Pergatory ? ?

All of you in bloggyland are probably wondering what's going with us and our new home at the moment.

WE ARE IN PURGATORY/LIMBO/HALFWAY BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL!

4 days after PCI we were informed by our SS that there was no way we would have handover last Friday, despite the discussions we had with him at our inspection. Apparently a replacement door for the garage access was unavailable until Tuesday (tomorrow)! And in the last week not much has really happened as far as we can see.

We were told in no uncertain terms that we should not even expect to hear from our SS for another week and that his previous comments about definitely being given the keys by the end of the month no longer stood.  Unbelievable,  especially given we enquired about a realistic chance of handover within the month of August as we had to give notice on our rental - this was also made known to him.

At least SS has been true to one of his words and we have not heard hide nor hair from him for a whole week. This close to handover, to say we are devastated and frustrated is an understatement. 

It also appears our SS is dragging his feet purposely, having told Cam in a previous conversation that "he could make the process go as slow or as fast as he wants". We have flagged this unprofessional comment with our CSC who suggested that the best course of action was to speak with our CM. We have left him both email and voice messages and heard nothing. Another example of the poor communication that seems to be rife in this company (see previous post HERE). 

It has been 336 days since we first turned dirt. That's over 11 months and a far cry from the 8 months we were told by numerous SALES staff from Metricon.  

Tip to the new players: Don't believe the sales pitch or get the unrealistic build time written into your contract.

So we have given notice on our rental and need to be out by the first week of September. On top of this, Lachie (our 4 year old) is going to have his tonsils out in a weeks time. STRESSFUL... you betcha.

Watch this space. I hope to have some good news soon.

Kirsten
xxx

Final Contract Meeting - 'still' to be continued

Well things have just about come to a complete stand still - on M's end anyway.  Its fast approaching 3 weeks since our original 'final contract meeting' and only a few queries have been answered / resolved. 

The few they have answered to date appear reasonable, except one provisional amount.  I wasn’t happy with the number of the provisional amounts and requested they do whatever… to define / quantify them.  Anyway long story short, the one provisional amount for $6k that they have come back to us has now turned into a provisional amount of $12k….  That’s a 100% movement.  Needless to say we will be reassessing the need for this item altogether.

On our side of things, I’ve met with the demolisher I’m most comfortable with and discussed all things re demolishing.  He has been recommended to me by a friend and his initial quote was very competitive.  We were also able to work the price as well.  He is also happy for me to remove anything I can sell from the old house.  This may sound odd, but some demolishers claim they have offset the salvage value of items into their quote.

My demolisher is old school – get in and get out.  They come in with a truck and a big arse digger and push it all over.  He’ll grab any vegetation at ground level and pluck them clean out of the ground.  The ‘ultimate gardeners tool’ as he puts it.  We have had all utilities abolished, so only two other items ahead of the demo.

Firstly, I’ve also arranged for a local ‘renovators paradise’, supplier of second-hand building materials specialising in antique/period items, to come in and quote for anything they have an interest in.  The house was originally built in the late 20 / early 30’s and has many original fittings and fixtures which could make this process worthwhile.  They are even interested in what hardwood flooring is under the carpets.  Anything I can get will offset the cost of demolishing the old place.

Secondly, although I have the council’s approval to demolish the house, I also need its approval to remove one tree which is governed by the councils ‘tree protection laws’.  It’s a non-native on the boundary, which the neighbour wants removed so it should not be a problem to be granted approval.  Everything else is under its size requirements, so plucked they will be. 

Hopefully next time we blog, M will have answered some of our queries.

Cam

Final Contract Meeting - to be continued....

Well, we had our 'final contract meeting' the other day.  The meeting had been scheduled in for sometime and we were very much looking forward to it - seeing how all our ideas and plans had come together.

We requested a copy of the 'final' site plans and variation list prior to the meeting so we could review it in detail, in the comfort of our own home and at our own pace to ensure all was in order.  The copy came through via email 2 days ahead of the meeting - not a great deal of time to review it all but we had catered for it so not such a big deal. 

The problem was our CSC (who to date has been very helpful and a pleasure to deal with) didn't receive all the information from the respective departments of M in a timely fashion and was under pressure to collate it all within one document.  So there were omissions, inaccuracies and straight forward errors.  Its unfortunate for our CSC as she is the one holding the bag so to speak, sitting across from us trying to explain others logic or lack of and now she has to correct the errors.


I can understand why some problems had crept into the contract but there are others that are simply unacceptable.   Like changing the location of light switches.  If its required for legitimate regulatory reasons - tell us and we will revise our plan.  Don't redesign our home for us...  For example, if the light switch cant go at the entry of our ensuite, dont assume our alternate location is the furthest back wall! What, you want us to walk through the ensuite in the dark to then turn the light on.... Unusual design M, definitely not what we want.

We were also awaiting the results of probe testing - to assess the level of underpinning required to support our neighbours garage.  Those results weren't available, resulting in significant provisional amounts within the contract.  Not a fan of provisional amounts... 


Needless to say, we didn't sign the 'final' contract.  We will be waiting for the required changes have been made first.  Now we wait...It has been over a week since this meeting and still nothing???!!!?

On a related note - we are keen to hear the build times inserted into others final contracts.  We had been told (admittedly by their sales team - who kindly wrote it down for me, 'handy in hindsight') the build time was around 9 months.  I had checked this with a builder mate and that period is about right for a double storey mid 40 sq house.  So, I was a little surprised to see in the contract the build time was just over 400 days - over 13 months, not including breaks for Christmas etc.

We have had approval from the local council to demolish the old house, gas and electricity are disconnected and we have organised a new underground electricity pit to be installed by United Energy (for about $2500, a great deal less than the $6000 M wanted to charge us for the same??!!). I am meeting with the demolisher on site next wednesday to discuss the next steps and we also have a renovations warehouse/reseller coming out to have a look at what fittings and items from the old home can be salvaged and they will pay us for them and then sell them on.

Things are moving on our end but now so much on Metricon's end...

Cam