Sloooooooow progress; its better than no progress!

We are still in pre-construction and it is taking its sweet time to get everything signed off. We have had another 3 versions of the ‘final plans’ and ‘final contract variation’ and if there is one piece of advice I can give to those of you building and at this stage is that you need to check, double check and then check again. We have picked up a myriad of mistakes and changes this week and they have not always been logical, nor highlighted to us by the builder.

The biggest error was the removal of the provisions for future evaporative cooling (a powerpoint, capped cold water point and upgraded roof trusses). This for some reason was on the electrical variations and the plans but didn’t end up in the final contract, in fact in the last version of the plans ‘QA’ had it removed altogether from everything without informing us. Lucky we went over everything with a fine tooth comb!

The other issue that we have been dealing with this week was post-demolition asbestos residue. All homes built about the time our original old house was, have asbestos in one form or another. We had asbestos removal done prior to demolition but some more residue was spotted along the fence boundaries by out site supervisor last week and we needed that cleaned up before Metricon will send anyone to site start, and that’s fair enough. Jim the demolisher was onto it quickly and to cut a long story short, we have had another site clean and Metricon is now in possession of another independent asbestos clearance certificate.

The good news in all of this is that by Monday once the office receives our signed final plans (they are about 99% correct with only 1 small correction remaining, which doesn’t require a plan redraw), the ordering will commence. Once the ordering has finished (by the end of next week at the latest), we will be at site start… FINALLY!!!!

As I said above, slow progress is better than no progress. We are happy to take the time to get things done right. You can never look through your contracts enough and our toing and froing has all been by email which has put everything in writing (a great tip!). I have no doubt our pedantic behaviour will be worth it all in the end!

Hope that the next post will be more exciting!

Kirsten

Cleared Block......

While it doesnt take long to demolish an old weatherboard place....

What it was...........



What it was internally...... as purchased





What happenned step 1 - after salvaging anything of value including leadlight windows, lightfittings, gas log heater, floorboards etc....  (same room as above)



What happened - step 2....smash it all up and drag it away....

What it is now..... view from rear to street



What it is now.... view from front to rear

Very happy with the job the guys did.  The block looks huge empty but hopefully not empty for long.
Now back over to M to arrange re-surveys to finalise slab etc.
And I need to sell the rest of the salvaged materials to offset the demo costs - ebay here I come.

Until next time Cam

Demolition is GO GO GO!

Cam and his Dad have spent the better part of today at the old house ripping our potentially valuable things to salvage…

Stained glass windows

Stained glass doors

Colourbond gate

Lighting sets

Old kitchen benches

And the other day we managed to sell the gas log heater (a Fitzroy Cannon which retails new for over $2000) for $1230 on eBay to a guy from Ballarat who picked it up this morning. Hopefully we can sell some of the other stuff too. I think a guy is coming to get the floorboards too.

THIS IS WHAT OUR QUAINT ("its a dump") LITTLE HOUSE LOOKS LIKE NOW.... in one week this will hopefully be a clear block... YAY

The temporary fencing is going up on Monday, the asbestos guys are coming on Tuesday and it looks like Jim the Demolisher will be coming in the later part of the week to roll over the house.

I would love to take our little boy, Lachie to have a look at the house being demolished as I think all little boys love diggers and trucks etc but alas we are going to Mt Buller late next week and won’t be around. So photos might be hard to come by…

Stay tuned

Kirsten

PS i forgot to ask... did anyone else get a groovy Metricon Briefcase to hold all your documents? (sorry about iPhone pics)

SUPER STYLISH... Dont you think?



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