control installed
• Interior builder's clean
• Aluminium angle brackets installed above window reveals to cover gaps
• Render patched and painted - front portico and rear outdoor room posts
• Cupboard shelving and doors installed
• Shower screens and mirrors installed
• Downpipe connections

As of this morning, only the first item on the list has been done.

Our SS remains evasive on a PCI date. Apparently one of the major hold-ups is that the showers screen / mirror / cupboard shelving company (beginning with "St") is inundated with work due to the flurry of houses being completed as a result of the <$600k stamp duty exemption which came in on July 1 last year. Did these companies, especially the builders - not see this coming? Given that we have been unconditionally locked-in to our cupboard/shower screen choices for more than 9 months, why were these orders not scheduled for delivery earlier to compensate for the slow lead times?

How are you all going with your promises?