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| Moved some plants over, still has to be landscaped |
Drama #1: Nice neighbour at the rear of our block told us his is an investment property and he didn't want to go halves on the fence. His nice wife gave me a earful too. As per the Fences Act 1968 there is a legal obligation to contribute so a legal notice sat in their mailbox last week to which they have 30 days to respond. I can understand if they were hard up and wanted to work things out but turns out that they are very wealthy and have several properties. Also that they do intend to build there to downsize so the investment property was a load of cr*p. It might be naieve, but I dont get why people just cant be fair and do the right thing. That's one neighbour whose not going to get a 'welcome to the estate' bottle of wine from me. And if the rugrats turn up the volume in the backyard, they'll just have to buy better ear plugs.
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| View from the balcony, Dandenongs in the background |
Drama #2: After three weeks of being in and no mail DH copped a earful. So he went to Bunnings and picked up a cheapskate letter box. It stood a bit wobbly in a brick but at least allows us to get mail. Later that night we talked about solar panels and decided nope, wasnt for us just yet. End of discussion. Tuesday morning a tradie rocks up and says, dunno how to break this to you, but I was supposed to install panels on the house down the road but you have them instead. And that will be $3k please. To borrow a phrase - what the chicken? Anyhow, many discussions and a bit of venting later turns out it was an honest mistake. They drove down the main road, took one look at aforementioned cheapskate temporary letterbox and decided this was the place that needed the solar panels. So instead of suing the guy, we agreed to pay costs and no more. Good Christian folk and all, even if I dont go to church, so now there's even more light in our lives.
Which brings us to Drama #4: We chose this lovely house. Well, DH did, and I agreed. The original plans showed a porch/balcony and I wanted one. But when we went to the next stage, there was a catch. Even though the plans showed a balcony and porch if we wanted one we would have to cough up a couple of grand. So we did. And now we are the proud owners of one leaking porch/blacony. The plans show a timber balcony and I have no issue with that. The issue is the balcony leaks. Now when you see the plans any reasonable person will think aha! the porch is meant to provide shelter and when you are under a porch, raindrops shouldn't be falling on your head.
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| Porch now has a deck, thanks Adonis! |
But they do. And not a little but a lot. The gaps in the timber means the water flows down and out. A design flaw I think, doesn't meet the definition of a functional porch to me. So I contacted them builders. And now it seems we'd have to cough up some more if we want a waterproof porch. So step through that again - some $$ to get a porch/balcony that was in the original plans and some more $$ to get it to function with tiles instead of timber. I don't want tiles, happy with timber but don't want leaks. Off the Building Advice Commission for their thoughts next week.
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| Underneath the leaky porch |
Everyone who stops by loves our new house, but has the same reaction to the porch. Not good enough they agree. Especially if they happen to stop by when its raining. Design flaw or defect, doesnt matter. Its a safety hazard for one. Wood rots in the rain and there's no protection stopping anyone from going through the balcony if it does. And secondly my beautiful new merbau deck done by handsome Greek guy, is getting ruined in the rain. It's crying out to be fixed.
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| Just soaking in the rain |
Between neighbour at the rear, the solar panel guy and the leaking porch, Mum's not happy Jan here. Then again its Easter, and so I'll stop being grumpy for a bit and get into those dark chocolate eggs till the break is over. And then look at ways of fixing all of this.
PS: I must add all the other neighbours are just fantastic!
PPS: Will also add these key dates, just in case I forget:
Site Start: 18/08/10
Fencing and Portaloo: 20/08/10
Pipes and Meter Box: 23/08/10
Slab poured: 30/08/10
Frame started: 06/09/10
Frame Completed: 20/09/10
Roof completed: 23/09/10
Brickies started: 28/10/10
Scaffolding started: 17/11/10
Lock up: 15/12/10
Move in: 11/03/11
