VBA Responds

So after several months of waiting (just over 6), I got a response from the VBA on both retaining walls.

Sadly it is no longer standard to issue 'built as' plans to neighbours anymore if a specific route is followed.

However, I have been completely vindicated in that the South retaining wall is now according to the plans - it would not have passed had I not been so persistent in getting it fixed - saved my neighbour the grief of having them come in to fix it after he had moved in and after the fence had been put in.

The North retaining wall has been found to not be according to design - as per my complaint.  Though there is no imminent threat of collapse, it is not according to design and that could have serious ramifications down the line.

Problem is, neither that neighbour nor his builder would listen to me and now there is a fence and a concrete walkway on top of that retaining wall.

I'll be hanging on to that letter and should we ever sell, I'll pass it on to the next owner.

Protection Works and honesty

It struck me on Friday when speaking to a neighbour that they might never have known that their retaining wall was actually classified as "Protection Works".  Could it be that (some?) builders simply never inform their clients that the work they are doing is covered by the Victorian Building Commission?

So all this time, where I've been fighting with my neighbours' builder about the Protection Works and their (the builder's) failure to follow due process and actually do the work correctly, my neighbours have been misled by their builder into thinking I'm complaining about arbitrary things?

Here's a link to the Commissions documentation for any that are interested.  Protection Works Process 

My neighbours' builder served me with the OLD version for both Protection Works, and have failed to send me the final report within the due time; and still haven't.  So last year, while this was all going on, I was gathering evidence against said builder and slowly putting the paperwork together against the construction manager who was blatantly being deceptive towards his client, and lying to us.

In the end, their site surveyor had to bypass that construction manager and go to the regional management of the building company to force them to send engineers out...who actually found I was right all along and had the work redone.  You feel somewhat vindicated, but thanks to that construction manager, it's cost me the initially good relationship with my neighbours.

What annoys me most, is that in this entire process, I have played with an open hand.  Trying to involve the one neighbour from the start ended up with an argument and no further comms.  So with the other neighbour, I tried to not involve him and just let him know that there may be a problem, and now that the VBA is involved (investigating the Construction Manager), now he's upset...even though the case was started before he even moved into his house and he is not listed as the subject of the complaint.

Sigh... does honesty actually win anymore? 

Life settles

So it's been quite a few months since an update.  Our neighbours (north and south) have both moved in and are busy getting their front gardens sorted out.  They're looking good.  Our little segment of St Arnaud Road is slowly taking shape.  Now just for some lawn on the nature strip.

So far we've not had any major issues with the house.  When it was really windy, it appears a few roof trusses snapped, but UEH was quick to send someone out to replace them all.

We finally got a sparky to mount our TV in the theater room and feed all the wires in the wall.  Looks great.  Nice and clean.

Our eldest child has started school this year at Exford and we're finding the school amazing.  Done a session at a sausage sizzle and enjoyed it, though it was a 40 degree day and the BBQ probably made it around 50 degrees where I was standing doing the meat.

The wind was quite hectic in December, as it was in most of Victoria.  But our little lemon tree has survived and is flowering now.  Doubt there'll be any lemons soon, but at least it's surviving.

We may be the first lot in Stage 11 to now have all their adjoining blocks occupied.  Which is great to hear the kids playing in the various back gardens on the weekends.

About 2 weeks ago, I heard a noise coming from the laundry when I turned on my study light at 05H50 in the morning.  Walked into the laundry and turned the light on...only to find a 'teenage' joey standing on the other side of the sliding door with his paws on the sliding door- the light from the study must have attracted his attention.  To this day, we're not sure how he got into our rear garden.  It's too high to jump over from any of our neighbours, so our best guess is that he somehow got in via the side gate (simple latch) and got stuck.  I woke my wife and we watched him on our alfresco.  He then disappeared from sight and proceeded to jump over the lower fence on our southern side - quite a brave jump.

UEH is still fixing a few things around the house.  Going around in circles really...but hey, it's their money they're wasting.

Our lawn is amazing.  It's beautiful when cut...but boy does it grow in summer.