We met our Site Supervisor on site at 8:00 a.m. this morning for our final inspection. We seemed to have been there for ages. There was so much to take-in and remember, especially about the workings of the 4,500 litre rainwater tank. The Site Supervisor also gave us a lot of helpful advice about a number of things.
McDonald Jones Homes still need to complete a few minor things including:
- correcting the steps at the front of the house;
- installing the Crimsafe sliding mesh doors to the sliding glass doors on the Alfresco Cabana and Laundry;
- installing the flyscreens on all the windows; and
- fixing the roof tiles at the front of the house where they appear to be slightly out of alignment.
All being well, the Site Supervisor will handover the keys to the new home to us on Monday 24 November 2014. That's fine with us.
McDonald Jones Homes will wait until we tell them that we are ready to occupy the new home before they install the Dux Sunpro gas-boosted solar hot water tank, the SMEG kitchen appliances, and the replacement panels for the damaged B&D remote controlled garage door (which were previously vandalised during construction).
Our concreter
The concreter has phoned us back. He wants to visit the site for a second time, next Saturday afternoon, to show us the plan he has in mind that he thinks will best suit the site and our preferences etc.
Lattice privacy screen fencing
In compliance with a condition of the Council's DA Approval, a privacy lattice screen will be mounted along the top of our eastern boundary fence within the next couple of weeks. The lattice has to be 300mm in height and will extend for a distance of 32.76 metres along most of the existing fence. A local, licenced fencer has provided an excellent quote for the purchase and installation of a matching coloured Colorbond steel lattice for us. We've decided to accept his quote.
Check your tradies and the status of their Licences!
Buyer beware!One of my colleagues built a new Clarendon home and moved into her new home in a new estate in South-Western Sydney in October 2013. She was very happy with Clarendon. Unfortunately, she and a number of her new neighbours all got stung by a number of unlicenced dodgy brothers who were exploiting them all. Post construction, they paid a lot of big extra money for fraudulent, substandard, unsafe, hazzardous, and partially completed fencing, landscaping, plumbing and electrical work. More than 12 months later, they're still fighting to have the work safely completed and costly litigation is now commencing. The authorities could possibly do a lot more to help them, if they had used Licenced Tradesmen.
A lot of this grief can be stopped if you do your research and keep researching before you outlay a lot of money to avoid being ripped-off. As just part of your research, the Link to the following New South Wales Government's website can help you check the current status of your licenced tradesmen, including their notable histories (if any). For a current Online Licence Check, just type-in the tradies name or licence number and the search engine will confirm what you need to know.
https://www.licence.nsw.gov.au/LicenceCheck/Search.mvc
G'day guys, great blog, thanks for making the effort. Could i ask for a couple of more photos of the bathroom and laundry tiles, we have gone with the same but aren't yet sure its the colour for our place. Feel free to email or pm (i can't work that out ?)
ReplyDeleteAll the best.
Hi John Paul,
DeleteThank you for your kind comments, which are much appreciated.
I don't currently have any other photos of the main bathroom and laundry. All being well, we hope to be given the house keys next Monday 24 November 2014, when the Site Supervisor officially hands-over the new home to us (fingers crossed). As soon as we get the keys and can access the house I'll try to take some more photos of the bathroom and laundry for you. I'll probably upload them onto the Blog. I'm also happy to E-mail copies to you if you would like to advise your E-mail address.
Please note that I can't guarantee that the colour of the tiles will appear as a true reproduction in the photos/images for your viewing because of the following variants and reasons:
1. When I've tried to get photos of the bathroom and laundry before, the proximity of the glass windows and the incoming direct sunlight that strikes the wall mirrors and the glass shower recess have tended to cast different-looking colours around the bathroom and laundry tiles. Perhaps if I take the photos when there's no sunlight (after we get the house keys) I might get a better result? (I'll give that a try for you).
2. I think you need to be wary about being dependent on colours that you view on your computer or laptop screens. Colours that you view on your screen really don't seem to be quite the same as true life colours.
John Paul, the colours that we selected are very neutral and will work well with almost anything.
We wish you all the best for your build and hope you'll be very happy!
Cheers!
Mark.
Good morning, thank you for your response, we accept it is very difficult to view colours on the computer. I should explain we have selected the Latte tile for all our tiled areas and i think my wife is nervous they are not the look she wanted, i believe they will be fine as our house is mostly neutral colours, hopefully giving us some flexibility when we move in. Its an interesting process having to select all the colours so long before you see the house start !
Deletemy email is ausflybaby@yahoo.com
the house is http://brontelodge.blogspot.com.au
thanks again for your feedback.
JP