Landscape Coming to Life ..... and Looking Good!

Over the last couple of weeks, our landscaping has really progressed. Holes were dug, posts placed and retaining walls built to create the structure of our back yard landscape. We have designed a space that incorporates both decking and paving to create separate spaces, much like rooms in a house. Our landscape team have been excellent; they obviously know their stuff.

GC the landscape architect is a perfectionist and very knowledgeable, his foreman MR is a workhorse. They have provided some amazing tips and insights already, such as what levels to work off if you want the retaining wall to double as a place to sit and rest. Watching our landscape design come to life is exciting and will really cap off a beautiful home. Under pave concrete will be poured tomorrow and we will update once the paving and decking is complete.

We also had some maintenance issues that required attention. This week we met the Carter Grange Maintenance Manager and it must be noted, this guy was fantastic. He went above and beyond his call of duty. He was on time, efficient, very friendly and above all highly skilled. As an ex-accountant, he makes an outstanding maintenance man and we believe him when he says he can fix just about anything. The faults with our cavity sliding door, our sliding door and stacker door and our toilet flushes have all been rectified. Thank you DD. Job really well done.

House Feels like a Home; Maintenance Required; Crossover Complete.

Seven weeks of living and our house now feels like a home!
Boxes have been unpacked, furniture arranged, we can get at least one car in the garage and we've even had time to indulge in some fresh flowers as a reward.

It's been a really busy few weeks settling in and we're getting to learn about the ins and outs of this home.

We're still waiting on our blinds to be completed and our landscaping to start. Both of these will happen over the next week or so.

The only downer is that we're still waiting for CG and their contractor, A&L Windows to fit our sliding flyscreen mesh doors. The guys have been out 3 times to complete this job and it remains incomplete because the mesh doors don't fit in the sliding door frame. Given these mesh doors were contracted items (that should have been fitted and complete at hand over), this has been disappointing. It would be great to see either CG or A&L, take responsibility, recognise our inconvenience and their lack of attention to detail and offer some gesture of goodwill in lieu. Let's see what comes of this.

Other maintenance issues to note:
- sticky cavity sliding door (try to avoid cavity sliding doors where possible)
- hanging clothes rail in our laundry robe was missed and they still haven't attended to complete
- two toilet flushes out of three are faulty and our SS has admitted to CG having trouble with their toilets (in this case, not sure why they continue to use these toilets)
- three of our door handles have already broken or are loose/faulty
- silicon seals/beading has cracked and will require re-caulking

One win is that our crossover has been completed. This allows us to access our driveway and garage. The crossover looks really good and we're happy the angles were calculated well so our cars don't bottom out. Thanks FM for your work here. A job really well done.

Exposed Aggregate Driveway

We have a driveway!

The guys worked efficiently to get this job done so we can access the garage. They came back early to ensure everything was set before the cement mixer arrived. The cement mix is poured in and very quickly spread out and then smoothed out.

The aggregate stones can not actually be seen when the mix is initially poured. It actually looks like simple coloured concrete when first poured.

It's left to set overnight and then the guys returned the next day to blast the cement with a very high pressure hose (3000psi). Like magic, the surface layer of cement is blasted away to reveal the beautiful aggregate mix beneath.

We chose our aggregate mix from Mentone PreMix who were very easy to deal with. We are very happy with the colour choice (Nurten Standard). Our landscaper explained why the mix was a very good mix; even after the very high pressure blasting, only a hand full of aggregate stones were displaced. Lesser quality mixes would see more stones displaced, and the more stones displaced, the more the mix just looks like asphalt!

Our concreter has done an awesome job. The driveway looks great. It falls away from the garage nicely. Today he organised a guy to return to saw cut the concrete (important to ensure the concrete does not crack) and tomorrow, the driveway will be sealed.

The driveway feels really good under bare feet. It has grip. Looks great. There are different quality aggregate mixes. We are very happy with this one and very happy with the work of our landscaper and concreter. Excellent organisation and coordination resulted in a job really well done.

We can't wait for the rest of our landscaping works to start. This will transform the house to yet another level.

Landscaping Commences

We've retained Summit Landscape Consultants for the landscape architecture and landscape works. To date they have been super professional to deal with. Their quoting was accurate and detailed. Their director, GC, is a qualified landscape architect and a great bloke. Not only does he appear to have the relevant skills and knowledge - he's already given us some great "out-of-the-box" ideas which we will incorporate into our design - he also has a great attitude, very relaxed and easy to talk to. We can't wait to see what he and his team can create around our home.

Last week the machines rolled in again to dig and excavate to create the correct levels for our driveway, front porch, rear outdoor room and rear courtyard. The steel mesh and form work has also been laid out in preparation for the concrete pour on Thursday. Summit's concreter is also a great bloke who seems to be very experienced too. We've chosen an exposed aggregate concrete for the driveway.

The only problem we noted was the fact that our termite protection barrier around the side of the front porch is too high. It presently sits above the height of the garage floor (another result of the drop in garage floor height) and will need to be lowered to below this level so the concrete for the driveway can be poured over it. CG have already been informed of this and will return to rectify. They know this needs to be done by Thursday.

Post-Handover Maintenance Issues

Having had a few nights now in our new home, there are some things we'd like to point out and a few tips we thought we'd share.

1. The night of handover (last Wed), we noticed damp carpet upstairs but could not see where water was coming from because our first floor lights did not work. In the morning, we noticed the smoke alarm was dripping water and so called CG. Electrician attended and after climbing into the roof space, found the evaporative cooling unit (Brivis) to be leaking, which in turn flooded the smoke alarm and this was causing the safety switch to trip. Brivis has since attended and confirmed that there's nothing wrong with the unit and suggested that sometimes water can spill during the commissioning of the heating/cooling. As long as there are no more leaks or water in the roof space, we're happy. TIP: after your AC has been commissioned, run it immediately for the whole day at a high fan speed - this will test if there are any issues like a leak or a faulty unit.

2. You'd imagine when the house is handed over that the electrical would all be wired up and ready to go. We did. This is why we organised for Telstra to attend on the Friday to connect our fixed phone and internet.. Neither of these guys could get anything inside the house working, cause basically, the electricians had not run the wires. Again electricians attended and lucky the Telstra internet guy was a gun and was able to get our modem working and WiFi established. Phones were still playing up, and we only just managed to connect our fixed line phones today after the electricians returned today to finish their job.

3. Ditto with regard to TV. We organised Australian Antennas to attend  to install the TV antenna. This guy could get us perfect reception next to our hot water system (yes, that's outside the house, where there was a cable feed), but nothing inside the house because the coax cables that should have been laid had not been. The electricians fixed this after a few hours, but they should have been done in the first place. We hope the cables serving our pay TV points have been laid ready for pay TV. Although, since we're not planning to subscribe to pay TV just yet, we wont know this until some point down the track.

4. The Ariston wall canopy range hood (RHC6IX) is very noisy. Plus ours was faulty and a guy needed to come out and replace the motor. It's still extremely noisy, and our SS is seeing what can be done about it. TIP: use good quality ducting with high performance range hoods.

5. Our washing machine was stopping mid cycle and still full of soapy, dirty water. There was also a leak coming form somewhere. The plumbers attended today and were quick to identify and then solve the problem. The small nodule under sink where the waste is connected, usually comes out of the shop blocked at this point. You need to drill this block out so the waste water can actually travel and escape out. If not the waste water has no where to go and creates a feedback loop which essentially flags to the machine there's a problem and the machine stops its wash cycle.

6. Carpet: where carpet meets floorboard, the carpet is tucked in neatly against a metal trim. Problem is that the nails (that the carpet is held down by) can be felt here when walking with bare feet. These have already drawn blood and will need to be rectified. Our SS is already on top of this.

Things we like about this product and things we'd do differently:
- the toilets are a great shape and design (with soft close seats and lids - so the kids can't slam them down)
- the shower heads are very good and the tap fittings are good looking too
- the handles on the sliding doors are too large and make it difficult to hang roller blinds inside the architrave. Would have been better to go for smaller handles; would make for a neater blind installation
- kitchen flows really well and the butler's pantry is the best idea
- we have a much better idea about where power points should have been placed and the ones that are useless because of their present position versus the best location for furniture
- absolutely should have had a data hub. In fact this is what we wanted and what we thought we would get, but it was never reflected in the contract
- feature walls look great, bulkheads and voids look great and the glass splash backs are  a feature

No doubt as we live in this house and use it's space and features, we will come to know more about it; what works and what doesn't, the good and the bad, the way it feels and makes us feel. We will keep posting our thoughts, tips and suggestions.

Blinds should be installed on Thursday. Likewise, our driveway works are due to commence on Thursday too. More about the people and businesses undertaking these works for us. So the house is built, and now comes the time to dress it!

Finally, this is the sight that greeted us yesterday morning. This is the view straight out of our first floor windows. A really low pass by a fleet of hot air balloons. An amazing sight really. We wonder what this house would have looked like from above. Maybe we need to book a hot air balloon flight and cross our fingers the winds blow in the right direction!

Settlement & Handover - This Home Complete!

Very happy to report that our home is complete. We had our final presentation and settlement with our SS and customer service administrator on-site on Monday.

In return for our final payment, we were given the keys to our new home along with a folder containing all of the relevant certificates and documents and information related to our home. Knowing how difficult it actually is to coordinate and manage companies like electricity and gas distributors (eg Jemena) and their retailers, trades (plumbers and electricians), etc we really did appreciate that all of this "running around" behind the scenes was taken care of by CG on our behalf. By settlement, our gas meter had already been installed, with a gas line to the property present, we had electricity to the property and the heating/cooling company had already been in contact to arrange a date to commission the ducted heating and evaporative cooling. The electric roller door was working and we were given the remote controls to the garage door and the small bits and pieces identified at our first inspection, such as the articulation joint in the hebel and the plumbness of the vanity, had been rectified. The only item(s) we haven't checked yet are the items up in the roof space that were identified by our building inspector.

CG only install the home appliances once you have settled, so on the day of settlement, no appliances had been installed. However, we knew the electricians were booked in for the install the next day. So on the Tuesday, we went back out to watch the appliances being installed. At the same time, we also had the electricians add 2 more double power points (in the kitchen and pantry) and just paid them directly. The plumbers were also out to install the cooktop and dishwasher and another mob were present to install and connect up our hot water unit (which is connected to 2 solar panels on the roof). By the end of Tuesday, our home was complete and here are the photos to prove it.

Aesthetically, you will agree that CG have built a beautiful home. It looks like a display home; it looks fantastic inside and out and we can't wait to live in this house.

A few things to note:
- check the rangehood. Ours is an Ariston Canopy rangehood. Looks great, but it sounds like a tractor. It must be a fault with the motor because it's presently about 95dBA (decibels), which is way too loud, practically but also from an OH&S standpoint. Our SS is looking into this.
- our dishwasher didn't fit underneath the bench top. We needed to remove the cap on top (easy to do), which was not ideal. Given CG use standard appliances and bench top heights, not sure what's happened here.
- check your cooling plan. A big miss for us is the fact the standard CG cooling plan only provides for 2 cooling ducts to the entire ground floor (in the living room and rumpus room). This means the master bedroom and study do not have cooling vents. They do have heating vents, and we missed the fact there was no cooling as we thought the heating and cooling come from the same vents. Not the case. We strongly feel that CG should advise their clients of this fact and give them the option to add cooling vents where required.

A few handy tips:
- our bins went missing during the build. Remember to contact your council in this case to get replacement bins.
- remember to contact Telstra to arrange for your phone and internet connections.
- at the time, remember to put some money aside for a TV antenna. Hopefully an easy job as the cabling for the TV points should already be in place (we have 4 TV points), but you will need to organise this post settlement.
- remember to arrange home and contents insurance.
- remember to call Australia Post to redirect mail and also remember to redirect any newspaper subscriptions. Take note, Australia Post have been atrocious with their mail redirect service. Unfortunately, they have a monopoly on this service in Australia, so even if we wanted to, we can not take our business elsewhere. We found their mail redirection service (while we were renting) to be unreliable and inaccurate. We were able to prove this, Australia Post agreed they had not delivered the service we paid for and then slapped us in the face by offering us $20 compensation. Big deal Australia Post. This is insulting. If you experience the same problems with your mail not being redirected accurately, please voice your concerns and please don't settle for a pitiful $20 compensation. We hope you do the right thing here Australia Post. We hope you realise that correct mail delivery is a very big responsibility. If you can't do it right, then take responsibility for this fact. Either do it right or get out of business!

Finally, we're moving in today so fingers crossed for no rain while we shift. No doubt, as we live in this home we will note problems. Hopefully these are few and far between and nothing major. We have 3 months to identify issues which CG will address and rectify as required. We plan to continue this blog to highlight any issues that may arise over this period. Also, to detail our landscaping plans and progress.

Although we have settled, our SS has encouraged us to contact him with any issues. DL, thanks mate. You've really done a great job with this house. If you get this bloke, he's a great SS and a decent guy.

One final note. Yesterday, as we were shifting boxes, one of the CG directors dropped by in person. He wanted to congratulate us and say gday and to be honest, this sentiment really sums up why CG are different. Through the whole process, we felt they were approachable, amiable and mostly reasonable. They listened and worked with us to deliver a final product that on face-value exceeds expectations. This personal touch and attention to their client is really very different when compared to some of the other volume builders. So thank you CG and all those that played a part in the building of this home. May it stand the test of time. May it be a great home for the next 30 years.

Occupancy Permit Issued - a quick note about this permit

Officially, our double storey dwelling and garage is safe and suitable for occupation. The Occupancy Permit was issued on Friday and signed by the relevant building surveyor.

The Occupancy Permit does not necessarily mean that the building work is:
a) Complete: in fact a number of items still remain, including replacement of the scratched glass and the addition of mesh sliding doors. In the end our SS was good enough to arrange for our garage floor to be painted which was greatly appreciated. The downside to this is that the paint colour they used (a light grey), highlights the cracks in the garage floor. We bought a concrete filler product from Bunnings to try to fill the cracks, but there are a couple that remain (right at the lip of the garage entrance - a high traffic, and load bearing section of the garage floor) that we will need to discuss with our SS on Monday. These will need to be rectified.
b) Compliant with the Australian Standard or the NCC/BCA. That is to say, “An occupancy permit is not evidence that the building complies with the provisions of the Act and Building Regulations.”    
This surprised us, but it is indeed true. Our building inspector informed us of this when we were discussing our concrete slab issues. So this is just a note to all readers to not blindly rely on the fact you will get an occupancy permit as evidence that all aspects of your building and the way it has been build are compliant!

Where to from here?

On Monday we have a meeting with our SS and our administrator on-site to do a final inspection and to settle and handover. We hope all issues identified in our pre-handover inspections (both the one with our private building inspector and then the one with our SS) - save for the glazing issues (which we have agreed can be done post handover) - will have been rectified satisfactorily. In this case, we will make our final payment by bank cheque, and receive the keys to our home. Same day, CG will arrange to have all of our appliances installed and will ensure everything works as it should. We understand that the heating/cooling company will also attend to commission the heater and evaporative cooling.

From there, we will need to coordinate landscaping and the installation of blinds. Behind the scenes, we have also been dealing with council regarding our crossover and have already been issued with a vehicular crossover permit. The crossover will be reinstated at the same time as our driveway being installed. Some bays in the footpath will also need to be repaired.