Browse Forums Building A New House Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12941Jan 08, 2016 7:11 pm [quote="CathyLeigh"]Generally when people are given handover dates from their site supervisor how long before actual handover do they give you the date? Our completion date under the Contract is just over 2 weeks away and we have heard nothing. We are not too happy especially when we first signed up with them they said we would be in by Christmas easy!!! /quote] Generally a week or two after PCI. Have you been given a PCI date yet? Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12942Jan 08, 2016 7:36 pm bradk CathyLeigh Generally when people are given handover dates from their site supervisor how long before actual handover do they give you the date? Our completion date under the Contract is just over 2 weeks away and we have heard nothing. We are not too happy especially when we first signed up with them they said we would be in by Christmas easy!!! /quote] Generally a week or two after PCI. Have you been given a PCI date yet? Nope, we have heard nothing. A lot of people seem to get their keys weeks before their contract completion date. So annoyed as they are going to mess up our holidays!! How much notice do you generally get given of the PCI date? How long do you generally get at PCI to check over the house? Thanks Brad. Have you got all your yard finished yet? CathyLeigh Building the Monte Carlo Executive with rear activities with Balinese Resort Facade, Salt Water Beach Estate, Wallabi Point Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12943Jan 08, 2016 7:54 pm CathyLeigh bradk CathyLeigh Generally when people are given handover dates from their site supervisor how long before actual handover do they give you the date? Our completion date under the Contract is just over 2 weeks away and we have heard nothing. We are not too happy especially when we first signed up with them they said we would be in by Christmas easy!!! /quote] Generally a week or two after PCI. Have you been given a PCI date yet? Nope, we have heard nothing. A lot of people seem to get their keys weeks before their contract completion date. So annoyed as they are going to mess up our holidays!! How much notice do you generally get given of the PCI date? How long do you generally get at PCI to check over the house? Thanks Brad. Have you got all your yard finished yet? I'd be asking the SS for a PCI date and following up with your CLO, and questioning the contract date and whether it will be met. I think we spent a couple of hours at PCI.. They did not rush us. We also had our own inspector attend on another day. Our handover was around 3 weeks after PCI, but I do see on these forums a lot of people are only 1 to 2 weeks post PCI.. Our back/front yard is pretty much done now(well, the retaining caps need to be glued, a few mitre cuts, and I don't have a pool or Pizza oven yet ). There is the left hand side retaining walls to do and extending the driveway back to the water tank so I can get the boat out of the garage, but I have deferred them for a year or two as my girls have been invited to dance in the USA next year, so our funds are being diverted to that little project. Once we have that out of the way we will start on the remaining work, but I am happy where it is at for now. The best thing was finally getting turf all around. The amount of dust is unbelievable and having the turf down has stopped that beyond belief! Even though Ill probably rip some of it back up to do the retaining - Its worth it! Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12944Jan 09, 2016 5:30 pm bigleftone First time posting just wondering do you get a tap at the water meeter cause at tender they said they weren't sure Hi,we don't have a tap there at the Meter but they give you a tap at front and one at the back. One is recycled and one is normal water. Sarah Buildingthegardenretreat.blogspot.com.au McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12945Jan 09, 2016 5:35 pm [quote="CathyLeigh"]Generally when people are given handover dates from their site supervisor how long before actual handover do they give you the date? Our completion date under the Contract is just over 2 weeks away and we have heard nothing. We are not too happy especially when we first signed up with them they said we would be in by Christmas easy!!! /quote]
Hi Cathy Leigh, From memory we were told about two weeks before a PCI date. Then at PCI were told handover was about 1.5 weeks past that. Though i am pretty sure no work was done until the day before handover it was soooo frustrating . Then we got told day or two before handover sorry work had not been done we have to delay handover. So I carried a 40k bank Chq around for about 4 days which I would have preferred stayed on my home loan. I just wanted to scream just give me the keys and ill fix the damn problems myself. You don't get much notice at all . All very inconvenient ESP if you have to arrange movers etc . I Hope they move things along ASAP for you! Buildingthegardenretreat.blogspot.com.au Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12946Jan 09, 2016 5:45 pm Following on from my previous question, how many consolidated tenders did you have before signing? I'm worried that I'm being a pain but I want to be absolutely sure before signing as I don't want to pay $$ changing anything afterwards. Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12947Jan 10, 2016 7:08 am Cordy88 Following on from my previous question, how many consolidated tenders did you have before signing? I'm worried that I'm being a pain but I want to be absolutely sure before signing as I don't want to pay $$ changing anything afterwards. Hi Cordy88 I think we signed off on Consolidated Tender Number 4. CathyLeigh Building the Monte Carlo Executive with rear activities with Balinese Resort Facade, Salt Water Beach Estate, Wallabi Point Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12948Jan 10, 2016 7:20 am Hi Cathy Leigh, From memory we were told about two weeks before a PCI date. Then at PCI were told handover was about 1.5 weeks past that. Though i am pretty sure no work was done until the day before handover it was soooo frustrating . Then we got told day or two before handover sorry work had not been done we have to delay handover. So I carried a 40k bank Chq around for about 4 days which I would have preferred stayed on my home loan. I just wanted to scream just give me the keys and ill fix the damn problems myself. You don't get much notice at all . All very inconvenient ESP if you have to arrange movers etc . I Hope they move things along ASAP for you! Buildingthegardenretreat.blogspot.com.au[/quote][/quote] Thanks Sarah I guess our site superviser will contact us when he is ready. If I don't hear anything in the next few days I might flick him an email. We are not planning on moving into the house for a while but did take annual leave from work to get the yards done. CathyLeigh Building the Monte Carlo Executive with rear activities with Balinese Resort Facade, Salt Water Beach Estate, Wallabi Point Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12949Jan 10, 2016 7:28 am I'd be asking the SS for a PCI date and following up with your CLO, and questioning the contract date and whether it will be met. I think we spent a couple of hours at PCI.. They did not rush us. We also had our own inspector attend on another day. Our handover was around 3 weeks after PCI, but I do see on these forums a lot of people are only 1 to 2 weeks post PCI.. Our back/front yard is pretty much done now(well, the retaining caps need to be glued, a few mitre cuts, and I don't have a pool or Pizza oven yet ). There is the left hand side retaining walls to do and extending the driveway back to the water tank so I can get the boat out of the garage, but I have deferred them for a year or two as my girls have been invited to dance in the USA next year, so our funds are being diverted to that little project. Once we have that out of the way we will start on the remaining work, but I am happy where it is at for now. The best thing was finally getting turf all around. The amount of dust is unbelievable and having the turf down has stopped that beyond belief! Even though Ill probably rip some of it back up to do the retaining - Its worth it! [/quote] Hi Brad Just had a look at your blog and your house is looking great. The yard is coming along nicely. This is our third build now and I know exactly what you mean by just getting the grass down to get rid of all the dust. It just makes such a huge difference. You said you had your own inspector attend. Did you find that your inspector picked up on much that needed fixing? We are still tossing the idea of a building inspector around. CathyLeigh Building the Monte Carlo Executive with rear activities with Balinese Resort Facade, Salt Water Beach Estate, Wallabi Point Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12950Jan 10, 2016 9:46 am CathyLeigh scsc11111111 CathyLeigh Generally when people are given handover dates from their site supervisor how long before actual handover do they give you the date? Our completion date under the Contract is just over 2 weeks away and we have heard nothing. We are not too happy especially when we first signed up with them they said we would be in by Christmas easy!!! /quote] Hi Cathy Leigh, From memory we were told about two weeks before a PCI date. Then at PCI were told handover was about 1.5 weeks past that. Though i am pretty sure no work was done until the day before handover it was soooo frustrating . Then we got told day or two before handover sorry work had not been done we have to delay handover. So I carried a 40k bank Chq around for about 4 days which I would have preferred stayed on my home loan. I just wanted to scream just give me the keys and ill fix the damn problems myself. You don't get much notice at all . All very inconvenient ESP if you have to arrange movers etc . I Hope they move things along ASAP for you! Buildingthegardenretreat.blogspot.com.au Thanks Sarah I guess our site superviser will contact us when he is ready. Starting to wonder if he knows when our contract completion date is? If I don't hear anything in the next few days I might flick him an email. We are not planning on moving into the house for a while but did take annual leave from work to get the yards done. We don't want to waste our holidays waiting around for them so if they don't give us any notice we might just take off and go away on our holidays and enjoy ourselves instead of doing the yard. I guess if they are late completing they will have to start paying us! Good idea to remind them of the date just so they know what dates you are going on. Cause any delays the have to have already advised you in writing (think they have 5 or ten days to claim any extension days don't they? ) Shouldn't be too much longer now. Can't wait to see your pics . Holiday is in order ! You'll need it after all the work. Gosh I feel like we haven't stopped and we got keys almost three months ago. Only just starting to be able to do stuff in the weekend now. But I feel the house is a bit of a mess in many places, there is just so much work to do after you move in I never imagined it was going to take this long. I think I am pretty sure i would never want do this again They still haven't come back to finish the pool but I have given up on that now as summer will be over the time they come back. Anyway best of luck, it will be great once you get in having everything new and beautiful. Really loving the look of your place . Looks really modern and your roof looks sooo good. Buildingthegardenretreat.blogspot.com.au Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12951Jan 10, 2016 10:01 am CathyLeigh bradk I'd be asking the SS for a PCI date and following up with your CLO, and questioning the contract date and whether it will be met. I think we spent a couple of hours at PCI.. They did not rush us. We also had our own inspector attend on another day. Our handover was around 3 weeks after PCI, but I do see on these forums a lot of people are only 1 to 2 weeks post PCI.. Our back/front yard is pretty much done now(well, the retaining caps need to be glued, a few mitre cuts, and I don't have a pool or Pizza oven yet ). There is the left hand side retaining walls to do and extending the driveway back to the water tank so I can get the boat out of the garage, but I have deferred them for a year or two as my girls have been invited to dance in the USA next year, so our funds are being diverted to that little project. Once we have that out of the way we will start on the remaining work, but I am happy where it is at for now. The best thing was finally getting turf all around. The amount of dust is unbelievable and having the turf down has stopped that beyond belief! Even though Ill probably rip some of it back up to do the retaining - Its worth it! Hi Brad Just had a look at your blog and your house is looking great. The yard is coming along nicely. This is our third build now and I know exactly what you mean by just getting the grass down to get rid of all the dust. It just makes such a huge difference. You said you had your own inspector attend. Did you find that your inspector picked up on much that needed fixing? We are still tossing the idea of a building inspector around. Thanks! The inspector, whilst he wrote a multiple page report.. it was mostly thin paint here and there. Touchups etc. One bit the expansion joint in the bricks needed a repair but there was nothing major found that we didn't already pickup. Was it worth it? At the time yes, but in hindsight, knowing we picked up almost everything anyway.. maybe not so much. There is always the chance however, that they may find something major.. Cheers, Brad Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12952Jan 11, 2016 8:41 am Cordy88 Following on from my previous question, how many consolidated tenders did you have before signing? I'm worried that I'm being a pain but I want to be absolutely sure before signing as I don't want to pay $$ changing anything afterwards. Hey Cordy88, We did about 5 deposit Varitations and i think three Interim Consolidated Tenders, i agree you want everything noted so they carnt sting you later Cheers, Mel Building the Manhattan One, Central Coast, NSW Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12953Jan 11, 2016 4:16 pm Manhattanone Cordy88 Following on from my previous question, how many consolidated tenders did you have before signing? I'm worried that I'm being a pain but I want to be absolutely sure before signing as I don't want to pay $$ changing anything afterwards. Hey Cordy88, We did about 5 deposit Varitations and i think three Interim Consolidated Tenders, i agree you want everything noted so they carnt sting you later Cheers, Mel Hi Mel, That makes me feel better - I was feeling like I was being a pain making alterations and asking for pricing on things I hadn't thought of before now, but I need to get it all correct so that we avoid that nasty sting later. Once I get the latest info and pricing I think we'll be ready to sign off the CT. I also want to do the tank overflow trench ourselves - over $4K for that which I would much prefer to spend on my kitchen Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12954Jan 11, 2016 7:42 pm Hi Guys! We got a call from our CLO on Friday to tell us that Sydney Water have rejected our plans and we need to get an extra survey done to look into where the house sits in relation to the easement that runs through our block. I have had a look at the dial before you dig reports from Sydney water and our plans and im pretty sure the alfresco is 20cm ontop of the easement. I have spoken to Sydney Water and they have said it is possible to build over the easement. Has anyone done this?? Or has anyone had any other solutions to this problem other then change the length of the house? Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12955Jan 11, 2016 8:59 pm Linda_K Hi Guys! We got a call from our CLO on Friday to tell us that Sydney Water have rejected our plans and we need to get an extra survey done to look into where the house sits in relation to the easement that runs through our block. I have had a look at the dial before you dig reports from Sydney water and our plans and im pretty sure the alfresco is 20cm ontop of the easement. I have spoken to Sydney Water and they have said it is possible to build over the easement. Has anyone done this?? Or has anyone had any other solutions to this problem other then change the length of the house? Hi linda_k, Hmm i suggest you dont build over any drain water easements because you might run into problems later on if ever there was a problem with the pipes and they would have to dig it up. Correct me if i'm wrong? Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12956Jan 12, 2016 7:38 am Hi linda_k, Hmm i suggest you dont build over any drain water easements because you might run into problems later on if ever there was a problem with the pipes and they would have to dig it up. Correct me if i'm wrong?[/quote] Yes that is my biggest worry, I do think we will end up shrinking the house rather then build on top of the easement. Or possibly just shrink the alfresco a bit as that's the section that would be over the easement Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12957Jan 12, 2016 8:01 am Linda_K Hi linda_k, Hmm i suggest you dont build over any drain water easements because you might run into problems later on if ever there was a problem with the pipes and they would have to dig it up. Correct me if i'm wrong? Yes that is my biggest worry, I do think we will end up shrinking the house rather then build on top of the easement. Or possibly just shrink the alfresco a bit as that's the section that would be over the easement[/quote] Hi Linda I know you can get permission to build over things like sewers but I think it would probably be best not to if you can get away with it. A lot of unit developments build over things like sewers because they try and cram as many units on the site as they can. Are you able to move the house any further forward on your block or re-position it so you don't have to shrink it down? CathyLeigh Building the Monte Carlo Executive with rear activities with Balinese Resort Facade, Salt Water Beach Estate, Wallabi Point Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12958Jan 12, 2016 8:10 am Hey Cordy88, We did about 5 deposit Varitations and i think three Interim Consolidated Tenders, i agree you want everything noted so they carnt sting you later Cheers, Mel[/quote] Hi Mel, That makes me feel better - I was feeling like I was being a pain making alterations and asking for pricing on things I hadn't thought of before now, but I need to get it all correct so that we avoid that nasty sting later. Once I get the latest info and pricing I think we'll be ready to sign off the CT. I also want to do the tank overflow trench ourselves - over $4K for that which I would much prefer to spend on my kitchen [/quote] Hey Cordy88 Im sure our sales person thought i was a pain, but i didnt care, we are spending alot of money, i dont want to get stung! I just hope we havent forgotten anything lol. We were exactly the same, we preferred to have all the major changes listed in the DV & CT so that we know we wont have a massive Colours bill We extended or house, moved doors, deleted things and added things that were expensive. We go to colours next month & we know already what we want to spend so nothing should be a shock. Fingers crossed Cheers, Mel Building the Manhattan One, Central Coast, NSW Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12959Jan 12, 2016 2:13 pm Linda_K Hi Guys! We got a call from our CLO on Friday to tell us that Sydney Water have rejected our plans and we need to get an extra survey done to look into where the house sits in relation to the easement that runs through our block. I have had a look at the dial before you dig reports from Sydney water and our plans and im pretty sure the alfresco is 20cm ontop of the easement. I have spoken to Sydney Water and they have said it is possible to build over the easement. Has anyone done this?? Or has anyone had any other solutions to this problem other then change the length of the house? Hi, not sure if this helps but I have a friend who's currently building a concrete swimming pool over an easement. This runs through the middle of her backyard. Sorry I don't know what kind of pipe it is. It is below the swimming pool and they have permission as long as the whole pipe is encased in concrete . This has added huge cost and made the pool a complicated build but they are still going ahead. Buildingthegardenretreat.blogspot.com.au Re: McDonald Jones Homes - The new thread 12960Jan 12, 2016 10:11 pm Greetings! First timer here and thought I'd say hello! Hubby and I signed up to build the Bronte Executive Lodge this month and we're super pumped to say the least. Have been browsing for a while now, been through all pages!! We're going with the Ultra Contemporary facade which seems to be quite rare, but even more exciting. 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