Back in full swing.....

Well we are back in full swing post the Christmas break.

True to our new SS (AT) word, last week saw scaffolding set up and the wrap in place on the second storey.  Hope they come back and pick up the parts not used that are all over the nature strip.  The neighbours have been quite accommodating to date but don't want to push our luck.

This week the brickies were back bricking up the second storey.  They have been waiting for the scaffolding for a few weeks and were starting to get a bit snakey regarding the delays.  Dropped by yesterday (Australia Day) to have a quick look around etc - as you do - and they were hard at it on a public holiday...  That slab of crownies at Christmas was a great investment.  Anyway a quick chat with the guys and they have 2 days of work left. 



From what I understanding we have the scaffolding for up to 3 weeks where all upstairs cladding will be done together with eaves by the chippies.  The roofing guys and plumbers will be back to finish the last few things re the roof, gutters etc.  I imagine while the scaffolding is up, the solar panel will also be installed and the upstairs painting will be done. - safe assumption...???  Keen to get those things done and the scaffolding back down for a really good look at our new home in lock up stage and then we can get a true feel for what it will look like in our colour selections etc.

Just a quick update re our blog on 28 December last year titled 'sitting on our blogging hands' where we detailed a few items M needed to address.  Well the update is quite a quick one.... In essence our "acting SS" (who is also our CM) didn't do a damn thing.  I suspect he has hand balled it to our new and true SS to resolve.  He has taken them in hand and where required is checking things against the building regulations - wow... our 'acting SS' never mentioned building regulations - I wont assume he knows they exist.  So much for if you don't have anything nice to say approach.

Anyway, this is to be carried forward and resolved shortly with any luck.  At my catch up with our new SS, I mentioned I'd email him the answers to a few Q's he had for me regarding position of external lights etc.  Email is great for these type of things, get it in writing.  While I was at it, I included the key outstanding points he needs to address, politely worded, and attached a copy of our independent building inspectors report for his reference. Just in case it wasn't passed on to him, of course.  Watch this space.

Cam

Things get moving!!!

This week heralded a new beginning for our new home construction. We got our new SS and things have started moving again post Christmas.

The brickies were back on site early in the week to do a little bit but given the scaffolding wasn't there, they couldn't really do all that much. The garage has been bricked and is awaiting its flat line roof and all the other pillars and nib walls that form part of our angular facade have also been completed.

The house is looking really good and I am sooo happy we waited for our bricks and the brickies have done a sensational job in making sure the colour blending is spot on!

The proposed gas meter will be smack bang in the bottom middle of the left hand wall! BOOOOOO!

Cam met our new SS Adrian on site yesterday and we are really pleased at how proactive he seems. He pointed out a number of things that he was getting fixed which we has not picked up on. He will address all of the issues from the independent inspection report and there was no issue in doing so. This is a vast improvement to the lip service/no action we had from our "acting SS/CM" prior to Christmas. He followed up on absolutely nothing that he said he would. He didn't even write his own site meeting notes, instead just forwarded on our notes. What gall!!!

Anyway, I digress...

They only outstanding issue that is yet to be resolved and had me a bit hot under the collar today was the placement of the gas meter. Apparently the only place that it can be located is smack bang in the middle of our front facade on the left hand wall. So much for paying an extra $25,000 to have the 'Nuvo' facade because it looks better and another $7,000 in rendering to achieve a certain look on our house only to have it all ruined by an ugly gas meter!!! You can probably tell I'm not impressed... I understand that there are only certain locations that these meters can go with regards to proximity to windows, electrical meters, taps and heaters but SERIOUSLY in the middle of the facade???

I mentioned this to our CSC this afternoon only to be told that there was nothing that could be done. I asked where on our contract is the location stipulated (it isn't!) and also asked where the meter is put when other people build the Nelson in Nuvo facade (apparently it goes next to the garage?). Surely this is a design flaw if there is nowhere to put an essential utility meter?

Is anyone else having/Did anyone else have this problem when they built and what are the possible solutions? Cam will be contacting our SS again tomorrow to see what other options he has come up with...

Okay, now that's off my chest... I drove by today and it was lovely to see something has actually changed as the SS said it would. We have scaffolding! Hooray. That means that the brickies finish the job finally!

The schedule for the next few weeks to get to lock up is....

Friday

Scaffolding finished

Upstairs to be wrapped (hopefully in something of a decent quality this time!)

Monday-Friday (not incl. Aust Day)

Brickies to finish the sides, 

Chippies to come back and fix internals, externals including balcony and the dodgy portico framing, and start the cladding upstairs.

Plaster delivery

We are looking forward to seeing some action :)

Kirsten

Centurion…

Yes folks, it has been 100 days since construction of our dream home began and today our new home was treated to a little R & R to celebrate this milestone. There was not a single person to be found working there!

We do know that the brickies have come back at some point in the week between Christmas and New Years as they have built more of the garage walls; which is great. 

Some kind of structure to prop up the front portico has also been delivered, presumably so the footing issue can be resolved.

Our wonderful BSC is back in the office but the SS (plural) are not and she has informed us that there is nothing actually scheduled to take place this week anyway…

Kirsten

Belated Happy New Year!

Belated Happy New Year to all.


For those of you currently building, hope all continues well and those who have had an issue here and there, hope the new year brings a fresh focused team your way.


As mentioned in our last blog, I dropped off a slab of Crownie's for the brickie's on the 23rd Dec.  Given the issues we have had with sourcing the bricks and the fact they have been working flat out and done a great job - thought it was only right.  Everytime I have dropped by they have been only to happy to show and explain to me what they had achieved and what is next - and mostly initiated by them not by me.  I actually got a text message from owner of the bricking company on Christmas morning (unbelieveable, but true) thanking me on behalf of his crew for the beers and wishing us a Merry Christmas.  Well and truly over and above what I expected given I don't employ him.


We also dropped off a bottle of champagne for our Building Support Co-ordinator (Alana) and our Pre-Construction CSC (Cassie).  Both have provided us with excellent service to date, so its the least we could do.


Cam

Sitting on our blogging hands!

The old adage “if you cant say something nice… then don’t say anything at all” has certainly been applied by Cam and I of late, with regards to blogging about our build. We did really want to update you all on what has been going on but the thought of writing it all down and reliving it again was too stressful in the middle of the silly season.

So here we are… it has been 2 weeks since we last blogged about the house and it is still very much a ‘brickwork in progress’. The relationship we have had with the “SS”/CM (inverted commas because he really has been a site supervisor in name only) has deteriorated and we have really been tearing our hair out.  He will revert back to our CM once the new SS starts, so unfortunately will need to deal with him further at some point.

Less than satisfied, we engaged the services of an Independent Inspector to run his eye over the build and here are some of the key things that he found.

• Substandard wrap used underneath the bricks with no reference to Australian Standards (and wafer thin to boot!) Apparently all M builds are now using this cheap wrap with no Metricon branding and the company responsible will provide us with a compliance certificate for sustainability purposes at hand over. Little comfort at that point in time as if there is an issue - what can be done once built.  For all the sections that are ripped, shredded and pieced together by gaffer tape, the “SS” said he would get someone to fix it!??

• Waste plumbing for powder room toilet does not line up and drainage is restricted. Not sure how this will be fixed yet. The 'acting SS' said he didn’t know the plumbing code and would get the plumber to fix it at some stage (what bollocks!).  Doesnt know the plumbing code.... how can he supervise the plumbing side of things of our build then.... further, he is ment to be a CM.  Offers little comfort to the customers of M.

• The framework for one of the front portico piers (holding up the balcony) is sitting about 20cm under the ground, meaning the frame will rot over time. This particular issue the Inspector took photos of to put into his ‘idiots’ book! Our 'acting SS' wasn't to worried about it initially saying its how its done. However our inspectors report quoted Australian Building Standards (with sub-sections etc) so the SS will now fix it.  This will be fixed by propping up the frame and building a brick pier underneath on a timber plate.

These are really just the tip of the iceberg. The wrong bath taps (ie Hot and Cold rather than mixer) were plumbed into the bathroom and Ensuite. There are windows/doors galore that are damaged.  The powder room windows are off centre so to fix the problem extra battens have been placed on one side to centre he windows - results in us losing some space on one side of the room. We are paying for a full room right...

Then there are issues the bricks. The first batch of bricks delivered were mostly good with one pallet of bricks of a questionable lighter colour. No problem there, the brickies were cluey enough to use them on areas to be rendered. However the second batch of bricks warranted a second visit from the Selkirk brick rep who confirmed that because this delivery were of variable colour, height, length and depth, that they would need to be double-handled by the brickies. SOooooo to cut a long story mid-length… the wonderful brickies are still working on our house even though they should have finished it AGES ago because they are sorting out bricks as they lay them. Thank god we’re not footing the bill for that one!

Anyways… we are sooo happy with the work that they have done and the quality of the bricklaying! Cam went up to see them on their last day to leave them a slab of cold beers and judging by how much more has been done they obviously did another 3 hours plus of work (taking them to well over 5pm on Fri 23^rd Dec). How good is that!

The Brickies idea of funny... it says "Nah, we want to keep this one, © owners"

Garage walls

Other garage wall

Rumpus and Outdoor Room (glad we upgraded to the brick infills as it looks soooo much better!)

Outdoor Room loveliness!

Where the Jetmaster will be going... the firebox!

Our actual front door... its over 1m wide... massive!

The beginnings of the front portico piers, i love how the piers run in different directions!

Portico from another angle

They will be back on the mortar on Tues 3^rd Jan to brick the rest of the upstairs part and finish off the portico. Interesting to see what wrap their use for the upstairs.  Then it is over to the cladding guys to do their thing. The plaster is to be delivered on 16^th Jan so Cam is busy getting all the data, speaker wiring organised as we speak! If anyone has any advice on CAT 6 or speaker wiring please leave us a comment…  The general speaker / data wiring had been cleared with our original SS, so nothing untoward there.  If you are doing anything at all on site - you must clear it with your SS. 

And finally….. HURRAY! Our new SS starts in the Central Area on Monday 9^th January. We CANNOT WAIT!!!!

It can only get better from here….

Kirsten

Brick work - Day 5

Well after a solid week of work, the brickie's have done a huge amount of work.  They have had up to 6 guys in the 'gang' so probably about right - but I had no idea what amount of work to expect.  Mike, the guy who owns the business sub-contracted to M - comes across as a very straight shooter.  He gave me his business card and I've spoken with him on the phone a few things during the week.  Didn't ask for this to happen nor did I expect it but none the less great to be informed of their progress.  He has 4 'gangs' working at any one time and does a heap of work for M.

Still a heap of brickwork to be done including the portico, garage, around windows etc to finish up the ground floor.  Hope this is the focus this week heading into Xmas.  Second storey next year I guess.  Would have been nice to have been at lock up this year but the delays we have had with the bricks didn't help much..

A couple of pic at the end of week 1 - bricklaying.

From left front corner

From left rear to street

Outdoor room

Rear right corner

Right from to rear

Brick work - day 2

A quick drive by on the way home found the guys packing up and the first 10 odd rows of bricks layed.  Good start to the week.  The bricks have been mixed in well and all looks very good.  A couple of quick pic's from each side of our new house.  Can't wait until the weekend.