The count-up begins!

We have officially gone over the promised completion date set-out in the contract. So we decided to set-up a timer to see how many days over the contract we will go...

As for progress on the house, not much has happened really. Door handles fitted, tiling commenced and window angles installed. That's pretty much over a two week period. Kind of disappointing really but to be fair our SS has been away all this week.

We're being told to expect hand over 3rd or 4th week of August but we're not holding our breaths. The annoying part is it's hard to give notice to our real estate for the current property. We might just have to bite the bullet...

Some photos from this week. House has been locked up so didn't get any photos of inside.

Build issues - List is growing exponentially

So I've been monitoring the build pretty closely since I've been back from overseas and the build issues list that I had initially created is growing and growing.

I went through the house yesterday wall by wall, room by room and the end result is a whopping 65 items that need attention. 33 of those are issues such as paint touch ups, dints, damaged cabinets etc... These items I have flagged as 'PCI' as they will most likely get picked up by PD and I don't want to be micromanaging our SS.

As for the other more urgent issues, well I'm not going to list them all but here are a few that I really didn't pick up before but need attention;

One of the garage door bolts is loose and garage door was banging in the wind

Slider door does not work smoothly and jams halfway. 

And this is the pick of the bunch. One of the walls/skirting in the house is not plumb or straight at all! Yes, I did check every wall, skirting etc... 

I know the first two are an easy fix. The last one though is going to be a big discussion and might cause some delays because the only way I can foresee this being repaired is to rip the plaster and skirting off, straighten the walls/studs, re-plaster and paint sigh... We will just have to wait and see! 

Less than 30 days left... but not really!

Had a quick chat to our Site Supervisor today, unfortunately even though our 'un-official' PCI will most likely be end of July, we won't be handing over till mid to end of August as he will be away for 9 days.

This will put us well over the expected finished date set out by the contract. As disappointing as this is I am happy that our SS wants to check the house himself when he gets back before officially handing over. 

Therefore our countdown timer is no longer accurate :( I will update it as soon as I have a more accurate date. 

There's a thief in our midst!

So apparently there has been a lot of thefts in our estate. This is to be expected with a new estate that does not have many residents yet but it's still disappointing.

Lucky for us, we were the select few homes that got robbed :(

Our recently delivered tiles and custom front door are MIA!

We were definitely better off compared to our neighbours who had their entire electrical rough-in stolen!

Unfortunately, this means that we will no longer have access to the house as it will always be locked and all the windows and sliders have been blocked off at the rails.

'Intro' call from our Site Supervisor - Frame Started

This afternoon we got a surprise call from our SS (Site Supervisor).

He called to introduce himself and advise that he has officially taken over from the Slab Supervisor. We were also happy to hear that the framing for the walls will be complete by C.O.B tomorrow.

Unfortunately, there is a delay with the supply of the roof trusses meaning framing won't be complete till the end of this month.

He asked if I have any questions and I briefly mentioned the unresolved issues we still have outstanding. Seems that he will follow them up first thing tomorrow. Was very happy to hear that!

Cheers!

Site works halt 3 days into the build... We're off to a good start!

Many of the followers and regular visitors of this blog would know that our site works officially commenced exactly three days ago. You might also have noticed that after looking at our cut site that I had a bit of a hunch that something was not right. Well.. I was right.

After checking our final construction drawings yesterday I noticed that the floor level has been dropped by 200 mm from our contract drawings. This set off some alarms and I immediately proceeded to email my building coordinator and text my slab supervisor.

Unfortunately, that's all I could as it was after hours and that meant another sleepless night caused by our build. Being human, questions start to arise. Did I read the drawings correctly? Why did I miss this? Why did they do/miss this? etc...

This morning I waited anxiously for an email or phone call. That didn't happen. I wasn't going to wait as I knew I didn't have much time to react.

Finally, I managed to get through to my slab supervisor and building coordinator. After explaining the situation, they both agreed that they needed to look into this further and have called a meeting first thing tomorrow morning. Attendees will be our BC, SS and one more member in charge of siting and floor level designs at the PD Keilor office. Luckily, we all agreed that works will be stopped until this is rectified. I was very assertive about this as they had deviated from our contract drawings without any Building Variation (BV).

Since the site has been cut already, there are really only a few options that I can think of to rectify this (if they agree):

1. Fill, compact and raise the platform for the slab
2. Increase the thickness and in turn the height of the concrete floors

I would really appreciate some feedback of which would be the better solution of the two. Please comment or PM me if you can help. 

Thanks for reading and sorry about the essay!

Information regarding LPG/NG compatibility our appliances

So after receiving the lovely news of not having natural gas at our block till September 2015, I decided to do some more research regarding our appliances and their compatibility with LPG/NG.

Porter Davis told us that none of our appliances would be able to change over from LPG --> NG after hand over. Boy were they wrong. Here is section of the email I sent to PD today:

• Rinnai Infinity 26

Confirmed by the manufacturer that it is LPG --> Natural Gas convertible. Part number for the kit is: 92099311

• Blanco BFD9058FX

Confirmed on the manufactures website that it can be converted to natural gas even if order in LPG originally. Please see manual attached page 29. Also here is a screen shot. 

• Brivis Ducted heating HX30i

Available in LPG and confirmed by manufacturer that there is a conversion kit from NG --> LPG. Part no. B061776

Surprise, surprise. I have contacted Porter Davis and asked them to review this information and install LPG appliances to our home as well as the provision for some LPG bottles. The gas company has agreed to cover the cost of the conversion back to Natural Gas for all our appliances.

Thanks for reading. 

No Gas!! What do you mean no Gas?

Hi all,

Today we got some really bad and frustrating news. We have been told that there will be no natural gas supply until September 2015!

As you can imagine, this was really disappointing for us. Especially having been so excited for our site start this Friday.

The gas company APA Group has advised that we get our builder to install appliances that are compatible with LPG and they will change them over to natural gas when the time comes.

Unfortunately, Porter Davis is refusing to do this. They will either supply all LPG equipment or all natural gas equipment. Obviously we don't want a house that only runs on LPG tanks. So we are now stuck in a situation where we are due to move in at the latest June/July but cannot obtain a certificate of occupancy. Meaning we will be paying 95% mortgage and rent for 3-4 months whilst we wait.

What an absolute joke! Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.