Saturday, December 6, 2008

Construction Drawings received FINALLY, but with mistakes.

Good to see our final/construction drawings were received in the mail (at our current address), and upon glancing through them quickly, I have already picked up a few items which have not been included. I also have to strongly wonder why they are all dated 17th November, but it took until 5th December for me to see them. Hmmmm...

What happened to those valuable 2 1/2 weeks that have been lost? I'm not entirely happy about it, and I shall be going to Head Office on Monday morning with the 'corrected' drawings, suggest they fix them that day, as I will be returning to pick up the new set on Monday afternoon. If they are not ready, I will wait. I want to sign them Monday night and deliver them in person AGAIN on Tuesday. I'm not relying on 'The Postal Company' again, it would just delay the start even further.

Now, onto the changes. It appears we need root barrier protection all along the front of the slab due to trees in the vicinity. This would most likely be the rather large gum tree on the nature strip which the Council refused to cut down before we began this whole process...but that is another story in itself. I can't do much about that, other than grin and bear it, and hound the Council once we have moved back in. Usually root barrier protection is an expensive exercise, and this inclusion will cost us $2,932 to extend the depth of the footings to 1200mm instead of the standard 800mm. However, as some of our previous costs from our first soil test and survey have been deleted (earthworks, suspended slab, bulk concrete in another part of the slab), our total site costs only rise by $100 from what was 'estimated' on our preliminary documents. That's all good news.

We are also 'required' to install fence extension along the south fence, possibly due to overlooking issues, as this is the 'high' side of the house which will be on extra fill. That's OK too, we certainly don't mind, and would have done it eventually anyway.

There appears to be a few things 'not included' on our final drawings from our first PCV raised at the contract appointment. This is the wiring configuration of the family room downlights which were not drawn properly on the contract drawings from the first electrical plan. It also appears that although we deleted the porch light, it still appears on the drawings. After giving them a plan of exactly where we wanted sound insulation in the internal walls, they seem to have 'missed' a wall.
Most of the other things raised have been included, including the swing of doors, added powerpoints and the moved tap! It's just a matter of sitting down tonight with the 2 PCV's and the tender documents, and going through absolutely everything to see if it has been included.

One thing I am not entirely sure about is the $88 added on to the 'energy efficiency' to achieve a 5 star rating. Apparently, this applies to the changed windows between the lounge and dining, and the fact that we added extra heating vents into the bathroom and ensuite. I was under the impression that Henley would achieve the 5 star rating without us having to pay extra. I will be querying this $88.

All up, the PCV has cost us over 6K, most of which is the evaporative cooling, extra powerpoints, sound insulation and upgrades to external and roof insulation.

Bring on Monday, so I can sort this out, and hopefully get a site start. I'm sooo sick of waiting...

4 comments:

DUKMAN said...

Stormygirl,

The path of house building is a long and arduous one and I wish you well on your expedition on Monday.

As you are all too familiar by now these things take time and it took quite a few months for Henley to get organised for us. It's bloody frustrating but you get over it.

They actually sent the brickies to our site 3 times before they could actually start - first time there were no footings; second time there were no bircks and the third time they could actually start!!

In their defence their site manager had left and it was dumped in the lap of some poor soul who obviously had no idea until they could find a replacement. The site manager they eventually hired was fantastic, very organised and very helpful!!

I think they'll probably want to delay the start until after Christmas so they don't lose valuable building time to time off over the Christmas break. I'm pretty sure they'll use every delaying tactic under the sun to delay until then. Well, that's what I think they did with our build anyway.

I beleive they still have only 9 months to build and they will want all of those 9 months as they did with ours.

Also, once they do get going the Structure, the bricks and everything will go up very quickly but then time will seem to stand still again once the house is locked up. They are working, you just can't see the obvious results any more!!

Regardless go get them and push hard but don't be disheartened if you don't see any action on site until after Christmas.

Take comfort in the fact that you have a comfortable house to live in during the build. As you recall we were tarting ourselves around Melbourne the whole time which was something of a chore, but worth it in the end.

BTW, Let me know when your friendly neighhourhood licenced cabler is allowed in and I will get him organised. I just need to know where you need points installed, Stormybloke has some ideas I beleive. We need to be in before the plaster goes up and probably just before lockup as when they have locked up they don't want just anybody wandering through especially not the owners ;-) (they hated me!!)

I believe Patience is a virtue learned and subsequently worn out during the process of building a house!!

Talk soon

Duncan

stormygirl said...

All very good points raised 'Mr Friendly Neighbourhood Licenced Cabler'!!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and I know once this whole build experience is over I can look back and relax wondering what the hell was all the fuss about! It just doesn't change the whole 'lack of communication' issues I have with them for not keeping their clients 'in the loop'. I know they will use delay tactics, and I'm not prepared to stand for it!!

I am totally disheartened already, especially seeing other bloggers, friends and houses in the area who were all demolished about the same time. Some have slabs, others have frames, windows, roofs and partial bricks. All I have is dirt, broken side fences, a few patches of grass and one very lonely looking agapanthus! :)

I know it will all come together in the end, and we'll have our beautiful home where we can all sit back and chill out in the alfresco watching TV, but waiting now out of no fault of our own is killing me.

My 'expedition' to Henley will be delayed, due to the damn printer running out of ink, and refusing to print our 3 page letter outlining all of the omissions. I had planned on dropping it in before 9am, and before the CSA's are tied up with possible meetings. I now have to do the school run, get inks, print the document, add the drawings on, take 'Mr Bunny' to the dentist, then drop it into Head Office. So you'll have to excuse me if my mood is not perfect!

What else can go wrong?!?!

I believe my patience went with our floorboards to the tip... ;-)

XO

Toni said...

Sorry to hear about your plans. We had six.....yep six before they were correct.

I really like your game plan on handling it!!

How did you go today?

stormygirl said...

Today went well! I'll post in a jiffy! ;)