Thursday 31 January 2013

I just want a start date

Unfortunately this stupid retaining wall is still a thorn in our side. It is ridiculous that the hardest part of the build so far is in reagrds to something that is going to be the easiest to actually build. Council have let us know that they can't do a construction certificate as part of a complying development application because it isn't a complying development. The only way they can do a construction certificate is to lodge a DA for the retaining wall. However, in a rather long letter I received from council they have stated the DA for the building that has already been submitted also includes the retaining wall which makes it absolutely pointless to submit a DA for the retaining wall. Especially as council do not require it and have no interest in this stupid wall anyway. So now we are back talking to Coral to try and find out what exactly they require and why. We have all but given up talking to head office. The lady changes her storey every time and really seems like she has no idea what she is talking about. We now have council calling her directly today to try and sort this out. Me and hubby are 100% fed up. We just really want to be at the point where we can speak to a site supervisor and tradies who actually know what they are talking about. Literally this wall at its highest is not even at my waist height and I'm a shorty. If it fell it wouldn't even brush the house.

We had our final finishings appointment 2 weeks ago and are still waiting for Coral to get back to us with a price. The tilers and electrical people had a price for us the day we had the appointment. Coral apparently takes over 2 weeks to find prices on very minor changes. All of which were given to us as options at the finishings appointment. The only changes we have made are:
1. Change the mortar colour to off white instead of grey
2. Upgarde to gold class carpet
3. Upgrade to the kitchen and vanity cupboards that feel like real wood
4. Mirrored cupboard doors in the bedrooms
5. Upgrade to better colour for outdoor cupboards

So the list isn't very extensive. And really nothing that should take more than 30 minutes to price up and write up. I would hate to see how long it takes for a long list.

As I'm sure you can see I am getting rather frustrated with the time required by head office to get things done. I just want to get to building where we have people we can talk to face to face and actually get stuff done. Ahhh the joys of building.

Thursday 17 January 2013

And so the fun begins...

I knew things were going way to smoothly and it couldn't last forever. At the beginning of the week we were told that we needed a construction certificate for our retaining wall. Council has advised us that they don't require it because of how small the wall is however Coral have said they won't build without it. They gave us the contact details of the private certifier they are using for the house so we could get it all done at the same place. The certifier quoted us $610 for the construction certificate. Needless to say I wasn't very happy that I was being asked to pay that much for a piece of paper council aren't even interested in. Oh and the 610 didn't include having the drawings drawn up. Thankfully dad is a draftsman so he can do the drawings for us. He also knows a few helpful people who are private certifiers. They have quoted us $345. That sounds a lot better to us. We then let the first company know that based on the quote we had received from them we were choosing to go elsewhere. Well they weren't happy. They told us that Coral don't like you using a different company and that we were obviously being conned by someone who isn't qualified to do the work. Funny thing is the person who is doing it used to work for them. We then called Coral to let them know we were going elsewhere and would send them the certification directly. Again we were told we should be using the same company and that council probably wouldn't accept it. We then mentioned that fact that the people we are actually using council certifiers and that stopped them in their tracks. One of those moments I am very glad we knew the right people. I wasn't impressed that we were only told we needed this certificate at the last minute which meant if we didn't know the right people we wouldn't have had time to look elsewhere for a quote and would have been forced to use their certifiers or hold up the build.

On the positive side we had final tile selection yesterday and are very happy with our choices. It ended up costing us $280 but that doesn't sound so bad compared to others we have heard. The extra charges were for feature tiles in the bathroom and ensuite and because Coral look like they give a standard allowance for tiles and if your area is greater than their allowance you pay the difference. Please note if anyone is trying to figure out extra costs our build is off the plan so expect to pay a little extra even if you don't change your plan. That being said I think the extra cost for that part was about $100. So not too bad. Probably just the difference between their estimate and what comes in the box.

We have final finishings appointment this afternoon. Very excited, very nervous. I was 100% sure of our tile selections not so sure on everything else. I'm sure I will be happy once we finish this afternoon and can have a relaxing weekend knowing me and Jas have made it through finishings without killing eachother.