begin slow exhale

...aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....

/end slow exhale

Feels like a massive weight just lifted off my shoulders.

Thanks for the news serenitynow.

Awesome news! I beat you will be driving by tonight

For sure!!!

There has been such a hoo-har by us over the garage roof that it definitely deserves its own special 1 to 1 viewing. lol
I might even have cause to break the camera out again and take a few pics.

Happy for you guys!! Had to tell you, finally there is movement. Congrats and give your lovely wife a big hug from me . That dinner is still on, just let me get the house decent first.

Week27 - Garage and Alfresco trusses - 11/3/2012

The garage and alfresco trusses were done on Monday but not much else externally other than that. The balcony frame was done as well but I hadn't spotted it until I did a walk around on Saturday.

Internally there are still exposed frame areas where the plaster has not been fitted. I hope the frame issues are all fixed and I am now just waiting for the plasterers to fix/finish there bits. The plaster around the wonky door frames has also been removed and still awaits repair. Again, I can only hope the frames have been fixed for these areas. The main power box cable still protrudes through the wall and into the master bedroom. Still waiting for this to be moved back inline with the wall and I think that this might require some slab jack hammering to get it back in position. The plaster around that area is also still broken.

Seems like its all moving at a snails pace with one little thing done each week and many other parts still untouched or not repaired which seems to put a hold on other areas getting started and other areas being finished.

[ img ]
Garage trusses on

[ img ]
Alfresco truss on

My build is in the same stage as yours, Plastering just finished and few fixing issues left

Actually, I think you are a bit ahead of me. Then again, who's build isn't.

For me:
Still no roof to garage or alfresco
Still no guttering to garage or alfresco
Still no eaves to garage or alfresco
Still no plastering to garage or alfresco
Still a lot of plastering issues to be completed internally (as in whole sections of wall incomplete + many doorways)

Then add painting, tiling, carpets and other stuff which I haven't even started to worry about...

So I would think I am very much behind and if you add the fact that my slab was down 6 or more weeks before yours...as I said I'm pretty sure my build is the unofficial "...ugly stepchild of PD".

How long is your contract days?

When you say step child of PD does that mean they treat prestige customers differantly to Lifestyle?

Good luck with your battle

As far as being treated differently, I wouldn't know as this is the first time I have built. My meaning of step child is more along the lines of the classic step child, sort of like Cinderella.

All in all both my BC(or CSA) and SS have been excellent and have done everything that they could. They have kept me well informed of any issues for most of my build and also answered my questions when I got a little toey about my build (i.e. over the christmas period when there didn't seem to be a lot of progress going on.)

The big issue that seems to pop up most is the tradies. The tradies that have worked on my job have been really good. The issue is that when it comes to fixing their mistakes (only very minor mistakes and this is from my independent inspector) they can take time. Waiting for them to come back and fix a previous stages errors can hold up the tradies waiting to get started on the next stage. Days can pass waiting for tradies to come back and fix mistakes. This causes tradies who are ready to start the next stage take other jobs or do other things as they often cannot start until these mistakes are repaired. All this can compound and delay your build and as im paying over $100 a day in interest, all I can do is cry each day I pay $100 to watch grass grow on my land.

Week28 - Garage Alfresco roof tiles & gutters - 18/3/2012

The tiles for the Garage and Alfresco went on this week. The gutters were also put on. Just need the capping for the roof and some guttering between the garage and house to make it totally water proof.

The outside is finally starting to look like it is should.

The main frame issue seems to be fixed as there is now plaster board over it. It also looks like the mains power has been placed into its correct position in the wall and new plaster board has been placed over that section as well. Still waiting for the other plaster and frame issues around the doorways and wall corners to be completed. Still needs a lot of skirting, architrave, cornice and plaster work before its done. Hopefully this week they will finish of the fixing so they can get ready for painting.

All in all not bad progress this week.

[ img ]
Garage tiles on (capping and flashing not complete)

[ img ]
alfresco tiles on

Just started reading your thread. Wow, you will have a wopper of a house... Cant wait to read more about your progress.

Hi Zinner,

So great to see some new pictures up, your build is really coming along and “look like it should”, it looks massive. The Expresso brick looks great too, I’m looking forward to your next update. Cheers, Ebony

Week29 - Garage Alfresco roof capping and some plaster repairs - 25/3/2012

I was hoping that the fixing was completed over the last week so we could start on the getting the painting started but alas, the plastering and fixing is still not complete. The Garage and Alfresco roof capping (i.e pointy bits of the roof) has been completed but the waterproof flashing has not been installed yet. The roof safety barriers are still on so they obviously didn't get the roof and alfresco part completed. This means that they still cannot put plaster in these areas.

Some plastering has been done and a lot of the errors with the corners of walls and doorways looks like it has been fixed. The cornice, skirting board and architrave for these fixed areas has not been placed back on around these areas however. I figure that the fixed areas must be checked first that they are plumb and error free before they bother with the cornice, skirting and architrave otherwise they will just have to pull it all off again.

It really hard for me to believe that some people get to painting stage in week 8 to 18 even. Week 30 coming up so over 200 days and still no end in sight. After all the money in penalties for late start due to land not settling plus the cost of being in a rental for way longer than we expected (7 months extra plus the current 7 months+ build time which is like money down the drain) I am starting to wonder if all this was worth it now. Seriously!

Zinner I feel your pain, and undestand the dent in your $$ when you work on a budget.
I hope they get a move on soon.

My build is contracted for 370 days, it was a huge risk when I put ink on the papper (Was too stressed to find another builder). fingers crossed my build is on track to finish by June / July. My lease ends in August.

I hate long weekends and rain.

Week30 - Still waiting on plaster repairs - 1/4/2012

The plastering is still not complete.

This whole saga is all starting to sound a bit like listening to a broken record (for those who know what a record is ) which I am paying for.

I spoke with the SS who explained what the issues were and why it was taking so much time. To break it down, turns out the plasterers are blaming the framers (or PD) for the mistakes in the plaster job saying the frame was out of whack and wont fix them without getting paid to fix them. They are saying that these repairs do not fit into part of the standard repair fixing framework. PD are saying that it is mostly just laziness in some of the finer details from the guys that did the plastering. This stand off means that my SS has had to go and investigate every plaster issue, document and date it, in an effort to find out who's fault it really was (i.e. skirting architrave, cornice and plaster all ripped off from the offending areas so he could get to the root of the issue). He found it there were some mistakes that were from the frame and some that were from the plasterers.

My SS showed me around all the issues and a good portion of them were the plasterers fault but the plasterer wont accept any responsibility for them. As I reasoned with my SS, "If the wall was out of whack, why would you just plaster it up? Wouldn't you, as a tradesman if you really took pride in your work, at least RING THE SS TO TELL HIM IT WAS OUT OF WHACK FIRST BEFORE YOU BEGIN WORK!!!!!". Seriously, the busted logic of the plasterers just eludes me. Most of the tradesmen that have worked on my house have all contacted the SS if there were any issues over what they were about to do ( as I would think most would do).

After all this back and forth (which I did say to the SS was really at MY expense), they then have to get both my SS's Boss and the plastering company Boss to meet on site and try to work out a compromise. Unfortunately for me, this meeting has taken time and in the end the plasterers would not budge. To the credit of PD and in the interest of getting the my build moving again, PD has had to "bite the bullet" and has agreed to pay them to fix all the mistakes at PD's expense.

The plaster mistake fixing should finally take place over the next week so hopefully the painters can get in there and start their thing.

Oh... and now we have Easter coming up...

I feel your plaster pain Zinner, some of the plasteres who were engaged in my build did not understand a word of english.

Plaster under my stairs are not complete and painters were complaining that some areas were not sanded properly. To add more fuel the plasteres were drawing in pencils to mark the locations that needed sanding, these were hard to remove by paint.

Anyway Hopefully PD will get a move on from next week. (I hate long weekends)

I also have pencil marks around all the plaster that has the issues. In your case, sounds like these issues were marked but not attended to. This all sounds very familiar but as a credit to my SS, he wont let the painters in until all the issues are all taken care of.

I don't really care if the plasterers know English or not (although it might of helped when the site super wrote in big letters "DO NOT PLASTER" over one of the holes he made so that the sparkys could fix a broken wire... which was plastered over in the first round of repairs)... I just wish they knew how to use a spirit level. (Ouch! )

Thats terrible and I am starting to feel the pain of PD giving us the run around trying to add delays to the build when in fact when the holes were made in the plaster (by vandals) they could ahve been fixed straight away not 3 weeks after which then delayed the painter! So then i was told my electrical fit off was done while we waited for the tiles as the painter took longer than expected! it doesnt take 2 weeks to paint a 27 sq foot home especially since they now use spray guns.

Just keep on them and make sure you always ask for feedback or updates. I must be a pain in their b*tts but i dont care because they wont forget me this way.

Best of luck and please keeps us updated on here.

Sounds good and bad in equal measure Zinner. Even though it's delaying your build, I'll take delays over forever living with crap workmanship.

Really hope they pull out all the stops to get you there sooner rather than later.

Exactly how I was thinking. Very glad that the SS has not just given up and let these issues go. In perspective its like 1 month of stuffing around vs over a lifetime and then some of looking at crappy workmanship... every day. Short term pain for long term Joy (still very hard on me and the DW atm though).

When it comes down too it, PD have a right to protest as they are the ones that paid for the work. If they do have the time on there side against the overall build time (i.e. contract build time), they will try to get there moneys worth. After they use up this time trying to get what they as the builder have paid for, it gets to the point that they have to "lose the fight to win the war" so to speak so as to not run into penalty time with the build. I would think that "some" tradies (depending on size and where they fit into the build perspective) know this as well and can dance around for long enough that the builder eventually has to give in just so they can avoid going into penalty time.