I know exactly how you feel over these delays in the build sammyjane31. My house was not even vandalised and its been 7 weeks since the plaster went in and it is still not complete. Around 3 days to plaster... 7 weeks to get right... whats with that?

Each week that goes by we waste over $1000 in interest and rent. Each month our savings (aka. the building survival fund) slowly disappear. With the bank stuffing up our loan way back 7 months ago and taking the 16k in stamp duty out of our everyday savings account (another mistake in what seems the long line of stuff ups) instead of against the loan which is where it was meant to go (first I knew of this stuff up was when I went to pay for the groceries at safeway and it came up with an insufficent funds msg ). Things are tight enough for us to now be worried about where we will live next month.

At at least 8 weeks of build time to go minimum and that is if things run smooth from here on, I am very worried. I have taken a lot of this pressure on myself and have hidden a lot of it from the DW as there is no way she could handle it if I told her the truth about our situation.

Once again, my mistake was not getting the bank error fixed there and then and listening to my bank manager who assured me the smart thing to do would be to leave the money where it was for the moment to avoid excess intrest payments. We were meant to be able to call on that money again at the end of the build OR if the build went over the expected 7 months. We actually filled out all the loan paperwork ahead of time and had it approved so there would be no delay if or when I needed it. Now, due to some crock red tape excuse, the bank will not give us that loan (our money back) until our construction loan is complete. I was so dissapointed over this. It was our hard earned savings that were basicaly taken in an error by the bank (as I had to use the savings money to balance the everyday account or else we could not pay for food)

...even the best laid plans of mice and men...

That's terrible! I would be very mad with the bank and once the you get your money back i would then consider changing banks!

We are considering changing to a smaller a bank/financial institution if rates start going up as they will most likely offer a lower rate.

I hope PD offers something for these delays or screw ups- are they over contract yet???

Hang in there and fingers and toes crossed things run smoothly from now on for you and your family!

You should definitely get the bank to come up with a solution. They should be able to give you a line of credit against the build especially if you have equity. As an ex bankie there are options that they can take even more so when it's their fault.

Yep SJ, I am considering changing banks once its all done and dusted.

I remember being told at the sales stage that it would take about 6-7months to build "Max" and would most likely be quicker. Pre-contract we were told the build time in the contract is 241 days (or 8 months). Only now that it is getting close to (what I thought was ) end date have I gone to check the finer details on the contract we signed when it comes to the build time and penalties. That's when I knew I was a goner. lol

I remember being told if your build goes into Christmas the builder will get and extra 28 days. As our Land settlement was around 6 months late (told March and settled in Sept) I knew it would now go through Christmas. Looking at the finer details it seems that the 241 days does not include weekends, public holidays, RDO's etc... which is up to 78 DAYS EXTRA!!!! Add 10 days for weather and the "REAL BUILD TIME" is around 357 days!! or a whole year of real time. Currently I am at about 215 days since the build started so it could be another 4 months before we get any penalty payments.

I have been so knocked about by the whole process that I just copped that news from the bank in the face like so much of the other bad news I have had over the last few months. Now that I am writing it down and telling people about it, I think I'll take that advice JLD.

Time to get up of the floor and go and FIGHT FOR IT!!!!

Not gonna cop anymore of this sitting down.

Go on! Whilst it's stressful standing your ground, better that than being stressed about where to live. No need to be an ahole to get them to see it your way.

Week31 - Painting Started - 8/4/2012

Great progress this week even with it being a short week . The plaster looks like it was finally fixed and many of the problem areas cleaned up. This allowed the painter in to get started with the first undercoat in many of the rooms. Wow! what a difference it makes having paint on the walls. Everything looks so... so white. It was so bright that it was hard to look at and my eyes were going a bit fuzzy with all the white. lol. It also could of been the overwhelming sense of completeness with the many fixing - framing issues and the thought that we are finally on the home straight with our build. I was so happy and excited (and blinded) I had to leave for fear of something shattering the feeling.

I'm not sure whats next but there is still the tiling, carpets, bath, washbasins, shower, electrical fixing off, garage and alfresco plastering and all the associated painting that goes with it. I am hoping the next few weeks continue to be a fast as the last. Still seems like a lot to do so I'm keeping my fingers crossed there are no more issues.

From previous post by me. I apparently got this wrong.



On another note, I think I got the total build time wrong in my previous post as my BC (or CSA??) informed me the 78 days and 10 days weather are apparently included in the 241 days total build time. This leaves only the 28 days Christmas as extra days to the build. I was told that my house has currently been flagged for penalties so I guess if its not finished in the next 6-8 weeks I will be in the penalty zone. I will try to get in contact with my BC(CSA) over the next few days and find out the finer details and when it will "click over". Knowing this does help a little with the finances but I would still rather it finished on time than go overtime but I don't think I will avoid it at this point.

Week32 - Still Painting - 15/4/2012

Had a look see on the weekend and it looks like painting has continued. The doors have been painted and the arctrave and skirting has been done in gloss. House is really starting to look right now. There is still more painting to do around some of the more tricky areas (staircase wall). I'm also not sure if the final coat has been done. Hopefully we will be into tiling mode this week.

I did a check around the outside and it seems that the garage and alfresco roof is still not totally completed. The downpipes are in but I dont think all the flashing is on. I also spotted a deviation in the tiles at the rear of the house. I could spot it looking out the window from my car as I was driving up. Looks as if a few tiles are lifted or out of whack on one of the rows. I'm hoping with all the painting going on that these issues get looked at and not just swept under the carpet or forgotten about. I have tried to contact my SS to organise a check of the tiles and I will bring these issues up with him when I do. Left a message but no reply yet. I'm going to contact my CSA as well and make some notes of these issues. Hopefully I can contact her and then maybe she can contact the SS.

Dont give up and keep on them!

Our SS never returns call or even acknowledges receveing them. We were advised our PCI in next Tuesday and we left him 2 voicemails asking what time so we could leave work etc. and i ended up having to email our BC and she then called him and organised it- she did say he would call.

Still waiting....... SS is terrible!

That's bad ...

Week33 - Painting Finished - 22/4/2012

Painting looks like its all done but I havent been able to check everything as I can't get inside or upstairs. On Friday I had a meeting with the tiler to confirm all our tiles so thats good. I checked on saturday and the first tiles for the ground floor were laid. Had I a little bit of a problem and luckily checked with the spacing. We have 600x600 porcelain tiles so made sure that he did them all at 1.5mm. He was going to use 3mm but we wanted a smooth finish to our tiles and since we are paying premium for upgraded tiles wanted them done the way the sales girl told us they were able to do them. After some back and forth he agreed to do them at 1.5mm.

The balcony frame was to high and has to be moved down about 20mm as it will not fit within regulation once completed. I told the SS about the bulge in the rear roof tiles and he says that he will put someone on it. Hope no water gets in while its got the gap in it No rendering as the balcony has to be completed for them to start on this. Still no plaster to the alfresco and garage areas.

Week34 - Tiles - 29/4/2012

This week the tiles to the ground floor were put in. The tiles look great from what we could see through the window. They still had the grout on them so it will be good to look at them cleaned. The balcony looks like it has been moved down to the correct position, at least I hope it has as the particle board flooring is on it. If it is not at the correct position I wont be getting an Occ. cert as it will not pass inspection. This will likely add more time to my build to fix it so here's hoping its has been adjusted correctly.

Still yet to get any feedback from my SS about the roof tile bump at the rear of the house so I think I'm gonna have to bombard phone call him this week. I also noticed that the light end fixings at the front of the house are out of alignment. The lights have not been installed yet but the little white boxes all look like they are a brick out. This gives a sloping look to my house and makes it look a bit crap. Hopefully this can be adjusted when they put the actual lights on or else our front lights will look wonky.

Still waiting for bath, basins, garage and alfresco plaster and fixing off. Hopefully PD will pull the finger out over the next few weeks as there really dose not seem like there is much more to do. Just a whole lot of little things. Next week will bring the day count over the 241 that we signed for. If it wasn't for the christmas 28 days extra they get, PD would now have to start paying us penalties.

Good luck with getting the finishing bits and pieces done soon!

Thx Mclaren.

I hope to get in touch with the SS and hopefully get a rough indication of an end date... 1st end date we got was back in December and I was told it would be done by March. lol.

ZOMG!! - New site super appointed!!!!!

In a stunning turn of events and a case of the build just couldn't blow out any further I have just been informed that my SS has been replaced.

And here I was thinking that things couldn't get much worse and that completion might only be a few weeks away.

On calling the new SS he informed me that it would take a few days to get across everything and find out where the build is at. He will also have to organise the tradies and/or work that is required to be done to complete the job and find out what the current tradies are working on. I would expect to add 2-3 weeks onto whatever I figured would be the end date. This WILL definitely take the build into the penalty zone (and me to the poor house with it ).

He also informed me that the reason why the tiling to the bathroom was not completed was due to not being supplied enough tiles. What the!! Ummm ... that was fresh news to me. While its good to be informed of these things it is also a bit suprising that this could happen but then again, I'm starting to now think why wouldn't it happen given the way things have gone with my build.

I'm just starting to feel a bit of an "itch" about all this and the cool manner in which I have taken things so far (Fonzie.. aaayyeee!) is starting to wear a bit thin...

Hey Zinner... wow... who'd have thought that was going to happen? Do you know what became of your previous SS? Strange how they just disappear and the new one has to work everything out... seems very backward

I was told that there was a staff restructure and hes going to a different area of the company.

With the new guy having to work everything out I was sort of thinking the same thing. Every time I have to take time off and even if I get moved onto another project at work I am expected to do a job handover of my work so the guy/s who is taking over from me on a particular job knows whats going on with it. This is so it is a seamless transition of work for the customer and they are not affected. I would assume something like this has been done as the new SS has my file but I guess it all comes down to how much time is actually given to the handover process. I guess even with a handover things can sometimes take a little time before the new guy/s are up to speed on the project.

That's a little disheartening, hopefully as its at the end of your build it shouldn't hold things up for too long.
I am dying to see your house render

Same same.

I spoke with the new SS and he is right on getting the rendering done in the next week or so the house should finally start to look externally completed.

I has been sooooooooo looooooooonnngg since I picked my render color and now I'm not even sure that it will go with the brick color as the original bricks were changed way back when. It is gonna be real surprise to me just exactly how they will look together now so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they wont be to far out of whack.

Week35 - New site super - 6/5/2012

The new site super looks like hes all about getting the job done so that's a plus. Finally I am starting to feel confident that my house will actually have everything looked at in a timely manner rather than having each little issue sorted over many weeks and having me constantly remind or ask if issues have been fixed or what stage they are at.

As I am not a builder, I really shouldn't have to worry about this but even my inexperienced eyes could see issues with parts of the build that were not being fixed. These issue not being fixed could escalate from minor concerns to major worries after five or six weeks of not being addressed.

For so long, since the first slab frame inspection, it has felt as if things were slowly slipping on my build. At first it was just little things but now, sitting at week 35, it seems as if a whole bunch of little things have evolved into a big things. Being that my build would be into penalty time now if not for the 28 days extra Christmas clause (contract 241 days - currently day 245ish), it is obvious that this has been the case. The new site super looks as if he is all over these issues and has told me that many of these things are on the list for a "team" of tradies to come in and fix. Wow, "team" of tradies... now that sounds more like it!!!!

He has told me some not so good news about the alfresco roof. Yes, the one that was finally put on in week 28ish. It has to be pulled off and redone. As I said, I'm not too worried about mistakes or issues with my house as long as they are addressed and fixed. I would rather hear something is not right and needs to be fixed than have it covered up for me to find out about later. Give me all the information, be it the good, the bad, and the ugly. He has already booked the tradies to fix it so this issue should not be a major concern.

The render is getting sorted as well. No render and its week 35. It never occurred to me that there was anything wrong with the timing of when the render should be completed until the new SS bought it up with me as something he couldn't believe hadn't been done yet. I'm not sure how long render takes to dry (pity about the bad weather lately) but I figure its around 1-2 weeks before it can support any work, like downpipes that now have to be taken off and put back on after the rendering is complete.

I have a meeting with the new SS on Monday so he will go over the whole place with me and give me the low down on any outstanding issues and when they will be fixed. Internally, the house is almost done so thats a real plus. Its all about the external things now. I might take my camera as this will be the first time I've been inside for many weeks.