Practical Completion - Handover

8 months in the making with the slab down on 22 October 2015 and we finally have Completion Handover on 23 June 2016.

Overall, we are happy with the building and the outcome, and had been a really good experience to go through the building process. Yes, there are some things that we would like to have considered but had we known earlier, we would have made the changes. 

Thank you Highbury Homes for making a lovely house for us with minor setbacks.

We are also grateful to our parents and all family and friend who had been sharing and following us on this journey. Thank God for His Blessings and Guidance in this our adventure.

Rear Wall Completed

The rear wall is up and finally finished and rendered. Next up is the front landscaping which will be done once the driveway is laid.

Rear Wall

We have organised for the rear wall to be built together with our neighbour's, with the approval from our builder. They have laid the footing for the wall and the bricks were also delivered. They will be starting to build up the 1.8m rear wall next week.

Preparations on the way..

As we are closing into handover, we have started preparing for the tasks and works that we will be doing at the new house.

Karen's expertise is now in play with the choosing of the interior wall colours.
Simon has started working on the wine cellar rack and completed it after a few weekends and working overtime in the cold garage at night.

We have also started packing up our things which we do not need now in preparation for the move at the end of July. We are getting busier with the preparations but at the meantime are also excited to be moving out to our new home soon.

Side Fence & PCI

Our neighbour have arranged for the pinelap side fence to be installed. The rear wall will be installed next week by developer LWP.

We had our Practical Completion Inspection with Tim on Wednesday and outlined about 12 minor items to be fixed or rectified. They will get these done within next 10 working days after which we will have final inspection to handover.

Pinelap side fence

Home Theater Riser

We have completed building the home theater riser platform.

There are 5 sub-sections (for ease of transportation to the new house) which will then be assembled, joined and secured together to form one complete riser platform. The 5th section will be assembled at the new house for accuracy of platform width, wall to wall.

4 sub-sections side by side.

With step up to platform (to be attached on site).

Fishbone supporting structure.

Ceiling Repairs

The roof inspection was carried out and look like some work was done to patch and fix the ceiling from the water leak last week.

We have not met with HH site supervisor and thus, we do not have the full report on the damage (if any) and what was done to the ceiling and roof space. We should be meeting our new site supervisor Tim this week as Walter has resigned from HH which is not quite a good news for us.

We just hope that Walter has fully handed over all the house details to Tim to follow through.

Practical Completion Inspection (PCI) - Cancelled

We were to meet up with Walter this morning for the house Practical Completion Inspection (PCI) where we will go through the entire house to check and identify any defects that will need to be fixed.

However, on our way to the house, Walter called and said that the PCI is cancelled as there is water leaking from the roof space onto the ceiling, dripping at the master ensuite entrance. Regardless, we went and were disappointed when we saw the puddle of water and water is still dripping.

Finishing Fixtures

We are on the home run stage now where all electrical and appliances are installed and ready for inspection prior to handover.
The scullery sink and benchtop were finally replaced.

The Scullery sink.

Flyscreen & Wardrobe Doors

We have the flyscreen installed to all sliding doors and windows, and the mirror + white kote glass doors were also fixed to the bedroom wardrobes.

They are going to fix the scullery sink this week and that will bring us very close to final inspection.