Trixee's Passive Solar Build Perth

trixee · Aug 31, 2014 12:50 am

Haha, I probably got it from your thread then! :lol:

MalSannie · Aug 31, 2014 12:55 am

Ikea sells those paper temp blinds too for quite cheap. You had me google a load of the terms you were using! Might as well be Greek to an outsider lol

I would be a bit wary of making them myself (but I'm lazy so no surprises there I guess). Although the sewing itself isn't difficult getting the lengths correct and level could be tricky!

Glad to hear you've had some good news from the bank - how strange that they don't care about a demolition!

trixee · Aug 31, 2014 1:16 am

I know it's weird right?

My mum's made quite a few curtains so she should be OK, but she has her own way of doing things so I know I'll need to be on the ball so she doesn't play one of her tricks! :lol:

MalSannie · Aug 31, 2014 3:35 am

Haha your mum sounds like a real gem

I'm not sure I'd mind too much about tricks if someone else would do it for me

trixee · Sep 01, 2014 1:05 am

So there has been a development. I've ranted about it on my blog - I won't repeat it here, head on over if you want to see the extent of my wrath.

Suffice to say, why is it that when other people stuff up we're the ones that have to wear the cost? We're lucky that our builder has decided not to charge us the cost increase, a less scrupulous builder would. But the fact that it even occurs is ridiculous.

On the bright side, we're meeting with the builder next week to talk contracts, which is awesome because I've been sick of this dilly-dallying. But there are errors in the drawings and we're not 100% happy with some of the detail. But that can all be worked out through variations, I'm led to believe.

Rache · Sep 01, 2014 1:16 am

trixee

So there has been a development. I've ranted about it on my blog - I won't repeat it here, head on over if you want to see the extent of my wrath.

Suffice to say, why is it that when other people stuff up we're the ones that have to wear the cost? We're lucky that our builder has decided not to charge us the cost increase, a less scrupulous builder would. But the fact that it even occurs is ridiculous.

On the bright side, we're meeting with the builder next week to talk contracts, which is awesome because I've been sick of this dilly-dallying. But there are errors in the drawings and we're not 100% happy with some of the detail. But that can all be worked out through variations, I'm led to believe.

Ouch, that's nasty trixee. I certainly hope they can come up with some sort of compromise, preferably in your favour, given they are the ones at fault. You stick to your guns girl...I have found the only way to get things done is to keep at them, and keep at them..my fella calls me a fox terrier! Good luck with it.

trixee · Sep 01, 2014 1:20 am

Thanks Rache. I'll have to hone my fox terrier skills too! :lol:

belzey · Sep 01, 2014 1:27 am

OOo I would love to sew my own curtains....but I got an F in textiles at school bwahahaha and have a sewing machine I have used once :lol:

I am going to check out your blog now to see what got you in a wrath trixee!!

trixee · Sep 01, 2014 1:42 am

I did OK at home ec in high school, but that was over 20 years ago. It must be like riding a bike though, surely!

MalSannie · Sep 01, 2014 1:51 am

Oh my word trixee that isn't small change is it - if they threaten to make you pay 'current' costs. I really hope they get their backsides in gear and fix things for you - not fair the customer have to pay for their stuff-ups! If you agree to let some of the changes wait to be fixed via variations, could you get it added to the contract they won't charge you for those? No wonder you were fuming!

trixee · Sep 01, 2014 1:54 am

I'm hoping so MalSannie. Even if they do end up charging a variation fee, it would only be a few hundred dollars, as opposed to tens of thousands!

ardie514 · Sep 01, 2014 1:56 am

My sewing project fell apart in home ec:(

Trixee I read your blog post and am so sorry about the drama and stress. I really hope they get their act together and waive the cost increases cuz that's BS. I know after we signed the contracts and even after the prestart variations we had one more chance to make changes w/o a variation fee. Every builder is different but considering they seem to be the reason for the delays it's the least they could do. Good luck

trixee · Sep 01, 2014 2:02 am

Thanks ardie, I'm quite hopeful that it will be OK, it's just annoying that we even have to go through this, just more stress we don't need!

ardie514 · Sep 01, 2014 2:06 am

Yes I naively underestimated the amount of stress this whole process would be. I thougt 'I'm organized, I'm good with projects, I'm a planner, I was made for this'. I'm thinking I may have been wrong, but I'm optimistic things will pick up from here:) otherwise I will continue to single handedly keep the vineyards in business!

yvonneh · Sep 01, 2014 9:17 am

Feeling for you Trixee! Is it a supposedly fix price contract or cost plus? Can you supply/source any of the materials although you can't do much about the labour.

AKB · Sep 01, 2014 11:45 am

Wow Trixee that just sucks - just read your Blog :-(

trixee · Sep 01, 2014 11:52 am

Ardie - I thought the same as you, how could we be so wrong!

Yvonne - it's a fixed price contract. As I feeler we got them to price the kitchen sink that I wanted, it came out slightly more expensive than we could get it retail, but not enough to worry about. We will be importing the expensive appliances ourselves from overseas though.

AKB - thanks. You must be so glad to be doing an OB!

D_rail · Sep 01, 2014 3:46 pm

Wow on the cost increases Trixee. The cynic in me thinks it's a stunt to get you to sign your contract. If there truly was a significant cost increase, I'm sure they'd be chasing the full amount. It's also interesting given that all of your raw materials should be a lot cheaper with the repeal of the carbon tax. The industry estimated that this added about 10k to a new build.

If you're going to sign, I'd suggest you get them to agree in writing as to what the errors are and a commitment to resolve them in the next plans for no cost. We naively signed our contract and when we came to making variations at pre start the costings were much higher than we anticipated or were led to believe. Some changes couldn't even be made. The attitude of the builder completely changed after we had signed our contract.

trixee · Sep 01, 2014 3:57 pm

The thing is, this happened to someone else we know, who built with a different builder, and it seems to be par for the course. Though ours is a significantly higher increase, and on a cheaper build, so something doesn't quite add up. Unless it's just inflation, as the other build was a few years ago.

I hadn't even considered the impact of the carbon tax repeal, but you're right it should be cheaper. I suspect there are many many companies who aren't passing the savings on, the only difference I've noticed is the cost of petrol has come down, everything else appears to be the same.

Thank you for the tip, I will do that.

I'm disappointed for you at the experience you had, that sounds terrible. I would be quite upset if I couldn't make the changes I wanted in particular.

asha · Sep 01, 2014 4:13 pm

Wow trixee -just caught up. That increase does seem excessive and rather opportunistic. I would definitely be querying how they calculated that