the ups and downs

I'm struggling to think how to start this blog. Today's been a really tough day...in fact it's been a really tough week (and it's only Wednesday!!!).

Monday was a wash-out but our plumber was able to clear the trenches, shape the last of the pits and lay the pipes - what a champion!

Tuesday the trenches filled up again with rain water but at least they are now formed and fitted with pipes, ready for the concrete pits to be poured and connected to the street stormwater drain.

As the usual council inspector was away, a fill-in inspector checked out the driveway form work and took issue with the previously-approved key joins, threatening to shut us down. He stated a different (and much more expensive) bitumen filler be used instead and key joins be removed. BIG PROBLEM.

Until now, I've been really resistant to challenge council on their decisions. I've figured it was better to adhere to all conditions, changes and costs, thinking that it would only cost us in more time and unnecessary runaround. But change, for change sake is too much. Am tired of officials asserting their positions on plans that have been previously approved and signed-off by the necessary certifying bodies. Where does it stop?

I don't know if my phone call to his secretary had much effect - the fill-in inspector never bothered to call me back, but he did call the concreter back and negotiated to saw-cut the joins in the concrete and cork the spaces. Our concreter is still scratching his head at this methodology, but at least we're back on track to pour the driveway the following day.

Wednesday starts like a dream: driveway goes down, looks fantastic, plans are set for tomorrow's pour of the lay back (the pedestrian crossing and apron to the road).



Email comes in from traffic control company (the guys with the 'stop' signs and orange cones) requesting an ROL licence. ROL licence? Never heard of it. I've had my traffic control plan drawn up by engineers, certified by council and passed it onto my tradies to book traffic control but I've never heard of an ROL.

Traffic control tells us we're on a main road (knew that), the RTA overrules council on main roads (kinda knew that), RTA requires ROL licence for any traffic control (didn't know that), ROL licence takes 10 working days (really didn't know that), need to shut down tomorrow's schedule, including storm water connection to street until ROL licence comes through (didn't want to know that).

Am searching through D.As and C.Cs trying to find how I missed this. No one ever mentioned this. How do you plan for this? So disappointed.

The upside? By the time the ROL licence comes through, the newly poured driveway will have cured enough to have trucks drive on it to pour the stormwater pits and lay back on the same day. 2 birds, 1 concrete truck.

rain, rain go away...

Since my last post on Monday, a lot has happened...

Tuesday: council agrees to meet with the arborist to resolve the tree-area digging issue but the earliest appointment is Thursday *sigh*. This means no more stormwater digging until then - making pouring the stormwater pits (cast insitu) coincide with the pouring of the driveway even trickier. Surveyor finally shows up at 4pm (was booked for Friday/Monday) and only marks 1/2 the boundary pegs requested *sigh*. At least we can now progress with the driveway accurately.

Wednesday: the driveway is really starting to take shape. 150mm of crushed concrete has been spread and compacted down - finally creating a mud-free area to walk on. Have booked the plumber to return tomorrow - praying we get a good result from tomorrow's meeting with council and the arborist.

Thursday: council and arborist meet and agree to proceed as per plans...WTF???? You, like me, are probably asking what the hold-up on Monday was all about then? No answers given - maybe just different organisations trying to assert themselves? Who cares, we start digging...and digging...



Friday: ...and digging. By Friday afternoon the stormwater pits are looking good. There are huge piles of clay everywhere, but it looks good - we should be able to finish it over the weekend. The driveway is nearly all formed up ready for a Tuesday concrete pour. It looks like we might just meet our goal to have one load of concrete delivered and poured, saving us lots of $$$ *sigh of relief*.

And then, it rained - no, it actually teemed with rain Friday night, Saturday day and night, and Sunday morning our stormwater pits look like this...



Yes, that pit is 2 metres deep!!! It truly is a stormwater pit - it's catching and channeling the rain except it's got nowhere to go.
Weather forecast for the rest of the week? Showers until Thursday. Likelihood of pouring concrete into them on Tuesday? Pretty unlikely *sigh*.

is this for you?

If you can picture yourself watching your freshly delivered pizza go cold (because your oven isn't connected to power yet) while you're sitting in a trench in the fading daylight untangling and feeding telephone cable through a conduit to your partner who's on the other end - both getting frustrated, both hungry, both tired from a long day's work, both really questioning whether this was such a good idea in the first place...can you picture yourself here? Yes? Then, congratulations - this IS for you! Me? I'm not so sure today.

the $6000 day

I can think of many ways to spend $6K in a day...let's just say that paying 2 electricians, 2 plumbers, a surveyor and an arborist is not what I would have had in mind.

So here's how a day like this goes:

Plumber arrives at 7am to start digging trenches for storm water drainage. 9am council checks the necessary measures and leaves. 9:30am arborist arrives to supervise the said digging of trenches around native trees. 10:30am digging works come to a stand-still as arborist does not agree with construction certificate plans and shuts down digging in the tree affected area and leaves.

Meanwhile, electricians arrive and require new account numbers for power boxes (phone calls to providers) and surveyors don't show up. Plumber continues to dig in unaffected area but cannot get correct levels from engineer's drawings. Phone calls back and forth to hydraulic engineer. Correct levels confirmed.

3:00pm council returns and approves one of arborist's change in plans but overrules the other. 3:30pm plumber leaves for another job - can only return in 3 days. 5pm electricians leave but will be back tomorrow to finish connecting power to the house. 6pm arrive home, get changed and fill conduit trench with sand and safety tape.

That's right, all of this happened without us even here to see our $6K being spent. This is soooo stressful. If I've ever made out that this is a cruisy project - it ain't! Trying to field the phone calls today, find solutions, not explode on the phone to my husband and prevent this week's schedule of works from blowing out is my definition of hell!

And how does $6K look at the end of the day? Like a bunch of empty trenches, lots of conduit and a pile of mess. Ughh, and it's only Monday. Tomorrow it's onto council to get a final ruling on the digging in the tree area, arrange inspections for later in the week and begin excavations on the driveway for a Friday finish. Wish us luck!

what do they say? you pay... whether it's in money or time, but you'll pay...and it's true (and sometimes in both!)

Step 1: move house (check)
Step 2: build driveway and put in stormwater drainage (cheque, cheque and cheque)

I mentioned earlier that we were having this next step project managed (our one variable cost) as we didn't feel experienced enough to carry it off but 2 things have changed our minds:
1) We moved the house. We project managed it all...and successfully.
2) The quote costs coming through from the project manager were astronomical.

We know that if we manage the process ourselves (get quotes / hire contractors / manage inspections / check work) it will take more time piece by piece, contractor by contractor, but cost a lot less. However, there is a lot to say for experience in this industry and our lack of experience has already been costly.

In the beginning we carefully budgeted what (we thought) was involved in this process prior to committing to the project. What we didn't budget for is how well council could spend our money on unforeseen conditions, clauses and local specifications. So here we are: between a rock and hard place, trying not to blow our budget on PVC pipes and concrete pits.

Hopefully, finding and hiring the right people for the jobs, getting lots of advice and keeping council happy will see us through...or are we still underestimating just how big this all is? I'll keep you posted.