Take Two

Hello Variegated,

Im pleased to see your build progressing well, a little slowly is painful but the quality seems fantastic. I do agree on your sentiment with quality vs quantity big does not always mean beautiful. Those rounded straw bale walls look amazing, did they get the walls sealed up for painting?

I have to say our laundry mark up is so impressive, I do like a lovely laundry and yours is amazing, can I ask what it is you dye?

Looking forward to seeing your tiling take off.

Hi Tribe - nice to hear from you.

I really don't have concerns about the quality of the build - all the tradies I have met do seem to find it important to do a good job. Progress does feel incredibly slow though.

The strawbale walls are lovely - they have a texture in the render that doesn't show very well in photos, and the rounded edges are great. I do want to rub my hands over them when I am there. They could be left as they are - they are already weatherproof, (three coats of render) but I'd like to paint them to offer that extra level of protection. I haven't got any information about the sealing coats for them - it doesn't look to me as if anything has been applied.

I'm very happy with the laundry and all the storage space. Mostly I dye fabric as the basis for surface design, and then I make clothes. I have played a bit with dyeing fibre (for hand spinning) and yarn as well. Am very much looking forward to getting into this again - another reason for wishing they would hurry up!

I've had a little break from Homeone in the vain hope that it will help diminish my frustration.
The last 3 times I have visited the site there has been no-one there. So, to the best of my knowledge, the only things that have happened in the past four weeks are the strawbale walls have received at least an undercoating inside the house, and the timber screening between the house and the garage has been affixed to the framework that was constructed in January.
That's it.






It has taken the builder most of February to get around to ordering the tiles, because it appears that reading the drawing of where the feature tiles in the bathroom should go is difficult, and he doesn't take any notice of what I say in my emails.

I have requested another estimated completion date, with a timetable showing when tasks will be completed, as it is now 28 working weeks past the original 30 week contract period, and 17 working weeks past the amended finishing date of 21 October. Trying to think positive thoughts without much success.

I’m so sorry things are like this, I completely understand you taking a break I had to too. Things are happening on our site now, we are onto week 57 out of a 40 week build . Our site supervisors blames everyone else for the delays, I’ve found that nothing makes any difference - pleading, getting angry or just being pleasant ...nothing makes things get done any quicker. So frustrating.

So sorry to see how things are going, your frustration must be incredible. I hope things pick up soon - hopefully your request for a timetable gets things moving again!

Thank you Trimum and Algernon - I appreciate your kind thoughts.

Nothing has progressed this week, and I have as yet received no response to my request for a completion date, so I have made a second request - this time with a deadline - COB this coming Friday 16 March. This will mark 30 working weeks past the original contract period - double the time it should have taken to build the house.

So in an effort to concentrate on the things I want to happen rather than the things that are not happening, I have ordered some windchimes that I have had my eye o which sounds like a great accompaniment to gardening.

A surprising development - I have received a reply to my request from the builder - an email sent at 1633 on Friday afternoon!
I really was not expecting an answer, and was preparing my next step. Under the contract, the builder is supposed to provide notification of any delays in writing within 5 days, which is just not happening.
There is quite a lot of (excuses), sorry, explanations, about delays in obtaining paint and tiles. For me, if my supplier is unable to provide the order within 2 months I would looking for a new supplier.
Bottom line - handover 28 April - six weeks away.
Hopefully.
6 weeks is both not a huge amount of time, and much, much too far away.

Good to hear that you got a response. Here's hoping that you have a much smoother run to handover on the 28th!

I had to go out to a Body Corporate meeting this evening, and when driving up to my house, I saw a workman still on site. Turns out it was a tiler - poor man - he was rather ambushed just as he was getting ready to leave! He was really good though, and offered to show me the work he had been doing. First time I've been inside the house since the middle of January.

So, the good news is that all the tiles have been delivered, and laying them has started!
I have tiles on the bathroom and laundry floors, and we have discussed which way to lay the ensuite floor tiles. He showed me the grout samples, so the grout has been chosen too. He said a week or ten days for all the tiling to be finished.

One of the factors that might have further delayed completion is now eliminated.

Nice to have some good news, and to hear that progress has resumed!

Algernon, It is nice to have some good news, and after today's site visit I am allowing myself a tiny little flicker of hope that my house may actually get finished by the end of April.

When I arrived early this afternoon, the painters were just finishing up.
The senior painter told me they had completed their task- the outside strawbale walls have been painted. He said they would be back to do any touch-ups required, and that he was leaving the left-over paint for me!

The tiler I met on Tuesday evening has tiled and grouted both bathrooms and laundry floors, and I’m very pleased with them.





Wall tiles, including the bamboo feature tile are mostly up in the bathroom, currently without grout.









The floor tiles don't show very well due to dusty footprints, and most of the bathroom has protective plastic coverings. For some reason, now that the floor is in place, the laundry looks enormous. I’m expecting that it will shrink back to more normal proportions when the joinery is installed. The tiler said he would be back tomorrow – Saturday, for which I am very grateful.

I also stood in the kitchen today and enjoyed the long bench space I will have – I can’t reach the ends with arms fully outstretched – lovely.

Looking good! It must be a relief to see progress again. I can sympathise with the difficulty in photographing tiles with dusty footprints. Are you doing your laundry joinery over the tiles?

That bamboo tile feature looks great!!

It is indeed a relief to see some progress, and to see some of the choices made some time ago looking good. I'm very happy with the bamboo tile too Trimum.
The joiners wanted the tiling to be completed prior to the laundry joinery being done - they felt it gave a better finish, and I think it is better from a waterproofing point of view too.

No-one on site again this week, so not able to look inside except through the windows, but
I have fly screens! I’ve had them on the roof windows for a while, but they exist on the other windows now as well.

Shower tiling in the bathroom seems to be completed – it is grouted on the bits I can see from the rather smudged window. The built-in seat has been tiled, but is yet to receive it’s grout.

As the painters told me last week they were finished, and the tiling was the other issue that the builder was saying might change the completion date, I emailed him on Thursday to check that, as these items are either finished or well underway, the estimated completion remains 28 April. Perhaps I’m poking the bear, but I’m really tired of waiting, and I want him to know I'm pushing.

I’ve also asked when the tanks will be installed, given that they will provide the only potable water supply to the property, and they need some time (not to mention some rainfall) to be of any use.

And I’ve asked the joinery people if they have had any contact from the builder as it seems to me that they can finish their tasks too – they are doing the joinery in the laundry, the vanities in both bathrooms, and the wardrobes in the bedroom, as well as needing to finish the kitchen. They’ll need the opportunity to schedule the work, so I felt a heads-up may be appropriate. Have I said that I’m tired of waiting for this house to be completed?

And some outside pictures with all external walls painted.

Looking nice, and good to hear that things are still moving. I think you're fully justified in pushing the builder about completion, given how things have gone so far.

I assume that if the tank doesn't get a chance to fill up a bit before you move in you'll get some water trucked in?

So, not a lot of progress in the last month. Emails to the builder remained unacknowledged and unanswered until I resend them with a "deadline" for reply, and the replies were a couple of minutes before the time specified. The one that started Ï am very dissatisfied.." has still not been addressed.
I've been told twice now - two weeks apart - that the final tiles have arrived, but not which ones they were, or why they were late.

I asked on 18 April if the house would be finished on time, with a request not to be ignored or any more game playing. That one got an almost immediate response - saying he wasn't ignoring me or playing games! Perhaps there are different definitions in the world in which he lives. And, of course, there is a new date for handover - 19 May. This will be 39 working weeks over the 30 week contract period. Don't quite know if I can remain civil in a face to face meeting.

Visits to site earlier this month didn't show any further progress - still no base for water tanks, let alone the tanks themselves, no workmen on site, and couldn't really see much from the outside.

Kitchen and laundry people let me know they would be on site on Friday, so I got to visit then. Door furniture was finally being installed - information on choices for this was originally given on 22 December, and confirmed in January - so no ignoring going on here!

Anyway, tiling in bathrooms looks to be complete, balustrade in attic has finally been installed, and the laundry joinery was happening. It seems that the joiners also had a delay with the long kitchen benchtop - it's measurements were wrong, and the manufacturer then sent a new one - with exactly the same wrong measurements! Sorted out now, and it was being fitted as I watched.
And now for the photos - whilst this may look like a lot of changes - it has taken a month to get to this point!

















Twenty days....

I truly feel your pain, the stress of building can not be measured or compensated it’s absolutely awful.

Thank you Trimum - I see that you are still not finished either! Last time i built, the builder went bankrupt. I've come to the conclusion that that is preferable, because at least you know the reason that nothing is happening, and that when the insurance things get themselves sorted out, you can get on with it again. This is just never-ending, and emotionally so debilitating, not to mention expensive - 9 months now paying both rent and mortgage.

Yes financially it’s horrific! We have been paying rent and mortgage for over a year, we have 8 more weeks of this, we have been very generous in giving our builder more than enough time to finish and have received as much of a guarantee as we can from them that we will have keys in 8 weeks time.