Time to Show some pictures of the House

I thought after 6 month moving into the house, we better show some pictures of the final finish.

The first in the list is what I went through to put down the Laminated floor, it took, my brother and I two days to lay it down and two days to finish off the quads around the wall.

And here are some of the finished pictures:

Overall, things end up to be OK, but still few issues, which we will wait until 1 year maintenance and will raise up with Henley.

GOT THE KEYS

JUST ANOTHER QUICK UPDATE THAT WE GOT THE KEYS.

PICTURES TO FOLLOW.

Final Inspection

Finally heard what i needed to hear, and that is a date for the final inspection/hand over:

24/11/08 @ 15:00

 

So stay alarm and will update you of the progress.

Fit off update

Time for a little update,

Things has been moving along and in a right way, however we still away from any finalisation day.

now things that has been done:

The doors has been installed and door handles has been mounted

The front door has been changed and the new one has been painted, same as rest of the house:

The tabs has been fitted off:

And the electrical fit out:

The laundry has been done:

We had a meeting with Kevin last week, and went through the house, and there is an extensive list that of the items that needs to be fixed. the report is getting prepared and will be sent to Henley, very soon.

We are hoping that hopefully within the next one month we can finally move into the house,so let us see how thing will go.

After the Re-Works Started

A lot has been happening, which I will try to go day by day as I have visited the site.

 

25-07-2008

Lot of plasters around the house came off and there are a lot of notes on the walls from Henley's Inspectors:

04-08-2008

The sliding on the back door was replaced, and a new front door was delivered to replace the old one that we were not happy about.

Also the ducting for the heating system was installed and the vents were also installed, I am guessing the actual heating unit is also installed, but since it is on top floor, I could not check it yet.

Additionally the Frames have been replaced/grinded and straightened in a a lot points.

 

05-08-2008

The Plaster guys were back and installed the removed plasters again.

08-08-2008

This is a day, I had an appointment with our construction manager, there was a fixing carpenter on site and started doing his part of the work and getting things ready for the painters.

 

From the initial 6-7 weeks of verbal guess of the timeline from our construction manager that was giving to us, already 3 weeks passed, but I still do not have an exact timeline of hand over.

What we have is that the plasterers are back on Monday to apply the compound and on Tuesday back to sand it off, during that week the painters are back do their part and the tiles are getting delivered on Monday and the tillers will start their work so the shower screens can be measured and ordered according to the size.

The missing cabinet doors that were stolen has been delivered.

There are still lot of walls and points that I am not happy with, but got a promise that they will be fixed.

Painters should take about 1.5 weeks and after that the final fit off will start.

The seal on the garage should be looked into yet and the floors will be once more filled with the self levelling compound once all the work from different trades are finished.

Trying to stay positive and hoping everything will be handed over on a reasonable timeline.

Today's Important meeting

I thought I update you all,

had the meeting, the summary that within the next approx. 6-7 weeks I will get the house and when I bring my inspector, there will not be any defect.

There has been some more grinding and filling, which I have informed H3nley I will not sign the hand over paper until I will get an engineering report that the slab is still structurally sounds OK.

Also I did propose that they come up with solution and suggestion, when there are further cracks on the walls how H3nley is going to fix it, so I am waiting for their reply.

In General I think the meeting was positive, but I can only confirm it in the next week or two when I see actions and fixing happening in a right way.

Off course there were few other discussions and points which i rather not put it to the public (Sorry all, I hope you will get my points, why I can not)

Could this be the reason for the Cracks???

I was just talking to my brother, and I think he could have taken my wondering mind "why the cornices cracked" to a right direction!!!

The picture I have taken before the plaster goes up and I think this is the reason why things starts falling apart. This kind of things were all over the house, this is only one point.

In my idea, picture explains it the best, when you have a roof over this sections (there are a lot of points like this), what is going to happen with the weight? it is going to push down the frame on an uneven slab and as a result, we get a crack cornice or un-level walls.

This is my best shot for explaining the situation, if anyone else has any idea, please feel free to let me know.

Sliding Door Measurement

Here is a picture and measurement references I have taken from each four corner of the big sliding door to the back yard.

As you can see the edge of the Brick from the door frame is as follows:

Top left 68 mm

Bottom left 90 mm

Top right 93 mm

Bottom right 77mm.

Some more update of no more work for now

I got an email that we have a new site supervisor, I don't know to be happy about this or not anymore since this is the third site supervisor.

He is going to visit the site and after that going to inform us of the progress, now how long again I need to wait to see this will happen is still again unknown.

What is most frustrating to see is, now every morning due to the project I have and the way I get to work, I have to drive by the house, and seeing that there is so much work left and contract is due and no one is around to do anything,gets me pissed off!!!!!

Will keep you all up to date with the next update as soon as it comes through.

More Frustrating update

Have any constructive things happening.............No. and the explanation, we need to wait until the slab is fixed, OK, BUT I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THE LAST 5 MONTH.

As mentioned on the last update, Henley is waiting for the concrete guys to come back and fix up the issues, finally they came on Thursday and did their work for a day, which from what it looks like is more grinding and filling.

Today, went by the house and noticed that the back window was left open, so went in with the camera and got a lot of pictures and discover a lot of more issues, which will be reported to Henley by end of the weekend.

First a lot of more walls that are not straight::

This is the side wall of the study.

Side wall of the Laundry door has been completely opened up, the reason behind it, I do not know, but same as the rest of the walls I suspect.

The last bedrooms room is not on a right angle and also the quality finish is not acceptable at all:

Noticed a very interesting thing, at least on half a dozen point around the house the cornices are cracked:

looking at Ensuit door frame from inside, noticed that the frame is not right, you will see the right hand side frame is higher than the left hand side.

Furthermore, the wall to the bedrooms hall is not right again:

Now to the main issue: Yes, you guessed it right the concrete slab:
Here are some of the pictures from the floor after being grinded and filled:

What I am interested to find out, is the slab not right yet or most of the skirting are all faulty, I think the picture will explain it better, have a look at the gaps between the skirting and slab and see in some areas there is a big difference:

Now outside of the house is the down pipes, I don't know what is wrong with people, can't they get the things right in the first place?

Not happy with how things are left by their own, this is top of the big sliding door to the back yard:

Also noticed that the either the sliding door is not right or the wall as the distance from the top to the lower section is different:

Well these issues + all the outstanding work, are left considering that the contact timing will be finish by 18th of July and we are talking about 13 days.

I will be taking further action with the authority when thing do not get moving very fast and in a right way as I had enough of these.

Late finish date.....

Fist good news:

Got an email that the concrete has been finalised according to Henley, which is defiantly a positive point.
Noticed that the painters back and some work.
The front of the house that was texture finish is now changed to render and the quality and the looks has improved by a lot, much happier now with this.

By the way you will notice that the picture qualities will increase since I have a new DSLR camera now.

Now the bad news:

It is now known that we will go over our contract time and we will not have the house on time, now by how long we will go over the time, is unknown and no one can give an answer.

Still there is still no news on when the walls are going to fixed and a proper program on the rest of the job.

The things I can not call bad or good:

The rock removal variation came back, there has been some charges which I have asked for the invoice for this, but during the sales process I was told and also given a paper from Henley that if there was any rock I will be the first one to be noticed to take care of it, but off course I was not informed about it.

Our site supervisor is apparently finishing this week and there will be a new person in charge now, who? I do not know it too!!!

I have further requested to have a meeting with our construction manager and building manager so they can inform me the situation and let us see how quick we can get this appointment.

SLOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

OK, the more it is passing by, the more frustrating it is getting.

Floor grinding has been kind of finish in some areas of the house, in some areas has not even being close. When I say Finished, I should correct myself, from what we are seeing and still will be checked to see if this time it is according to the Australian standard and if not?????

Further more the Rock removal cost has not been finalised, even thou I was promised that it had to be finished and finalised long time ago, I want my 5 digit number be returned when there was no Rock what so ever on site, lucky I have videos and pictures as well as some internal Memo of Henley on how it should have been done.

The walls on the angle has not been fixed! about 4 of them what I could see with my eye I guess there will be extra walls coming after the visit of the inspector, this time I will take two if them....

The worse of all, it has been 1.5 weeks that there has been no contact and no update from them, considering there is only about a month left of the contract final date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think someone should start thinking about their actions.

I started thinking did I make a mistake and changing my contract from PD to Henley!!!!!

The next couple of weeks will be very interesting to see, but I can not explain my anger at the moment.................................................

Finally Fixing the floor Started

After a few month of chasing up and delays, the floor grinding started, it seems to be hard and noisy job.

It looked like the Garage's big lump was grinded, and at least this group looked professional with their equipment and laser level, and hopefully they will do the final job properly.

After Walking out of Garage noticed that when they installed the Garage Door Broke one of the Bricks, which will be reported to Henley.

You can see the reason on the picture below:

Here is the picture of the Vanity on the main bathroom:

Noticed that they have recently water sealed the showers as well:

Some pictures of the Kitchen with ceasor stone bench top:

The laundry Cabinet has also been installed:

The front door has been stained but I do not like some of the finish on the door:

While ago I found out the laundry door was stolen and now the replacement has arrived:

Also last week when I drove by the house saw the door is completely open, so I went in and there was no one inside, so I called our CSR and apparently the front door frame was broken, and now it seems they have temporary fixed it:

Here is also all the doors pained and stored in the walk in robe:

There is also one more problem, and that is on the down pipe, I think the picture explains it the best:

Now according to the report from Henley, Monday the 2nd of June the painters are booked to finalise their job.

The rock removal cost and credit back was going to be presented to me this week, which was not finalised, lets see what we will see next week.

The final date is coming very close and lets wait and see what will happen.

list of the current issues

After the meeting with our SS "N" there was a list of issues that was raised, which I am listing them below, an email was send to our lovely CSR and still waiting for an answer from our building:

Floor Leveling:

1. Only two rooms has been so far grinded and the rest needs to be still processed, when it happens there is no update and I am also waiting to see when there is a response on that.
2. Due to this reason there has been only one coat of paint on the house and the rest has been stopped until the messy process of grinding finalised.

Around two wall of the Garage, Concrete slab is sticking out (further than the Plaster) so this needs to be cut and it will be covered by a skirting board. DATE UNKNOWN.

Apparently our Laundry door has been stolen, and there is no sign of it. so this needs to be supplied. DATE UNKNOWN.

The front door after being stained has a section on the bottom right corner which the painters can not get it into a proper color, and also there is a stripe 1/3 up the door, which runs cross the door. ACTION UNKNOWN.

There are about 4 wall that I have only picked up with eyes (Without proper tools) and our SS also confirmed needs to be fixed and straighten. DATE UNKNOWN.

There are a lot of points on the cornices that needs to be fixed, this is almost on all the rooms. DATE UNKNOWN.

The First raw of the Roof tiles in front of the house looks like it is on too much of an angle and needs to be fixed. (I personally belive it is all around the house) DATE UNKNOWN.

Due to all the Grinding of the Slab, I have requested our builder to provide me with an official Engineering report which states that this still falls under Australian Standard. DATE UNKNOWN.

OH, by the way the last rooms Ceiling height is 5 mm below the standard, so we Will need to wait and see what happens. DATE UNKNOWN.

The Storm water drainage has been completed, so I am waiting for my 5 Figure credit to be sent back to me as there was again no rock on this stage. DATE UNKNOWN.

The thing that has happen recently is that the Garage door has been delivered and installed. FINISHED

Still no pictures as on the visit day, my Digital Camera was faulty and after that the doors are locked and I can not take any pictures.

Will update as soon as I have some official response back from Henley.

Finally an update

I think I have been lazy again with updating the blog, so I will update it and will post the photos on the next update.

The progress on the house:

1. The main point is still the concrete slab, from the last update, two rooms has been grinded and the rest is remaining, waiting to see when that is going to be finalised.
2. The plaster has been finalised, there are some points that needs to be fixed, which I am going to see our Site Supervisor tomorrow and see when that is scheduled.
3. The front door has been delivered and getting painted.
4. The fixing carpenter was on site and installed the entire door frame and the doors.
5. Kitchen, bathrooms and the laundry cabinets has been delivered and installed.
6. The down pipes have been installed.
7. The storm water connection has been done.
8. First coat of paint has been applied.

Where we are at the moment?

Well I am going to find that one out tomorrow as well.
But as far as I understand, the painters have been stopped, until the grinding of the high points on the concrete to be finalised and then they will continue (according to our CSR).

Things we have done ourselves:

1. The Bedroom suite has been ordered
2. 1 set of lounges has been ordered.
3. The floor covering has been ordered, we went with Harvey Norman, for few reasons.

• They had a 45 month interest free
• With all the long warranties on these things, I can be surer if something down the road happens to the carpets or flooring they would still exist compare to the rest of the smaller companies.
• The price I negotiated was not bad at all.

For the flooring we ended up ordering Mocha colour carpets for the bedrooms, which Harvey Norman will install. And for the Study, Dining, entry, Theatre, and the lounge we will be going with the Floating floor, for three reasons:

1. They are cheaper than hard wood or carpet or tile.
2. I can install it myself (even thou I have never done it) so we can save $15-20/sq m for the installation.
3. They are more wear resistance compare to the hard wood.

This is for today’s update, but I think I will have some more update coming soon after the site visit.

AMAZING PERFORMANCE

Here is the best performance I have seen so far.

Today, just noticed that a lot of the plasters has been already been installed, well all the ceilings, and most of the walls, off course the rest of the work is going to take long, but so far so good.

Finally an update :-)

Some good news and some not so bad news:

As I think everyone who follows knows that we had some problem with the process so far.

Well I guess now I can mention the issues since they are getting solved one by one nicely.

The first one and the major one was the concrete, after the Inspection by Kevin we found out that it was not level according to Australian standard, and in some places was out by far, so after few frustrating days finally noticed that the grinding the high spots started on site.

Last week on Friday got a call from our CSR, that this Monday the Insulation will be installed, and if we want to inspect the site again, we better do it afterwards.

So quickly called Kevin, and he happily accepted to come around on Monday lunch time, after he set up his laser level and put his futuristic red glasses on he started to point out the points that are still out of level. And our Site Supervisor started Marking these areas with pink paint.

While we were there, the arrangement with the concrete guys was made to bring the big gun concrete cutters and start grinding the high spots, and after that filling the low spots with a self leveling.
Due to these modification Henley is going to happy provide us with the Non-slip epoxy paint on the garage, Thank you so our garage will also hopefully look just as good as the rest.

Also while we were there, asked our Supervisor what was the chances of getting couple of extra power point in the garage and couple of GPO's around the outside, and he did the arrangement straight away and the boys were there even before we left, so while they did the job, I decided to have couple of future light in front of the main bedroom.

Ohhh, yes, we had the (I think) the cement sheets installed and all the Eves were installed end of last week.

The next thing was as we arrived on Monday for the Inspection noticed the guys for sealing the Brick came and they did their work too.

Further more,sine yesterday we have the insulation installed all around the house:

The last here is the picture for few of the friends that were checking the colors of the bricks:

OK what is next...Plaster, they were delivered today and waiting for the action.

Just to update my mood, I am again happy and I think Henley picked up from the right time and i hope it will continue like this...

Any Action By End of Today??????????

Well so far the same, No answer and no Action, let's see how things will go tomorrow and if something will happen, I will look forward to see all the issues will be addressed by end of the week...
More Updates to follow, as hopefully tomorrow I will get some update.

Response to the Report

Yesterday, I got the mail that our construction manager wrote last Friday.

The issues according to the response are going to be fixed by end of this week, but today is Tuesday and I have not seen any action as yet, I guess rest of the week is going to be very busy to keep up the timeline.

The issues with the slab are going to be fixed by grinding the high spots and filling back the low spots. The garage is going to be covered after that with a special covering, I am guessing epoxy floor.

And also today I have requested our CSR to fix an appointment for the following week for another inspection.

Progress Report

OK, After some dramas from last week, which I am waiting for a response from Henley, now is time to say few good things that is happening around:

First and the most important is the brick, after Kevin also inspect it, he was happy with everything and he also did confirm what I thought as well, that the Brick layers did a fantastic job, end of last week, also they were cleaned and they ended up looking even better than before. Unfortunately I just noticed that I did not any pictures, so in the next post.

The plumbing rough in was done and the hot water solar panel was installed.

After that, all the electrical wiring was carried out on the 12-02.

Further progress that has been confirmed verbally by our CSR, is:
The lock up should be finalised soon, and by end of the week the issues after the visit will be fixed by end of this coming week.
The insulation and the plaster should start by end of the week.
I hope these dead lines will be kept.