Kevin's 1st Pre-Handover Inspection 19th June '08

Well Kevin from New Home Inspections met Ian and I onsite at 1pm today, our S/S and C/M were also present for the whole inspection to go through anything that was required and action it straight away - lots of tradies were on-site today to go though the place. It was a hive of activity!!!

It took Kev two hours, which is not bad i suppose? We're hoping to have his report next week sometime.

The good thing is, there was nothing too MAJOR, structurally that Kevin found in the house, just some notations on a few issues with windows, flashing and cladding etc.

Most of the issues were cosmetic so we're hoping that we are not far away from actual handover now.


We also recieved a call from the Handover dept yesterday to book in our First Inspection next Wednesday (25/6) at 3pm. We should have Kevin's report by then so will have all the info in our hands before the meeting.

Then once everything is repaired/resolved on-site we schedule a Second Inspection and we have asked that Kevin be present for that too, to make sure that everything is spot on. (Of course)....

If we are happy with the 2nd inspection, then we can go back to the office and settle on the house and pick up the keys.

Our new B&D contemporary garage door will be installed next week which is great. We had the painters, cabinet-makers and plumbers on-site today doing their thing, as well as a glazier as the 4 glass panels in our front door had to be replaced. It seems the painters didn't tape them up and when they scraped the paint off, they scratched the glass. I would have thought that it would be cheaper to install a new door on, but hey i'm not complaining...it looks good!!!


So wait and see what Kevin's report brings. It won't be long now.....we hope??

Oh and recieved the final invoice via e-mail today too.....
(the only invoice i am actually looking forward to recieving BTW!!!
- cause it means we're nearly there!!!!!!)

Update from Tues 17th June '08

I did a quick drive-by today and found our Handover supervisor "L" on-site, armed with yellow dot stickers this time (Boy am i over these damn dots!!!). We had a quick chat, but they still seem to be dragging their feet!

"L" mentioned that we will get a call next week to arrange an appointment for a First inspection, but that won't be till the end of the month at least....

Hmmmm not happy!!!!

I know we want everthing done, and we want it done correctly, and we are even bringing in Kevin to speed up this final process. BUT, if it's 2 weeks delay for the 1st inspection, then perhaps 2 weeks to fix any issues, then schedule a 2nd inspection with Kev, thats at least ANOTHER MONTH!!!!

I mean seriously, does it take that long???

I might have to shoot off a few e-mails to try and speed this process up!!!

Watch this space!!!

Update from Mon 16th June '08

Hey everyone, sorry have been taking some time out lately....so have been a bit tardy with my updates.....

We spent last Sunday down Williamstown way. So heres some pics of our lovely city from the other side of town:

Work on-site has been a little slow...
so no real need for updates either...


BUT.........

We have been issued with our Certificate of Occupancy which is great!!!!
Sending that off to the bank tomorrow, just waiting on the final invoice to arrange a settlement bank cheque.

The house officially is being passed over to the Handover Dept tomorrow (17/6) and they will be in touch with us in the next few days to arrange an inspection day/time.

But we thought we'd move things along a bit and have arranged Kevin to come in and do his independant inspection this Thursday (19/6)- independantly of the Handover dept.

The house has had another internal clean and site clean....but it still looks messy outside and there are still some building materials on-site, so we will see.....

By getting Kevin in earlier we will be able to have our report in our hands for the inspection walk-through.... and we will be getting Kev back in again once any touch ups have been done just to make sure everything is spot on. Therefore there shouldn't be any unnecessary delays leading up to settlement.

We've picked a few things already, but we'll leave it up to Kevin to see what he picks as well. The toilet in the ensuite has been moved (we have requested an engineering report on that for our records as well, since the slab was broken and repaired to facilitate the move), all tiling completed, re-plastering and re-painting done, they still need to re-do the render which after reading Louies thread i will be interested to see how that goes. Some damaged cladding requires replacing and general things, but nothing really major that we can see at this point in time.

Getting a little more excited, but still not sure on any sort of handover date as yet!

Anyway, here are some current pics of the house for you:

And the inside (all nice and clean):

Anyway, probably no updates until later this week....
but hoping to have some good news soon!!!!

Update from 4 June '08

The electrician has returned to move the the junction boxes on the garage and the light location in the porch area.

We were told that the rangehood was supposed to be installed today, but it's not in, so we'll check again in a few days.

But here are some pics for the die-hards...

Here are some internals pics (without little red dots everywhere - yeah!!!):

No updates tomorrow though guys.
Its DS's 4th birthday tomorrow so we won't be going to visit the house at all,
but more updates soon....i promise!

We're over the Chicken Pox

Ooooh another update:

Ian went down to the house this afternoon and it seems the painters have returned and nearly all of the red dots (Chicken Pox) around the house are now gone!

There is still a few around the house, but they require the plasterers then painters to return once again, before they can be removed...

So the update is: (wait for it!!!!)

That the Handover Dept will take on the house from the 17th of June. We should expect a phone call within a few days of this to arrange our inspection with Kevin from New Home Inspections. Based on what is found on the day, by Kevin and ourselves, we have the option to return to their office and complete the settlement process and take possession of the house!!!!


I'm not getting too excited though, cause it would really pee me off to arrange things to be done and then have to cancel them at the last minute - if the house is still not ready or if Kevin finds something wrong!!!

We'd rather wait and make sure everything is 100% before settling....


Plus the timber floor installer has a min 2 week leadtime, so nothing else could be done until the floor coverings are in.

Oh the irony of it all if our moving in is delayed as a result of the floor coverings!!!!

Update from Mon 2nd June

Sorry everyone, theres been no need for updates cause the house is moving along REALLY SLOWLY NOW!!!!!!

Those lovely red dots have been sitting there looking pretty for about 2-3 weeks!!!

So what has been done on-site?

The toilet has been moved, but the tiling still needs to be grouted and the plaster wall around the tap (which had to be moved as well) requires repairing:



The mixer tap plumbing has been changed on the spa, but the plaster and tiling patch jobs are yet to be done too. This is the front view:

This is how they got access from the room behind:

Here are some better pictures of the splashback in the kitchen. The colour looks a bit bland, but with the s/s rangehood and cooktop it should break it up a bit:






The meter box internals have been wired up now, the site now needs ANOTHER clean as does the inside of the house....but this is what it still looks like:





So anyway, we met with our new C/M - "G" and our S/S - "D" this afternoon, to have a look at the past couple of weeks work and try and get that all elusive handover date!!!!!

So what we were told was, that the required 10 days notice was being given to the Handover dept tomorrow (Tues 3/6), then they (the S/S and his crew) have 10 days to fix everything before it goes to the Handover dept. Then they go through it with a fine tooth comb and we have our 1st inspection with Kevin and then depending on what Kevin finds, it would be another 2 weeks minimum before actual handover....

BOY......... IT'S SOOOOO PAINFUL!!!!!

So.......we're estimating that we're STILL looking at another 4 weeks........minimum!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know little things are being done, but still there is so much to do and so little has been done in the past 2-3 weeks....it seems like such a waste of time.

Anyway, i'm not in the mood to argue at the moment....we'll see how it goes....
Even the neighbours are asking "how much longer can it be????"


Our ETA on our blinds is the 12-15th of June, so we'll be sitting on those for a bit it seems, the carpet and timber has been ordered and once we have a handover date we can book them in too. We need to make a decision on the driveway this week....

*sigh* Everything else is arranged, now we only need the house!!!!

Some very sad news.....

I'm sorry but this is a very sad entry into our blog (i apologise in advance),

On Saturday the 31st of May, i lost my best friend of 17-3/4 years...my dog, Prince. He was a white pure bred Maltese who i selected from a litter at the breeders. He was the most inteligent and "knowing" dog i've ever had, and probably ever will.....he would communicate with sounds and you would just know, what he was after. He was so docile and not once, growled or snapped at the kids, who were at times, quite unrelenting with him.

He'd been a bit off in the past few months, drinking lots of water, urinating frequently and his tummy was very swollen. When we took him to the vet a few months ago, his advice was take good care of him, make him comfortable and "you don't want to know the diagnosis".....so i didn't ask and hoped he would be with us forever no matter what..... but i had a suspicion that he would not get to enjoy our new home.


The last few days though, he had trouble walking, being a bit stiff and just standing or lying down, and the past 24hrs, he was howling in pain and not eating. Now this dog had never howled in pain, even after been clipped by a car and even when some idiot once kicking him and breaking his hip at the socket.... I had never heard sounds like what i heard from him, in the past 24 hours... Yesterday after being in pain and howling throughout the night and morning, he lost strength to walk on his hind legs soon after lunch....

Ian and i took him to the local vet who highly suspected the late stages of cancer. She said that she felt a tumor the size of a small orange in his stomach!!! The lovely vet gave him Morphine to ease the pain but we were told that keeping him on morphine would only prolong it by a few hours or at best another day or two. She left us alone, but eventually, the gut renching desicion was made to put him out of his misery, he slipped away peacefully while i held him and listened to him breathe. We brought him home afterwards, to be buried at mum & dad's and to say goodbye to his family.

Here is his family, Prince is the father (white maltese) and Tiga (our other dog) is his son (white with black ears), my Mum has Pepi (the mum - black) and Cindy (the daughter - white with tan ears)...The other dogs are really down at the moment and Tiga now won't leave us alone....he is by our side always... they are so knowing....

These pics were taken in march last year.

Moving into our home won't be the same now...i quite frankly can't be bothered to even get excited over it any more.... Tiga will be howling, as he always does when he and his dad are separated....i'm really not looking forward to it at all....

Sorry again...