Landscaping complete

The landscaping is complete and most of the maintenance items have been taken care of. Mind you, it did take some time, but probably because we are getting close to Christmas.

Here are some pics of the landscaping. The plants are a bit smaller than we would like, mainly because the wholesale stock was depleted at the time by the retail nurseries and the landscaper only wanted to use the "good" wholesale nurseries. We added some extra plants as well because the design we had might have made the garden look a bit sparse.

The neighbour behind us pinched 5 of the larger pavers according to the landscaper!

The white patch on the retaining wall was patched and we need to paint it.


Once the plants grow, you won't be able to see the pavers on the lower level and there won't be too many gaps between the plants. They're all native plants apart from the trees, which are dwarf magnolias.


Garden lighting near the deck


Water feature at the end of the deck. The photo doesn't do it justice.

Maintenance Inspection

We had our maintenance inspection today. There were only about 15 things on the list. Most of the issues are from movement as the house settles. However, we've had our other trades fixing little issues as they go. Some of the issues already fixed by our trades:

Roof leak from tile not sitting correctly (caused an external light to fill with water and short out).
Render not done properly at the front
Colour-blind apprentice electrician wired neutral and active back-to-front in a power point.
Crossed neutrals in some of the RCDs causing the power to cut out
Wiring the smoke detectors together (required by law)

Weeks ago, we had some urgent issues fixed the same day by Eden Brae, including a gas leak from one of the bayonets and some missing powerpoints.

Landscaping proceeding...a bit slowly

Our landscaping is progressing slowly. The landscaper has a couple of large jobs at the moment so we're all sharing.

Here are some photos of the driveway, retaining walls and pavers out the front. The walls still need to be rendered and painted:

The letterbox still needs to be constructed and the two pillars either side of front steps will have stacked stone.

The pavers and stepping stones. Plants and trees will be going in the blank areas with dark mulch and lucky stones. We are using natives and Dwarf Magnolia trees.

Here's some of the plants going in these areas:

Water feature, planter boxes, steel frames for timber screening and framing for the deck. If you look closely, you can see a drain trench beneath the deck frame towards the right. The water feature still needs a course or two of blocks, the spout and will be clad with stacked stone.

The plants to go in the planter box and beside it:



Ashlar pattern stepping stones. These stones will have a groundcover planted between them and lucky stones. Here are some of the plants in this area:

Wrong Fireplace installed!!

We realised this week that the fireplace installed is not the one we paid for. We paid for the top model from JetMaster and instead received the mid-range model which is a minimum of $500 cheaper. After discussions with Eden Brae, it was discovered the fireplace was changed because it would not fit in the space provided and the site supervisor told Jetmaster to install the mid-range unit. None of this was discussed with us and we were never notified of the change. Had we not checked the contract we would not have known.

At least Eden Brae came to the party immediately and will provide us with a cheque for the difference but we were disappointed the substitution of the fireplace was not even mentioned to us until we discovered the difference ourselves.

We have moved in now and our appliances are being installed tomorrow.

We settled....now to finish off

We settled last week with only a couple of minor issues. The laundry tap needs to be replaced because it is the wrong one and the exhaust fans in the bathroom need to be ducted to the outside (to compky with BASIX). The tap will be replaced on Friday and the exhaust fans will be replaced as soon as they are available.

The liquidated damages was reassessed and we came out with quite a bit more than the builder's original assessment. I think both parties are satisfied.

The splashback issue was resolved by moving the rangehood lower to meet the splashback. After speaking to the rangehood manufacturer, the rangehood is above the minimum height required so there are no real issues. The electrician appears to have thrown out the instructions though.

The landscaping has started now. We had the design done by Bird's Landscape Design and we are using Mirage Landscaping for construction. They're not the cheapest but they seem to know what they're doing and actually care about the job. The hard landscaping is being done first while the soft landscaping, irrigation and plants will be completed in Spring.

Here are some photos:

Footings dug for retaining walls. Notice the electrical (that was supposed by done to 600mm by Eden Brae is actually at 300mm).

Footings out the front (the exposure on the camera was set wrong).

Treated pine retaining wall down the side. These guys mix their own concrete and it's much better than the 'Rapid set' stuff

Reinforcing for the concrete footings and drainage for planter boxes. There's quite a bit of steel in there. At least the camera exposure was right here.

Poor and Good Service

Yesterday we had another look at the premises and found a lot of faults still weren't rectified from the the pre-handover inspection of 2 weeks ago. The construction manager was out there with the site supervisor. We've found the construction manager the most professional of all the staff at Eden Brae.

After giving a spray about the service in writing (mind you it was backed up with facts and examples and wasn't too emotional), the construction manager rang us today and is going to sort out the remainder of all the issues. We are no longer dealing with our site supervisor and dealing directly with the construction manager and area manager. The construction manager is very unhappy with the service we've received.

The construction manager has also kindly offered to pay for another inspection from Howard Ryan to make sure everything is A-OK for settlement. This sort of service is above and beyond what we would expect but it's nice to know despite all our problems there are some professional people at Eden Brae willing to go the extra mile.

Liquidated Damages

Yesterday we received notice of our liquidated damages. Basically, after taking an extra 22 weeks than the contract sign date, they've claimed 3 weeks extension for the 3 weeks until site start, 5 weeks for over Christmas because the contract says they can, even though their workers were back after 2 weeks and another 8 weeks of weather delays. The overall amount was 6 weeks x the rental guarantee of $380 per weeks. They've tried to get out of the additional penalties listed in the contract.

Eight weeks of weather delays is a bit much even though we had some rain. We've asked for a breakdown of which days they are claiming and what trades could not work those days because the contract still states that the "in the reasonable opinion of the builder" work could not be carried out. If the trades involved are plasterers, how can they claim rain delays?

The most ridiculous comment was when they claimed in their letter of damages that we hadn't paid within 5 days of the invoice date. Our first invoices were received on 5th November 2007, with an invoice date of 19th October. The builder has obviously back-dated the invoices.

Have a look back at some of our posts where you can see the progress, considering the brickwork claim was dated 16th November 2007 (brickwork was clearly not complete). The internal linings invoice is dated 21st December 2007 (the roof was still being done and the insulation and electrical hadn't been started).

You are kidding!!

We think the photo says it all - look at the gap between the rangehood and the splashback:


The rangehood has to be a certain distance from the cooktop for safety reasons. However, it looks like the instructions given by the builder to the splashback company weren't so clear (even though the plan was).

Another not-so-good repair was to the laundry window, which needed to be reglazed because the door had the wrong glass in it:

The bottom corner is not straight and the bottom frame piece is bent so much it has split at the nail.

We really are at a loss for words at this point.

Pre-handover inspection completed

We had a pre-handover inspection last week, along with an independent inspection. Most of the faults are minor. Examples include corrosion on some door furniture (requiring replacement), the laundry tub needs to be replaced, some brickwork and roof tile fixes, paint imperfections and so on.

The inspection from Tyrrell's showed up a lot of internal paint imperfections but didn't address any external faults. Our independent inspection report was used to point out things Tyrrells missed plus the external faults.

Here are some photos of some of the faults with sticky notes indicating the area that needs to be rectified:

Paint imperfections and door not sliding correctly


Sideways view of fridge space with leaking water point and a couple of marks on the wall.

Chipped render above the window. This fault was not found by any inspectors.


Tiles not complete. Apparently, this defect was already due to be fixed during a "roof service" EB always do before handover.

Here are some more positive pictures:


Front elevation. The pergola and fascia has been painted Jasper and the render colour (Wattyl Slate) is now complete (though hard to tell with the shade). Our landscaper will be coating the brick piers to the left of the front door and right of the windows in stack stone:

The kitchen with the glass splashback. The far powerpoint still needs to be screwed in (the electrician was probably fishing the cooktop powerpoint just under the bench).


The fireplace - the feature wall colour is Dulux Capsicum Red

Bricks cleaned..but a major issue with the re-bricking

We had a major issue this week because when the bricks were redone at the front of the house, a draw-wire that was installed in the brickwork by our automation contractor (for pulling wires for a video doorbell) was moved away from it's original position and then mortared into the bricks. A draw-wire is useless if it's in the wrong position or you can't pull on the draw-wire because it's buried in mortar!!! The builder may have to pull out a lot of bricks to fix the problem.

The bricks were cleaned this week. The side garage door frame copped a hammering (again) from the acid because the frame had not been protected. The building inspector we hired told them to protect the door before cleaning the bricks but some people don't listen. We've been told the corrosion will be scraped off before they paint, so we'll see.

Have a look at the photo:


The brickwork is mostly good........

....but some of the old faults like bricks overhanging the slab (disguised with lots of mortar)....
....and cracked bricks in certain areas (under alfresco doors)...
Unfortunately, because the builder has tried to re-use the other items around the bricks, we have some other faults, especially with the pergola on the front elevation...
The timber cross beam doesn't reach bricks, there is a gap with the guttering to the bricks and the round moulding is not flush against the bricks....

....and the front board is split at the second bottom nail and chipped at the top.

Our patience is wearing thin with all these issues that just keep continuing to occur. The positive thing is we are making some progress.

Re-bricking pretty much complete

The re-bricking has pretty much completed and the eaves have been lined again. The bricks still need to be cleaned and some render is still required above the front door and around the side of the house. We still believe there are some brick defects (overhanging slab) but overall the brickwork is a lot better than beforehand. Unfortunately, there's quite a bit of damage to the colourbond capping over the bricks that will need to be repaired or replaced.

Here are some photos:

The front elevation has been completed and the timber fascia above the entry has been replaced. The fascia will be painted the same colour as the front door.

The entryway. The rendered brickwork above the doorway has been replaced with face bricks. These bricks will need to be re-rendered and painted.


The alfresco area brickwork is done and the ceiling is pretty much lined, apart from the cornice.


An odd articulation joint. Articulation joints normally line up with the edge of the window. We'll get the inspector to examine this joint.


Damaged render finish on the front facade. The lining is probably covering more damage.


The capping on top of the bricks is all bent. It used to sit almost flush with the brickwork.


From the side, you can see how the capping is bent and doesn't sit straight on top of the bricks.

The kitchen bulkhead has been modified to fit the rangehood. Eden Brae have accepted responsibility for the rangehood when it goes in and the rangehood will be "corniced"around. The hole in the wall on the right will accommodate a touch screen and video door intercom.

Re-bricking continues

Last weekend we took some more photos of the re-bricking. It's coming along slowly. Unfortunately there is dried mortar all over the gas meter, electricity meter box and Telstra phone connection cover. We're hopeful they'll fix these issues without intervention from us.

Unfortunately, the sparky installed some lower power heat/exhaust fans (and hence cheaper) than we specified in the bathrooms. We've reported the "mistake" and are awaiting the result.

Here are some photos of the re-bricking and the kitchen glass splashback that has been installed:

The front of the house protected from the elements with Enviroseal. Good idea considering the weather this week. The fascia board still hasn't been replaced and now has "Dune" roof capping.

The side of the garage up to the side door has been done.

The alfresco area and rumpus room are coming along

We asked for Clipsal 375W heat/fans and these are HPM 275W heat/fans (you can see the HPM logo if you look closely)

The kitchen splashback has been installed. The photo doesn't really do it justice.