EOFY Gripes

All has been progressing fairly well apart from the fact that I can't seem to convince Metricon's Construction manager to connect the three storm water pipes, that we had to have at Metricon's insistence, into the point of discharge.

Metricon charged us for items 19 and 20 of the contract $450 and $1725 to run separate stormwater pipes into the point of discharge. This has not occurred, although the plans clearly show the three pipes connecting to the point of discharge. However they currently all connect together before entering the point of discharge.

This leaves me perplexed as to why I was billed $2175 to run extra pipes if they were never going to be separately connected into the point of discharge!

Metricon argue that this should be the developer's responsibility, and the developer says that he supplied one as per council requirements, therefore if more are required the plumber should install them into the discharge.

I agree with the developer, given we paid Metricon an extra $2175 for stormwater pipes and connections.

Seems I will have to escalate it internally with Metricon and with the private certifier.

Bricking Continues

Weather has been less than great, so it has been slow going with the bricking. So far most of the lower half has been completed with the upper to be completed in the next week. Weather aside, the brickies are doing an excellent job and clearly take pride in their workmanship.

Brickies are keen

Checked today and found the brickies have all their gear on site and have even stated laying a few, on a public holiday no less...Nice!

Services installed

Plumbing, Electrical, Gas and Aircon installed this week.

And the bricks have arrived too!

Metricon have been very good at lining up the tradesmen, no big delays which has been great.

Have a few quality issues which i hope the site supervisor will address soon.

Gutters and Tiles

Gutters and Tiles installed this week.

Roof just needs the ridge caps installed.

Farming Complete mostly

Frame mostly all compelte.

Top floor framed

Top floor framing up, more framing on Monday and Tuesday weather permitting

Framing Started

Going great guns got the bottom floor completed in one day!

Slab Poured

Slab down!

Looks to be pretty good.

Waffle pods and steel for slab

Slab boxed up and waffle pods and steel put in place.

Hopefully the slab will be poured soon!

Plumbing and Electrical

Plumbing and electrical work completed.

Only one stormwater line connected to the point of discharge, should be all three.
Field Gully and Gutter stormwater connected together, should be separate.
No gravel used in the stormwater trenches.

Major issues with the sewer not run to the property, to take up with developer.

Foundations and piering

Complted!

Run off protection up!

They installed a little material fence to stop any run off washing the dirt down the road.

Site Cut complete!

On the site start day they cut and filled the block!

Looks pretty good!

Now got to start thinking about retaining walls!

Web cam installed

Web cam installed on site, ready for site cut!

Site Start date 8 April 09

Well we have a site start date!

Wednesday the 8 April 2009!
Should be completed in 200 days on the 25 October 2009!

Building approval recieved, awaiting site start date

This week we have received the green light from the private certifier, so we are now just waiting for a site start date! You may have noticed that I have added a site start counter, with a guessed site start date of the 14 April.

Approval close

CSC advised that the certifier will complete approval in the next few days, and our variations have been stamped urgent, so it looks like we are getting close to starting construction in the next few weeks all things going well!

Colours and Electrcial, big day!

Started at 9am picking the colours for the house we think they look good.
The Photos washed out the colours a little but you get the idea.

Plans in for approval

Four Months to the day since we started the building process with Metricon. On reflection we have come a long way, yet not as far I would have thought or liked.

We were hoping for building to start in Feburary, and it seems more likley that it will be April or worst case May even if I have to personally start the building myself!

On a positive note there does appear to be some things happening!

CSC advised that plans etc have been given to the Private certifier and within 3 - 6 weeks we should know if we have approval.

Emailed Signed contract to the Bank for them to spin their wheels.

I find the banks to be inflexible when it comes to contract variations etc. I keep telling them it's likely to change another 100 times yet before we are done, and they don't seem to get it.

Received a letter from the BSA saying Metricon have insured our house build with them YAY!

Contracts Arrived

Received in the mail, express post no less Our copy of the signed Building contracts and a copy for the bank!

Looks like we are finally starting to see some progress! Praise the Lord, was starting to think that the house might never get built!

Tiles and more Tiles

We had our official tile appointment with Beaumont tiles today, all went well.

The trick will be to get Metricon to provide separate quotes for Main floors V the Wet areas.

Here are our selections:-

Mail Floor:- Super white porcelain 600*600 (more a light off white)

Wet area Floor upstairs:- Super white 450X450 (more a light off white)

Wall tiles:- 300*900 white

Feature tile:- Seaude 25*300

Looking at tiles

Been out most of the day looking at display homes to get some idea of what tiles we like for the bathroom, we now have a fair idea. We know the tiles we want on the floor.

Deposit Paid

5% Deposit Paid Lets get the ball rolling!

Contract Signed

Signed about 100 documents, here is hoping that it doesn't take as long to build the house as it does for Metricon to get their paper work sorted out.

And as per normal after 4 weeks to go from preliminary to final contact (there were little changes) they still managed to screw up a few things that (fingers crossed) they will fix with a post contract variation.

Contract Signing date

CSC called to confirm contract signing date. Requested that it be ready a couple of days early, as it would save another week, as we are only able to sign it during the weekend.
This is due to our SC being down the coast, and with work commitments it's not possible to get there during the working week.

She is going to see what she can do.

If all goes to plan should start construction in 8 weeks from contract signing around the second week of April. e.g. 4 weeks council approval, and 4 weeks for Metricon to get their ordering sorted out.

Final Contract

SC rang and advised contract will be available by the Weekend of the 21/2/09 so booked this date to review it.

Here is hoping that they have removed the $4,000 site costs, or there will be trouble.

Tiles

Went to Beaumont Tiles and got a formal quote to lock in the january sale prices.

Looking to lay a Porcelen full body rectified edge tile which is about the most expensive in terms of extra charges to get Metricon to lay.

By my calculatations Metricon is going to charge $105 per square meter to lay.

I can get my own tiler to lay them for $55 per square meter.
With 80 square meters to lay thats a saving of $4000!

Tip: Do you sums and make sure you know what it should cost!

Preliminary Contract Signed

Signed the Preliminary Contract, and paid them some more money.

Final Contract will take up to 4 Weeks...

People weren't joking when they said it takes 6 months to start building.

I call it the Metricon Merry go round paper work saga.

Preliminary Contract

SC presented us with our preliminary contract.

A few issues, e.g. site costs and door and window changes required.

See the floor plan we changed from the standard e.g. garage and outdoor area.