i'm interested to know too. i'll let you know when we get our first power bill ( we have refridgerated ducted a/c)

made me poorer, more cynical and to distrust most tradies.

thanks a lot for your kind post...
We sorted out the issue, not ideally, but it will have to do. The retaining wall was moved 2…

probably could get away with a 1m wall - maybe 1.2 at the highest end, but I could always shift dirt across so that it was 1m the whole way…

we made the block flat - they had the front flat, and the dirt was pushed to the back, but there was a bit of fall on our land, so…

no - but thanks for your useful post. It's my fault if anyone's - i get that. I just assumed (obviously wrongly) that my builder may actually care what I…

err I don't - but when it comes to building (which I am not an expert unlike yourself obviously) you hope that you will be kept well informed. My builder…

you can only learn what you get told. No-one told us there was an easement - yes, now that I look at the lot drawings it seems obvious, but the…

thanks for the replies everyone... Yarra Valley Water is the water authority. I've scoured their website and found nothing on the matter. I don't want to call and give details…

our house is 2 weeks away from being finished!! our block was unusable because the builder pushed all the dirt from the site cut to the back. We go the…

why the rush to be in pre christmas? Hopefully you're not in the same boat as me and my wife. Our rental lease expires on the 23rd of december. we're…

yeah but it's the council who issues the certificate of occupancy isn't it? So they're going to check out the block before they issue that. And i'm worried that they…

thanks. no we didn't hit anything at all. All we did was make the rear of our property the same level as the level of our house. THe builder pushed…

no idea, and don't know how to find out either...

We excavated our property without council approval and I've since found out that we had a 3 metre easement. Now I'm absolutely paranoid that the retaining wall (that we need)…

we're madly rushing to be in my chrissy too. doubt it'll happen though!! they reckon handover for the 18th.... but they keep draggin their feet

depends on how extensive it is! Ours is basic landscaping including a driveway (exposed agg) and dripline system, for $11k... That's only the front though. As a…

just commenced? If I said - I just yawned - I wouldn't assume you thought I yawned 8 days ago.... 8 days can be a fair bit…

Baileyana i think they're called.....

huh. doesnt seem fair. by the time the first progress payment is due, construction has been underway for a while - it hasn't just commenced... I would have thought that…

keep your eyes peeled. We would have payed about 10k plus more on other things that H3nley were charging us for that I found out about including (not limited to)
-…

yes and legally the amount should be agreed upon by both builder and owner. However H3nley was ******* and did not allow a negotiation on the amount of damages payable…

the home i wish i could build:
- %100 self sustainable solar or wind powered
- costs nothing to run - 10 star energy efficient
- 2 story home, but…

i second this request!

this thread has been done to death - do a few forum searches, there's plenty on it.

go ahead and get them seperate. we did - it looks fine, osprey with ice snow. There's no issue with 'room flow' - you can never see the two side…

yes i wonder if that's actually legal to post up here anyway..... privacy infringement?...

yeah - it is a typical breakdown from landscapers. Our front landscaping is costing about 11k (including driveway) - so by no means are we sticking to the suggestion (can't…

you can't expensive taste if you're going to do all that for only 35k. I've spoken to numerous landscapers who suggest you will get 'basic' landscaping for about 10% of…

i don't really understand the tactic behind it anyway! if it's at night time, you wouldn't notice cos you'd be asleep. And a burglar wouldn't be able to find anything…