Day 129 Progress

1. Progress to date

We've been a bit slack with updating this blog. Here is the progress to date:

• Bricking of the ground and first floor with the garage nearly finished
• Insulation almost done
• Plaster has arrived
• Eave sheets being installed
• Garage roof trusses arrived 2 days ago

And basically that's it! Things have been moving very slowly. Roof tiles above the dining and outdoor area yet to be done (and cannot be done until the scaffolding comes down). See attached photos for progression of build.

We found out 4 days ago that there was a change in Site Supervisor and Customer Support Co-ordinator. We found out about the SS change when we were chasing him for our independent building inspector - who had tried calling the SS a number of times without a response. This change in SS may explain the slow progress.

Day 96 - Bricking

Day 103 Scaffolding delivered to site

Day 105 Scaffolding erected

Outdoor Area

Day 105 Garage wall

Day 107 First Floor Bricking

Day 121 Eaves installed

Day 121Garage T Bar and Eaves installed

2. Storm Water Drain update

A meeting was held on 20th March with the council inspector, base stage supervisor and plumber on site to discuss the relocation of the storm water legal point of discharge. It was decided to relocate the LPOD further to the right hand side of the property and closer to the existing driveway. We were informed by Building Support Co-ordinator on the 27th of March that the works would be completed ASAP. From what we can see it has not been done yet.

3. Outdoor Brick Pillar

When the pillars for the outdoor room were being bricked we noticed that the middle pillar (due to its depth of 710mm) :

• Took up a lot of space in the outdoor room and therefore reduced the useable space
• Looks intrusive and makes the outdoor area narrow. It looks out of proportion relative to the outdoor area
• Potentially will further obscure the view of the garden from the family room

Yes, the dimensions of the pillars are on the plans that we signed. However, being completely naive to the building process we were unable to visualise and put the scale of the plans into perspective. Furthermore, while we requested for the outdoor room extension we did not determine the pillar size and position and deferred to the expertise of Metricon's designers. We wonder whether this was an oversight because the middle pillar at the front of the house (portico area) is not as deep (470mm) as the other front pillars which are of the same dimensions as the outdoor area pillars. Even our independent building inspector agrees that the middle outdoor pillar could be less deep.

We contacted the SS and Building Support Co-ordinator but were told nothing can be done. We were surprised and disappointed that there was seemingly no attempt to help us rectify this problem. (The pillars were only half bricked when we contacted them about it.) We were assured earlier on in the process by the sales people that Metricon takes great pride in their final product as it is an advertisement of their work. In our opinion, this pillar is an eyesore! And to boot, every time we have friends and family over, it'll be one of the first things they will notice about the outdoor area.