we are thrilled with how the bricks look. :) yes it was horrible to go 6 days with the place being empty of workers. Glad they weren't there in a way the day before though as we had visitors down and were able to show them through the house which was exciting.
S.S. is in negotiation with the brickie atm over some brickwork he isn't happy with. I will try again to grab a photo. I missed when aiming with my phone camera yesterday. The steel Lintel? over the garage is thicker than standard mortar so when the brickie did the surrounding bricks they've ended up crooked and on one side the mortar is cracked. I think he wants to see if the brickie can cut the offending bricks down and re-lay them so the mortar line looks nice and straight. Fingers crossed it all works out. Great to know the S.S is on the case for us. And thanks to boliver who noticed it and made Hubby more keen to mention it. Though as it turned out the S.S. had already spotted it and was chasing up a solution.
Ok Had a few wins today.
Small but promising. I'm almost too scared to mention them yet since nothing is in writing but here goes.
Win1.
We've been on to the council about some screen plantings the developer was meant to do as part of the requirement for subdividing and selling the land. Council guy can't understand how the land changed title to us without it being chased up as the plantings haven't taken place. He wasn't working the job back 9 months ago when it should have been chased up. Anyway he's written a formal letter to the person responsible for organising it and asked for a response with information by the 16th. Spoke to him today and he said that in the letter he's told them that the plantings have to be done by the 1st of July. he also said he will continue to follow it through if there is no response by the 16th so it seems he's determined to keep on their tail. Woohoo. They should have been done last year and in a way I regret not chasing it up then but we thought we were being nice and since we had other dramas at the time with the developer we were sorting them out last winter instead. So the upshot is that 3 rows of dense mature buffer vegetation will be planted before we move in. JUST. The plants have to be from at least 150L container stock so they will be a substantial size. They have a 10 m deep area to plant them in and must allow for a 3m firebreak before the planting area. So there is plenty of space. The council is holding some sort of bond to force the developer to do the plantings and usually this is enough to ensure he does it. ( he gets back more than it would cost) BUT obviously some how it wasn't enough incentive. Perhaps because the land is so rocky and for anyone without the machinery ( developer has the machinery) it would cost a bomb.
Win 2.
The variation paperwork is on the way for us to sign. The builder has given us a $440 credit towards the cost of the additional earth works required for the leech drains. This takes the cost of them down to just under 2 .5 K.
Hmm always something good before the fall is my concern. Let's hope not in this case.
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