Harrumph!

This morning I was feeling very frustrated. Most of the outstanding defects have not been rectified, and we'd had no response from Porter Davis since I emailed last Thursday to point out that numerous things still needed fixing.

Then the nice man from Bath Magic turned up as arranged at 8:30, to fix a small chip in our bathroom vanity - but he knew nothing about the stained pantry shelves which also required his attention. And without a work order, he couldn't do the job. *sigh*

On top of that, the bank is still stuffing us around, since they haven't fully funded our loan - there's a small balance to be credited to our account, thanks to a few post-contract variations. And apart from the fact that the extra bit of cash would be welcome right now, we stay on interest-only payments until the loan is fully drawn. We'd really like to be making fortnightly, rather than monthly payments, and paying a little off the principle, thanks very much.... I'm also peeved at them because they've put clearance days on the cheque we deposited the other day. I've NEVER had to wait clearance days! Tuh!

The fencing guy still hasn't finished the job. No panels, no posts at the back and the hole that's slightly on our side of the boundary hasn't been moved.

Then I headed off to a client appointment and got caught up in road works. By this point, bad words were spewing from my mouth like a Tourette's sufferer. I got to the gym and told my client I was in a Bad Mood, at which news she looked a little worried. ;o)

Anyway.... the site supervisor called me this afternoon and he intends to be at the house tomorrow to sort out most of the minor issues, as well as supervise the appliance fit-off and some electrical work that has to be done. He's also faxed a work order through for the pantry shelves and tells me that a couple of other things have been organised. Plus he was about to call the painter too. If it happens as planned, all well and good...

And I just rang and made a formal complaint to the bank. Let's see if that gets some action.

Hmm. I feel better now.

Feeling hopeful

This morning I've been at the house, had a quick chat to the site supervisor, and have actually seen some tradies working around the place. SS was also on the phone, organising lots of little details (like a replacement plug for one ensuite sink, since the original has gone missing).

On top of that, I've just had a call from the construction manager, who informs me that the brickie is working right now on patching up mortar and fixing a dodgy column in the garage, the plasterers are due shortly to fix a couple of things, and tomorrow the following are all organised:

- Roof service
- Painting
- Laminate cleaning/polishing
- Installation of some powder coated window infills that we weren't happy with

The fascia guys were there earlier too, but the material they had didn't match our colour, so they have to order new pieces and come back.

He's very confident that handover will go ahead on Friday. Me? I'm feeling quite a bit better.

Now I'm going to chase the admin girl re our Certificate of Occupancy, which I still haven't received.... and then I may have to do battle with the bank, who still have not replied to my fax from last Tuesday requesting that a bank cheque be available for us to collect on Friday morning. I've made one follow-up phone call, and will be really peeved if I have to ring again.

And let's hope my skills with the spray paint, plus the note/diagram I've taped to the rear door of the house, gets the message through the thick skulls of the fencing contractors....

Can anybody get ANYTHING right?

We arrived at our block a couple of weeks ago to find that the fencing contractors had marked the ground for post-holes. Way too close to the house on the side boundary. We discovered that they'd lined our side boundary up to the wrong rear peg, using one belonging to a neighbouring block, which was about 2.5m inside our property.

So I ring the contact at the developer's office, who provides me with a number for the fencing contractor. He promises to get his guys to check their measurements. Sure enough, a couple of days later, a nice tall stake, sprayed bright pink, appears next to the right corner peg.

Last night I noticed that the post holes had been dug. Great! Only.....hmm. The ones for the rear boundary seem a little too close to the house. We have a 2m easement along that boundary and only about 145mm clearance from the house to the easement at one corner, but still.... that doesn't look like 2m to me.

This morning I go back, armed with my trusty tape measure and the site plan. Sure enough, the post holes at one end, where the next door neighbour has an existing fence, are correct. But at the other end? Instead of a distance of 2145mm between the rear of the house and the proposed fence, we have only 1800. Looks like over 300mm has gone missing.

I rang the fencing guy again. He argued with me! I insisted. After all, I was standing right there, with my tape measure and the holes were clearly wrong. He sighed and said he'd get the guys to check it. Again.

After I hung up, I found the peg that marks the angle in the fence. It's some distance from where they put the hole. I'm going back in a tick, with a nice bright can of spray paint and a string line, to mark the correct spot.

No way is our rear neighbour getting a free gift of 300mm of our land!