Provincial Homes

Sarahcraigy would love to see some pics, Open up your plan as a PDF copy the plan section you want to show us, paste it into paint to edit out your details. Then save the picture as an image file. Upload it to photobucket and link the image in. Simples !!

I have updated my blog for PCI inspection, quite the list, but we were told not to expect perfection right off the bat. There are plenty of things I want fixed up before handover. Key learning for us after doing PCI are.

Toilets - Upgrade them because the standard stuff is crap. One of ours is visibly distorted at the base where it sits on the floor. I'd get a Caroma back to wall one (I think it comes in the Woolahra as standard).
Skirting boards - If you are doing 2.7m ceilings consider upgrading he skirting to the 150mm half splay. I believe you can do this at colors without any penalty
Kitchen - Get the soft close drawers, they just feel so much more solid than the standard stuff.

I think those are our initial thoughts. keep in mind our PCI was an hour and a half and we didn't pick up everything probably.

Wow you picked up a lot of things in that short time. The tip about the toilets is handy, I will need to be thinking about all these things now...

We have changed a few things in the plans now, extended the kitchen to make another work bench, taken the sink from the Island and added bi fold windows and a servery, changed one of the windows in the meals to be a door now and changed the door in the laundry to be a cavity slider.....still working on it and seeing where we can make some more improvements !

OK, I have uploaded them, lets see if this works !!

http://s288.photobucket.com/user/Sarah_ ... %20Caprice

Well done, you can link them straight to your post by clicking on the link code icon (looks like a chain link fence) and then clicking on the IMG link, then paste it into a post.

http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll166/Sarah_Hackett/Nu%20Caprice/Caprice%20Downstairs_zpsei3eloqr.jpg

http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll166/Sarah_Hackett/Nu%20Caprice/Caprice%20Upstairs_zps3vbt7j65.jpg

Let me know if you want me to delete those.

I like what you have done with it. The sliders will make a huge difference space wise. The only thing that we may have done differently (Still not sure !!) is combine the WC and the Main bathroom. Which could either make your bathroom bigger or Bed 4 bigger.

With all the upgrades I have listed, it comes down to budget. I don't think we could have afforded some of them to be honest, but they are what to me looking back seem to make a huge difference to the feel of a house.

Thanks so much for your help, amazing, I seemed to make it a lot harder than it really was.....I would rather put money into it at the moment for the structure to be right and then worry about furnishing the bedrooms and the theatre after ! budget is looking OK at the moment but we haven't started with interior appointments yet !

Exciting times sarahcraigy, your plans look great! Your adventure has begun...
Just one thing to consider if your are thinking about joining the bathroom and WC together is whether it is more functional to have them separate if you have a few kids, especially once they get older! Sharing the bathroom may not be preferred. I know this is something we avoided.

kavehman I was surprised to see such an extensive list at your PCI inspection, hopefully a list this size is not normal. Are you saying we can't expect perfection It is disappointing all the trades can't work to a high standard and look after work done by others!

We have now had further progress on our site with the slab completed yesterday. It is a great to see the momentum continuing, hopefully time will fly and we will be moving in before we know it! Our blog has been updated and the pictures tell the story!

Hi niknandy, to be honest I am not sure if it's usual to have a list that long at PCI. I haven't seen too many people actually write about it. I do know that we were warned the next few weeks would be crunch time where a lot of activity happens. I think probably a handyman could knock out most of our issues in 2 or 3 days.

The bigger things are cleaning brick, scratched windows, and gutters, and front door. With the gutters and front door they probably need to replace bit's and pieces but the installer or trade who did it in the first place should be the one coming back to do it !! I imagine they would want to keep the builder happy.

Will see how we end up going. My sitesupervisor has been great to date and listened to all my concerns. I can't fault him there. Will see how we go at handover.

Btw Niknandy loving the photos of the slab, looks huge.

Hi, is anyone building the Lindfield? We are thinking of building it. How has everyone's experience with provincial?

I haven't heard of anyone building the Lindfield yet so can't help you there.

You can read through this thread to get an idea of what they are like.

So far they have been good to me, haven't had too many issues or dramas. Anything I have picked up (errors and such) have been corrected with minimal headache.

I should be going through hand-over soon so will have a well rounded view when I do. I don't have any complaints yet !!!

Inevitably the question you get most when you are building is "When will it be finished ?" and "When do you think you will be moving in?"

Well I have used the BOM statistics to figure out how long it has exactly been since we started building, accounting for the Christmas down time, and all rainy days since we started.

I'm not sure what Provincial classifies as a rainy day, but I personally would think anything under 2 or 3mm wouldn't be a rainy day nor would rainy days count once the roof goes on.

Never the less factoring these in I have calculated I am 8 days over my contractual period so far. In reality it would be probably be up around 20 if I knew the exact start date, and taking out some of the rainy days which show 1mm of precipitation.

Anyways check out the detail on my blog post if you are keen to figure out how to calculate and track it yourself.

Agreed Kavehman, we get asked that a lot and we are probably still several weeks.... or perhaps months away!

The exact start date is 20 working days after the construction certificate was received so you can work it out from that. However, the "rain" days are actually really "weather" days and is basically all in their favour. We were told even if it rains for eg, 2 days, they can say the site was still too wet after that and therefore not accessible for another 2 days, giving them 4 days. Given the major downpours Sydney has had in the last few months, they could be adding on many, many days! You also need to exclude any public holidays, so not all weeks are 5 day weeks - they will add in every day they can!!
We are 30 weeks into our 34 week contract period plus I have calculated our actual rainy days (which I think in building terms is 5mm or greater) in our area and I am pretty sure we still won't be in by then.

Unfortunately, we are having several other issues with our build at the moment but I will give Provincial a suitable amount of time to respond to my calls & emails and address my concerns before I share it all here.

Good evening, I have been reading the post from all of you patiently and very much getting afraid with the comments being posted. Really, looking at the timeline of Jahasabe build, it started last year Nov and still not complete. Giving me creeps, I have not thought of that kind of contingency time period .

Jahasabe & Kavehman, your calculations are spot on for the rain days and how they calculate the total. Also, as you said, the actual construction time starts 4 weeks after the date of issue of Construction Certificate. So by all these accounts it is going to be lonnnnng way for me before getting the keys.

As for my build, it is going on with first round of bricking completed and next round to start mid next week. Once the bricks are done on first floor, I think carpenters will be back to give final shape to the house with facade, etc. Next will be roof tiles laid. I am assuming (hopefully) end of June for all this work to finish.

It is bit slow but what should I write when every one is in the same boat.

I think it is time to show some resilience and patience. The key handover will occur soon for everyone...

Goodnight.

My building TIMELINE =================>>>>>>>>>>>>
Provincial Fixed Price contract signed - 30th Aug 2014
Settlement of Land Purchase - 25th Sept 2014
HIA Contract signed - 26th Sept 2014
DA in council - 15th Oct 2014
Internal color selections - 12th Nov 2014
DA approved from council - 14th Nov 2014
Electrical selections - 21st Nov 2014
Final Electrical and Internal variations document signing - 4th Dec 2014
Final contract after variations signing - 8th Dec 2014
Construction certificate issued - 5th Feb 2015
Commencement of work on site - 12th Feb 2015
Piering complete - 18th Feb 2015
Slab complete - 5th March 2015
Frame complete - 5th May 2015
Roof complete - TBA
Lock up complete - TBA
Final completion - TBA
Key Handover - TBA

It is a concern of ours to be hearing of projects running over time and little transparency, even though we are at an earlier stage. Kavehman, let us know how you go... the allowances you have given have been very generous, surely rain delays disappear for internal work once the roof is on?

Obviously quality is the main focus for us and one of the main reasons we chose Provincial, however most of the delays we are seeing are in getting their contractors on site due to backed up work. Contracts are there for both parties to adhere to - we don't want to be paying rent at the same time as a mortgage for any longer than we need to. Liquidated damages will pay the rent for any extensions over the contract period, and another of the reasons we chose Provincial - some of the other builders had liquidated damages set to the minimum amount which would go nowhere near paying the weekly rent.

From what I have read any extension of time from the HIA contract (which as ProdD stated is 4 weeks from the date the Construction certificate was issued), needs to be officially requested with agreement from both sides - see the information http://nsw.hia.com.au/documents/2012/Wet_weather_enews.pdf. We got Provincial to confirm the contract period start for us in writing - so for us it was from the 24th April, 2015.

It is great to see the progress in other projects such as ProgD's and hopefully Jahasabe and Kavehman's issues are being resolved.

Since our last posting we have done our tile selections with Di Lorenzo and had the plumbers complete all the external drainage. We are now patiently waiting for the steelwork and frame to arrive and be erected. Unfortunately we are hearing there may be a week or two's delay

As normal more detail and pictures can be found on our blog.

NikNAndy I'm loving your tile selections, they are looking good.

My build is not going well at the moment, with our site supervisor who has now left the company the main cause of a few big issues and delays. He was actually staying on to finish my house, but has caused way more harm than i could have imagined.

I am hoping it all gets resolved in the next week or two, but I guess time will tell. Not very happy at the moment, but as I have said in the past it all comes down to how they handle the issues.

Kavehman. Just wandering what garage door you have/ colour? Can't see it in your blog. Apologies if I'm blind. Just wandering as we have same colour windows, facia and gutters whether you went surfmist or Woodgrain or something else? Any photo?

Hi gandn, you can find it on his older blog posts at http://kavehmansprovincialhomesfairlight31.blogspot.com.au/2014_06_01_archive.html

Thanks niknandy. As I suspected "surfmist"! Now I really want to see a photo...pretty please Kavehman?

I am really alarmed and sorry for you Kavehman. I guess none of can do any thing in these type of situations. Only wish and pray that things do get fixed with as little hassles as possible.

One thing we all learn from this forum is the things that we all miss. NikNandy, I guess getting Provincial to affirm the start date is a thing I missed.

In all, still waiting for the bricks to be complete and then the next step.

Keep posted Kavehman, I hope you have the keys at the earliest. Their is light at the end of build tunnel.

ProgD - I don't think you need to have the start date in writing as it is part of the HIA contract.

However... niknandy - I think you could struggle with getting provincial to pay you rent unfortunately. I think there was another person on this forum a while back who said they ended up giving up even trying to get it out of them. My guess is they cover all their bases & have far more experience at it than we do.

Kavehman - we are in the same boat as you with the recent 'departure' of the SS! And all the dramas that are going along with it. As you say it will come down to how they handle those dramas....

After a chat with the main man himself yesterday afternoon I'm confident the drama I have will be sorted.

Hopefully I have a good news story in the next week or so, although rain today and potentially tomorrow doesn't help

Walk through booked in for Tuesday. It looks like a lot of work has happened over the past few days and I'm back at the top of the roller coaster ride.