So so close

We are now really really close to completion.  We were, in fact, promised our keys today but of course there are still a few things outstanding.  The truth is that many dates for completion have come and passed, May 15th, June 15th, July 15th and now August 3rd.  Looks like it will now be August 7th.  No damages are going to be paid as they claim the 385 days are from site start not sign on date.  Its almost pointless even having the clause as they are never going to be paying any of it.

Since our last update at the start of July not really very much as happened its just been "final" tidy ups to painting, fixing plumbing issues, tidying up the site etc. Us and New Home Inspections pointing out all of the problems with the build.

The toilets were finally installed but one was leaking and neither of them were bolted to the floor.  Other plumbing issues were that many of the fittings just haven't been tightened up. The brickie needs to come back and fix a whole lot of issue and also the painters who must have been out 6 times now but still can't get it right.  There were also issues of little bits of damage here and there to door frames, the rangehood and the sink that needed to be polished out.

So hopefully the next couple of days will see everything fixed up and we can get moving on getting the driveway done and then move in.

Getting closer

A long time between posts but a few reasons. 1. Not a lot of activity at house, 2. the arrival of our daughter.

So on the house front.  The bench tops which were initially scheduled to be installed on the 20th of May only happened around the 20th of June.  There was an issue with the cabinets not being strong enough to support the bench tops in the kitchen, so the cabinet maker needed to come out and reinforce the cabinets around the ovens.  This held up the tops which held up the tilers, which held up the plumbers etc etc.  Long story short some of the tradies used by Ashford are extremely unreliable thus causing massive delays.

Now that the tops are done things are moving again but we are at least three weeks from the getting the keys, liquidated damages start on July 7 but with weather delay days etc they will probably stretch it out so they don't have to pay a thing, even though its taken them more then a year since signing to get it built.

Today we had a walk through to pick up an issues, we were given a box of red stickers and went around the house putting dots on all of the paint work problems, there are alot! 

Later this week we should be seeing a fair bit of activity (I've heard it all before and will wait to see it to believe it) with plumbing, final electrical work, shower screens, window repairs all due to happen this Friday. Hopefully we'll see some action and get in before the end of July.

Lock up

I've been a bit slack with updating...
So since the last instalment there's been a fair bit of activity and we've finally achieved lock up.

Bricks - are now all finished.  There was a lot of stuffing around here as the first brickie did a job so bad it wasn't even good enough to pass Ashford's "strict" standards and about half of his brick work had to be pulled down and redone.  The new guys look to have done a pretty good job it all looks neat except in the couple of areas where the slab wasn't quiet right.  It should be all fixed up soon.

Cabinets - in the kitchen, bathrooms and laundry are all in.  The benchtops should go in later this week.

Plastering - Is all finished.  Was looking pretty good until Theo came out for his inspection and found bowed walls all over the place mostly up high and not very noticeable.  The painters were there and ready to go, so we had two options either leave the bowed walls or pull down the cornice, walls and rehang it all with a delay of at least a week.  We had to go with option 1. Not that happy but at least it gave us some haggling power to get change to the shelves made without incurring a $1000 variation fee.

Painting - is all done, they will need to come back and fix up a few areas on the woodwork that are a bit thin.  The walls all look good even though only two top coats and no undercoats were sprayed on.

Late last week the sparkies were there finishing off the power points and installing the range hood.  Hopefully all this will be finished this week and then the water proofing and tiling can get done.

The Saga!

Its been a month since our last post and not a lot has changed on site.  There have been two sagas going on....

Firstly the brickie who finally got started on site was working along nicely until the March long weekend, it must have been a good one for him as he never returned!  Our SS hadn't been to site for the week after this and then took another week to get someone else out there.  So we lost two weeks work waiting for anything to happen.  The new guys are suppose to have been there for a week now but I think have only done 2 or 3 days at the most.  Its extremely disappointing as we are now a month behind schedule and the new ETA is around mid-June, I'm really suspecting it won't be until July that its all complete.  I'm glad now that we pushed Ashford on the liquidated damages clause (they wanted to make it $1/wk we managed to push it to $250/wk), it will kick in mid July and then there will no doubt be a battle to extract any $$$ from them if there is an overrun, everything is all very one way......

The second saga has been the benchtops, after phone calls and emails we finally had a resolution on the issue.  Ashford we claiming that the TTI materials are of too low quality to be used (I find this extremely difficult to believe as they are sourced from the same quarries has the other suppliers) and we had to reselect from Gladstone Stone.  James at Gladstone was very helpful and we were able to get exactly the same tops for the vanities and a very similar one for the kitchen.  Ashford were purchasing the stone via a third party Excel Stone and it seems that the reason for ditching TTI was more to do with them not wanting to pay for a full slab for the vanities when they only need a small amount.  A little more truthfulness and a lot less arse-covering from the Ashford office would do a wonder for their customers level of happiness!  Lets just hope that this is the last I need to hear about benchtops until I get to see them installed.

On the upside of things our SS could see that the bricks had cost a lot of time so he has started the plasterers ahead of schedule and they are running in parallel.  This week most of the plaster boards are in place, the cornices will need to go in next week and then all the patching.  Not sure how far they will go until the bricks are finished as its still a bit of mess inside.  Anyway its time to take a deep breathe and stay calm.

til next time....

Pre-plaster

Finally our brickie started. When I say brickie I mean just the one guy.  We first met him on wet Saturday afternoon working on the alfresco wall which was the only place undercover.  The bricks are all going along nicely and will hopefully be finished by mid-late next week.  I need to drop off a box of beer for my neighbour who allowed the brickie to use his water for a day or two while Ashford sorted out an issue with our meter tap.  Bit of a communication issue between the SS and the trades by the sound of it, once alerted it seems to have been corrected nice and quickly.

The insulation has now mostly been installed and the cabling is all complete ready for plastering.  We had New Home Inspections out again for a pre-plaster inspection.  Theo found a few minor issues again which should be all corrected by the time the bricks are complete.  Then it will be a week of tidying up and sorting out some loose ends, lock the doors and start plastering.  If all goes well we should be completed plastering by the end of the month.  We are still mostly looking on track.

The only major issue we've encountered so far is an oversight by Ashford in not contacting TTI about our granite  bench tops.  I had a call from TTI asking what was going on, have called Elisha at Ashford and hoping it will all be sorted.  It seems that most people now go for Caesar stone and so they don't really know what to do when confronted with natural stone.  Ashford seem to always come through for us with a bit of probing so hopefully this issue will be no different.  I've been reading a few blogs of people building with Metricon and we don't seem to be having any of the issues they are, I think its probably a combination of having a stable SS who is on the ball and also having the independent inspections.

Brickwork outside the dinning room

Plasterboard ready to go in the dinning room.  Wall and ceiling insulation all installed. 

A completed wall on the master bedroom.

External wall insulation and phone and power points.

Sound screen insulation between the retreat and bedrooms.

Cornices ready to go in once the plaster is up.

Bit of dodgy plumbing here that needs to be sorted out.

Has anyone seen a bricky?

Bricks arrived 2 weeks ago but there has been no sign of a bricky, the final framing issues have all been sorted out so we should be seeing some brick laying action.  Sounds like we are a lower priority to a couple of new display houses, next Monday is the day apparently.  Lets see if it happens.   To Ashford's credit they haven't just waited around,  the heating system ducts have been installed and the sparky has done a heap of the power, lighting and data cabling.  Damien tells me the internals and brickwork are all going to happen in parallel to catch up on some lost time.  May is getting close!

 Cut back the overhanging slab

Support the overhanging frame

Replaced base plate

Ducts

Theres going to be a lot of switches here

Power and data cabling

Temp front door

The roof is on...

I can't believe how fast they can get things done.  With the public holiday and an RDO on Friday they've only had three days this week in which the roof tiles have been laid and the windows and sliding doors are fitted as well as the door jams for the front and garage.   Some of the issues discovered last Friday have been fixed, the over hangs in the slab and entrance framing issue haven't been corrected yet.  Bit of a worry that the tiles are on but the framing requires some additional work.  Will be interesting to see how this will get sorted out.

Slab fix up

Extra nogen

                                             Cracked glass already

Extra stud added

Very glassy lounge\dinning room

Retreat doors

Entrance with door jam

Roof tiles, all done.