PCI date set - happy happy day!

Well my friends our SS called yesterday, true to his word, and we have been booked in for "presentation" next Friday at 3pm.

I will say at this stage I am "cautiously optimistic" that all will go ahead and hopefully we won't have too long a list of defects..

I am hoping handover will be sometime in the week of the 16th - but I suppose that all depends on how much needs to be rectified doesn't it?

All I know is if this rain doesn't let up the finishing of the exterior painting and external site clean are going to be very difficult to achieve by next Friday!

Fingers crossed everyone!!

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Dummy suitably spat.

Well, I did it. Today I gave in and wrote an email to Metricon stating our displeasure with the speed at which our house was being completed (or not so much completed actually..).

Despite constantly hearing from our SS that "things are under control", "everything is booked in up until completion", and "we are ahead of schedule" I was sick of not actually seeing any action - and after a week of total inactivity last week with this week shaping up to be the same I decided it was time to follow in the footsteps of Sandrine over at Craig & Sandrines BLOG and make some noise.

So I penned (typed) a fairly long email outlining our frustrations and suggesting that perhaps Metricon needed to address some issues which may or may not include - poor planning, poor communication, lack of trades, lack of resources and the distribution of resources to single storey homes (as they have a build time guarantee whereas double storey homes do NOT!) over doubles.

Within a few hours we received a call from our SS who happened to be in the office when the Construction Manager and Building Manager received our email.

Lo and behold - we will have PCI by next Friday. Maybe that would have been the case anyway but I feel better having let Metricon know what I think of the service they have provided so far.

Wish I had done it WEEKS ago.

Hopefully (how many times have I written THAT word throughout this build??) with PCI next Friday at the latest, we should have handover 2 weeks later, and should be in the house at the end of May.

Now to get moving on organising that independent inspection.

Easter Shutdown - another rant!

Well is seems our site has experienced an Easter Shutdown this week.

Absolutely NOTHING happened on site this week - yeah its a short week but four days is plenty of time to have achieved something (ANYTHING!) on our house.

Guess what the hold up is THIS time?

The carpenter ran out of Tasmanian Oak boards for the Outdoor Room ceiling. And Metricon's supplier has run out of the boards. Seems to be an ongoing theme with our build doesn't it?

No idea why the multitude of other things still to be done didn't happen however.

Here is a list (probably not exhaustive - just my layman's observations) of items still to be done (as much for my own records as the blogs):

- Front steps incomplete
- Portico ceiling still to be fixed
- Garage door to be fitted
- water tank (after handover??) to be installed
- hot water system to be fitter (after handover??)
- step into garage to be finished properly
- external and internal painting & staining to be finished
- bricks spot cleaned
- entire site clean
- house clean (interior)
- front door glass to be reglazed (or door replaced) to reflect contract (translucent glass paid for)
- laundry cabinet doors to be refixed
- patch wall in laundry
- patch holes in toilets where carpenters attempted to fix toilet roll holders and missed
- tilers to finish in laundry (after wall patched up)
- rectify the fact that I can see daylight out of one corner of the kitchen splashback window
- add extra shelves to pantry
- extra shelf to walk in linen
- powder room door handle to be fitted
- outdoor room ceiling to be finished
- master balcony - 2 panels of 'matrix' cladding chipped in corners
- kitchen cabinet doors replaced (have been sitting on slab for over a month now - scratched)
- flyscreens fitted
- shower screens fitted
- mirrors fitted
- deadlocks on 2 doors not fitted
- dent in roof over study to be rectified
- electricians to finish fit off

I bet there are more items to be added to that too..

I am fast running out of patience with the bad management of trades, resources and deliveries, the lies and continual missed deadlines.

Next week is week 35 of the build. According to our SS, he was under the impression the build time is 32+5 weeks for Xmas shutdown. That makes it 37 weeks.

At this rate we will be lucky to have PCI inside 37 weeks.

Jason phoned and text our SS yesterday and he told us about the delay with the materials - and said he was trying to get the cleaner there today (what - they have ONE cleaner too??) but he was "running out of days". No shit Sherlock. He told me LAST WEEK he was getting the place cleaned this week - why wasn't it organised then?

He also said he would be onsite at 10am today and would call us then. No call. Jason called him 3 times today - no answer or call back.

Not Happy Metricon.

Week 34... Hello? Anyone home?

Well folks another day on site yesterday saw another day of zero activity.

Our mail redirection has lapsed for a few days so I have to endure the torture of going past the house to pick up our mail thats haphazardly stuck in the site fence so it doesn't get pinched until the redirection starts up again tomorrow.

Might cover my eyes today - LOL.

I did say my money was on PCI being next week didn't I? Wonder if I am off the mark there too?

Our beds are now all ready for delivery as well as the lounges, fridge, tv unit, coffee table..

Hope I dont have to make too many more calls begging stores to hold onto our goods just a bit longer!!

Tick Tick Tick..

Drove by the house today.

Twice. (No, I'm not that crazy - daycare is around the corner!)

Deserted.

Not exactly off to a good start for a short week in which our SS 'hopes' to have presentation is it??

In other news - our lounges are ready to be delivered!!!

Now we just need a house to deliver them to ;)

Saturday Surprises

I had the pleasure of sneaking past the house today and was pretty happy with the amount of progress that greeted me.

As I knew, the brickies had been and tidied up lots of loose ends which is fantastic. The meter box has been moved (which is fab as an electrician friend had questioned where it was previously..), the original hole in the wrong side of the house has been bricked up, the windows have been finished, outside the powder room (where the window was moved over) has been fixed up and we now have front steps and a step from the garage into the house. Must've been a problem with the front steps however as one is missing.

In other news- the front balcony balustrade is done, the wardrobes have been fitted out, the wardrobe doors are on, the linen cupboards and pantry shelves are in (although I added an extra shelf in the pantry and walk in linen which haven't been done (I'm guessing someone didn't check the plans! ).

Kitchen cupboard doors are still on the floor (and have been moved again!) - I've had a look and there are scratches on the bottom so will be mentioning that to our SS.

FINALLY the largest bank of stacking sliding doors has been properly packed underneath, is level and shuts - happy day!

Some pics:

Excuse the light - it is a miserable wet day here today and it was raining at the time.

Front steps minus one? Or maybe they have allowed for fill? Pretty sure there are 3 on the plans

Wonky light ;)

Step in garage - exciting stuff huh?

Walk in pantry shelves - one more to be added

Gyprock STILL to be patched in here - then tilers need to come back. Doors removed under sink for some reason too..

Outside powder room windows - hows that for an exciting photo?

Step into garage - to be finished off I assume :)

Powder room - mirror still to come

Wardrobe doors fitted

Balustrade fitted - on plans its states ' aluminium handrail' - I don't remember choosing a colour for it but I must have!

Linen cupboard #1

Wardrobe doors - master bedroom

'Matrix' panelling fixed - and corrected after our SS saw it and wasn't happy with it (neither was I so I'm glad he agreed!).  Looking forward to seeing it painted.

Two out of these three panels have chipped corners..

Looking back into master bedroom

Looking from Master Bed back through house

Ensuite - shower screen to be fitted. Cannot wait to see the house clean - its SO dirty!

Looking out to Master balcony

Master Bedroom

My walk in :) To be fitted professionally after handover!

Walk in linen cupboard

Ooops - chipped door - walk in linen cupboard

Looking through leisure room to Master Bedroom

Coming down stairs looking into study and entry

Cut out in loungeroom - view will be much nicer post landscaping!

Kitchen and family room

No hole!! Hooray! 

Garage side of house

Its a jungle out there

Looking up!

Its a long way up!

So - where to now?

Now the garage door can go on, still waiting for mirrors and shower screens (house can't be deemed habitable until they're fitted I believe?), that laundry issue has to be fixed, kitchen doors need to be sorted, painters need to come back, sparkies need to finish a few things and a few other odds and ends need doing.

House will be cleaned late this coming week apparently and our SS is hoping for PCI late this week too - although my money is on the week after Easter personally.

So close I can taste it.

A short getaway ;)

I have just returned from a few days in the gorgeous Hunter Valley with our son and a friend.

Nothing like a few days in wine country to forget about the madness of building a house!

I was last at the house on Tuesday and we now are the proud owners of door handles, toilet roll holders, and hand towel rings! Super exciting!! Oh, and door stops. LOL.
The carpenters had been back for another day on Tuesday but still hadn't finished as the Tassie Oak lining for the Outdoor Room was still unfixed.

Jason met our brickie at the house at 8am yesterday to talk about the letterbox (which we all decided would be better to do once the driveway has been poured) - so the brickies should've finished up their part which now means the garage door can be fixed.

No idea what has happened today!

No photos as I managed to leave a bag at our accommodation which had my camera cords in it!

Will update over the weekend with some pics from my other camera :)

New week, new direction?

Last time I posted late last week the only action on the house all week had been a days worth of electrical fit out. Since then the electricians have been back (Friday) and STOP PRESS - today when I drove by after the daycare drop off  there were CARPENTERS there. Thats right people - you read correctly - plural. Not one, but two.

Hallelujah!

So what did they do? Seems they finished (finally) the cladding on the inside of the master bed balcony. I didn't take a pic, will try to do so tomorrow. Its not done as the one at the display is, or the one I linked to late last week for sale so I am going to ask about that.

In this pic the cladding has a long strip at the bottom and a smaller piece at the top which lines up neatly with the pieces that wrap around and go above the doors. On ours they have done the longer bit at the top then a really small awkward looking bit at the bottom. Not feeling it!

And this is the Laguna 36 display at Kellyville Ridge. Same arrangement there with the cladding.. Hhmmm.

So close...

As I suspected that spotlight I was questioning in my last post was actually incorrect! The one above is the correct one.

This is the flooring I have chosen - Bamboo flooring in Brown Sugar (antique style)

Our front yard also had a clean on Friday - SO nice to not see the huge mound of junk anymore! Our water meter was buried among tall grass and almost obsured by building waste and we received a huge water bill recently, which we questioned. So we had to read the meter and let Sydney Water know the reading - once we located the meter! We found it had been leaking too, and today it looks like we have a new one :)

So this week the following is scheduled:
 - Carpenters back tomorrow
- Brickies back Thursday (our lovely brickie is going to build us a letterbox out of the leftovers so tomorrow I am off to Bunnings to find one that can be bricked in!
- Showerscreens by Friday
- possibly wardrobe fit outs too.

And in the next two weeks the place will be cleaned, I assume the garage door will go on once the brickies are done, and the painters are due back.

Apparently our SS is aiming for PCI late next week, but in all seriousness I will be shocked if it happens then. I would love to be proven wrong :) Still lots and lots of little things to be done!

Hope all is progressing with my fellow building bloggers!

Another week plods on by..

With not much to report.

On a positive note the electricians did work at the house on Wednesday - Jason drove by and said there were 2 trucks there, 4 guys. They did say they couldn't finish everything - you guessed it - because the carpenter hasn't done his bit.

I said I would post when there was something to report, and as I said the electrical fit off has (mostly) been done, so here are some thrilling pics!

Outside lights looking a bit dwarfed from that angle.

Spotlight

Position of spotlight - right above water tank position. Doesn't look high enough to me but time will tell I suppose. Oh - and the hole the brickies originally left for the meter box way back when the sparkies put our power pole in the wrong place..

More outdoor lights and battens we will change to downlights after handover. And a half painted downpipe.

A sea of battens. Attractive! Note the kitchen cupboard doors have still not been replaced.

Island end powerpoint - exciting stuff!

More battens. Planning on changing them to downlights after handover - to do it through Metricon would've been an extra $4k - it will be more cost effective to do it afterwards. The two in the middle closer together are for pendants to hang over the dining table.

Powerpoints for washer/dryer. Yes - my laundry cupboard doors are now also sitting on the floor!

Prep for stair lights

Downlights in bathroom

Battens, fan and wall lights on Master Balcony

Its official - I do NOT love the stain colour. Really disappointed in it actually. Think I will be having the timber stained to a darker, richer brown after handover. Looks nothing like the sample I was shown at Studio M.

So - where to next? No idea. Nowhere fast if the carpenter doesn't come back soon!

Seems we have come across another build in Sydney in the same boat as us and Sandrine & Craig. They have had PCI pushed back a number of times over the space of a month and had an inspector go through last week who picked up around 60 defects/incomplete items. Scary.

At least they are consistent right? ;)

I saw a listing for a Metricon home for sale in Sydney today on a blog I follow -

http://newbuildjourney.blogspot.com/

Kylie posted this link to the listing -

http://www.raywhite.com/nsw/sandringham/583922/

It is a Laguna, same as ours with a different facade - almost identical to the one on display at Kellyville Ridge. Worth a stickybeak people!

Have a great weekend!