I spoke with our construction manager (CM) today and he sounded like a good bloke. We plan to catch up in the next few weeks as we both like to put a face to a name. By the sounds of his working hours I will be getting up early to see him as I would have to take an afternoon off work to catch-up with him, something I cant do all the time.
I am starting to want the rain to stop as he said if it wasn’t for the rain he would have had the plumbing dug in ready for the concreters to do their thing. I guess we need the rain pretty badly here in Melbourne so maybe I should take credit for breaking the drought when I signed my building contract.
Anyway, it would appear that if we get some dry days I should have a slab in the next couple of weeks, which will be fantastic prpgress, lets just see what we find on our visit this weekend.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
We have been Levelled
Well we ventured out on a pretty wet & miserable Grand Final Day to discover we have had yet another week of actual progress.
We have been allocated our construction manager who will be the man responsible for building our home. We have clarified all outstanding variation requests, apart from the Air Conditioning. It would appear easier to come up with a price and really difficult to actually explain how you get to that price! No worries, we will continue to wait.
But all that wasn’t the biggest thing to happen this week, the biggest thing was our block of land was scrapped and levelled in preparation for the slab. This is real progress and if the rain holds off we may actually get plumbing and form work next week. I did fear that when I signed my building contract I would be responsible for breaking the drought and to date I am on track for doing so and as a result I am not expecting too much progress next week.
Below are pictures of our Block
(click on the pictures for a better look)
Before............
After.................
Now I wonder what they will do with all the top soil and dirt. I was hoping they could maybe mulch it for me and the spread it out over the block once the house was built, maybe that’s just wishful thinking.
I do have some concerns over the area against the neighbour’s fence; does it need a retaining wall? I didn’t think one was allocated for in our contract but as far as I am concerned it can’t stay the way it is and I won’t be paying any extra. I guess we will have to wait & see.
If the rain continues I will imagine our blcok may turn into pretty boggy mess, I guess we will find out next week when we have another look
We have been allocated our construction manager who will be the man responsible for building our home. We have clarified all outstanding variation requests, apart from the Air Conditioning. It would appear easier to come up with a price and really difficult to actually explain how you get to that price! No worries, we will continue to wait.
But all that wasn’t the biggest thing to happen this week, the biggest thing was our block of land was scrapped and levelled in preparation for the slab. This is real progress and if the rain holds off we may actually get plumbing and form work next week. I did fear that when I signed my building contract I would be responsible for breaking the drought and to date I am on track for doing so and as a result I am not expecting too much progress next week.
Below are pictures of our Block
(click on the pictures for a better look)
Before............
After.................
Now I wonder what they will do with all the top soil and dirt. I was hoping they could maybe mulch it for me and the spread it out over the block once the house was built, maybe that’s just wishful thinking.
I do have some concerns over the area against the neighbour’s fence; does it need a retaining wall? I didn’t think one was allocated for in our contract but as far as I am concerned it can’t stay the way it is and I won’t be paying any extra. I guess we will have to wait & see.
If the rain continues I will imagine our blcok may turn into pretty boggy mess, I guess we will find out next week when we have another look
Saturday, September 19, 2009
We have a TAP
Well we ventured out on our usual Saturday excursion to see if anything had happened to our block in the last week, and to also check out the progress of a friend’s house which is being built just around the corner from our place.
We have been venturing out every Saturday for the last 6 weeks in the off chance we will see some sign our new home is about to spring up from the ground and take shape before our very eyes, and in the past there has been nothing.
Our friend’s house has been making good progress and we noticed it has been framed and wrapped in the last week, so we got out of the car and had a sticky beak which was fun in that we now cant wait to do that with our place.
When we finished our sticky beak we jumped back into our car and headed off to our block and low & behold we have a TAP.
I never thought I would get excited over a tap but is the first physical sign of progress in building our new home. No longer is progress measured in paper work signed, colours chosen no, now progress can be measured on what we can see and touch, and eventually walk through.
I am so excited, I have posted a picture of the now famous tap and you would have to admit, it’s quite a good looking tap, well as far as taps are concerned.
We only hope that by next Saturday our tap has a friend like form work or even a slab!
We have been venturing out every Saturday for the last 6 weeks in the off chance we will see some sign our new home is about to spring up from the ground and take shape before our very eyes, and in the past there has been nothing.
Our friend’s house has been making good progress and we noticed it has been framed and wrapped in the last week, so we got out of the car and had a sticky beak which was fun in that we now cant wait to do that with our place.
When we finished our sticky beak we jumped back into our car and headed off to our block and low & behold we have a TAP.
I never thought I would get excited over a tap but is the first physical sign of progress in building our new home. No longer is progress measured in paper work signed, colours chosen no, now progress can be measured on what we can see and touch, and eventually walk through.
I am so excited, I have posted a picture of the now famous tap and you would have to admit, it’s quite a good looking tap, well as far as taps are concerned.
We only hope that by next Saturday our tap has a friend like form work or even a slab!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Finally Some Action..............well sort of
Well we finally have some action, well no physical action but a building permit, confirmation of the “official” start date and some clarification on some of my variations.
Our Building Permit was issued on the 10th of September and I am told the “Official” Start Date is the 1st of October. Now the word “official” is a bit flaky as they do still mention starting earlier but either way I have a start date and I couldn’t be happier…………....for now, next I want a slab.
As for our variations, I am still waiting on a breakdown of the AirCon but we have confirmed that we are getting Strand Woven Bamboo Floorboards, an external GPO for the water tank pump and Vinyl Wrap kitchen cupboards doors and draws.
So finally I feel as we are getting some where, even though we have achieved so much in such a short time. We walked into the display house on Saturday June 6 and now just over 3.5 months later our new house will spring from the ground and grow into our family home.
Our Building Permit was issued on the 10th of September and I am told the “Official” Start Date is the 1st of October. Now the word “official” is a bit flaky as they do still mention starting earlier but either way I have a start date and I couldn’t be happier…………....for now, next I want a slab.
As for our variations, I am still waiting on a breakdown of the AirCon but we have confirmed that we are getting Strand Woven Bamboo Floorboards, an external GPO for the water tank pump and Vinyl Wrap kitchen cupboards doors and draws.
So finally I feel as we are getting some where, even though we have achieved so much in such a short time. We walked into the display house on Saturday June 6 and now just over 3.5 months later our new house will spring from the ground and grow into our family home.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Waiting and More Waiting
Waiting and more waiting is all I seem to have done over the last couple of weeks. I am waiting for construction to start. I am waiting for my emails to be answered and I am waiting for the inevitable call for more money.
I have been in contact with my builder about Air Conditioning, specifically a quote for installing what is called "add-on" air con. That is the installation of a cooling coil to the ducted heating just before the fan. I managed to get a quote from a 3rd party and I got a 1 line quote from my builder, and that 1 line was the cost. It was 55% above the quote from the 3rd party, so obviously I asked for a breakdown, and it’s this breakdown I am still waiting on.
As I mentioned in earlier posts my builder suggested we install Bamboo floors instead of our Tassie Oak floorboards. I said no worries, get me a quote and we will see how we go. Again my builder gave me a quote that contained just the cost, so again I asked for more information, like what type of Bamboo floor will be installed? How do you intend on laying the floor? In doing my research I discovered there are 3 types of Bamboo Floorboards, Vertical, Horizontal & Strand Woven. Vertical & Horizontal were of a similar strength and price while strand woven was stronger than Jarrah and all most as hard as spotted gum. I also discovered there are 3 methods of laying the boards, each with their own pros & cons. Guess what? Yep I am still waiting for this information.
It’s been over a week since I have heard from my builder and my most recent email is yet to be responded to, maybe it’s because I asked questions about my building permit and an estimated start date for construction.
All this waiting is starting to get on my nerves but one must remain calm and ensure the working relationship is not jeopardised as the builder holds all the power. He can stall and delay because until he starts construction his 220 day construction window doesn’t start and what incentive does he have to finish early if he has a frosty relationship with his client, as I said they have the power.
The reason I have asked about the building permit is that we settled on the land on the 27th of July, the building permit should take approx 4 weeks to be issued and the builder is obliged to commence construction within 21 days from the building permit being issued. So if I don’t know this date I can’t enforce the start of construction, as I said this waiting is starting to drive me crazy.
As a result I have decided this will be my final post until I see some action, be that clarification on my air con & floor quotes, notification of when construction will start, or even actual physical evidence that construction has started, because this waiting is doing my head in!
I have been in contact with my builder about Air Conditioning, specifically a quote for installing what is called "add-on" air con. That is the installation of a cooling coil to the ducted heating just before the fan. I managed to get a quote from a 3rd party and I got a 1 line quote from my builder, and that 1 line was the cost. It was 55% above the quote from the 3rd party, so obviously I asked for a breakdown, and it’s this breakdown I am still waiting on.
As I mentioned in earlier posts my builder suggested we install Bamboo floors instead of our Tassie Oak floorboards. I said no worries, get me a quote and we will see how we go. Again my builder gave me a quote that contained just the cost, so again I asked for more information, like what type of Bamboo floor will be installed? How do you intend on laying the floor? In doing my research I discovered there are 3 types of Bamboo Floorboards, Vertical, Horizontal & Strand Woven. Vertical & Horizontal were of a similar strength and price while strand woven was stronger than Jarrah and all most as hard as spotted gum. I also discovered there are 3 methods of laying the boards, each with their own pros & cons. Guess what? Yep I am still waiting for this information.
It’s been over a week since I have heard from my builder and my most recent email is yet to be responded to, maybe it’s because I asked questions about my building permit and an estimated start date for construction.
All this waiting is starting to get on my nerves but one must remain calm and ensure the working relationship is not jeopardised as the builder holds all the power. He can stall and delay because until he starts construction his 220 day construction window doesn’t start and what incentive does he have to finish early if he has a frosty relationship with his client, as I said they have the power.
The reason I have asked about the building permit is that we settled on the land on the 27th of July, the building permit should take approx 4 weeks to be issued and the builder is obliged to commence construction within 21 days from the building permit being issued. So if I don’t know this date I can’t enforce the start of construction, as I said this waiting is starting to drive me crazy.
As a result I have decided this will be my final post until I see some action, be that clarification on my air con & floor quotes, notification of when construction will start, or even actual physical evidence that construction has started, because this waiting is doing my head in!
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