The PES of house building

Well it would seem that we are in the PES (Perpetual End Stage) of house building....

Definition:
PES - The state a house ends up in when the end of the construction is in sight, but the date supplied to the house owner by the builder is forever moving just out of reach, this situation is also known as "The End of The Raindow" Stage - you can see it, but you never get any closer to it!

For the last few weeks I have politely asked when the house would be finished since I have a Tiler, a Painter, a Carpet Layer and a Candlestick Maker to book (ok, maybe not the last one), I have a rent agreement in my current residence to get out of, I need to book some time off work to move houses etc etc. The first time I asked 4 weeks ago I was told "6-8 weeks" which was excellent. The next time I asked (2 weeks ago) I was told "6-8 weeks", hmmm, and this morning when I asked I was told "6-8 weeks". I'm starting to see a pattern here..... If next week I get the same answer I'm going to get somewhat grumpy. I get to such a point at times that I seriously think about using the same tactic when the final bill comes for the house completion:

Ventura: "Dear householder, we see that your final account is due, could you pay it please"
Me: "Certainly, I'll pay it within 8-10 days."
Ventura: "Dear householder, your account is now 10 days overdue, could you pay it please"
Me: "Certainly, I'll pay it within 8-10 days."
repeat....

I'm sure they would see the funny side of it and we would all end up around a coffee table having a good old laugh about it... seriously...

And even after all we have been through (not exactly a Himalayan Expedition or anything, but bad enough) some things still amaze me. What we are waiting on at the moment is the Ventura Tiler to tile the bathrooms, but apparently NOTHING else can get done and everything has to halt now until the tiler has finished. When I asked as to why the kitchen cupboards could not be finished, or why the insulation cannot get installed, or why the electrical work could not be completed, or why the external earthworks and paving could no be started I was told that "The tiler is the next trade booked in to do work and he has be delayed"... so?! The above things I have listed don't effect the tiler at all, but apparently because the tiler is the next trade to go into the house everyone else must wait. Just Amazing.

The other beef I have at the moment aside from the builder's inability to plan tasks in parallel, is the builders insistence that the house must be built "to plan", i.e. absolutely no undocumented changes. Actually I totally agree with this, if home owners changed house plans on a whim then chaos would result (more chaos then is currently apparent in the building industry I mean). The problem is that when the builder says that the house must be built "to plan", what they appear to mean is that the house must be built to plan only if it is convenient to them but if its easier for them to change something then to build it according to plan then they will, on a whim.

This whole issue came about like this:
1) When the house was being drafted I asked for the phone point to be moved from the kitchen to a point in the roof above the garage (in anticipation of the smart wiring we were installing).
2) The drafter didn't get this amendment and stupidly I didn't pick it up on the plans and so the phone point wasn't moved and it ended up being installed in the kitchen.
3) I don't really care as it can be moved easily enough afterwards, but I did point out that I had communicated with the builder that the phone point should have been put somewhere else (I even provided a copy of the email within which I requested the phone point be moved).
4) The builder replied saying that the phone point is shown on the plan as being in the kitchen and so that is were it must be installed, it can't be changed as things must be built according to the plans.
5) That got me thinking and I have now insisted on several minor things to be fixed that are not according to the plans. They are in the whole minor things that I was going to let slide, but if the builder is going to use the "must be built to plan" card then they must back it up.

There are 3 issues I know of that are not correct according to the signed drawings, two of them are minor and one if fairly major and if the builder is reasonable I am willing to let the two minor ones slide so I get the major one fixed.

The 3 issues are:
1) The Lounge room wall vent, for those of you that have been with me since the start of this blog you will know that the wall vent in the lounge room was never installed while the bricks were being laid, even though the one in the family room WAS installed. Well finally they have come and cut out a hole in the wall to install the vent in the lounge room, however it would appear they have chosen the most convenient wall (for them) to install the vent in, and they have not installed it where it is shown on the SIGNED architectural drawings.
2) The Kitchen benchtop is shown on all of the SIGNED plans as having a straight edge to it where it ends, the one that has been installed has a gently curve to it.
3) The retaining wall is shown on the SIGNED plans as being on the boundary, it was installed about 500mm inside the boundary

As you can see 1) and 2) are fairly minor and I don't mind if they stay the way they are, but with the retaining wall being so far inside the boundary 3) is a fairly big issue, the block is damn narrow to being with and every centimetre counts in the width.

What has happened with the wall (the reason it is inside the boundary so far) is that there is already an old asbestos fence on that boundary and it was incorrectly laid about 300mm inside the actual boundary many many years ago, so when the tradesmen came along to install the wall instead of thinking "Hmmm we cant install the retaining wall according to the plans, lets talk to the home owner and see what we can arrange" they just went and installed it inside the old asbestos fence, making it about 500mm inside the boundary.

Essential Ventura (the builder) has broken the contract that we both signed. Since we have signed hardcopy plans, it is reasonable to expect that those plans be followed, or if for some reason that is not possible then both parties should sign a memorandum to that effect and sign an appended copy of the plans, its not up the the builder to do as they wish. At least that is my position on this. If they are going to be stubborn then I will insist on 1) 2) and 3) be reverted back to plan, if they are reasonable and are prepared to discuss things then I am happy with just the retaining wall being fixed.

So here we go again...


This Just In
My new supervisor called about 10 minutes ago saying that the Tiler will be on site and starting work from about 7:30 onwards as of this Thursday (the 7th of September). So maybe, just maybe the next time frame I get for house completion will be the correct one... maybe..