Scheduled completion...

We approached the builder into nailing down some dates for completion as they were closing in to the pointy end of the build. It seems all the major milestones are completed, ongoing or schedule to be started soon. That leaves all the minor fixings and installation. The builder have tentatively given us a practical completion date of the 18th of December. That is 2-3 days out from a scheduled Christmas shutdown that lasts two weeks. Prior to that we will have the final invoice processed a week before. This should enable the bank to organise a valuation so that they can process the final payment. Once final payment is received then handover can be made. If all goes smoothly, there's a chance that in those two days the bank can lodge payment and we will be ready to move in. If not, we will have to wait until after Christmas.
We then had a meeting on site in regards to concreting the driveway and other areas. We inspected the external finishings. We picked up that the meter-box was placed on the house instead of the outside the front fence. Once we told him our reasons for that, he then questioned whether a front gate was allowed. It was not on the inclusions list he was holding but was listed on the variations. He was surprised and mentioned it could hold up the whole completion plan. It seems like a whole lot of scrambling on their part as they want to completed the house by this year, but this whole gate issues has thrown a spanner in the works, he mentioned the cut off date for aluminium fencing was last week for jobs done before Christmas. He is scrambling and hopefully they can deliver. More news to come on this front.