PCI & 10 Days to Go

Well what a week we have had. At one stage it looked like we were not going to make it & I seriously considered delaying our move in date & I still may do that except now I am a lot more comfortable and confident that it will all work out.

We had our Project Completion Inspection (PCI) today and while it might have been a little early we needed to do it now so I could get the ball rolling with the bank.

I must say I am very pleased and most of my issues are very minor, a touch of paint here a fly screen required there. There are some big ticket items still missing like a driveway, hot water service, Air/Con vent, security doors, fly wire screens, insulation, oven, gas hot plates, range hood & all up there are 37 items.

For the big ticket stuff I have a schedule of them being completed and the driveway guy started while I was there so once again I am confident we can make it and my Construction Manager (CM) has told me to come around again next Tuesday to see the finished result. I suspect Wednesday and since I will only be able to make it first thing in the morning I will suggest Wednesday the 28th.

All I need is the Certificate of Occupancy to start the ball rolling with the bank. I should get that tomorrow and if I do it should be all systems go for a 10am handover on Friday April 30 where after 328 days we will be in our new home and once again I will be king of my little castle, woo hoo!!!

Below are some pictures of the house taken over the last week.

10 Days to Go, cant wait!

311 days down 17 to go

I spoke with my Construction Manager (CM) today and it would appear I jumped the gun on appointing blame for the telephone cable & fit off. The dodgy so & so’s who did the crappy work was Telstra and considering their reputation and the fact they have waived the $300 installation fee I guess I am stuck with their workmanship, well at least to handover when I fix it.

When talking to my CM he informed me that our driveway will be installed by the end of the week, as will our bamboo floor. The plasterer comes in on Wednesday and the painter is due on Friday. There is the first wave of cleaning on Monday the 19th with the carpet being laid on the morning of Tuesday the 20th.

That means our project completion inspection (PCI) is in the afternoon of Tuesday the 20th of April. This time in a week we would have seen 99.9% of the finished article, only another clean, an oven and hotplates to go, oh and any thing we find in the inspection.

The countdown has begun and MrsB and I are starting to get very keen and increasingly impatient. Considering we walked into the sales office on Saturday June 6th 2009 it’s been a long 311 days so far.

By the time we get the keys it will be 328 days since we walked into the sales office and decided to build a house, 300 days since we signed the building contract and 218 days since construction started.

When you have already been waiting 311 days, another 17 doesn’t seem so bad.

The End Game

I was always warned that the most difficult part of building was the end game because this the time that the plastering, the painting and the fit off occurs and it is this time where the quality of the finish matters.

Well the fit off is well underway and I have already noticed some “issues” which I have escalated to the Construction Manager via head office. I have decided to document my issues so that they can’t complain I have not given them fair warning I expect these issues dealt with prior to handover.

The plumber has finished, apart from the gas cooktop and hot water service and to date I cant fault his workmanship.

The tiler has done a wonderful job and the painter apart from not being able to read a colour selection chart has done on the whole a good job. The AirCon guy apart from stuffing up one outlet has also done a good job. I have a bulge in the plaster wall in the garage & I would expect that it will be fixed, surely a bulging wall is not “commercially acceptable”

I have discovered this term “commercially acceptable” and the cynic in me says it’s a dodgy clause used by builders to get away with shoddy work. Now I should give my builder the benefit of the doubt as this issue was only discovered by me on Saturday so they still have time to fix it and they have not come to me and said they wouldn’t so time will tell.

One trade I am not happy with is the sparkie. The exterior power point for the water tank pump is shoddy and the way they have connected the phone line to the Telstra box is just plain unacceptable. In my email to the builder I stated that I believed it was the work of an unsupervised 1st year apprentice, surely a fully qualified tradesman wouldn’t be proud of that kind of work.

As I said I will give the benefit of the doubt to my builder that these issues and more will be addressed, including the missing power point in the extra kitchen cupboard, the silly idiot electrician wired for it, just didn’t fit it off!!

Our Strand Woven Bamboo Borads, cant wait to see them actually laid.

The ensuite toilet, I am actually impressed with our "standard" toilet

Ensuite sink & taps, again we are happy with the standard

The main toilet, obviously its just the same as the other one

Bathroom sink & taps, again they match the ensuite, funny that!!

The external power point. It should have 2 conduit clips and the hole should be filled with silicone to stop moisture entering the walls.

This piece of workmanship is simply not good enough and is rough & lazy. One they should have used conduit to ensure the Telstra box was over the hole or at least used conduit from the hole and again there is no silicone, tsk tsk. This will be fixed.

Our door handles, another standard item

It would appear people are using our site as a rubbish dump, garden waste appeared last week and now a whole heap of MaxFactor makeup boxes have been dumped. If I was the builder I would be pissed off. I wonder which neighbour is the culprit?

I plan to play fussy bugger and be very stubborn to ensure a tip top finish, besides they stung me hard over the crossover, so if I have to stick to the contract, so do they. I just hope our relationship, which has been good too date doesn’t degenerate into a slanging match, I still want my keys on April 30

A month to go

Well its Easter and a few months ago, well even late Jan I thought we would be in by now but no.

We have had more progress in that the electrical fit off is almost complete and the showers are in. We also got our quote to move our crossover.

Now thanks to the council stipulating certain concrete thicknesses etc and the builder whacking on his 20% margin our quote came to an additional $5,150.

To say I was shocked was an understatement and the builder & I spent half an hour debating the “fairness” in the 20% margin when he stuffed up the original driveway allowance and they have had other crossover issues in the estate and our street.

In the end he stuck to his contract and for the sake of having one person on the hook for the whole house and to have a functional driveway and handover date of the 30th of April I have accepted the hit and will somehow come up with the additional $3000 after I had budgeted $2000.

I guess its swings & roundabouts because now I want that 10 cent sized dent in the toilet window fixed. I don’t care that he may have to replace the whole window frame and remove bricks to get it out, my contract states a house with no defects and that’s what I expect. I have also been mentioning it for the last few months so they cant say I haven’t warned them. They also have to patch the ceiling so I will be very keen to ensure the paint work is spot on.

It could be a very interesting month and I just hope that handover is not affected.

Below are some of the latest pics

The above 3 photos are of our tile splashback and how it looks with our benchtop. Mrs B wanted to lay the tiles in a "brick" format, I didn't and obviously I now carry the can if it looks bad. I like it though, MrsB says its "OK"

The above shots are from our ensuite including our "decorative tile". We went with the same theme in the main bathroom shown below. You can also see our floor tiles, a little dusty of course.

Our AirCon condenser below

Another shot of the front with the yet to be rectified front door and main beam.

We are so close now I am very excited but I also know the fun with the builder on the quality of the finish may draw things out. I hope not but after being reminded about the terms in my contract with the cross over I have every intention of them honouring their part of the contract, lets hope it all doesn’t turn pear shaped right at the end.