Lesson learnt

It's been such a hassle being overseas.  Yesterday morning I received a call from an unknown number (08) which I thought might be from Westpac.  I emailed my PA P and asked him to call it, but the number was not valid.  Then in the evening I checked my bank account and realised that the bank had paid my builder the final amount.  Although I had got mum to fax the authorisation for final payment, in the documents it said that they would only transfer the money when they had received the building insurance certificate.  So I hadn't expected them to transfer the money until I got back and had done my final inspection and given them the building insurance.

George had emailed me about the landscaping but had not given me a definitive answer, saying that the issues were a result of 2 parties being involved in the landscaping, ie. not claiming responsibility.  So with this unresolved issue and my building inspector having not done his inspection, or I mine, I didn't want to make final payment until I got back.

After realising that the money had been transferred, I had to quickly hurry to the shopping centre, buy an international calling card, come back and hotel guy helped me call.  But it was after business hours so no answer.  My calling card was 100peso card which was equivalent to approx 11mins calling time.  But I was able to get another 100peso calling card last night from one of the Cebuano brethren.

Today woke up early at 7am which was 9am Aus time.  Rang the number, spent 10mins waiting and then found out I'd called the wrong department and they were going to transfer me to the right department.  So credit ran out and I didn't have the correct number.

I emailed P to ask him to call D to so she could go on gchat to call the bank for me.  Explained context to D on gvideo.  She rang bank, and it took ages.  Bank said that because it was 80% complete they didn't need insurance - doesn't make sense as it's final payment.  As money had been already transferred as my builder's account was also Westpac, the only way I could get money back was if I asked the builder if it was okay to get money back.  I emailed George to say bank would be transferring money back, and at the same time, Monika emailed me the receipt for final payment, so I also told her.  D called bank back to say that builder had agreed, they asked who she had spoken to, D said George, and then I told her Monika - couldn't tell the difference between male and female!  They said they would sort it out - not sure if they believed her.. wait and see.

Such a headache!

Moral of the story, don't go overseas when your house is reaching completion.

Landscaping headache

So before I left for hols, I tried to make sure all the loose ends were tied up. One of my concerns was coordinating the landscape with the grass. Gave everyone the relevant numbers and plans. 

Then on Friday I received the invoice from grass guy with an email saying that more grass was needed to be put in, compared to what was on the plan. Alarm bells. What would be done differently that it needed more grass?

Emailed P to ask him to take photos.

Got the photos last night. Not happy.

Firstly, big mistake is Dw1 POS was fully grassed, so that there is no garden bed along the north side fence and therefore no canopy tree - required by council.

2nd, Dw2 POS was meant to have garden bed / lilydale topping on the north side of the fence - not grass.

3rd, DW2 POS grass was meant to start from edge of laundry steps onwards to the deck, so that I could later pave the area from the laundry steps around to the garage for my mum and it would be easier to access the clothesline. Instead the grass goes right up to the steps.

So I estimate about 9sqm more of grass than required - approx $650.

Also, it doesn't comply with council.

I emailed the grass guy and he said the builder or maybe it was Dale was on site at the time and that's what he was told to do.

So now waiting a reply from George.

Tying up loose ends

I'm now in Singapore. Before I left had so many things to do. I hope the landscape gets finished in time for the grass. Managed to get grass guy to install it all on Friday. Dale was telling me one thing - that I could only do POS1, George another - that I could do all of it. Am on roaming but won't answer phone calls bc it's too expensive. Before I left called my land surveyor on the Friday. Really should have done it earlier. Left a lot of things to last minute which I could have done earlier. Anyway, he was telling me I needed to get town planning and drainage inspection before statement of compliance could be issued. Couldn't get in touch with George so I organised the drainage inspection for the Mon i come back. Later spoke to George and he said that he would organise it. Anyway yesterday got a call from my land surveyor - but didn't pick up. Sent email, no answer, so had to email P my PA to ring them. He did, and they emailed me back. Just needed to know who was organising the inspections. Have to get Mum to fax my final inspection. Needed to get the invoice amended as the variation for the tiles and carpet hadn't been done - ended up being quite a lot $2.5K credit. Was going to get P to fax, but he said he didn't know how to do it... what? Who doesn't know how to fax?! Also wanted to find out about who had done the stone for my benchtops, to see about the possibility of getting my splashback done in stone. Luckily I had noticed a sign on the benchtop and taken a photo of it which had the number. P called up, and mum too. But I have a feeling it can't be done as I've looked at the Caesarstone website and it says that I need a minimum of 200mm from the stone to the edge of the flame - which I don't have.