Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Some recent tips for your new home design 41Aug 13, 2008 6:04 pm thanks Peter
I did try to tell him it didn't look like the plans that we'd signed off on. But he was adamant that it WAS built to plan. So we are at a stalemate. He's at an advantage as he knows all the builder-speak that I don't, but I am confident Kevin will be able to speak their language, what's more he'll be on MY side! Re: Some recent tips for your new home design 42Aug 13, 2008 6:13 pm donuts thanks Peter I did try to tell him it didn't look like the plans that we'd signed off on. But he was adamant that it WAS built to plan. So we are at a stalemate. He's at an advantage as he knows all the builder-speak that I don't, but I am confident Kevin will be able to speak their language, what's more he'll be on MY side! they are just trying to intimidate you. If the plans show one thing but the actual house is build differently then he has no grounds to deny you. Fold your arms, pout and tell them to $$$ and no sign off till they fix it. Then walk away from him and get in your car. Let him chew on that for afew days oh and play the passive agressive game by ignoring their calls for a couple of days, play them at their own game. Re: Some recent tips for your new home design 43Aug 13, 2008 8:42 pm Peter and Jo - I think I'll have to take both of you with me to my next meeting with them!!
thank you for the support guys. I am not very good at playing hardball My builder is only small, not one of the 'big guys' and so far has been very reasonabe, fair, helpful and willing to accommodate all of my many changes so I will wait and see if we can come to an agreeable solution (with Kev's help!) before taking such steps. fingers crossed for Monday.... Re: Some recent tips for your new home design 44Aug 13, 2008 9:46 pm ok good luck with it.
But if no good with Kev's help then practice the pout and scowl in front of the mirror!! Think of the guy at school who ** you off or some guy who forgot to call to get your blood boiling mad! Re: Some recent tips for your new home design 46Aug 14, 2008 3:53 pm OMG! Good news!!!
The site super rang this afternoon, saying he had spoken to owner, who has agreed to raise my windows 300mm for me ... for nix! What a guy! I LOVE MY BUILDER AGAIN! Re: Some recent tips for your new home design 48Aug 14, 2008 4:03 pm donuts OMG! Good news!!! The site super rang this afternoon, saying he had spoken to owner, who has agreed to raise my windows 300mm for me ... for nix! What a guy! I LOVE MY BUILDER AGAIN! woo hoo I bet all the go get him vibes from him made him have another think about it! Re: Some recent tips for your new home design 49Aug 14, 2008 4:05 pm joles Wooo hoooo!!!! Brilliant Donuts! You must be happy! Jo Now there is anew name for a franchise forget dunkin donuts and kremeydonuts WE have tahh dahhh "Brilliant Donuts" I've just taken out a pantent! Re: Some recent tips for your new home design 50Aug 14, 2008 4:17 pm Peter my DH's name is Duncan hence the userid!
Seriously I am SO relieved and happy, I was all buoyed up by all your support so and thank you to you all! Ok can stop hijacking threads now and go back to progress! Re: Some recent tips for your new home design 51Aug 14, 2008 4:52 pm donuts :lol: Peter my DH's name is Duncan hence the userid! Seriously I am SO relieved and happy, I was all buoyed up by all your support so and thank you to you all! Ok can stop hijacking threads now and go back to progress! LOL love it, I have to stay away from dunuts, toooo morish! mmm will take all the kisses I can get hehehe Very pleased you got a great outcome. Fingers crossed for the rest of your build cheers Me Re: Some recent tips for your new home design 56Aug 16, 2008 11:21 am sammy If you are going for higher ceilings, check the position of the windows. We only just realised that our builder shifted the entire window arrangement up 1 foot as we increased ceiling. So now all the windows are so high it looks weird. The little window in the bathroom is so high, I can't peep over it, and there is no way we can place shampoos, nick nacks in the sill because it is too high. The top of the window touches the ceiling as well. It will make window furnishing a bit tricky. This is their common trick to cut cost. If there's any brick above the window, they would need to add a metal/steel plate on top of the window. Plus, we all know that the brick labout+material cost of brick is definitely higher than the window. One other thing, don't forget that if you increase the eave size say from 450mm to 600mm, instead of raising the ceiling/roof as we would expect, they actually simply extend the edges of the roof downwards without changing the ceiling/roof height, which means when viewed from outside, your walls actually looks shorted, although won't be very obivious. Re: Some recent tips for your new home design 57Aug 16, 2008 2:18 pm Yes, we discovered that they were trying to cut cost of increasing ceiling heights but still charge us the same amount. But it's too late now. I just hope everyone out their pay close attention to these small details on the plan. Re: Some recent tips for your new home design 58Aug 16, 2008 2:22 pm oh and sammy I have to thank you for bringing the subject up as I probably wouldn't have thought of it myself and now I am happy with my windows (even though was opposite issue to yours).
So yeah .. thank you. Are you sure it is too late to do something about your windows? Re: Some recent tips for your new home design 59Aug 16, 2008 3:29 pm yes donuts, it's too late, they built it to the plan. It was our fault, we should have checked- but we are not architects! Oh well, the good side of this is our windows look bigger than it is because it is very high and the kids can't play with the window locks! Re: Some recent tips for your new home design 60Aug 16, 2008 7:28 pm Just checked your blog, yes it's too late as you already finished the brick work plus roof already on....
If you are before the brick stage and willing to pay the penalty ($500?) plus all extra material/labour cost for the change, actually it can still be changed. But then you builder can argue that the plan has been approved by council... so better not do this kind of last minute exterial changes unless it's really really really necessary... Just be careful with building stability during construction, that is when the structure may be weakened, refer to your engineering drawings for stability methodology. 1 7231 Thank you so much. This has been very helpful. We definitely wish to settle and get these people out of our life. They are trying to charge us interest on late… 7 14282 ideal house depends on the site and location as much as internal floor plan....what is the distance from the house to all four boundaries, where is north, describe your… 3 15171 |