Really sorry to hear about the break in guys I wonder why someone would steal an island bench
Hopefully it won't delay you too much.
Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Rawdon Hill @ Marriott Waters - BROKEN INTO :( 81Jun 20, 2010 9:18 pm Really sorry to hear about the break in guys I wonder why someone would steal an island bench Hopefully it won't delay you too much. Blog: http://bluemistkids.blogspot.com "Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, and professionals built the Titanic." Re: Rawdon Hill @ Marriott Waters - BROKEN INTO :( 82Jun 20, 2010 9:21 pm Hels I wonder why someone would steal an island bench Hope you joking. These thefts are very common. Its the same reason cars are stolen, stripped and parts sold to repair shops. Re: Rawdon Hill @ Marriott Waters - BROKEN INTO :( 83Jun 20, 2010 9:34 pm Eve Dweller Hels I wonder why someone would steal an island bench Hope you joking. These thefts are very common. Its the same reason cars are stolen, stripped and parts sold to repair shops. No I wasn't joking. Obviously they hold more value than I gave them credit for. Blog: http://bluemistkids.blogspot.com "Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, and professionals built the Titanic." Re: Rawdon Hill @ Marriott Waters - ** PCI NEXT WEEK !! ** 84Jun 22, 2010 2:37 pm So, after the drama of the break in, Rawdon are +1 in our book now as they've fast tracked the process of getting the stolen items replaced soon, and it's been said that the 1st PCI will be later next week - so we're just teeing up with Darren Love's (inspector) offsider for Thursday for the walkthrough......a second followup a week later will occur to make sure the fixes have been done AND then handover - so we should be in by mid July all things working Re: Rawdon Hill @ Marriott Waters - ** PCI NEXT WEEK !! ** 85Jun 22, 2010 3:03 pm That's great news guys Re: Rawdon Hill @ Marriott Waters - ** PCI NEXT WEEK !! ** 86Jun 22, 2010 3:26 pm Awesome Blog: http://bluemistkids.blogspot.com "Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, and professionals built the Titanic." Re: Rawdon Hill @ Marriott Waters - ** 1st PCI THURSDAY !! * 88Jun 29, 2010 10:36 am Sorry we haven't posted a lot of photos lately, but there hasn't been a real lot changed since the last batch. So, the latest now is that (a) the island bench cabinetry has been ordered, and will be installed before our walkthrough (1st PCI) on Thursday afternoon. The carpet was measured last week and will be installed also. We found out the carpet was only in one room, but it was the longest run (9m !!), but it's all being replaced as was including the thick underlay, so +1 for Rawdon. Also, we've booked our inspector Phil (works along Darren Love from Darbecca), who will be there for the walkthrough as well. He suggested going beforehand, but Rawdon prefer it on the day. We are sending our concerns to Phil beforehand along with some pictures so he knows what we're looking at. We'll also take the list for Rawdon so everyone knows what we've noticed at (as much as you can when you're not an engineer !). I have noticed on looking into the studio that the cooling/heating vents I'd asked to have put nearer to the door have been placed in the middle of the ceiling - how major a job in time and effort would it be to move those ? Would they have to replaster the whole ceiling ? Would the ceiling be less stable if they just patch the originals then cut the new ? The only stick in the mud has been with Telstra. The original piping done by the electrician went to the wrong pit outside the house (not so much his fault, it was a Telstra labelled pit, but we've since found out it's redundant). It has to be recabled to the other side of the street, and the Telstra tech booked in a comms company to come out and do the work, but the onus was that it was going to cost about $300 to do so. I've put their job on hold pending the electrician coming back to fix it because i'm not keen on paying for something that wasn't my occurance in the first place, and I don't think I'll get reimbursement off Rawdon for it - so I just have to wait. That's hard because I want to have the internet connected (or at least have a line into the house so that I can test it with the ISP's), then I'll have peace of mind. All in all, 1st PCI this week, a 2nd hopefully the week after to followup on errors/fixes, and if there's nothing too major we might have handover by the middle of the month. And......on Thursday - The Big Mouth Media Group Pty Ltd. comes into existence, and I gain a co-director/employee !!!!! Big times ahead. Re: Rawdon Hill @ Marriott Waters - ** 1st PCI TODAY !! ** 90Jul 01, 2010 9:43 am So here we are, the morning of the PCI - it's due at 2pm, and we've sent off our list to the inspector (didn't have a chance beforehand, thanks EOFY !). We're purchasing a box of "dots", have printed out the issues list with pictures that we know of, and now just waiting for it all to happen. Also, we're meeting with a concreter for the 2nd quote - the first guy we had never sent us a quote, and never returned a message left on his mobile (thanks anyway Hels). Will let you know how we go. Re: Rawdon Hill @ Marriott Waters - ** 1st PCI TODAY !! ** 91Jul 02, 2010 8:33 pm Well, it's come and gone ! First things, our inspector Phil had us booked in for Friday not Thursday, so that kind of threw things out of kilter for us. Luckily, our concreter turned up in time before the PCI, wandered around and suggested a couple of ways of doing the courtyard & driveway and wrote us up a quote then and there, and it was less that what we'd budgeted for ! We're going for slate impression in charcoal with a tinge of rustic color. Like this pattern, but darker: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We had three guys from Rawdon turning up, the construction supervisor, financial controller, and maintenance. There were quite a few dots around the place, mostly for paint, but they and we added a few more for scuff marks, etc that were showing up on the walls and corners. There weren't too many major defects that we could notice, but we've picked up: * Studio : There was a note made to put the heating/cooling vents closer to the door, which they weren't. So they'll be rectifying that - it's our house, after all * The garage exit door to the verandah has been off kilter for ages, and they've mentioned it'll be rehung closer to the door jamb. * The mortar color differentiation (pictures a few pages back) will be looked at - as to how I'm not sure. * Brick rust was pointed out - i'm not sure if it's from the Cantebury bricks, but it basically 'weeps' orange down the side. * No infills above garage exit and laundry door - noted * Flyscreens - hadn't been ordered, will be done possibly a bit after handover - they're not essential for us to move in. * Ensuite/bathroom mirrors : Will be sealed, still have the icypole sticks underneath the bases to hold them in ! Jason signed the PCI form, but we're bringing back our inspector on Monday morning along with Rawdon for a better look and will probably find more than we did. We did note that on it, there's wording along the lines of "nothing further noted will be fixed" but our inspector will speak to them about that, due to the time mix ups. We're pretty happy on the whole though, and a plus is that Telstra are coming over on Monday at the same time we're all there and will connect the phone up. The courtyard is a mess though, a bobcat or something similar has been through for the neighbour's site clean - will they fix that up or will we deal with it ? It's very muddy ! Looks like we'll be in the place by mid-20th July all things going well. The Way Things Are Going.....:( 93Jul 24, 2010 10:22 pm Hey AJV, thanks for asking......
We've been a bit quiet on the blog front for a number of reasons: (1) Jason left his job to come work for Big Mouth Media (which is now a Pty Ltd company !) (2) We've been trying to organise a lot of stuff behind the scenes, like driveways, curtains, etc, etc. (3) The report generated by our private inspector has thrown somewhat of a spanner into the works. Point 3 is the main reason - we've not felt like talking too much about it publicly, and giving our builder a chance to answer us. I'll post some pics below, but what came out of the report: * No weepholes above any windows (except the front bedroom) - we don't have any other eaves, and it's a building code requirement to have both damp proof course behind the weepholes, and holes themselves. We're not moving into a house that could collect moisture and damp and ruin everything. This may require courses of bricks to be pulled down and reinstalled once the work has been done, not just cutting a hole in the mortar. * Some of the brickwork is substandard - perpends (the mortar between bricks left and right) are sometimes 10mm, sometimes 25mm and gives a very disjointed appearance. Also, as I've noticed for a month or two now - the brick mortar is dark grey in parts, off white in others. Also, there's still a considerable amount of mortar smears left after they washed them the first time. We've since found out that the bricklayer they used for ours (and probably our neighbour's) has been sacked. * Our SS has moved on - for what reason we don't know, but at least we had him for most of the build * No weatherproof gap seal on the inside of the door frame (can't be 5 star without it) * No flyscreens, but they are being ordered - not so fussed on that issue. * Gaps between window sill brickwork and the windows themselves - need sealant * Expansion joints are rock solid, meaning the house can't 'shift' naturally when it wants to, likely to cause cracks. * Quite a number of paint runs on archetraves that we didn't notice earlier, quite poor. There are a large number of dots around the house in relation to scuff marks and paintwork, but have not been fixed since our first PCI - even to this day. * Vents in the studio were placed incorrectly (someone didn't read the plans !) and have not been fixed yet. * Get this - we have no roof insulation ! It took our inspector to get up there and look, and we certainly wouldn't have done it ourselves. The strange this is, our PCI was July 1, the inspector was on the 5th - and we haven't heard a peep since we submitted the report to the builder. We're expecting something on Monday from our CSO (who's been on holidays for 2 weeks), but we don't want this to be delayed too much longer - we've already started digging into the emergency funds for extra furniture storage, and now our curtains are ready - with nowhere to go, and we're being told that anything past early-mid August will incur a $100/month storage fee. Plus, I've had the phone and net connected (on the basis we were in earlier, and the wait times for all that may have been long), so we're bearing the burden of that PLUS practically a full mortgage with THAT bank (who are very user unfriendly, and our loan manager set up the loans incorrectly in terms of payments, causing us to go into overdraw practically every month). We are over our build time, so we'll be expecting a smaller invoice in the end, and to Rawdon's credit, they haven't final invoiced us yet. Right, so now some pics: Our gable vent, due to be painted soon we hope The front window sill - has some orange-tinged rust look to the mortar and a lot of smears The courtyard....watch your feet and the mud (gumboots compulsory !) They've removed dirt from the around the front pillar - good, we don't want it eating away at the wood ! I noticed a few weeks ago the garage infill had some cracks, I'm assuming that's what they found because we have a new one Finally we have an infill above the garage exit door ! Some more landscaping on the nature strip plus some seeded grass - sprayed on ! It's hard to see under the mud, but the lower left part of the crossover is cracked and sunken - can we claim this ? So that's where we're up to - we're not happy with not having a house while some of the houses in Stage 9 and 10 are getting plastered, some even inhabited ! We'll keep you in the loop. Re: Rawdon Hill @ Marriott Waters - Not Much Happening :( 94Jul 27, 2010 8:36 am The Estate is growing quite fast. When I went for a walk around the newest body of water, I think I saw your house. Oh, sorry to read about this. I understand the need not bother with H1, when all you want is for it to be fixed and writting about it seems to make it drag on. I think the builders have to get the crossover fixed as it was their contractors who cracked it? The Estate is growing quite fast. When I went for a walk around the newest body of water, I think I saw your house. Hope you have progress this week. Anna Re: Rawdon Hill @ Marriott Waters - Not Much Happening :( 95Jul 27, 2010 10:12 am We spoke to our CSO today (she got back from holidays today), and will call us tomorrow for an update, will let you know. Re: Rawdon Hill @ Marriott Waters - Not Much Happening :( 96Jul 29, 2010 9:49 pm So, the update we've got from our new SS ? They've got the inspector's report (they thought it was lost). He seems a nice enough guy, but said some of the things in our report were not worth worrying about (nothing specified), and the painter was going through today to do the touchups and repaint the ceiling in the studio where the vents have been moved. We're going down on Friday afternoon to walk through (not PCI), we're not committing to anything, we're not signing anything, we're not getting into a slanging match. It's more of a "hi there" and an update. We'll find out (a) when we can do the driveway, (b) what ETA for the house. They're aware we're copping a lot of outgoings because of this delay, and keeping an eye on the build time (which is already over by almost 3 weeks)...... It's been mentioned the issue with the weepholes will be fixed by drilling into the mortar, but if there's no damp proof course behind it, will that be of any use if it rains ? Or is it just a cosmetic fix ? Re: Rawdon Hill @ Marriott Waters - Not Much Happening :( 97Jul 30, 2010 11:35 am I hope you get to move in soon.... I am concerned a little from reading your posts ,As to how competent Rawdon Hill are? We havent even started yet..Land had been titled for a month, We keep ringing our sales consultant and she doesnt know why its all being held up...arrrggggg..... Good luck guys! Re: Rawdon Hill @ Marriott Waters - Not Much Happening :( 98Jul 30, 2010 8:31 pm Kristy, look they're pretty good - sometimes communication is a wee bit difficult, although our new SS "Z" is pretty approachable, although he does tell it like it is, and was quite disparaging about our inspector and his report (hey, we paid money for that !). They're aiming to get the 4 in our street to handover in the next week or two (ours included), although our issues with the weepholes above windows could be the sticking point. More to come. Re: Rawdon Hill @ Marriott Waters - Getting Closer... 99Aug 02, 2010 12:44 pm Well we spoke to our concretor today, he's available in 2 weeks, which should sit nicely with everything timewise. Rawdon are getting onto fixing the paint / internals / externals this week, and should have it done by the end of next week. We are going to be contending the weepholes above the windows as being a "fail" if we bring our site supervisor back for a 2nd look (more money !) and they've just drilled holes into the mortar - if there's no damp proof course, the moisture's still going to be caught on the windows, internals, etc. That's our only real bone of contention. Fences said be to be up this week, nice Re: Rawdon Hill @ Marriott Waters - Final Invoice ! 100Aug 24, 2010 8:05 pm Well, finally ! We've been in touch with our CSO by email to see when we're able to move in (and hearing back from the financial controller in response), and today we got issued the certificate of occupancy. Tomorrow - to the bank to get the money (it's deposited, not a cheque !), and we're already signed up with RACV for insurance - good quote too. I'm still doing the business insurance (more expensive, but hey) and then we're up and running. Once they replace the hot water gas booster that was stolen last week, we should be right to go, AND the driveway has been almost done. Here's piccies from the other day (there's another round of the driveway to be done, but we haven't been able to take those pics !) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Doing the verandah and path Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ More verandah preparation Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The base for our new letterbox: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The "slate impression" material - it's easier to show it to you once it's been done. It'll be deep grey with flecks of rust color throughout for driveway and patio. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The courtyard patio - again, will look better when it's done Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The whole house with almost a driveway ! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We'll be back on Saturday to take pictures - should come up a treat. Now we just have to solve the weepholes Howdy all. I am looking for feedback on what people would do to maximise and make an area as flat as possible. 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