A lot of what to the outsider would look as minor work was done... a considerable amount of fixing up the internals of houses due for occupancy shortly, and within the next month.
This included touching up paint, laying carpets, and of course a number of other trades like curtain hanging, putting up light fittings, and so on.
The bitumen seal on the roads was delayed several times for various reasons, meaning that almost everyone who moved in did so on very well compacted (and watered) unsealed roads, which presented little difficulty except the fact that dust tended to come in. Also, a by product of that meant that the seal, when it was applied, would have got transferred to greater or lesser extent, into the houses.
Another job which got "left behind" was the completion of pergolas, and the extensive paving around the homes. The Community Centre carpark was still being used as a roadway right up to the day the bitumen was poured, and then the connection was severed.
We started this information website for residents today, located at http://warrinavalley.freehosting.net, well before anyone actually moved in.
Wednesday. We personally moved a number of small items into our house, including garden furniture (to allow sitting down while waiting for installers who had let us down badly). It was nice to meet the CEO and President of Warrina Homes in our nice new house; they called in their official capacity after a hand-over ceremony at which Bob Day on behalf of Homestead Homes officially presented the keys to the fiftieth residence they had completed for the organisation.
One personal problem that had reared its ugly head late on in the piece was due to the way in which Telstra, as the ONLY telephone connection provider in Australia, has decentralised its greatly reduced staff who deal with installations and customer assistance - despite there being (in theory) a number of competing phone companies.
Three weeks previously, Telstra had assigned to me a "Case Manager" (located in Brisbane, 2000 miles away) from their irate customers' service and support group, known euphemistically as their "Customer Experience Centre".
This lady was able to spend many hours doing liason work on our behalf, and finally on the day that we moved in, the first site phone connections (to our house) were actually made! This was despite the adamant assertion of the Telstra Installation Group that there were no facilities available. This was also the message other residents about to move in were being given; in fact two other residents to our knowledge had already been issued with pretend "interim" phones that actually used the Telstra Mobilenet cell phone network.
Prior to this, Telstra had insisted that there was no cabling on site, and insufficient cabling down Reservoir Road, both of which we knew to be untrue. This "Case Manager" actually took over the responsibility for ensuring that the several current ongoing stuff-ups were resolved, and that no future ones occurred. Solely through her efforts, those who moved in after we did were generally unaware of the dramas going on behind the scenes. Top marks, Jenny Roberston, and thank you!
I echo what everyone else has said about Telstra as a telephone company... their actual service people are extremely helpful, conscientious and courteous. However... their system stinks and does not work at all. They seem to have cut costs so much that organisation-wise, nobody knows what they are doing. The chaps with the tools still give excellent service - BUT ONLY WHEN THEY ACTUALLY HEAR FROM "THE SYSTEM" THAT YOU NEED HELP.
We (at No.16), and the people who had bought No.18 almost opposite, started our moving in on Friday 22nd, No.18 completing their move that day, and we the following day. The site now had residents occupying it as well as tradesmen working from 6.30 in the morning until dusk! Really it is quite novel living in a construction site!!
Incoming residents were given their two sets of house keys, and additionally a special one to an extra padlock on the chain on the front gate. This was because the workers still needed access to complete the other houses and the site.
That worked well for almost a week until someone visiting one of the few residents failed to lock the gate on their departure. A resident doing a security check within a couple of hours discovered that a vandal had deliberately stolen the chain with both padlocks on it. We were no longer secure, unfortunately, but with more people occupying the site, no problems there.
One of the site completion delays was by the company in the eastern states who conveniently had difficulties over casting the columns for the the lamp posts. This was another symptom of having to buy materials out of state, suppliers in the east being more interested in supplying New South Welsh and Victorian customers. When the columns finally arrived on site, they looked beautiful, having been powder coated locally and then installed on their concrete bases. To the left, we can see a photo of one of the first to go up... and next to it is one taken from roughly the same camera position and lit, being shot the night after.
The one on the left was taken at the time of the total eclipse - but as can be seen, it was not total as far south as Adelaide from the eclipse path through Lyndhurst and Ceduna. There was an eerie almost silvery light (which does not show on the photo), and the shadows cast on the western side of the houses looked different, somehow.
The street lights are on several seperate circuits, which allows some of them to be taken out of service for repairs if necessary. It also enabled groups to be installed and tested, and then placed in service while others were not yet placed in position.
Rubbish bins were now provided to those already onsite, and new residents provided with same on their arrival. Collections will probably settle down after the bitumen seal is placed on the roads, with the date finally set for Monday 9th.
Finally, they started to bitumise the roads!
While it was fun living in a construction site while there were only a handful of us, the novelty had started to wear off once there were many of us. For days we have had water tankers spraying to keep the dust down, followed by a roller to compact the base... in the images that follow, we walk around the site, noting progress, noting roads still needing fixing, and how far the installation of street lights has got. All in all, progress is amazing, especially when you consider how many different people are on site, often having to wait for others to do their bit, and even with deliveries and services vehicle drivers having to give way to an ever increasing number of pedestrians wandering about.
At about six in the morning, the residents of No.16 woke with a very unusual rushing sound out in the street. It turned out to be six large gas jets heating the bitumen paving apparatus just outside. So, here are some shots taken between 6.15am and 7.30am at the point where they started, at the end of the cul-de-sac of Nos.16 and 17.
The mechanised paving started a few feet out from the end, with an army of workers shovelling and tamping up to the kerbing at the end. One side of the road was paved all the way down to the road junction on the corner by house No.24, the machinery and workmen returning up the hill to do the "down" side.
Several passes were made using a roller specially equipped with water ballast which was fed under the roller to almost glaze the road surface; this performed the function of cooling the heated tar as well. Australian road bitumen, because of our much hotter summer temperatures, is of a different composition to that used in Great Britain, Europe, and the United States of America.
The Community Centre's temporary drive-through on the southern side was closed at this point, with the car park being graded, filled and compacted over the course of most of the day. They have done a sterling job, and there is now a bright red fire hydrant standpipe where the temporary exit was adjacent to what now can be seen will become the car wash bay. Some alterations to kerbing were also done.
Today they also started on the "front fence" - a wall along the frontage with Reservoir Road; one assumes that the indentation is to take the electrically operated gates. First the holes for the footings, then the poured concrete...
A Friday, the hand-over of the last building by Homestead Homes - the Community Centre. Their team left, taking their sign from behind the fence, and the remaining "humpy". Of course there will still be some work they need to complete on site, but we should recognise that they have been working six or seven twelve-hour days a week for the last six months, they deserve a break.
We understand that the fitting out of the Community Centre and all of the landscaping is the direct responsibility of Warrina Homes, and should be starting soon, probably early in the New Year. That will probably include pergolas for those who had not opted for one at the beginning, and internal joinery requests.
It seems strange not living in the middle of a building site with workman suddenly appearing from nowhere!
During this last week, houses suddenly had brass numbers affixed - either alongside the front door on the timberwork, or under a nearby exterior lamp, depending upon the house design. Side gates were also erected, painted, and latches fitted. Four homes are still unoccupied, one of which we understand has now been sold.