Introductions Please!

Welcome to Homeone,

My name is Jason Andary, director of Homeone Australia & New Zealand.

This Forum is dedicated to you, and valued members of this forum designed to help you engage in exchanging valuable information with one another.

We invite you to share a little about yourself first so current members can become more easily acquainted.

Join our new Homeone Facebook Group while you're at it: https://www.facebook.com/homeone.com.au

Happy posting,

The Homeone Team

Thanks Jason.

Is that you in the picture?

Hello Bella,

Good to see you're posting a bit lately along with a few others.

Yep, that's me in the photo.

I don't look too serious, do I?


Regards,

Jason

I'm trying to figure out who you look like.

Pete Sampras? Or than cricketer that I can't think of his name.

Hi Bella,

Pete Sampras will do just fine thanks.

Hope your home improvements are coming along nicely.

Hi there.
Im a Tiler living in Brisbane.
i work preferably with decorative stone and ceramic tiles.
i also install many of Brisbanes hand made ceramic mosaics.
have been working in the construction industry for 13 years.
in that time ive had experience in tiling- shopfitting, residential, public art, mosaic, & stonework.

its great to see this forum online. looking forward to seeing it grow.

... only half serious

Hi I'm Simon, a financial planner from Melbourne.

I am currently in the process of building a new home.

I hope to learn a lot and also contribute where I can.

Cheers

Hi Simon,


Welcome to the Homeone Forum.

Wishing you all the best in the building phase of your new home, and hoping you'll share all the interesting, and positive experiences with our fellow members.

hello Jason,

nice forum.

simple and nice.

i find it much more better than YAHOO group chats home builders.

- design visual -

Hi Jason and everyone,

I'm Steve and I am a Demolisher in Sydney.

I have been doing it for the last 15yrs and enjoy it very much.

So, if any of you are thinking of getting rid of your home, message me for tips on how to reduce your costs.


All the best

Hi Jason,

Thanks for a great resource. This website is just what I have been looking for. Nice to know I'm not the only one that has building issues

Scarlett

Hello Jason and forum members.My name is Terry and I'm from Wagga.I've been involved in the building industry since leaving school at the tender age of 14 years and 10 months (not unusual in those days) I did my time as a trainee bricklayer and then started sub-contracting (with my older brother)in 1974.I then got my building licence and started to build a few spec homes as well as continuing sub-contract bricklaying.My brother branched out and started building full time and I continued to work for him and still do quite a bit for him.My son and myself still have a bricklaying team and we also build spec homes in Wagga and district.When I sort out the photo option I'll post a few pictures.Regards Terry

Hi, my name is Michelle.

I stumbled (thankfully) upon this site after countless hours of googling various terms to do with the dillemmas (spelling?) involved in building our first home.

I have absolutley no building experience whatsoever, am a public servant by profession.

I'm really impressed with the varied and useful information I have found in just one evening!

Thanks for such a great site!!!

Hello
I'm Tom. I'm from Penrith NSW

He looks like Michael Bevan


Now for my/our introduction;
My name is Mick.
My partner Donna and I are building our first family home. We have 2 kids, Fynn who is 1.5 y.o and Kayla who is nearly 3. I also have no building experience at all. I am an Aviation Technician by trade and currently work in the Defence industry as as technical writer/associate engineer. I am very detail focussed so am one of those customers that vendors get frustrated with. I read everything. Fine print, terms and conditions, form version dates etc. etc. Our builder came over early in the selection process and was talking on the phone saying he would be home in around 20 minutes. After I had finished grilling him on the ambiguity of document clauses which I didn't even need to sign yet, 105 minutes had passed.

That's the most important thing I have learnt so far. Take your time. If you don't understand, ask. If you don't like the answer, keep pressing until you know that you will be able to get some sleep.

P.S. I really like the setup of this site, thanks Mr. Bevan

Hi I'm Peter, and from the Uk, always interested what others are doing and how they do it.

Carpenter and joiner by trade.

Hi All,

My name is Effie M, co-director of cheapblinds.com.au and have recently, joined the homeone family!

Our company is an online blind company providing Australian and custom made blinds delivered to your door. All you need to do is measure your windows and place your order and we will have your blinds manufactured and delivered to your door step in no time.

If anyone has any questions regarding various window coverings, including curtains I am more than willing to assist. Just drop me a reply and I will get back to you ASAP.

Look forward to everyones questions.
Effie

Hey Effie,

met your other half today!!

Will be interested to see the homeone forum discount on the quote

Matt

G'day, this is my first post to these forums.

I've been a part of many forums over the years (mostly car-related), and there seems to be forums for just about everything these days, so I wasn't surprised how easy it was to find one on home renovations...

I'm employed by Energy Australia (in Sydney) as an Installation Inspector, but I doubt I'll have access to these forums from work. Any electrician *should* know what I do, but for the benefit of those that aren't electricians, my work involves inspecting electrical work carried out by licenced electricians to comply with the relevant Australian Standards and other relevant requirements (like NSW Service & Installation Rules), and local distributor requirements (in my case, Energy Australia documents like ES3, Network Standards, etc). It is a government/regulatory requirement that electrical work is inspected - different states have different requirements as far as the level of inspection required - I believe in QLD they inspect 100% of all jobs submitted to the distributor(s). In NSW we check 10% (implying that the level of conformity with the relevant rules by the electricians is better in NSW than it is in QLD). We also pass on information to OFT such as details of unauthorised connections (ie: unlicenced/unqualified persons carrying out electrical work) and those licenced electricians that don't submit CCEW (Certificate of Compliance - Electrical Work), formerly NOEW forms, which incurs a $2,500 fine for non-submission. There are still electricians out there that anquire about the new CCEW forms which have now been in effect for a year. One of the reasons they were implemented was to be able to track the jobs completed by electricians by way of each form being issued with a unique serial number.

I've been with EA for over 12 years, and an Inspector for about the last 3.

I love the job as I get to see lots of interesting house designs and ideas, but it does come with it's downside in that you get to see some very, very ** work by electricians (and other trades, too) that clearly shouldn't have got a licence in the first place. If there was anything I'd change it would be to have the OFT display defect details against contractor's details on their licence-check website instead of just the formal caution/dismissal detail that is currently listed, to better protect consumers from using the dodgier electricians. Currently all defects are kept internal to EA (as far as I'm aware) so there is no way the average consumer is able to get any indication of how good or bad an electrician is (or was).

One issue I always come across is many people asking me to recommend electricians to them - the problem is that the only electricians I am able to recall (apart from one or two) are ones I have written defects to - and I wouldn't want to recommend them!

Off to post my first question... See you 'round the forums...