Houston we have a problem! Another issue.....

We went over to the house today to give our neighbour his money for our portion of the backfence and we thought we'd have a look around, all the doors were locked (which is good I suppose) but from the windows looking in we noticed that all of the skirting and architraves are wrong.

My brain then went into panic mode, had the colour consultant written the wrong code, had we missed this on our colour selection documents? I couldn't wait to get home and check and thankfully it says 67mm half splay skirting and architraves.

So now the problem will be another delay to the work and my concern is will they damage the walls trying to remove the ones they have installed?

There will be a call and email to our SS on Monday morning, I'll update the blog once a response is received.

Here is an updated photo of the front of the house, bricks cleaned but the site is still pretty messy.

Painting has commenced, bricks (finally) cleaned but what about those eaves????

This week didn't start out very positive with the news that we would not be in the house by Christmas or even anytime in January (due to the Christmas industry shutdown) and that we had no chance of moving the air conditioner motor from the back of the house to the side (without paying another $2K and delaying the build by another 3 weeks!). So we are really over the build this week!

I decided to take a drive past on Thursday after my daughters first School orientation (which went really well) to see what I could see and painting has most definately started, some empty boxes at the front indicated the toilets had also been installed and the bricks had only just been cleaned in the morning by the looks of things (very muddy on site).

It was starting to rain when I arrived and I noticed how wet the eaves under the garage roofing looked, see the following photo:

We have had some missing roof tiles from the lower level roofing for about a month now, our SS assures us that it's only over the eaves and will not cause any damage, but surely the eaves having the water damage you can see in this photo wouldn't be good for them!

It's fair to say that our building experience has not been the best and we may not do it again just based on this experience, but in the end our decision to build with Eden Brae Homes was done because we had seen some of the homes they had built (that were for sale) and decided the quality of their build was the best.

Now that we are nearing the final few months of the build and the outside of the house has many incomplete jobs we are beginning to wonder where the quality has gone on our build.

Absolutely shattered Eden Brae Homes......

Well what a difference a week can make, this time last week I was so happy our stairs had been installed and when I had driven by that evening I could see them in all their glory. Today I have been so down about the house, I am ready to walk away from it so it's pretty sad to be that frustrated with the whole process that you are willing to walk away from your dreams!

You are probably wondering what's got me down right?, after reading over our contract over the weekend, I emailed our CSO today to find out about the "industry" shutdown over Christmas. I wasn't sure how this would affect the build and given that we are getting quite close to completion I thought I would ask. So Eden Brae Homes will be shut down for 5 weeks from around 22 December 2011 and ofcourse this is covered under one of the many clauses you are supposed to read in your contract document.

Given that I work for an educational institution, I also need to submit my leave plans for December and January (as lots of staff take leave over this period) and figured if EBH can give me an approximate date of completion it would give me atleast something to advise my boss.

Our SS has been telling us, we are ahead of schedule, we are ahead of schedule, yet today when we question a possible finish before Christmas, Eden Brae pull out the old contract clause and then advise us that we have 18 delay days in our contract. So on one hand they are telling us they are ahead of schedule and on the other they are telling us we've had 18 days worth of rain delays! Go figure!

What makes me so angry is that other builders appear to be bending over backwards to push jobs through before Christmas and trying to get people into their new homes. Apparently Eden Brae Homes just see us as another $$ sign or just another job number on their books. Where is the personal service Eden Brae? Our near complete home will stand empty for 5 weeks over the Christmas period, I am disgusted that they would not try harder to finish the house rather than allowing it to sit there over Christmas. This delay wil also increase the already mounting financial pressures on us (sorry kids we can't afford Christmas) and will also cost us another $3K in rent "dead" money but most importantly, we won't be moved in and settled before our daughter starts Kindergarten in 2012.  Thanks for nothing Eden Brae!

Our back colorbond fence was installed last week, here's how that turned out:

Retaining wall, staircase and doors.....

Well we've started this week out really well, on Monday 17 October the staircase was installed and our SS has advised the internal doors and skirting is also scheduled for this week.

The waterproofing, kitchen and bathroom vanities are also booked in, my hubby also said the front doors were on today (Tuesday) when he drove past. So things are moving along nicely, thanks to our great SS!!

Our back retaining wall was completed last week, here are some photos:

Apparently our neighbour had the fencing started today, so very eager to see how that looks tomorrow!

Update time....

Things have been moving along nicely in the last few weeks, so here's an update on what's been happening:

28th September 2011 - electricals checked by hubby and SS

29th September 2011 - Tyrell's and Council inspections

4th October - downstairs eaves painted

5th October - backyard excavation done (and four truckloads of dirt removed!)

Unfortunately we don't have much backyard (as you can see!) but we've had the pressure put on us by our back neighbours who have now moved into their home and want fences done now, not the way we had planned to do things, but atleast EBH allowed us to have the excavation done in preparation for our retaining wall!

6 October 2011 - insulaton done

7 October 2011 - gyprocking commenced

8 October 2011 - gyprocking finished (at 7pm on a Saturday night, thank you to the very hard working tradies!)

12 October 2011 - back retaining wall commences

Upstairs cladding was also completed before the long weekend, it still needs to be painted (dark brown) but you get the idea.

Not sure about this loose roof tile, still a few loose and missing tiles around the downstairs level roofing!