I hate this building process. There, I've said it.
I don't hate that we're getting to build - that part I am thankful for, every single day. The home we're {eventually} going to have at the end of it all, is going to be amazing.
Here's what I'm hating right now:
- The people we are dealing with at our chosen building company are utterly useless. We have this one 'consultant' who is our go-to person, who basically acts as a shuttle between us and between our site supervisor. We don't want to talk to an office lackey; we want to talk to our BUILDER.
- Speaking of which, the site supervisor is rubbish. He doesn't return phone calls. He has never once given us an update on our build. He isn't visiting our block enough - which we have PROOF of, when we discovered a structural flaw in one of the walls ourselves and had to call him up on. What the heck is he doing?
- Lying tradesman are assholes. You put your electrical holes in without drills, we've seen them, we've worked with what you did. And now, after it's all said and done, you're going to lie and say you DID use drills, and WE used hammers? I call bullshit.
- I hate delays. I hate waiting around on perfectly good building days with beautiful weather - and I hate that they use the occasional rainy day as an excuse to be slow.
- I hate our future neighbours on one side, who are constantly causing problems.
/end rant.
Have you ever built or renovated before? Have you got any tips/distractions for me?
Sounds incredibly frustrating. Hope it all works out..and quickly!!
ReplyDeleteI've built and renovated (at the same time no less!, yes we were insane), and the best advice I can give you 6+ years later is to take as many pictures of the house under construction as you can. We've had some things we've needed to know about the construction and without the pictures, it would have been much harder to resolve.
ReplyDeleteAs for getting through it? I did a lot of decorating planning; this is the wall color, this is where the furniture will go, no wait, let me try it this way, so that once the house was finished and we were moving stuff in all the big stuff was already placed so I didn't have to worry about it, much.
Good luck!
we built 5.5 years ago, just a small 3 x 1 BUT we built at the height of the building boom in Perth and our small lil house tool a long 18 months to complete, we thought we'd only be renting for 12 months at the most!
ReplyDeletemy only advice would be to ride their coat tails. we caught our liaison at the building company LYING to us on more than one occasion, each time we caught her out, we told her we'd caught her out and the result was she jumped to action quick smart. by the end of the building process, we'd simply had enough of her and i think she knew we wouldn't be overly friendly with her at key handover because HER supervisor actually did Key handover with me, not her.
follow up on EVERYTHING, yes it can be a pain in the arse and no you shouldn't have to do their job but it could pay off in the end and you could get in your house quicker by making sure all the t's are crossed and the i's dotted!
oh and yes, as Mrs Higrens said - take as many photo's as you can!
~x~
I feel for you! I'm sorry this process is riddled with so many problems and frustrations! I hope you don't feel discouraged--and know that one day soon, you'll be living in your gorgeous new home! And I hope by then your neighbors are nicer. :)
ReplyDeleteGawd you poor souls, it sounds so frustrating! Seems like giving birth to a child... a big, unwieldy, gruff, difficult child. O_o
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry it's been so frustrating! We had a house built, but they managed to keep it on schedule and there weren't any big hassles with it. Unfortunately, I know that's not usually how it goes :/ I hope things get better and move along!
ReplyDeleteSounds like quite the pain in the ass. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be. The good news is, eventually you'll have a beautiful home and all will be well.
ReplyDeleteUgh. I'm sorry it's not working out very well. As a card carrying member of the construction industry, I don't have much good to say about most residential volume builders. Which sucks, because people have to live somewhere, and don't people deserve competent tradespeople who deliver what they promise? But I digress..
ReplyDeleteI hope it gets better. If you're not getting anywhere with your builder and need a hand, let me know. Residential building contract law differs from state to state, but the underlying principles are the same.