Yep, you read right. We've been guaranteed to be in by the end of this month (or else!!!!).
It's been a whole month since my last blog and every time I go to sit down and write a new entry it feels like a massive task...but here it is. Here's what's happened over the last four weeks...
Week 1
Weather: mostly fine
Trades on site: 1/2 day of brick cleaning
Result: we issued a Notice of Default and a Notice of Dispute to the Builder concerning variations made without permission / not meeting the contract completion date / failure to communicate on these items as is specified in the building contract.
Update: urgent mediation meeting requested by Builder where all outstanding items were discussed. Promises were made on completion dates / items to be fixed / more progress to be made / amendment to contract.
Week 2
Weather: some showers, mostly fine
Trades onsite: 1 day for plumber to fix-up botched job (you wouldn't believe me if I told you). 2 days of concrete cutting and remedial work on slab. 2 hours of labour on house frame.
Result: house failed Council inspection (again). Turned away insulation installation due to inspection failure.
Update: email to Builder on failure to deliver on last week's promises. Sent email list of all items to be completed (again).
Week 3
Weather: some showers, mostly fine
Trades onsite: 2 days of brick cleaning. 1 day of house frame work. Completion of slab cutting. 1 day of insulation installation on lower level (as the installer doesn't 'do' ladders). 2 days of insulation installation by us to finish the job. Waterproofing of all wet areas. 2 days of gyprocking. Some cladding fix-ups.
Result: Council inspection passed. Another meeting onsite with the Project Manager. More excuses why delays have occurred. More promises on future trades. Finally we now have a completion date. WOO HOO!
Update: we are producing a near-daily list of all items that require attention before the house can progress to next stage (and the next progress payment can be made). Yes, I know this is the Project Manager's job...it's just that he's only here once a week for an hour. Therefore, it's become ours.
We also found a crack in the slab from the cutting. It's only tiny but it's below the most load-bearing wall of the house. F%&K!!!!
Week 4
Weather: rain pretty-much every day
Trades onsite: 3 days of gyprocking. Shadow-line cornice installation (by us). 1/2 day of wet area screeding. Garage door installed.
Result: Council inspection of waterproofing (passed). 2nd mediation meeting with the Builder to cover the remaining issues (it's still quite a big list). Still no amendment to the contract.
Update: the required time frame for the Builder to respond to the Notice of Default has expired. We are now in the position where we can exit the contract, engage a new builder and the old builder must pay any financial difference incurred to complete the job.On the flip side, we are now 4 weeks to getting into our new house...what to do?
Do we persist with the goal posts in sight? Or do we cut him off before anything else goes wrong (incurring further delays to find a new Builder)? Oh, and our lease expires on the handover date...guess we're sticking with him for now...
Tuesday, 2 July 2013
Sunday, 2 June 2013
roller coaster ride
There have been plenty of ups and down in the last month.
Ups include: cladding to the exterior being installed, all electrical cabling going in, and near completion of all brickwork.
Downs include: an engineer's report highlighting all of the faults / incomplete items in the build, nasty emails from the builder threatening to drag out the build, suspension of works and the realisation that our contract was not filled out properly (no liquidation damages / delay costs stated - basically leaving us with little-to-no recourse for our builder's slack approach to schedules).
Again, it's been an awesome month of little rain and plenty of fine days, but very little trades on site. This has been a major point of contention as we are 6 months into the build and not yet at lock-up. Our builder states that the contract started when he first stepped on site (January), though the contract was signed in November...this is not in the contract.
He uses a website that records (general) rainfall data to record rainy days - even though some of these are Sundays or days when the slab was curing (great for rain), but tells us that according to the Department of Fair Trading, he is entitled to take these days as extensions...this also, is not in the contract.
In a stupid act of admission, he's noted that wet weather has not held up our build, but is using these 'entitled' days anyway (because he's so terrible at project management and has to use them to finish in time).
Our contract is a standard contract through Master Builders Association and geared towards the builder - I understand this and am not debating it. Unfortunately, we were rushed through the signing of this document by the Home Designer and many pages were not filled in. The Home Designer is not on the contract, they just facilitated the process. The builder who signed the contract is not the builder we deal with day-to-day. In fact both the Home Designer and the signing builder are nowhere to be seen...un-contactable...missing in action...you get the picture.
So now it's down to the builder employee and us. He's not happy with the vagueness of the contract and neither are we. He feels that his boss under quoted on the job and is not making any money, hence his lack of attention to our job (he actually told us this!). We feel that he should take this up with his boss, not us.
We contacted the Master Builder's Association (FYI you have to be a member to get any advice....how many regular mums and dads building a house are members of the MBA???), luckily we knew someone who is a member and asked them about our builder's conduct. They've recommend we send the (signing) builder a Notice of Default and Notice of Dispute for their wrongful actions. Is this just fanning the flames? Will this work in our favour and have the house built quickly, or drag it out even further if they react badly?
They also pointed us in the direction of the Office of Fair Trading, which is geared towards the consumer. I'll let you know how I go with this next week.
While I'm on it though, this back-and-forth with the builder, engineer, MBA and contract has sucked hours of time. Everyday my husband, or I, or both of us are spending time researching products, speaking to experts or writing letters...all in an effort to just get this house finished. I won't even start on the sleepless nights....
The independent engineer's report has been...um, insightful? No less than 17 items have been highlighted requiring immediate rectification, including a massive wooden structure built in our garage roof. Our builder told us the house had been "built to plan", but he'd put in a few extra beams "so the floors don't squeak upstairs" - like he was doing us a favour. Until this report was written, we were unaware that there was meant to be a big steel beam in our house that he'd omitted to put in, and instead installed this bulky, ugly mass that takes up vital ceiling space - that isn't even strong enough! (cue hair pulling out).
When we confronted the builder on this, he told us he had taken the more expensive route by installing the timber beams, allowed us to have level flooring upstairs and given us more headroom in the garage...all bullshit. Just another lie to cover his incompetence and obvious lack of experience.
We are so disappointed by all of the compromises we've made along the way due to his poor project management...and it keeps on going. Can you actually believe he suggested we cut our kitchen cupboards to fit the overhang of the slab (see last post), instead of fixing his mistake and letting us install our kitchen to plan? Totally lazy.
An unusual insight came from our window manufacturer yesterday...he said he often sees people having major, and continuous issues when building their house. He sees them in love with the idea of the house in the beginning, fall out of love during the process, then back in love at the end.
I hope he's right...I hope we fall back in love with our house in the end, because there's not a lot to love right now.
Ups include: cladding to the exterior being installed, all electrical cabling going in, and near completion of all brickwork.
Downs include: an engineer's report highlighting all of the faults / incomplete items in the build, nasty emails from the builder threatening to drag out the build, suspension of works and the realisation that our contract was not filled out properly (no liquidation damages / delay costs stated - basically leaving us with little-to-no recourse for our builder's slack approach to schedules).
Again, it's been an awesome month of little rain and plenty of fine days, but very little trades on site. This has been a major point of contention as we are 6 months into the build and not yet at lock-up. Our builder states that the contract started when he first stepped on site (January), though the contract was signed in November...this is not in the contract.
He uses a website that records (general) rainfall data to record rainy days - even though some of these are Sundays or days when the slab was curing (great for rain), but tells us that according to the Department of Fair Trading, he is entitled to take these days as extensions...this also, is not in the contract.
In a stupid act of admission, he's noted that wet weather has not held up our build, but is using these 'entitled' days anyway (because he's so terrible at project management and has to use them to finish in time).
Our contract is a standard contract through Master Builders Association and geared towards the builder - I understand this and am not debating it. Unfortunately, we were rushed through the signing of this document by the Home Designer and many pages were not filled in. The Home Designer is not on the contract, they just facilitated the process. The builder who signed the contract is not the builder we deal with day-to-day. In fact both the Home Designer and the signing builder are nowhere to be seen...un-contactable...missing in action...you get the picture.
So now it's down to the builder employee and us. He's not happy with the vagueness of the contract and neither are we. He feels that his boss under quoted on the job and is not making any money, hence his lack of attention to our job (he actually told us this!). We feel that he should take this up with his boss, not us.
We contacted the Master Builder's Association (FYI you have to be a member to get any advice....how many regular mums and dads building a house are members of the MBA???), luckily we knew someone who is a member and asked them about our builder's conduct. They've recommend we send the (signing) builder a Notice of Default and Notice of Dispute for their wrongful actions. Is this just fanning the flames? Will this work in our favour and have the house built quickly, or drag it out even further if they react badly?
They also pointed us in the direction of the Office of Fair Trading, which is geared towards the consumer. I'll let you know how I go with this next week.
While I'm on it though, this back-and-forth with the builder, engineer, MBA and contract has sucked hours of time. Everyday my husband, or I, or both of us are spending time researching products, speaking to experts or writing letters...all in an effort to just get this house finished. I won't even start on the sleepless nights....
The independent engineer's report has been...um, insightful? No less than 17 items have been highlighted requiring immediate rectification, including a massive wooden structure built in our garage roof. Our builder told us the house had been "built to plan", but he'd put in a few extra beams "so the floors don't squeak upstairs" - like he was doing us a favour. Until this report was written, we were unaware that there was meant to be a big steel beam in our house that he'd omitted to put in, and instead installed this bulky, ugly mass that takes up vital ceiling space - that isn't even strong enough! (cue hair pulling out).
When we confronted the builder on this, he told us he had taken the more expensive route by installing the timber beams, allowed us to have level flooring upstairs and given us more headroom in the garage...all bullshit. Just another lie to cover his incompetence and obvious lack of experience.
We are so disappointed by all of the compromises we've made along the way due to his poor project management...and it keeps on going. Can you actually believe he suggested we cut our kitchen cupboards to fit the overhang of the slab (see last post), instead of fixing his mistake and letting us install our kitchen to plan? Totally lazy.
An unusual insight came from our window manufacturer yesterday...he said he often sees people having major, and continuous issues when building their house. He sees them in love with the idea of the house in the beginning, fall out of love during the process, then back in love at the end.
I hope he's right...I hope we fall back in love with our house in the end, because there's not a lot to love right now.
Wednesday, 8 May 2013
slow as a....sunny week?
I was rather ambitious thinking we'd be up to lock-up by now. Over the past 2 weeks we've had tradies in 3 out the 12 possible dry days: 1 day of roof finishing, 1 day of brickwork, and 1 day of air conditioner installation. This could actually have all happened on the one day without anyone bumping into each other, but here we are, waiting for this house to be finished....still.
The 2nd estimated move-in date is in 3 weeks. What a joke!
We seem to be playing a game of: no action, we chase up the builder, he comes back to us with items that need decisions to be made, we make quick decisions to prevent any slow-down, then no action, then some action, then blame from the builder that he's been waiting on us for the entire time. What????
Quotes from the builder on cladding took 6 weeks. Simultaneously we were being blamed for holding up the build (?!). Finally, yesterday the quotes came through and a decision was made within the hour. No doubt he will now come back with an extra charge for some extra part that we have to pay in order to continue progressing...all in an effort to get in relatively soon.
Yes, I know what you're thinking...we're getting screwed.
If we could fire him, we would. But we can't. The completed finish date in the contract is looming and one small upside is that he will have to pay our ongoing rent until we get in. This is so frustrating. We're loosing sleep worrying, missing work to follow-up on the builder, going over budget, and still, we have no idea of when we'll get into our new house.
I really hope this doesn't continue in the same fashion.
4 weeks ago, we asked him for measurements on flooring (as we have a contact who can get it cheaper than he can). We've asked (in writing) 2 more times. Though we're not up to the flooring stage, I predict that when we are, he'll give us little notice and we'll be scrambling to make it happen. Meanwhile, he'll be sitting back blaming us for not having the flooring ready and holding up the build. I hope I'm wrong on this...
One more thing...I'd love for someone (anyone) to tell me if it is normal for a slab to be amended in so many places. I should be clear and note that the plans have not changed at all since the pour. We have not changed our minds, and all materials / plans were available for measurement prior to the slab being poured.
The 2nd estimated move-in date is in 3 weeks. What a joke!
We seem to be playing a game of: no action, we chase up the builder, he comes back to us with items that need decisions to be made, we make quick decisions to prevent any slow-down, then no action, then some action, then blame from the builder that he's been waiting on us for the entire time. What????
Quotes from the builder on cladding took 6 weeks. Simultaneously we were being blamed for holding up the build (?!). Finally, yesterday the quotes came through and a decision was made within the hour. No doubt he will now come back with an extra charge for some extra part that we have to pay in order to continue progressing...all in an effort to get in relatively soon.
Yes, I know what you're thinking...we're getting screwed.
If we could fire him, we would. But we can't. The completed finish date in the contract is looming and one small upside is that he will have to pay our ongoing rent until we get in. This is so frustrating. We're loosing sleep worrying, missing work to follow-up on the builder, going over budget, and still, we have no idea of when we'll get into our new house.
I really hope this doesn't continue in the same fashion.
4 weeks ago, we asked him for measurements on flooring (as we have a contact who can get it cheaper than he can). We've asked (in writing) 2 more times. Though we're not up to the flooring stage, I predict that when we are, he'll give us little notice and we'll be scrambling to make it happen. Meanwhile, he'll be sitting back blaming us for not having the flooring ready and holding up the build. I hope I'm wrong on this...
One more thing...I'd love for someone (anyone) to tell me if it is normal for a slab to be amended in so many places. I should be clear and note that the plans have not changed at all since the pour. We have not changed our minds, and all materials / plans were available for measurement prior to the slab being poured.
 |
| The slab is too short in this section |
 |
| ...and too long in this section (it needs to be cut back to the frame in the picture). |
 |
| This waste pipe was intsalled in the wrong position |
 |
| ...so was this one |
 |
| ...and this one. |
Wednesday, 24 April 2013
cool and calm
Ok, after my last heated post, I've simmered down (and written some firm emails along the way).
The issue of how the house is to be built has been resolved. A third party (and representative of the manufacturing company) will be installing the weatherboard. We're just waiting for quotes.
The issue was that the builder did not believe that brick could be vertically joined to weatherboard. As our house has different sections of both, he gave us the ultimatum of full brick or only horizontal joins (1/2 brick 1/2 cladding). This was not how the house company designed it or how we envisaged it. It took lots of researching on our behalf (to find other examples, manufacturer's specifications and cladding companies) to finally get the builder to properly look into it. Now it can be done, we're just getting quotes on finishes.
So the frame is completely finished (including outside area roof), the roof is on (and looking fantastic), the plumbing is all roughed-in, all windows have been installed, and the brickwork is going up. We should only be a week or 2 away from lock-up.
Unfortunately the gutters were bent when the roofers installed the big sheets of colourbond. I hope we're not up for another battle to get this repaired / replaced.
We've come to the realisation that we cannot "win" when it comes to meeting our allowances. Our house building company (on a fixed price contract) has given us set dollar amounts to spend on items (doors / carpet / taps / etc.) so we can choose what we'd like to have in our home. In retrospect we should have specified particular brands / models in the inclusions list and / or shopped around with the proposed allowances. Instead we're now spending our weekends and evenings scouring the internet and renovation warehouses trying to find items for our home within this small-medium budget.
Don't get me wrong, we could leave it all up to the builder to pick these items, but when it comes to tiles / vanities / carpeting, we'd like to see a larger range and try to get a good deal for our $. In the instance of the bricks and floorboards, we've managed to come in under budget with really massive savings on beautiful finishes. On others, like carpet, we're going to have to chip-in to have natural fiber carpet as the allowance only covers the super-synthetic stuff. It's our choice, so we pay extra.
Ultimately, the allowances are set low for us, and without a trade discount / contacts in the industry, we're having to pay more in certain areas to achieve the finishes we're after. The upside? The house is finished to our specs. The lesson? Be more specific early-on during the negotiation stage. This is our first house build and we thought specifying "reverse cycle air conditioning throughout" was specific enough...not so. Brand / model / extras would have been good...more time consuming earlier on, but better in the long run.
With the few rebates we've received from finding absolute bargains (check out: www.lightinthebox.com), we'll put these towards some little luxuries like a bigger bath, extra cabinetry, etc. We'll still be quite a bit out of pocket after this build is finished...can you believe I actually thought with a fixed price contract, that's all we'd be paying??? Huh, what a novice!
The issue of how the house is to be built has been resolved. A third party (and representative of the manufacturing company) will be installing the weatherboard. We're just waiting for quotes.
The issue was that the builder did not believe that brick could be vertically joined to weatherboard. As our house has different sections of both, he gave us the ultimatum of full brick or only horizontal joins (1/2 brick 1/2 cladding). This was not how the house company designed it or how we envisaged it. It took lots of researching on our behalf (to find other examples, manufacturer's specifications and cladding companies) to finally get the builder to properly look into it. Now it can be done, we're just getting quotes on finishes.
So the frame is completely finished (including outside area roof), the roof is on (and looking fantastic), the plumbing is all roughed-in, all windows have been installed, and the brickwork is going up. We should only be a week or 2 away from lock-up.
 |
| (inside view) |
 |
| (outside view) |
Unfortunately the gutters were bent when the roofers installed the big sheets of colourbond. I hope we're not up for another battle to get this repaired / replaced.
We've come to the realisation that we cannot "win" when it comes to meeting our allowances. Our house building company (on a fixed price contract) has given us set dollar amounts to spend on items (doors / carpet / taps / etc.) so we can choose what we'd like to have in our home. In retrospect we should have specified particular brands / models in the inclusions list and / or shopped around with the proposed allowances. Instead we're now spending our weekends and evenings scouring the internet and renovation warehouses trying to find items for our home within this small-medium budget.
Don't get me wrong, we could leave it all up to the builder to pick these items, but when it comes to tiles / vanities / carpeting, we'd like to see a larger range and try to get a good deal for our $. In the instance of the bricks and floorboards, we've managed to come in under budget with really massive savings on beautiful finishes. On others, like carpet, we're going to have to chip-in to have natural fiber carpet as the allowance only covers the super-synthetic stuff. It's our choice, so we pay extra.
Ultimately, the allowances are set low for us, and without a trade discount / contacts in the industry, we're having to pay more in certain areas to achieve the finishes we're after. The upside? The house is finished to our specs. The lesson? Be more specific early-on during the negotiation stage. This is our first house build and we thought specifying "reverse cycle air conditioning throughout" was specific enough...not so. Brand / model / extras would have been good...more time consuming earlier on, but better in the long run.
With the few rebates we've received from finding absolute bargains (check out: www.lightinthebox.com), we'll put these towards some little luxuries like a bigger bath, extra cabinetry, etc. We'll still be quite a bit out of pocket after this build is finished...can you believe I actually thought with a fixed price contract, that's all we'd be paying??? Huh, what a novice!
utterly frustrating!
(written 2 weeks ago - only published now)
I'm sick of this! Another sunny day and no movement on site. Again.
On Monday we had a meeting with the builder and home company to discuss the many issues that needed addressing. 3 hours later, I felt like we hadn't resolved a whole lot and I'm stuck writing the minutes and emailing them to everyone.
Let me list the things I'm really frustrated about (it's my blog, I can vent if I want to!):
1) Everything is costing more $$$$. What happened to the fixed price contract?
2) The slab has to be cut. Why wasn't it poured correctly the first time? Builder says the plans were wrong (they're not, we checked).
3) The framer didn't have the right set of plans and framed up some of the windows incorrectly. Now itcan't won't be changed and we're stuck with dinky windows.
4) The home company didn't merge two sets of drawings, hence, point 3.
5) The outside roof wasn't built. Now it is, but why wasn't it done the first time?? Why do we have to draw their attention to things that are on the plan?
I should be clear here...we haven't changed the plans since they were lodged to council last year. We'd just like our house built to plan...that's all.
6) The builder only received our list of inclusions for the house this week. Yep, that's right, his boss signed the contract back in November and he only found out what was included in the build cost on Monday.
We wondered why he was confused when we were discussing flooring / fences / tiling - all things we'd negotiated in the beginning.
Now we've got no one on site because the house builder doesn't believe the house can be built to plan (this info would have been handy 5 months ago). The home company is looking into an effective solution (to be honest, a lot of houses are built this way, I don't know what the builder's problem is). Until both parties find a solution, we're just watching an empty work site. Utterly frustrating.
No doubt, (another) compromise will have to be made (by us) and the cost will increase (again).
I'm sick of this! Another sunny day and no movement on site. Again.
On Monday we had a meeting with the builder and home company to discuss the many issues that needed addressing. 3 hours later, I felt like we hadn't resolved a whole lot and I'm stuck writing the minutes and emailing them to everyone.
Let me list the things I'm really frustrated about (it's my blog, I can vent if I want to!):
1) Everything is costing more $$$$. What happened to the fixed price contract?
2) The slab has to be cut. Why wasn't it poured correctly the first time? Builder says the plans were wrong (they're not, we checked).
3) The framer didn't have the right set of plans and framed up some of the windows incorrectly. Now it
4) The home company didn't merge two sets of drawings, hence, point 3.
5) The outside roof wasn't built. Now it is, but why wasn't it done the first time?? Why do we have to draw their attention to things that are on the plan?
I should be clear here...we haven't changed the plans since they were lodged to council last year. We'd just like our house built to plan...that's all.
6) The builder only received our list of inclusions for the house this week. Yep, that's right, his boss signed the contract back in November and he only found out what was included in the build cost on Monday.
We wondered why he was confused when we were discussing flooring / fences / tiling - all things we'd negotiated in the beginning.
Now we've got no one on site because the house builder doesn't believe the house can be built to plan (this info would have been handy 5 months ago). The home company is looking into an effective solution (to be honest, a lot of houses are built this way, I don't know what the builder's problem is). Until both parties find a solution, we're just watching an empty work site. Utterly frustrating.
No doubt, (another) compromise will have to be made (by us) and the cost will increase (again).
Wednesday, 3 April 2013
taking shape
Lots to report on since my last entry. Though things have felt like they're moving in slow motion, as I put this blog together, I can see lots of work has been done. Best of all, we can really see our house coming together...and it looks great!
After the slab was poured, the brickwork around the garage door and big column at the front were built to first floor level. After this was in place, the framing guys came on site (for a around 5 days in total) to build the entire frame of the house. This part was awesome. After they'd leave for the day, we'd walk through the site seeing our rooms coming together, along with views from windows and shapes of ceilings.
Now (some) windows are in, the plumber has "roughed-in", and scaffolding is up to complete the brickwork around the house (I think this will start tomorrow - weather pending). Soon the roof will be on and we'll be much closer to lock-up.
This hasn't been without some major hiccups...we're still to resolve some window sizes (due to the framer using the wrong set of plans), have the slab cut (due to the concreter's f*%# up) and get the roof re-measured (due to a misinterpretation of the elevation drawings e.g. missing an whole section of our roof!).
I cannot imagine what our house would be like if we weren't paying attention to every detail. I can only imagine it would be very different to the one we planned and designed. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a professional builder / architect / engineer by any stretch of the imagination, I just know what this house should look like and what we negotiated in our fixed price contract (more on that another day!).
If you're going down this same path of building a house, or thinking about building, my advice would be: document everything! Changes agreed upon and suggestions made...it all needs to be documented and signed off by both parties.
After the slab was poured, the brickwork around the garage door and big column at the front were built to first floor level. After this was in place, the framing guys came on site (for a around 5 days in total) to build the entire frame of the house. This part was awesome. After they'd leave for the day, we'd walk through the site seeing our rooms coming together, along with views from windows and shapes of ceilings.
Now (some) windows are in, the plumber has "roughed-in", and scaffolding is up to complete the brickwork around the house (I think this will start tomorrow - weather pending). Soon the roof will be on and we'll be much closer to lock-up.
This hasn't been without some major hiccups...we're still to resolve some window sizes (due to the framer using the wrong set of plans), have the slab cut (due to the concreter's f*%# up) and get the roof re-measured (due to a misinterpretation of the elevation drawings e.g. missing an whole section of our roof!).
I cannot imagine what our house would be like if we weren't paying attention to every detail. I can only imagine it would be very different to the one we planned and designed. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a professional builder / architect / engineer by any stretch of the imagination, I just know what this house should look like and what we negotiated in our fixed price contract (more on that another day!).
If you're going down this same path of building a house, or thinking about building, my advice would be: document everything! Changes agreed upon and suggestions made...it all needs to be documented and signed off by both parties.
Friday, 8 March 2013
slab time!
OK, so the slab is down. "About time!", I hear you exclaiming. I know, I know, this build is going really slowly. With less then 6 weeks from our deadline, we've had to reassess our lease and figure something out 'cause with the pace of this build, we could be here for a while...
After the initial brickwork was laid, the plumbing waste pipes were fitted (1 week later) and formwork put in place (2 weeks later). Finally, we were ready for concrete!
It took about 4 trucks and 6 hours to pour the slab.
After the initial screeding (smoothing of the concrete), we scattered some white stones into the patio areas so we can polish them at a later date...should look great!
So here's what it looks like 2 weeks later...(I didn't catch the tumbleweed rolling across the slab).
Does it usually take this long to get to this stage? No. So what's the hold up?
Weather has been one delay. The builder went off to finish another job / go on holiday for a week or two. We delayed it for a couple of days by trying to be there when the slab was poured to scatter in the stones...then they ended up doing it themselves :(
The builder has been trying to talk us into using oregon in the frame instead of pine. Pine was fine for us (though we can see the benefits of oregon) as we couldn't afford the extra $7000 expense. Then the cost went down to $5000, then $2000, and now they've decided to put it in anyway...for free. Personally, I think they've gone ahead with oregon as they could get it a lot faster then pine. It was ordered it 3 days ago. Yes, that's right, the slab was poured 2 weeks ago and the frame was ordered just this week.
We (almost) spat the dummy this week at the estimated time frame to complete the build. In November last year we signed on with the builder as they assured us they would be finished by mid April. Now it looks to be the beginning of June.
It doesn't seem prudent to get off side with the builder, after all, we still want this house to be built quickly and expertly (and we're locked into a contract), so we've vowed not to cause any further delays and decisive on any queries that arise.
Tomorrow should be a busy day as the frame arrived today, along with 10 pallets of bricks and a truckload (literally) of sand. Can't wait to see it all come together. I've been told the most difficult part has been done already. Let's hope that person was right!
After the initial brickwork was laid, the plumbing waste pipes were fitted (1 week later) and formwork put in place (2 weeks later). Finally, we were ready for concrete!
It took about 4 trucks and 6 hours to pour the slab.
After the initial screeding (smoothing of the concrete), we scattered some white stones into the patio areas so we can polish them at a later date...should look great!
So here's what it looks like 2 weeks later...(I didn't catch the tumbleweed rolling across the slab).
Does it usually take this long to get to this stage? No. So what's the hold up?
Weather has been one delay. The builder went off to finish another job / go on holiday for a week or two. We delayed it for a couple of days by trying to be there when the slab was poured to scatter in the stones...then they ended up doing it themselves :(
The builder has been trying to talk us into using oregon in the frame instead of pine. Pine was fine for us (though we can see the benefits of oregon) as we couldn't afford the extra $7000 expense. Then the cost went down to $5000, then $2000, and now they've decided to put it in anyway...for free. Personally, I think they've gone ahead with oregon as they could get it a lot faster then pine. It was ordered it 3 days ago. Yes, that's right, the slab was poured 2 weeks ago and the frame was ordered just this week.
We (almost) spat the dummy this week at the estimated time frame to complete the build. In November last year we signed on with the builder as they assured us they would be finished by mid April. Now it looks to be the beginning of June.
It doesn't seem prudent to get off side with the builder, after all, we still want this house to be built quickly and expertly (and we're locked into a contract), so we've vowed not to cause any further delays and decisive on any queries that arise.
Tomorrow should be a busy day as the frame arrived today, along with 10 pallets of bricks and a truckload (literally) of sand. Can't wait to see it all come together. I've been told the most difficult part has been done already. Let's hope that person was right!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)