Thursday 20 June 2013

Day 402

Just a quick update.. as the title suggests - we are currently at day 402 into our build :( We never once imagined that we would be smack bang in the middle of winter and not yet in our home..

Anyway, there are still so many items that require attention but Metricon are hoping to have everything completed and professionally cleaned by Monday 24/06 - We've heard that before and wont be holding our breaths.

Our render has been re-rendered 3 times and looks like it may be a 4th time but we'll have to check on the weekend as by the time we get there on a week night, its pitch black!

Who knows what the progress is like on the inside but we do know that we will not be settling until every single little thing on our list has been rectified... So so disheartening :(

mali

Tuesday 21 May 2013

Unbelievable

Well today marks day 372 since we commenced building. (contract allowed 370 days)

From what we were orginally told of a realistic 8-10 months for a double storey house has now turned to over 12 months and has even exceeded the amount of days Metricon has allowed for the build.

We had our PCI last Monday and to be honest, the house was a complete mess and not even close to inspection state. To say we are disappointed in this whole process is a complete understatement and that clear disappointment is now turning into frustration and anger.

I just cannot understand what is taking them so long. Well actually, I can because our house has virtually been sitting there for more than 2 months with no work being done inside or outside. Grrrr

The renderer came back and thought he'd touch up some areas that he missed in the first place and has used a completely different shade of grey. ARGH!

Our timber floors have been completely ruined with scratches, gouges, gaps and stains all over them.

Our inspector couldn't believe that Metricon had decided to present the house to us in such an incomplete state and we both ended up walking out of the house with 5 pages of defects. 5 PAGES!!!

This experience has been what most people say about building - nothing ever goes right, it always takes longer than you expect it blah blah blah but to be honest, we had high hopes for Metricon; especially since we thought that this time round, building with a reputable builder, things would be different..

Who knows when we'll be in as they have not done anything to the house since our PCI. The house is a sea of blue tape and we are just waiting for communication from our CSC or SS.. which surprise surprise, we have not heard from. Our SS did say he hoped that all the defects would be attended to & ready for our final inspection in 3-4weeks, 1 week has passed, so we have 2-3 weeks to go.. Shall we start placing bets??

So til next time, if we're lucky, we may be in by Christmas :(

mali

Monday 8 April 2013

Would you believe...

That we are still waiting and have not moved in yet?!

With the hopes of moving in over Easter, they were quickly diminished when we saw no work done on our place for almost a month...

So disappointing when we're so close to end - yet so far away :(

Speaking with our SS - we are finally having our front panels replaced as they were not done correctly in the first place (I'm sure I could have told them this months ago - actually I did?!) but it seems that they have only gone as far as replacing half of what was agreed on and they have yet to paint them so at the moment - we have very ugly yellow concrete panels sheets as part of our facade..

According to our SS, he is hoping to have our place go through the QA phase towards the end of this week ready for customer presentation next week.. Fingers crossed that something does eventuate as I am quite frankly over the whole waiting process. But realistcally, I dont think we will be having our PCI for at least a few more weeks unless they have The Block contestants come in to finish everything!! :)

Mind you, it has been almost 11 months since everything started - back on Monday 14th May 2012... and I am sure we were advised it took normally 8-10 months to build a double story home with most ready for settlement at about 9 months :( ah well

mali



Tuesday 26 February 2013

The Waiting Game...

According to Metricon, our house should have been completed on Friday and a CM inspection was booked in for yesterday.. Not sure how everyone else's experiences have been but this CM whom we have not met already seems like a bit of a ..... insert word of choice here .....

To ellaborate, we have brought up our concerns with the quality and finish of our panels with our SS only to be advised that the CM has advised these have been installed correctly... Either he was looking at them with no glasses on (assuming he wears them or indeed needs them) or he hasnt looked at them at all! Instead of having flawless flush panels, it looks like they were playing puzzles and left gaps of all sorts in between the panels as well as some corners that haven't even been cut properly and look ripped!?!

We'll be meeting with our SS for a site visit this Friday and he is anticipating the customer presentation to happen in the next few weeks. I am already starting an excel spreadsheet on everything that we will be checking, room by room, haha poor buggers dont know what's coming!

From experience, how long has everyone waited for items to be rectified after their PCI and before handover/settlement and has anyone delayed settlement waiting for Metricon to fix outstanding issues?

We are really not wanting to settle with any outstanding issues with Metricon promising to do these post handover as we all know what its like to get through to Metricon whilst you're building, let alone what it'll be like once you have paid them!

So with that said, there is not much else to report other than we are just waiting... Hope to have more to report sooner than later :)

mali



We have a garage door, driveway and finally our front door has been stained! :)





Thursday 3 January 2013

The end is near - Sort of

Hi guys, it has been a while but to be honest the house looks pretty much the same as it did 3 months ago!

Happy New Year - Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas a great start to 2013!

So, progress on our house:

We have made our 2nd last payment on the house - The Fitting & Fixing Stage!

The outside of the house has now been completed - rendered & painted, though looking at the house on close inspection, there seems to be quite a number of flaws; where the corners of where the walls join havent been rendered. They connected the downpipe before completing the rendering, thus not rendering behind it and standing side on, you can see the concrete behind it? Strange I know..

It also looks like our panels have been rained on whilst the paint was still wet and there are water marks down the majority of them which is quite disappointing but will be rectified im sure.. (?)

Other than that, our tiling has almost been completed. The cupboards and benchtops installed and kitchen sink installed (and loving it!)

The house has been completely painted and I have to say that I am loving the walls and ceiling the same colour (Dulux Lexicon White) though you cannot tell looking at it!

Our electrical allowances have been cut out but nothing installed yet so will be exciting to see everything starting to come together..

There is still quite alot of work to do:

Floorboards
Carpet
Fixtures
Staining the timber doors

And they aim to have this done by the end of January, early Feb to be able to present the house, completed, to us at the end of Feb/early March... Times a ticking!!

Latest photo of our place as of Dec 2012

Thursday 11 October 2012

M.I.A

Sorry we seem to have just disappeared off the face of the earth!

We were on holidays for 7 weeks (travelling around all of Europe) and we forgot to post before we left! :)

So much has happened in 7 weeks - plasters in, stairs are in, kitchen cupboards are in (wrong colour after everything lol) first coat of paint applied, front of the house has been rendered. And the front door installed etc etc etc

Will provide a more detailed update with photos soon!!

mali

Monday 6 August 2012

Surprise!!!

On Friday afternoon, I received a phone from Metricon that nearly made me fall off my chair at work.. lol

CSC: "Hi, not sure if anyone has contacted you or not but your requests for variations have been approved"
Me: "Excuse me? Sorry what did you just say? Wow, you're not joking right?!"

Anyway, after our first request to Metricon in mid June, and being declined more than 4 times, I am not sure who had a change of heart or what happened and I really don't care haha! It may have been the final email that we sent to everyone that we could find that mattered in Metricon but the variations have been approved (for a fee of course) and that's all that matters!! WOOOO HOOOOOOOO!!! :)

Besides that, the wrong size cladding was sent for our upstairs exterior facade and the SS expects to receive the correct size cladding this week and they hope to have all of the upstairs completed by mid next week and have organised to have the scaffolding taken down at the end of next week! Once that's all done, i assume it is then lock up stage!! Yay for next stage but boo to the next payment haha

Thanks Metricon, can't believe im going to say it but you did make my day :) (cringe)

mali :)