Saturday, March 29, 2014

Comedy of errors

The last few months we have lived by the saying "if you don't laugh, you'll cry". That has definitely been the case for us for quite some time. 

We have tried to remain positive but find it increasingly difficult given that we have encountered just about every error that is possible when building a home. 

We have heard every excuse. On occasion we have had emails unanswered. Put simply, we have had enough. 

We are building this home with the intention of it being our 'forever home'. My next home will be a coffin. Bearing this in mind we will ensure that all issues are fixed. 

I think I'll let the photos speak for themselves. 


Rain head collector spot be moved to the side if the parapet. The right hand side of the parapet to be tidied up.

Cracks appearing in front porch pillar. 


Somone didn't nail in the 'skirting timber' (not sure what it's called) on one section of the eaves. 

Cracked WIP door frame

Kitchen wall is not straight, causing the architrave to sit out. 


Rear sliding door is about 10mm out of square. 


Just some of the damaged door frames and window frames/sills








The hole for the aircon/heating vent. Someone tried to turn this into a manhole and started cutting around it. 

Damaged internal door

Wall not square. Or skirting. Unsure which... 




















Thursday, March 27, 2014

Get a handle on it!

Our front entrance handles were put on our doors yesterday. It's a little crooked, I can spot these things from miles away. The builder knows and said he will fix it. I was excited to see our proper doors hung. I think they look much better than the temporary doors :)

Corinthian Madison PMAD 106 front doors

In other news we have had the external door fitted to the downstairs powder room. It was the wrong door. The door we ordered had a window in it. Just another thing to rectify. 

The hole was routed out for all of the recessed handles for the sliding doors. The holes have been routed out for the tall narrow handles... We chose round handles... Just another delay whilst we wait for the doors to be replaced. 


The rest of our internal door handles were also delivered so I assume they will be fitted shortly.

The upstairs balcony frame will be extended out in the weekend so our balustrade guy can fit some extra supports underneath to hold the weight of the glass. It will be exciting to finally see the finished size of the balcony, even if it is only just the frame. 

We have received a proposed driveway plan from the driveway company so now it's down to picking what colour exposed aggregate we would like. We have a list of colours and addresses to drive by to have a look at the colours. I have a feeling the colour selection is going to be a hard decision! 


Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Retaining wall blocks

We had the blocks for our retaining wall delivered yesterday. The retaining wall will run parallel to the front of the house and will form a wall for the driveway.

besser block retaining wall

We are using besser blocks which will be reinforced and core filled with concrete. We will eventually render the wall so that it matches the front of the house but that will be a "after handover" project. 

The construction of the wall was meant to commence today. Although we received a call from the company last night who stated that they can't commence as the scaffolding still hasn't been removed from the front of our house. Our builder (well, our temporary site supervisor as the actual supervisor is currently overseas) has been notified and has assured us he will see what he can do. 

At this stage the wall has been delayed to next week.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Internal doors

Some of our internal doors were hung today. Some of our skirting and architraves were done today too.


Corinthian Impressions CMB internal door

Theatre room doors
Corinthian Impressions CMB internal door

WIR double cavity slider doors
Corinthian Impressions CMB internal door

Our front doors waiting to be hung. 

Skirts and arcs






Monday, March 17, 2014

Kitchen cabinetry and stolen basin :(

I spoke to the cabinetmaker today who confirmed that they did indeed leave three basins on site last week. That means we have had a basin STOLEN!! To make matters worse I've been told that the builder was present and aware that they were there. Why the builder left them there when they were under clear instruction to NOT leave any items we have paid for/supplied on site is beyond me. 

I have sent an email to the builder requesting that they replace the stolen basin as they had left it there against our wishes. 

Anyway, onto the good stuff. 

Our kitchen cabinetry was installed today. Cabinets are Laminex CrystalGloss in Palladium.

crystalgloss palladium

crystalgloss palladium

crystalgloss palladium

Spot for microwave in our island bench. We collected the microwave and trim kit and took it home as we didn't want to risk it being stolen like our basin was!
crystalgloss palladium microwave island bench

Our pull out bin
kitchen pull out bin

We have Einstein fitting our temporary doors... This one doesn't clear the timber steps. I hope they don't get damaged :-/  The proper door will swing the other way so why this door was hung like this is beyond me!

Fingers crossed they FINALLY fit the external doors this week and actually secure the property. 

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Doors and delays, over it!!

So... It would seem that things are going to be moving at a snails pace again. 

Our internal and external doors were delivered last week but these have not yet been fitted. The chippie who works on our house is lucky to spend 4 hours on site (on the days he bothers to turn up) so I'm not holding my breath for the doors, skirts and architraves to be fitted any time soon.


Even though we were at 'lock up' late January we still do not have the house secured. There are temporary doors in place for the front door and garage internal entry however these are not locked or secured in any way. This annoys me soooo much as I have busted people having a sticky beak through our house. Especially now with the timber floors, timber stairs and cabinetry in I'm even more concerned about the hose being unsecured. To top it off the chippie hung the garage internal entry door so that it swings into the garage and HITS THE STEPS!! I'm mean seriously.... Who does that!?! Before hanging a door wouldn't you check to see that it won't hit anything. The door can't even be opened all the way. I understand it's just there temporarily but it's the possible damage to the stairs I'm worried about. 

I'm also annoyed because I arranged for our tiles to be delivered (also paid for by ourselves) because I stupidly listened to the builder when he said that the external doors would be delivered, fitted and house locked up last week. This now means I have 1.5 tonne of tiles in my garage which I cannot deliver on site because the house isn't secured. I can't even park in my garage now.


Our kitchen has not been installed but this would be because I gave the builder strict instruction that anything I have paid for (I purchased the kitchen doors and panels as well as the microwave and bin that is already fitted) is NOT to be left on site whilst the house is not secured. I did not want to risk damage or theft to these items as they're not covered by the builders insurance and they cost me 1000's. 

I was rather annoyed that two of our bathroom basins were left on site (we supplied these ourselves too) so I took these today as I didn't want to risk them being stolen or damaged. I did initially supply the cabinetmaker with three basins so I'm hoping that the cabinetmaker only took two on site - otherwise it means that one has already gone. I hope that's not the case as those were expensive basins!! 

I had a good look at the internal window frames today. There is only one that isn't damaged or warped. I suppose that's what happens when they're left outside exposed to the weather for months because the framing took so damn long. 

I've tried to remain patient with this build and have not blogged about any of the negative things but it is becoming increasing difficult when it has now been twelve whole months and we STILL are not locked up and secure. 

To top it off it appears that tradies do not give a shit about damaging property. We have had chips taken out of our plaster walls when the doors were delivered, corners dinted, our timber deck was covered in cement from the brickies and now it's stained by the acid used to wash the bricks. The brickie was THE MESSIEST brickie I have ever seen. How he managed to get mortar across all the windows (if I didn't know any better it looks like he threw it on the windows on purpose) I'll never know. There is still some mortar on the windows even after the acid wash. I am afraid that some (if not all) of the windows have been scratched from the mortar. I will not be accepted scratched windows and these will have to be replaced. The walls that the plasterer sanded back (the plasterer was magnificent too, he straightened all our walls as the chippie did a terrible job of 'straightening' them) now have timber glue on them from the guys who laid the timber floors. 

I'm sick of paying for furniture storage as originally we were told we would be in by Christmas. As a result of the delays we cannot put our current home on the market until we move which means we will be paying two mortgages until our home sells and settlement takes place. 

Just between storage fees and additional mortgage payments this place has blown out by 10's of 1000's of dollars just in delays. 

I understand that a custom home on a difficult site takes longer and is more difficult to build. However I would expect that after 12mths the house was locked up. I would also expect that when paying top dollar for a home that the tradies would take a little care around the place. 

I cannot wait to move in and hopefully have the headaches behind us. 

I will not tolerate dinted walls, window frames that are not straight, scratched windows or any other sub-standard work. Before we signed the build contract I advised the builder that I was VERY fussy.

I'm getting over it very, very quickly. 

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Timber floors and cabinets

99% of our timber floors were laid today and all our cabinetry went in except the kitchen. I assume that will be done tomorrow. Floors are to be sanded and polished closer to handover. 





Bathroom 

Powder room

Wall of cupboards in the laundry

Laundry cabinets 

Pull down laundry hampers
built in laundry hamper basket

Ensuite

Mancave powder room 










Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Stairs are in!

Our solid timber stairs have been installed! They will look awesome once they're sanded and polished.

Looking up from the Mancave. The spiral around the corner to upstairs. It was too dark there to take photos on the iPhone. 
tasmanian oak stairs

I tried to take a picture looking down the stairs but it was a bit too dark
tasmanian oak stairs


These are the steps between the garage and the house 
interal garage access tasmanian oak stairs

The electricians were there today cutting out the downlight and their power points etc. 

I think the timber floors are the next thing to get done. 


We took down the painted plaster today and to our surprise it looks like we are swaying more towards Dulux Teahouse.