Counting down. Or.....not?

Since our practical completion inspection last Thursday, we've been expecting our house to be a hive of activity, with all hands on deck to meet our confirmed-in-writing handover date THIS COMING FRIDAY.

We left on Thursday arvo feeling reasonably hopeful that our nightmare was soon to end; almost cheerful in fact. On Friday morning, I looked up the street as I drove past on my way to do the school run....but there was no sign of anything happening. Oh well, it was only 8:00am. I was back just before lunch - still nobody there. Walked over later in the afternoon. Nope, all was quiet.

Saturday, nobody turned up. Sunday - bah! As if....! Today, I stopped on my way home from work, walked all around (in the mud) and peered in every window. The roof has not been fixed, the little red dots are still all over the place, exactly where they were on Thursday, and nothing, NOTHING has been done. Zero. Zilch. Zip. Three days completely wasted. Grrr.

Now they have three days left to complete everything before handover. What do you think the chances are of that happening?

I've busted my butt the past few days, organising insurance, gas and electricity accounts, blinds, steam cleaning (for the rental), all on the assumption that we would have possession at the end of this week. The flooring guy is booked for Monday to start on our floating floors, the carpet all organised for the week after, fences are going up and the concreter is ready to start the driveway any day. Just that one tiny detail to take care of....the keys?

We will not be handing over any money if the major things aren't completed, no matter how much pressure we may be under in terms of our housing situation. Call me cynical, but I think perhaps some large builders count on clients being in financial doo-doo, thanks to delays, and therefore being willing to settle for below-par work, just to get the keys.

Not us, nuh-uh. VCAT may be in our future yet....

PCI done!

PCI (practical completion inspection) took place this afternoon. AND....it went surprisingly well! There are still lots of outstanding things to fix, but the bulk of those are paint and plaster touch-ups. We still had three or four important things on the list that aren't done yet, but we've been assured that they'll be fixed.

The fix carpenter is due back any day to install deadlocks, fix a wonky shelf, adjust doors and do a few other odds and ends, and of course our appliances won't be installed till after handover. But now that all the crap has been removed and a (fairly cursory) clean done, the place is looking good. Apart from all the red dots anyway....

I'm feeling fairly confident that we WILL achieve handover next week. Hallelujah!

Nice to see our shower head finally installed. Although they did manage to damage the plaster in the process:

I love this colour soooooo much!! Can't wait to see it with the floorboards in:

Below are some pics of the place we've been renting for the past year and several months. Does anybody wonder why I DIDN'T choose neutrals for our own house? The lounge:



Kitchen. Beige, white and more beige.*yawn* STUPID layout too. And only one power point. Who builds a kitchen with one power point??



Kids' bathroom (boooooring!):



I'm looking forward to living with some COLOUR. :o)

The current situation

I'm starting at the (almost) end, but here's where we're at now.....

We're booked for our pre-completion inspection in two days' time, although there are MANY items still outstanding. Whatever. We're used to taking a nice long list to our appointments by now. Handover is set for Friday 28th November and we're pushing hard to make sure that happens.

After a "guaranteed" 20-week construction process that's actually taken 38 weeks and 2 days so far (but who's counting), we are desperately hoping to actually get to live in our house soon. I have so much more to say about that, but I can feel my blood pressure rising, so some other time.

And now for a pictorial interlude:

Facade - almost, but not quite finished. The portico beam has now been repainted in CB Ironstone to match the garage door and spouting, as has the metal capping along the top of the beam, pillar and parapet wall. Having a hissy fit works wonders sometimes:

Amongst all the beige, cream and grey houses in the street, our purple palace is sure to stand out. ;o)

Al fresco room. Those solar panels for the hot water service cost us a BOMB. Over $4000, (including the larger tank and gas booster) to be precise. I calculated that it will take about 24 years to recoup the cost in energy savings.... oh well, think of the environmental benefits:

Ensuite, taken a couple of days ago. Paint not finished, no shower head, and I swear that feature niche is NOT square, but you get the idea... Hmm, must find some feature wall lights.

Blogger isn't behaving very well tonight, so no more photos for now.

I'll be back with details of the frustrating, stressful and tedious story when I get a chance.