17-9-08 Dots, Dissapointment and Defects

Wednesday
Last Wednesday Lou and I met with ‘K’ onsite to carry out his pre-handover inspection. When we arrived, the place was yet to be cleaned, the floor tiles and showers had just been caulked and the windows were dirty and still covered in plastic. Not the best environment to inspect in, considering we are meant to sign off that there are no scratches in the glass or bench tops. During our walk, ‘K’ picked up that some of the items on his previous inspection (Pre-plaster) had still not been rectified, items which he has again included in his new report. (Suffice to say we will be inviting 'K' to come back with us for the following inspection) Some of the more serious items he found included sagging ceiling lines/cornices, and out of plumb walls and insulation that didn’t cover full roof perimeter of the ceiling.
The more minor items included, the need for quading around the alfresco beams and garage timber where it meets the brickwork, as the finish was rough and needed to be tidied up, and uneven floor tiles which need to be replaced. While we were there a ‘chippy’ turned up to screw down the floor boards upstairs where the ‘sparky’ had cut holes for the electrical wiring. He’s going to have to come back as it appears not all of the boards have been fixed.

Friday
On Friday, we met up with ‘F’ to do our Practical Completion Inspection. When we arrived, the cleaners were just finishing and gathering their stuff, so we commenced with the outside first. The inspection process is basically where we point out defects and 'F' marks the spot with a red sticker dot and /or writes up notes. We started at 9am and then at 11.15 were told by ‘F’ that we had 15 mins left as we were only allocated until 11.30 in his diary, as this was standard. He figured that because ‘K’ had been out there already, that we could do it in that time. Wow, to anyone who has inspected inside and out of a 2 storey in the supposed ‘normal’ time frame, all I can say is ‘go Buzz Light Year’ (Yes, I've watched Toy Story too much I think). Let me just also add, that we hadn’t even come near the top level by this time. So anyway, after we went a little berko and said that this was a ridiculous time allowed to inspect our ‘new’ house, we calmed down and all agreed to meet back Monday morning, where ‘if needed’, he would dedicate the whole day to us.

Monday
So Monday morning was take two. More days off work and more arrangements for baby sitters! Red dot, red dot, red dot, red dot, red dot, Lou falls on her ar$e, red dot, red dot, red dot & more bl@@dy red dots until finally half way through the morning ‘F’ had to duck out to the local newsagent and get some more red dots. Once he returned (along with some much needed coffee's) we continued, red dot, red dot, red dot ....well you get the picture. I don’t think he counted on the place being this rough. Hold on! Did I just say something about Lou’s ar$e. Ummm, yes that’s right. Remember the wiring and the floors being ripped up? Well the "####"(many a word could be added here) guy who was meant to fix the floor boards & screw them down, forgot to ‘screw’ some of them down and Lou fell through one backwards, and as a result has woken up the next morning with a sore neck/shoulder. Wasn’t this meant to be a quality inspection?? Anyway...by the time we finished, the house looked like it had contracted the measles with red dots on every wall and ceiling.

At the end of the inspection we had used up a few hundred dots and 'F' had written 5 pages of notes. At this stage we are looking at maybe another 3 weeks before we can have another inspection of the house. The larger defects being the alignment of the walls and ceilings, will take most of the time.

Now for some photos.
I have included a couple of shots below of the now tiled alcove bench next to the fridge cavity...

and also of the bloke removing our port-a-loo and bin.

So at present this is how our place looks all cleaned up with out any fencing, sand bags, port-a-loo, rubbish bin and the landscaping cleaned up. Since taking this photo, the moulding between the floors on the front has also been painted to match the windows.