Monday, August 21, 2006

The mystery of Dave is revealed

Remember 'knobhead Dave' who wrote in the footpath? Well I failed to mention that next to Dave, was Greg. On Saturday, we met Greg ... and was shown the house where Dave lives (nice place ... good lawn :-).

Now apparently Dave is a builder so we'd best be nice to Dave. Lovely bloke we are told so with humble pie warming on the plate next to me, I apologise Dave for calling you a knobhead.

Greg was a nice bloke also ... their thought process in writing their names on the footpath was because it was funny at the time (yeah, hilarious) and they figured the concreter would trowell back over it. Well obviously they didn't.

Anyway, problem solved.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Surely it's December soon

I have never before wished for christmas to be here. Now don't get the wrong idea here .. I LOVE christmas ... love it. Probably one of my most favourite times of the year, if not, THE favourite. But my desire for it to be christmas is purely self-indulgent and by no means am I the least bit prepared financially for the festive season.

My point..... if it was christmas, building would have started on the house!!!

John and I took dad to the block yesterday (after a lovely breakfast where he took the piss out of John's parking skills ... classic). I was so excited to show him where our new home was going to be. Give the old boy credit, he feigned interest and said how exciting it was (given that he only had a flat piece of dirt to look at his interest rating appeared high).

They have started to put the footpaths in on the other side of the road so hopefully within a couple of weeks it has been done on our side of the road. Some knobhead named Dave engraved their name into the new concrete (why do people do this??) so I hope that this isn't an indication of the bogons that will be living near us.

Isn't it amazing how your view on things change when you have a vested interest somewhere. Case in point - I doubt I had ever displayed any form of interest or in fact dubliation with regard to a footpath being installed previous to this experience. Now I'm excited to see poo pipes or any form of change in the estate. Weird? Perhaps, but for those that know me well there would be no surprise there.

John has the photos of the fore-mentioned footpath so once I get them I'll be sure to upload it ... and you too can enjoy the wonder of 'Dave' written in the footpath.

:-)

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Mood today: Content

Well I'll give Porter Davis credit. We spat it a little bit over this latest contract variation (in a nice way of course) and our lovely Megan (Client Relationship Manager or whatever wanky title they have) has been very good in responding straight away to our concerns.

It appears that perhaps we should have investigated this business of Energy Ratings a little bit more before we let fly with emails. We are told that even making the slightest change to the standard home (for example, we changed the laundry door from a full glass door to a half glass door - and no this is not a question for the psychology buffs about whether the glass is half full or empty) it may in fact change the requirements for a 5 Star Energy Rating.

So Porter Davis are back in the good books .... they have given us $500 off the variation cost due to the fact that this should not have been delayed so they will wear this cost. Wasn't necessary really given that their re-assessment is justified but we are not going to say no to it!

Very happy again. Yippee for me

Andy

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

I've got that sinking feeling ....

Ever had that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach that tells you all of the good things are about to turn very bad!!

Happily working away at my desk ... organising the bosses trip to Sydney ... and low and behold an email comes through from Porter Davis. Apparently for our home to have 5 Star Energy rating, it required an independent valuation and therefore we received these 'variations' after signing of the contract.

Now I can understand it if we made huge changes to the structure of the house ... but we haven't changed a frickin' thing! Not one thing. Weather strips!! Good gracious - surely they knew before they even started that weather strips are required so why is this a variation AFTER the event.

I'm mad ... I'm upset ... poor Dean's travel is now under threat because I don't care about what he's doing!!! (joke). Anyway, I'm sure people will just say 'well that's building' but when it 'aint their money, it's OK to say that.

Deep breaths ..... heavy sighs ..............