Sunday, April 3, 2011

Little progress & 6 year old tradesmen???

Morning All, I wonder how many of you were up nice and early with kids today who have no interest or care in the fact that daylight savings ended last night? LOL!

I've been slow to write this post as it has taken me the best part of a day and a half to calm down and let the steam coming out of my ears dissipate enough to write this with a clear head..

I had the opportunity to quickly go past the house on Friday afternoon so I jumped on it and quickly discovered it was NOT a good way to start the weekend and that I should've spent the time doing something- anything else...

Despite a message from our SS on Tuesday night (after ANOTHER TWO WHOLE days with no work on site) assuring us a carpenter would be there the next day, as would painters (why weren't they there Mon/Tue???)- and that he was 'working overtime' to make sure everyone was on it, seems very little has been done. Another week of little progress.
Oh, and I was there at 3pm Friday and you guessed it- site was empty.

We have a gas socket - thats exciting I guess? The electricians had been there at some point as I spoke to the girl from their head office who phoned me to quote me for them to connect us to the mains - thats right, when you build a house they don't even include the cost of connecting your electricity. Another $1020..

The painters have mostly finished upstairs by the look of it but still have a lot to do downstairs, And the stairs still need another coat of stain. Outside needs a few things painted too- but those would require a damn carpenter to actually finish his job first. Our portico still has no ceiling, the master bed balcony still has sheeting to be fixed to the walls (someone has spent ten minutes doing something out there but it's far from finished), the last few bits of cladding have to go on and the Tassie Oak ceiling needs to be re-fixed on the Outdoor Room. All of which were supposed to be done by said carpenter.. Hhmmmm....

But that wasn't what left me wishing I hadn't gone there.

On my quick walk through I decided to check the toilets- when they were fitted I mentioned to Jason they had no seal or anything over the seats and I wasn't thrilled as I KNEW that would mean they would be used by tradesmen. And used they are.

There is urine all over the two toilets I checked and on THE FLOOR. Seeping into my NEW grout. All over our gorgeous floor tiles. To say I am furious is an understatement. Are these painters 6 years old? Do they do that at home?

Why is too much to expect a little respect for someone else's HOME? Might sound dramatic but it made me feel physically ill, and I'm not sure I will ever be able to stand barefoot in the powder room or my own ensuite...

Our SS must've been feeling the rage as we didn't get our usual update call on Friday- maybe lucky for him..

Last week he told us we would have a PCI date on Tuesday- this week he told us we would haven next Tuesday. so much for his aim to have our house ready for PCI at the end of March! When he said that initially I said to Jason there was NO WAY it would be ready then, and I was right..

To say I am at my wits end it an understatement. The last few months have seen painfully slow progress and wether this is due to poor organising of trades, poor communication, lack of resources or a workload that is simply too demanding for Metricon to keep up with I'm not sure but in my opinion it's simply NOT good enough.

And I know we are not the only ones feeling this way.

I would suggest to Metricon that they either need to employ more trades or more Site Supervisors to cope with what I am sure is an ever increasing workload- especially now that they are advertising more and more here in NSW. Of all the blogs I follow the majority of builds progress much more smoothly at this stage (not Metricon builds I should note)- and this is where it matters- this stage is what clients will remember when asked if they would recommend Metricon to others..

Not many pics (although I do have photographic evidence of the violation of my grout and tiles)..




Bedroom - painting finished




Another bedroom - painting complete




Leisure room




Staircase




Bit of a gap there between the door and the slab...






























Woot - a gas socket. So by the time we move in (when it will probably be cold at this rate) we can plug a heater in ;) 


If you made it this far - thanks for sticking with that rant-tastic post..

Hoping to have more sunny news to speak of when next I post. Electrical fit out allegedly scheduled for Tuesday.

14 comments:

  1. Oh Shayne... that's just pitiful. I've heard before the tradies use the toilets - ewwww. Mind you, it's one thing to use them and another to actually be clean and respectable about it!

    Your SS probably didn't call cause let's face it, there was no progress to report! Any idea of when your SS is anticipating PCI now? I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to be so close, yet so far. No doubt I'll get a dose of it myself in a few months!

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  2. OMG Shyane I would be so 'PISSED' off (pun intented lol)..seriously what is wrong with people? no respect at all for ppl's property. Thats disgusting! Is there anything you can do about it though? I know our SS would just look the other way..

    Don't worry, not long to go now anyway! Hang in there hun

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  3. sorry for spelling ur name incorrectly lol and im supposed to be a school teacher too! haha :p

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  4. omg and i spelt intended wrong too! ggeezzz! LOL

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  5. Coz I'm a cranky bitch most of the time I would ask for the tradies addresses, knock on their door...tell em your son needs to use their toilet.... Mmmm...get him to firehose the walls and all.
    Don't think it's just NSW Metricon. They seem to do half assed dodgy jobs and then patch their work rather than getting it right first time. Jay from our estate is still having a dog of a time almost 12 months after start. He refuses to handover until it's properly completed.
    Hang in there...so close now!! Xx

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  6. Oh you poor thing, we went through similiar in the end where your right they should be paying extra attention but they seem to loose the plot! Its not an easy time and i completely understand your frustration! I hope the quality is ok though? Our supervisor put signs on our toilets stopping trades using them and we had a portaloo until handover, do you have one on site?

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  7. Shayne,you should definitely contact your CSR and ask to speak to the Construction Manager as the more people that complain about this slooowww progress( now that we have paid 80%) and the definite lack of resources or lack of control of all their trades.Then they might reconsider their processes in NSW. All these people who are now putting deposits down at any Metricon offices in NSW.... Be aware that the timing is a huge issue. Whatever they promise at the time of deposit note that in the contract you sign they are entitled to soo much. 32 weeks of build time plus rainy days plus xmas shutdown of 4+ weeks and if you include the wrong door order or wrong shower screens delivery or whatever stuff ups happen, they are entitled to that too. Customer doesn't seem to be entitled to much except prompt payment of progress invoices:)

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  8. Carla allegedly he will have a PCI date for us on Tuesday but has not indicated how far away it will be. You are right - he hasn't got much to report!! Usually though he lets us know what is booked in for the following week - although I take that with a grain of salt these days..

    Tonia - LMAO! Its Sunday, you are off duty ;) There is probably nothing that I can do about it but the fact is we pay LOTS of money for a NEW house - not used facilities as far as I'm concerned..

    Reinsey I know - sad thing is Metricon should learn from the woes they have in other states and change things here but as long as they get their money they dont seem to give a toss. I've been following Jays blog..
    LMAO - I'm a cranky bitch too but have managed to keep my temper confined to the blog thus far.. ;)

    Cassandra we do indeed have a nice blue port-a-loo so I'm not sure what the painters think its there for - decoration perhaps?

    Sandrine we actually have the construction managers email address as we asked for permission to have our solar panels installed (of course we got a big FAT NO in reply), I'm in two minds about just emailng him. I'm tempted to wait until Tuesday to see if/when we get this elusive PCI date or not but on the other hand I think they need to know how dissatisfied I am with the whole shebang..
    You are right - we are entilited to squat - except cheeky invoices issued before the actual stage we are expected to pay for has been finished..

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  9. Once the toilets were put into our house, the portaloo got removed from site. I should have done the same as Cassandra. But there were more than just number ones being done. I said the plumber that installed the toilets, now you guys can use these toilets. He responded, no we will use the portaloo, he said "I wouldn't like other people using my toilets" he was very courteous, but I couldn't say the same about the other tradies to follow. It's hard to argue with them, as they will clean the house down on handover, plus you did sign a contract with them from the beginning with fine print that says you have allowed them ownership of the block until handover.

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  10. Shayne, we had the same issue. To their credit, PD replaced all the toilets in our house when I made a noise about it. Like I said, we paid for a brand new house,and thats exactly what I wanted.

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  11. Looking good! :)

    What colour are your walls, if you don't mind me asking?

    B

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  12. Not at all - our walls are Dulux Antique White USA :)

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  13. What colour will you be painting your trims? Antique White USA as well?

    B

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  14. Trims are in Lexicon Half strength :)

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