Another week of Kurmond's broken promises.

I'm sure none of you that have been following this Blog will be surprised to hear that this week didn't go to plan.  The fact is, that not a single week has gone to plan since week four of this epic saga.

As Beck said in her last post, these things were to happen this week:
The eave painters were to have painted the upstairs eaves, they didn't.
The downpipes were to have been installed and painted, they weren't.
The Scaffolding was to have been removed, it wasn't.
The downstairs fascia and gutter was to have been installed, it isn't.
And the bloody useless brickies Kurmond have contracted were supposed to have finished, and they aren't.

So that is exactly 0 from 5. And that's not even considering that half of those jobs were supposed to be finished LAST week.  Even given the wet weather we've had, the delays are ridiculous and I think a lack of planning and organisation have resulted in the estimated lock-up date going from "by December" to "before Christmas" and now it doesn't look like it will even happen in January.  Luckily we didn't hire Kurmond to organise a piss up in a brewery, or we'd all die of thirst.

Anyway, I think it is fairly safe to say that nothing will happen now until next year. So Merry Christmas to you all, and a safe and happy New Year.
D.

Weekly Update (Day 96) Eaves, cavity sliders, cladding, bricks and brick cleaning

Well on Monday the bricks didn't arrive, but the carpenters did.  They put on the eaves, the cladding outside of bedroom 4, installed the cavity sliders, put in the frame work for the ducting and the frame work for the niche in the main bedroom.  The carpenters are very young (Derrick thought they were trying to pinch stuff), but these guys did such a great job.  We went around to check all of the brick ties, to see if they had missed any and in the whole house we only found one that they missed.  Every thing they told us they would do, they did.

Cladding on Bedroom 4

Cavity sliders into the Media Room

Niche in Main bedroom

On Tuesday the bricks arrived, but they are not the same colour.

Wednesday the brickies turn up.  I go out to site on Wednesday afternoon thinking all of the brick work would have been finished, but it isn't.  They have run out of bricks AGAIN.
They finished the front of the garage, one side and the front of the balcony and above the front door.  Instead of using the different coloured bricks on the balcony and the garage ( these will be done in moroko, so you won't see the colour of the bricks) they used the correct colour bricks on these to spots and used the different coloured ones above the front door.  Around the front door should be face bricks, but now there is the two different colours.  Our SS told us they can be colour matched and we won't be able to tell.

Two different bricks

Thursday the bricks were cleaned and that makes such a big difference to the look of the house.

Clean bricks

So happy with the colour of the bricks
now that they have been cleaned

Derrick has a meeting with the SS tomorrow.  The painters should be there to do any painting on the top level before the scaffolding is taken down.  (Oh and the brickies are supposed to be back Wednesday - We will see)
Beck

Something got done this week. (Day 87)

Well since our last post 12 days ago, we have had some action at the house.
The A/C ducting has been fixed as much as it can be.  The ducting in the corners of our bedroom have to stay, but our SS has told us he will make a niche over the bed area to hide it.  This I can live with, but the one in the corner of the family room had to go.  This one has been put into the cavity that we had made in our walk in robe.

We had been promised brickies would work on the Wednesday, but again no one was there.  Then on Thursday they also promised brickies, but again no one there.  We found out later that they finished off a job on Thursday morning, went to the pub for lunch and didn't make back to work after a liquid lunch.  By this point everyone has the sh#%s with the bricklayers.

Friday morning - WE HAVE BRICKIES.  It was only two of them, but at least something was going to get done.  These guys did the fiddly bits under the windows on the bottom level.  Derrick went out to see them on Friday morning and he was told the whole crew would be there Saturday morning.
We had about 7 guys on site on Saturday morning and Monday all day.

Brick work had to stop again on tuesday, this time because we had to wait for T bar to hold up the balcony and for over the garage doors. The builder also underestimated how many bricks we would need, and we have now run out.  Kurmond has another job that is using the same bricks and same batch number that had been over estimated, so we are getting those bricks to finish the job on Monday. (We hope).

Ducting put into the corner of the family room

Spaces we made for the ducting that the A/C guy didn't  use

Ducting put into both corners of our bedroom

once the ducting was moved, now we have holes
in the floor that will have to be fixed

These are what we have been waiting for, now we just need more bricks.

back of the house with the bricks done

front of the house just need the balcony bricked up

On Wednesday the solar panels were installed for the electric boosted hot water system and

Today we had the eave carpenters there,  they have finished most of it - just a few little bits to do.  They are also doing the cladding on the outside of bedroom four and installing the cavity sliders.  

Eaves done, the space on the right needs to have the cladding done

Weekly Update (Day 75) More bricks and A/C rough in.

This week started the same as the last four, with nothing happening at all.  Tuesday saw a change of pace, with the Brickies finally returning and the air conditioner installer arriving to make a complete mess of what should have been a simple job.
He basically came out to install all the ducting for the A/C (aka "roughing it in"), the only problem was he didn't even look at the drawings. This clown just stuck ducting in the easiest, and in some cases stupidist, places he could find.  After some robust converstation with the Site Supervisor a more logical plan was devised, and a promise made that the installer would be back to do the job properly (who knows when). I would hope that the SS would have picked up this lazy work at his next visit, but I'm glad we make regular visits to pick these things up earlier rather than later.
As for the rest of the week, nothing happened again but this time due to the non-stop rain for three and a half days.
Here's hoping next week's better...again.

Day 66 Weekly Update

Hmmmm. This week the only work that happened was the roof installation.  So over the last four weeks, we've seen an average of one day a week with Tradies. At the current rate we should be in our new home sometime in 2014.  Let's see what happens next week. (insert not happy emoticon here)

We have a roof (Day 62)

Well, let me start by saying, I have not been the happiest little person the last three weeks.  I was very disappointed with the lack of work done on the house.  On the plus side, I got to meet our neighbour that is building the McDonald Jones across the street today. They are now ahead of us again.

So in the last three weeks we have had scaffolding go up, (1 days work) the fascias and guttering go on, (3 hours work) and the brick work done to hold up the balcony (half a day).
So we are about two weeks behind, but the SS assures us he will make it up.

Fascias and gutters.

The big problem was the brick layers.  We had to wait for them to do the front piers before the roof could go on.  So we waited and waited.  We were told they would be there by the end of the week... then Monday... then Tuesday.  I drove past on Tuesday morning, and still no brick layers.  I got the SS's phone number from Derrick (he was sick of listening to be complain to him) and had the brickies there by 9am the next day and they were gone by 1pm. They did what they had to and went.
The tiles arrived on Wednesday 9th, and finally something was going right.

Front pier that holds up the balcony.

Next we were told the roof would go up on Friday.  Drive past on Friday - Nobody on site NOT HAPPY.
Then the SS promised us it would go up today. As I turned the corner this morning I was holding my breath hoping that someone would be there doing something, and low and behold the roofing guys were there! This was about 8am this morning and when I went past at 2.30, the top floor was all done and it looks great.
Beck.

The First Stall

Well this has been the most disappointing week so far.  This week the only thing that happened was the installation of the Fascias and Gutters.  That job took about half a day.  So in the last two weeks scaffolding was erected (one days work), and Gutters and Fascias were installed. The builder claims that the Brickies weren't available this week and no other work can progress until they have done their bit.  He also assures me that he will be able to make up for lost time, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and see what happens next week.  Sorry no photos this time, nothing's changed anyway.

Scaffolding (Day 44)

 Not much has happened this week.  We expected the scaffolding to go up on monday , but that didn't happen and  it rained all day tuesday.  I went past the house yesterday morning, and the scaffolding was being delivered.  It then rained all day wednesday, so not much was done except for bits of scaffolding being put around the house ready to be put up.  Today on my way home, all of the scaffolding was up and the fascias have been delivered.  Don't know if anything will happen tomorrow.  So it will be a surprise as to what happens next, the roof or more brick work.
Beck.

Scaffolding arrives

Scaffolding up

Down the side of the house



Fascias - colour is Dune same as the windows



Bricks

The brick layers didn't start yesterday like we thought, but they sure did make up for it today.  One of our neighbours told me there was about eight brick layers working on our job today.  They are up to scaffolding height on the study wall and about the same down the south side of the house.  Derrick went out this morning and they seem to think they will have the job done in about 2 weeks, depending on the weather and the delivery of the scaffolding.  Fingers crossed on the weather.
Beck.

The front of the house (study windows)

Looking down the side from the front of the house

Looking down the side from the back of the house

The termite guard also went in today

We have Bricks

Well this week we have had the internal plumbing done.  We had a really nice guy going the plumbing, was very willing to show us what he was doing and he answered all of our questions.  His work looks very neat and tidy, and he was working on his own. Thumbs up Kurmond, you have great Subbies.

Today (Wednesday 12/9/11) our beautiful bricks arrived along with a ton of sand.  The Brickies are due to start in the morning. Very exciting.

Derrick is going out on site in the morning to meet our SS for the first time, but from the many phone calls, he seems like he is on top of everything.

Beck

we will get better photos tomorrow
only had the phone with us today.

Fully erect

The title of this blog was Derricks idea

Well a lot has happened this week, we have our frame up and some of our windows in.  Can not believe how fast this part of the build has gone. We had  a bit of rain during the week and the builders just worked on regardless. There is a house across the street from us ( started about a month before us) and one around the corner (this one started about 2 months before us) both are knock down re-builds and we have now over taken both of them.  Can not fault Kurmond on the building phase.  Every thing is  running very smoothly.  Michael one of the owners of Kurmond was on site on Friday checking everything and went through any questions we had.

Our main question was about how the stairs are going to look,  we were going to have a door to under the stairs from the hall way, but we think we may have the door open up into the garage.  This should give us a bit more space for things like bikes and camping equipment.  We also had to work out if we wanted our handrail to go to the top of the stairs with a post or have it butt up to the half wall at the top of the stairs, this looks out into a void near the front door.
So on Saturday morning DCQ and I went off to the Oran Park display homes to find inspiration.  (DCQ has no idea on how to visualise)  We think we have come up with a solution, we just have to check it with our site supervisor on Monday.

 It seems as the frame goes up and you can see rooms and different areas appear, the house seems bigger than I thought.
The last bits of the frame should be done by mid week and we are getting the bricks delivered by the end of the week.

Lets hope we don't have too much rain in the next few weeks.
Beck

Frame ready to go up (Thursday afternoon)

This was done by 8.00am Friday morning

Windows delivered

Crane came to put up I beams and top floor frame

End of the Thursday

Study windows in

Back of the house
top floor
Brad's room is on the left Larni's on the right
Walk in robes in the middle
bottom floor
dining/kitchen/family room

Roof on Friday

top floor living area and bedroom 4 to the right

Media room

Dining room

Family room out to alfresco on the right
(from Kitchen)

Kitchen (from family room)

Main bedroom

I've got wood!

Or is it timber? Either way the ground floor frames have arrived, along with the steel beams and first floor joists.  Hopefully the weather will be kind to us, and tomorrow the ground floor frame will be erect.

Floor joists being delivered.

My wood. (Big isn't it ;-) )

Rain!!!!

Well the BOM got it wrong.  It wasn't showers at all, it was a torrential downpour all Saturday night and looks like all day today (Sunday).  Went out to check that our lovely elderly next door neighbour didn't get flooded from our place, and to see if we now have a moat.

Well as it turns out I was very surprised to find that we don't have a moat at all, just a very mudding work site and our neighbours place has no problems at all.

Lets hope tomorrow will just be showers and it will clear up by the end of the week.

The Back Yard

The Front Yard