What's up with the tradies??

OK .. so I'm about to have a bit of a rant and rave about tradies. if you are one, please don't take offence as in general, I love you all.

Quite a few times in the last week I have been amazed at the service that tradies don't give.

I give you example 1.

paling fence installed. looks great, however a billion little pieces of wood strewn across the backyard with quite a lot of rubbish (from the fence) on the block behind us. 7 days after it still hasn't been cleaned up, even after putting a call in to the fencing place asking them why they didn't clean up. Fortunately they stuffed up the gate (made it too small) so the guy they sent to fix it did the cleaning up (might I add, complaining about the previous guy while he did it).

Example 2.

Floor boards installed. Not a cheap exercise I can assure you. You will no doubt (hopefully) understand my fury when we checked his work and noted that he had indeed finished his work, however the floors were covered in dust, muddy foot prints and dust also all over our cleaned kitchen. Upon calling the installer I was mocked by the person on the other end, virtually asking why I would expect that they should have to clean up after they have installed it. Can you believe that??!!! I was most unhappy and fortunately the better half but a rocket up their backside, and made it very clear that we would not be happy (read: you will not be paid) until the floor was cleaned. Was it too much to ask to have a freshly cleaned floor after installation? Perhaps .. I don't really know as I've never built before but logic tells me that you present a quality product to ensure a happy customer who will pay your bill.

Example 3 (not really a tradie problem but an annoyance factor with PD).

I'm pretty positive PD would be making a sizeable profit on the building of our house. Again, while not being a builder or a person that owns a business, I still think that maybe it's the little things that keep a customer happy. Like providing light globes in the 5 rooms that have batten lights!! What's up with that??!!! We have a zillion downlights ... all of which have been provided with a globe so that we can see at night. The very few rooms that have battens (ready for something lovely to go in there) are not provided with globes. How much is a globe do you reckon .... $1 each? Blimey charley .... maybe I'm just expecting too much.

Anyway ... anyhoo ...or any bloody way you want .......will be glad to get home and have an ale or three. Not having a good day as you have probably figured out.

My painting arm is hurting

Last Friday and the weekend were spent painting the feature walls, digging the trench for the telstra cables and installing the letterbox.

We are really thrilled with how the feature wall colours have come out. Very bold .. some very very bright (Sarah's room) but we love all of the colours we went with.

Today's visit (or should I say tonight) found that over 50% of the timber floors had been laid. I'm a bit speechless because I am ecstatic with how it is all coming together. Can't wait to see the carpet go in and it gets cleaned up. It's almost a shame to put our old furniture in there!!

Only 4 days to go and it's moving in day.... bloody hell, better get off the net and finish the packing!!

P.S. The tile for the bath was finally replaced!!

It's ours!

Well it's official. The Australian dream is ours!!

At approximtely 12:00pm yesterday afternoon we met with one of the administrator's at the PD office (Megan, who we had been dealing with the whole time is currently in Kenya - PD built an orphanage in Kenya and apparently once a year 2 employees are chosen to fly over there for 2 weeks. Pretty awesome hey).

Anyway, met with Belinda (not quite as friendly as Megan) who asked us to sit down and straight away asked for the final cheque!! Sat for another 10 minutes or so while she disappeared and we had to complete a customer satisfaction form. Finally she came back (felt like she was gone for hours) and she had a whole load of paperwork with her, envelopes of keys and a little 'congratulations' pack of towels and bathroom ceramic stuff (toothbrush holder etc.)

The handover process took no more than 20 minutes and then we were off to the house!!

We spent the afternoon painting the undercoat on the feature walls and I will head back down there today to keep going. John had to go to work to earn some money!!

I feel like such a goof when I'm at the house .. I just walk around smiling, looking at everything, opening doors ... just so proud of our creation.

Don't know where the camera is right now so I'll update photos when I can find it. The current house looks like a bomb has hit it as we really get stuck into packing up.

Mood: Poor but happy :-))

The fence is up

Well today was my last day at work. It was probably the alcohol but I felt a bit teary when I was leaving. It's been great working there and I will miss everybody.. but as they say .. onward and upward!!

Anyway .... onto the house.

This afternoon dropped by to see that the fence was up!! Bloody unbelievable. I'm told that I shouldn't have been surprised that it was done in 2 days but I reckon that putting all of those bits of wood together would have taken me an eternity! well, maybe not an eternity but certainly longer than 2 days.

The backyard seems a lot bigger than I expected it to be. Yes it's quite small comparing it to other back yards but pleased that it is a bit bigger thanI imagined it.

There are a few gaps under the fence that we will need to deal with otherwise the escapee hounds will be running amok on the estate.

Key collection is tomorrow (time TBD) ....

2 days to go

I can't believe that at this time in 48 hours we will have the keys to our brand new home (and most probably already be a little bit drunk!!).

We had the pre-hand over inspection yesterday which went pretty well. Main disappointment was some wanker (or wankers) had broken in, punched a hole in the plaster and cut the plumbing pipes. It's beyond me why people have to do this. It was pointless getting upset about it or getting angry because the damage had been done so me getting worked up would only cause me grief, nobody else.

Anyway, Peter was great about it all and got straight onto the relevant people that needed to fix it all up and while he was disappointed as well, he wasn't overly worried about it. Apparently worst things have happened and he is no longer surprised at what people do on building sites. He just can't figure people out either!! Recently he has had somebody try to take out a whole kitchen ... yes ... a kitchen ..... and he fixed it up and they came back for a second shot!!!!

Other than that, we were really happy with it all. A few paint touch ups here and there and some brick work to be fixed but nothing major. It certainly won't effect picking up the keys on Thursday!!!

The fencing guy was there also yesterday and had started to dig the holes for the posts. The rain clouds must have scared him away because he left the site and didn't return!! Hopefully he's back there today.

So apart from the issue of the knob-heads, we are still unbelievably excited about our house. Can't wait to move in and start enjoying it and having friends and loved ones over to show of our little creation.

Photos will be posted after hand over on Thursday!!

Too much time on my hands

This is what happens when you resign and have to wait out 4 weeks of your notice period. The mind wanders and the google search engine is in full swing!!

I have spent the morning playing around with landscaping ideas for the front garden.

You may or may not notice but the portico colour is changed.. Woo hoo .... unfortunately not in real life, but as this is an 'artist's impression' only, I figured I may as well use what somebody had done for me in the way of colour for the front.

I'll keep this very bad impression up here until we really do the front garden .... will be good to see how completely unlike the planning it will be!!!!

Bad news on the inspection front ... John just rang to say that inspection date has been moved from Thursday to next Monday. Apparently there are some plaster issues that he wants to sort out before we go through. Although I am disappointed, I'd rather him be fussy about this stuff and get it fixed. Allegedly hand over date hasn't changed!! We'll see!

It's so close .. but so much to do

Saturday morning visit to the house showed that an inspection had been done (by somebody??!!) and there were little post it notes around the place indicating where things needed to be fixed.

As you can see our front toilet and temporary fencing has been removed, and the site has been cleared. They have done a great job and the back yard is virtually flat now. Still a little bit of a rise where the patio area is but that won't be a huge problem we don't think. They even gave us some little 'temporary steps' made of broken bricks and mud!! Love those builders.

Inside where the inspector had been we noted that some were things that we already knew about ... others we hadn't even picked up on so we were pretty pleased that the mystery inspector had done a good job. Although there was a couple of things we noticed that he/she hadn't picked up on but we'll make sure they are pointed out on Thursday.

Most things look like they are easily fixed with a clean (the house is still revoltingly dirty) but others are a little trickier like the bit in the ensuite (pictured above) and we did also notice that there is a tiny chip in the ensuite shower door.

They mystery of the missing tile in the bath is yet to be solved. The tiler has finished all grouting etc. but for some reason hasn't put one tile in the side of the bath... perhaps his idea of a feature however we would like it fixed at some stage! We just have to assume that it will be done prior to 10:00am on Thursday!!

The house will still look a little bare when we take possession on the 24th as the appliances and water tank will not be installed until the day we move in. I'm also assuming that the fly screens are installed when we move in as well.

Last night after I dropped Sarah home, I did a quick scan of the house again and as I was getting ready to leave some of our neighbours from around the corner walked past. Stopped and talked to them for about half hour. Lovely people with 3 little boys (who look like they would be a handful) but they were very cute. Typical little boys wanting to explore the building sites. They aren't technically neighbours but we can see their house so I'm happy to call them neighbours :-)). We also met the owner of the house 2 doors up from us (building with Metricon). Young guy building with his girlfriend. John asked about his car and of course I tuned out until I heard 'turbo' and 'hotted up'. I really did show my age when I said to John after "I hope him and his friends don't hoon around the streets at all hours of the night!!!". God I'm getting old.

So all in all (other than portico colour) we love our little house. There is so much cleaning to be done prior to Thursday that I'm not sure how they will get it done, but as we have found out throughout this whole building process, things happen that we just shouldn't question.

Next post: Thursday

P.S. Oh - I found some very reasonably priced taps on Saturday while John was sailing so I figure that I'll just start putting a bit of money aside each week and will be able to buy them over the next couple of months. What John doesn't know won't hurt him ... oh .... hello dear, didn't see you there :-)

How am I supposed to clean that?

Mid week trip to the house revealed the following work has been completed:

- mirrors in bathrooms

- garage door installed

The tiler has also been back and looks as if he has almost finished. Still needs to fit in the tile that is missing from the bath and put the silicone (or whatever it is) around the vanity and down the edges of the shower.

The mirror in the ensuite is huge! I know we are big people but that is just ridiculous. It goes all the way to the ceiling so I'm not sure how I'm supposed to clean it. Guess I'd better invest in one of those extended poles like the window cleaning people have.

Peeking in next door neighbour's window I also noticed that they have had their carpet and floors done. It's amazing how different a place looks when the floors are in and you don't have to look at grey concrete. It looks really great and they should be pleased with the result.

Told you I could ramble on before the 17th ....

"Dad the builder" la la la la la la la la

Can he check it ... YES HE CAN .......

Sunday morning we met the elderly's (aka Dad & Liz) for breakfast then took a drive to the house. Liz hadn't seen it at all and the last time Dad saw it was before the plaster went up.

Dad was a builder for about 30 years and he's one of those 'old school' builders that has to have everything perfect. He quite often rants and raves about these 'young blokes' that cut corners on building sites and don't do things properly.

Anyway - we were very keen to get him down to have a look before the walk through on the 17th. That way we would know just what we could and couldn't complain about.

It appears that our love for Peter & his band of merry men has not been without reason. HUGE sigh of relief. Dad went through and checked that all the cornices were straight .. inspected paint work and the brickwork. A huge thumbs up from Dad - you have no idea how pleased John and I are. From our point of view we always thought they were doing a good job, but it's nice to hear it from somebody that actually knows what they are talking about.

We even got a big tick from Liz (ex interior designer with a touch of snobbiness) on the bathroom and the kitchen. It kills her that the location is so 'bogan' but too bad. Most of our neighbours seem great and I'm positive we are going to love living there.

Still a bit disappointed with the tiler who hasn't been back to finish off but I guess he's got another 10 days before we need to panic.

Start my new job on 28 May (after a weekend of painting) and move the following weekend. Talk about bad timing!!

I can't imagine there will be much to update until the 17th May when we do the walk through but I'm sure I could waffle on about something.

Catch ya' soon :-)

Bathroom & kitchen update

Not a well thought through plan!

OK ... so my plan re taps hasn't really paid off!

Let me take you back to the tender process (almost a year ago now!). Meeting with Hopetoun Interiors going smoothly. All of our pre-work had paid off and we knew pretty much what we wanted on most things.

The question of taps is raised .... the range is hideous. Even the upgrades were ugly. So in my wisdom (word used very loosely) I went for the cheap taps, knowing that I would upgrade them when we moved in.

Have you ever priced a tap? It's insane. Absolutely insane. Almost have to get an extension on the mortgage just to get some good looking taps.

So my plan to have ugly taps for only a short period of time has not really paid off and it appears that I will have to put up with them for quite a while yet.

* Heavy sigh *

Is it wrong to be this happy about a building?

After having a lazy breakfast with my best friend yesterday morning, we headed down to the house to see what had been done. A quick detour to pay the money owed for the curtains to be made and we arrived at the house to see a Ute parked in our garage.

Min agreed that the colour of the portico wasn't right (groan) so I braced myself for the fact that other things may look crappy to other people.

Finding the tiler in the bathroom and having a bit of a chat we set about checking on the progress.

Splashback has been put in the kitchen (I absolutely love it) and our little Italian tiler had been doing a super job on the tiles. In his broken English I got out of him that he was finishing up on Sunday as he has another job to start.

The pics above are of the house yesterday .. and today (while I'm here at work) I thought I'd update with yesterday's pics .. but will head down this afternoon to see if he has indeed finished.

I absolutely love the tiles and the kitchen looks fantastic, so my disappointment of the portico has been overshadowed by these latest instalments. I would have loved to hang around but obviously it would have bored Min to tears.

Rang John (who is in Tassie) to let him know how fantastic it is all looking.

We also tested out the downlights and they look great too.

Update will follow this evening!!

Ah ... there he is!

OK, so we found the tiler.

One of the benefits of building a home close to my daughter is that she has been able to keep an eye on the progress while we are not there. Last night she had been out walking with her dad's partner (and I'm assuming the dog as well) and I received a text from her telling me that somebody was at our house, and it was too late for them to be tradies!! Of course I had a mild panic attack picturing all of the damage that these people were doing to our beautiful house.

So I decided to take a well earned break from work and drove down to the house - hoping that somebody would be there to let me in.

Nobody was there. Thinking that not much work would have been done since Wednesday but wanting to scrutinize the damage done by our visitors last night, I picked up the camera and walked the perimeter of the house (don't like the idea of not being able to get into the house!!).

Walking past the ensuite window I saw the beginning of a tile .... big smile as I planted my face onto the window and saw that the shower walls had been done. Nothing on the floor as yet or in the shower recess.

Next thing I noticed was an outdoor powerpoint ..... then as I looked through the kitchen area I noticed:

- downlights in
- ducts for heater
- GPO's

Wow!! So much had been done in one day I was .. once again ... amazed at their progress.

Walking around to the other side of the house and once again, peering through the windows the laundry has been completed (just waiting for grout) and Sarah's bathroom wall tiled and bath .. just waiting on shower recess and floor.

I was a bit bummed that I couldn't get into the house but was more than pleased with the progress that has been made.

Anybody seen the tiler??

After having a wonderful sleep in yesterday, we got up and ready to go out for breakfast at our regular cafe (tradition for day's off) and then head to the house.

First disappointment ... the cafe was closed! Yes I know it was ANZAC Day however this woman opens every day except Christmas so we were very surprised that she wasn't open. So I cooked Johnno some scrambled eggs and I had french toast (much cheaper than going out mind you) and then took a drive to the house.

Second disappointment ... looked through the ensuite window hoping to see the tiles laid. Nothin'.

The car didn't start when we went to leave (long story) so we got one of our friendly neighbours to give us a jump start. While we were chatting some tradies arrived at next door's house ... so we got them to open up our place so I could take a peek.

While I was very disappointed that the tiler hadn't been, there has been work done since Saturday.

- door handles on all doors and wardrobes
- door stops put on
- plumbing above bathroom sinks have been put in (we have wall taps not taps that are attached to the sink)
- corner bits on the house finished off

The corner bits (no idea what they are called) have been put on around the dining area (will update with photo later in the week). Finishes off this area nicely.

So I imagine that the tiler won't start until next week now. Little bit disappointed but I guess there was some work done so it's not so bad.

We figure that the only stuff left to do is:

- electricals
- tiles
- ducts for ducted heating
- cleaning

Bring on the 17th May I say!!!!

The Countdown has begun

1 month to go .....

This time next month we should be (please note the use of the word 'should') going to Porter Davis to pick up the keys.

Mood: Deliriously excited

The call we've been waiting for

Oh ............................... my ............................................ goodness ..................................................

We have received the handover date for the house.

wwwwwwwwwwoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

John just rang ..... I answered the phone with 'hello' .. he responded with 'guess what' (I hoped this wasn't going to be a long drawn out process because I was just about to go and get my daily latte fix). 'What' was my answer. A brief silence and the words followed '24 May'.

This date takes us to 16 weeks and 1 day for the house to be built. Not too bad at all.

We have a walk through on the 17th May to go through all of the bits and pieces that need to be fixed. I'm hoping that this isn't too onerous as we have been giving him the fixes as we find them.

It will take about a week to put the timber floors and carpet in so I guess move in date will be around the 30 May.

Far too excited to work now so I'm sure there will be nothing done for the rest of the day. (nothing unusual my boss would say). Cheeky bugger.

Meetings with no outcome

I hate meetings with no outcome. I had 2 yesterday and both times I have reached the end of the meeting and thought to myself 'well that's an hour of my life I'll never get back'.

So at about 2:30 I decided that it was such a beautiful day, I'll take a drive down to the house to see if anybody is working.

Nup, nobody. Although a tradie has been in to waterproof the shower areas in the bathroom and ensuite. Some thick blue/grey type stuff.

They have now fixed the front door so we'll ask Peter for a key. How else are we going to get in and take photos!!! I'm told we have got buckleys chance of him giving us a key but you can only ask I guess.

I did notice a few places in the paintwork (external) that needs fixing so I'll start making a list of stuff now so that the final inspection isn't so long and tedious.

Peering through the windows I did notice that the carpenters have removed the doors in the kitchen and the laundry that were odd colours so hopefully that will all look the same now.

Still haven't heard from Peter with a move in date but fingers crossed we will hear very soon.

On the home stretch

OK - it's officially getting scary. It's the 17th April and this time next month we should be really close to moving in. I lost interest in doing any packing over the weekend and every time I go into the garage I get one of those awful feelings that it's going to be a really crappy job to pack everything up.

Anyway ... painter has finished. There were some bits that haven't been done (such as just above laundry cupboard and in the shower areas, but I guess as there will be tiles there, he doesn't need to paint!!

I'm really happy with the interior colour of the walls, however John wasn't as happy. He would have liked something a little more 'yellow/creamy' but I think once the feature walls are done and we have our furniture in there, he may be a little happier about it. Here's hoping :-)

Not even going to discuss the disasterous portico colour. I figure if I don't worry about it too much, I'll eventually get used to it until we can do something about it. I'll make it a priority however to get it re-done by Christmas. Want to get rid of the awful bagged & painted look and change the colour. Maybe by Christmas I'll have an idea about what the right colour is!!

Anyway ... I'm told that I shouldn't be so annoyed about it and just be happy that I'm pleased with everything else.

We spoke with Peter again yesterday and I actually started to feel really bad that we speak to him so much. He keeps saying that it's OK, ring him as much as we want, but it just doesn't feel right. Would be a different story if ours was the only house he is supervising, but he has about 18 others so imagine if every owner rang him as much as we did!!! Poor bloke.

Then again ... he's probably paid a crap load more than me so why shouldn't we bother him!!!

Next update will hopefully be photos of the tiles. Now if you think I was worried about the roof tile colour, I'm almost having heart failure worrying about what the tiles are going to look like. Everything that I can possibly cross is crossed and I am just hoping like hell that what we have chosen and how we have laid them out is going to look OK.

So until then ... farewell friends and we shall meet again in Cyberspace soon.

:-)

Our first major disappointment

Knew it was too good to be true!! Sarah and I ventured to the house on Wednesday afternoon to check the progress of the painters.

First thing I noticed was that the gutters and front windows had been painted - yippee!! Then I noticed our front door so I started to get really excited ... just waiting to see what was happening on the inside.

The paint fumes almost knock you over as you walk in ... I hope that doesn't take too long to go away! But anyway, it takes on a whole new look when you don't have patches all over the wall.

We almost needed sunglasses from the starkness of the white walls!!! Obviously just done undercoat in this area :-). As you venture into the kitchen and family area however it had been painted in our wall colour - Chalkdust. It's a lovely soft creamy colour and should hopefully (she says fingers crossed) look good against the feature walls and the flooring.

Walked right through every room (as we always do) and inspected every nook and cranny.

One of the things we need to talk to Peter about however is one of the kitchen doors. Not sure if it's my eyes deceiving me but one of the doors looks like a different colour to the rest of them. Will get him to check that once the painters have left, just in case my age is playing tricks on me.

So now I get to the disappointing bit .... big lesson to be learned when signing off on your final plans. ALWAYS get an understanding of every type of paint, effects or anything else you have inside or outside of your house.

Our plans said that the front portico would be 'bagged and painted'. Clearly I am completely ignorant on this issue. I figured that was just a way of saying 'rendered'. No ... very much NO.

Bagged and painted is exactly that apparently .. they get a heshen bag and just rub a thin layer of 'whatever' over the bricks, then they just paint over it. It gives the portico a rough look, rather than that really nice smooth rendered look.

Anyway - our fault for not knowing what this was. We are going to wait until it's painted and see if it makes a difference. If it's really awful I guess we'll just get a tradie in at some point to render it properly. Doubt it will be this year though because 'money's too tight to mention'!!

Well ... it's a minor disappointment in the scheme of things. I'm sure we're in for a few more disappointments but if we can minimise them, I guess that's the key.

It's all good other than that however. We've had a great week with Sarah (school holidays) and we will get a handover date next week.

Wedding plans are progressing well (can't believe what a girl I'm becoming) and John still insists that we have a pirate theme on the boat - he's sure he can get puffy shirts for all the guests!!!!

Until next time :-)

Peter the Great

All hail Peter the Great.

This morning we met Peter (Supervisor extroadinaire) on site to run through any problems/issues etc. Since I was there on Saturday, all of the skirtings have been laid and all of the shelving in the cupboards have been done. It really does finish it off nicely having the skirtings.

True to form, the painting has been bought forward and it looks like the painter will start on Thursday, if not tomorrow. Not sure if they will work through Easter but Peter said not to be surprised if they do.

Next week is an awesomely exciting week as he will be ringing us to give us a move in date!! He thinks it will be mid May (about 6 weeks away) but will know more next week.

Very very VERY exciting.