March 3, 2023
From late January through most of February I was on holiday overseas, which probably explains why this update is late and I’ve been rather quiet on this website. Rest assured, there’s been plenty of activity on site. I was even fortunate enough to be contacted by a member of Henley’s in-house legal team.
Since works ramped up from the Xmas break, we have reached the point where my new home is almost completed. Apart from a little bit of painting to the façade of the house and the termination of electric cables at my meter box, all other works were conducted indoors.
By far the biggest, and most important job for the month was the laying of the flooring. I’ve elected to go with Spotted Gum Timbertop flooring in all areas except the wet areas, and the bedrooms – which have grey carpet.
Other than those larger jobs, many smaller jobs were also completed. The glass splashback was installed in the kitchen, the mirrors fitted to the bathrooms, as were many of those easily forgotten about jobs – like caulking around sinks and other surfaces.
As mentioned earlier, I was contacted last month by a Henley in-house lawyer. While she was a nice enough person and spoke to me respectfully, she was attempting to put doubt in my mind as to my legal position regarding access to my site.
From the beginning I have been confident of my right “reasonable” to access and have taken on some legal advice of my own. In early/mid-February I began preparing a legal challenge via VCAT to sort the matter out once and for all.
On February 20, I received an email from Henley inviting me to a “Pre Handover Walkthrough”. At this point it became clear to me that the house would be completed in the very near future.
The day after I returned home from overseas, I met with the site supervisor and the construction manager to have a chat and look through the house. Since the home was likely days away from completion, I decided to terminate my planned action with VCAT.
Looking through the house it turned out well. I can’t wait to show you the completion photos next month.