Saturday, May 28, 2011

Mud, glorious mud!

Well, well, well! That's exactly what the block looked like last night :) every hole dug by the crew who are preparing for the slab was full of water. Still, it was very reassuring to see that, despite the unfortunate weather, work is underway.

And today, the plumbers were on site, digging the trenches and installing the PVC drain and waste pipes. The block was a big pile of sludge but credit due to the guys for pushing on!

To top it all, I got to meet Wayne, our Site Supervisor. He comes across as a straight and honest guy an it was really useful to hear him share some of his insights about building on The Range. It was impressive and reassuring to see him giving up his Saturday morning and dropping in to see that work was under way on all Big M houses with subcontractors working over the weekend.

Fingers crossed for dry weather next week.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Good News Week

It appears that the Site Start Date which I was given over the phone from our CSC was not the right one. Instead, Big M had us down for May 19th.
On the day, major activity was taking place on our block. Water taps were already there (both normal and recycled supplies) and so was the excavator! After 2 days' work, we have a level (cut and filled) block of land, as per picture attached.
All we need now is three or four weeks of very little or no rain.



Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Stalled

If only it was as easy to guess lottery numbers as it was to guess that it wouldn't happen on the day (or the next day for that matter).

Biggest hold-up: our lender, Homeside. Two days before D-Day they turn around and tell us that the builder's (Metricon) contract (standard and HIA-approved) does not meet industry standards when it comes to maximum number of construction days. Metricon state 'up to 411 days' and all their customers sign to that and, arguably, finish well within that timeframe. But Homeside think otherwise and we are to-ing and fro-ing.

What makes no sense whatsoever is:
- Hasn't Homeside dealt with Metricon before? One would like to think 'yes'.
- Homeside had already approved an initial amount; we had to reapply for an extra $20K (yes, 20 - Not 200) to cover our cooling extra.

The next 24 hours will determine whether we will be taking our business elsewhere.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Maybe tomorrow ?...

Well it's been a long time since the last post. The reason? No activity whatsoever till late January 2011 when our land settled. Then, a slow process to finalise some necessary extras (cooling) and the overall house plans. All done now so... word from Big M is that tomorrow
Tuesday May 10th 2011
is our site start date. We are quietly ecstatic because we have been waiting for months now.

Of course, Sod's law says that tomorrow rain is expected, with more rain on Wednesday and Thursday.

Anyhow... hopefully this is the last time our block looks like this (picture below), used as a dumping ground for the neighbouring houses under construction :)