More tiling

The tile layer completed tiling the bath in the main bathroom, the shower base in the ensuite and added two extra tiles to the kitchen today. He is unable to tile the remaining tiles to the kitchen wall until the top cupboards are replaced.
I also spoke to him today regarding the ensuite shower tile laying. On the tile plan we originally chose to have vertical brick bond tiling to the shower walls with the metalic rust 300x600 tiles. We are tiling the spa ourselves and there will only be one row of tiles on the face and one row for the splashback. I explained that I thought it would look crappy if we cut every second tile in half at the spa to get a brickbond effect and if we tiled the spa tiles straight the shower would not match, he totally agreed. I therefore requested for him to tile the shower vertical stacked but not brickbond.

I spoke to Man in charge while SS is in holidays to approve the changes and he said no probs. I copied the drawings wrote the changes on them and then delivered them to site. I wanted to avoid confusion and to back the tile layer up so that he does not get wrapped over the knuckles for making changes.

We have some catching up to do.

Hi everyone,

As it always seems to go with volume builders our construction ran off course. The last few weeks have been a bit of a nightmare and not what we expected from Porter Davis Homes. We are hoping that over the next few weeks things will get back on track and that by the time we get to handover that both our home and faith will be restored.

The last time I updated it was the 3/4 and even then I was behind on photos. I will try and get up to date with my notes today and get a start on the photos too. So stay tuned the updates are coming.

Tiler on site.

I met the tile layer on site today and explained that I want to continue tiling up to the ceiling behind the rangehood in the kitchen and that I also want the same tiles for the splashback in the main bathroom. I had discussed this with head honcho at the meeting on Friday and he said no problem meet tile layer on site and work it out with him.

The tiler was really helpful. He explained about the sharp edge we would get once the tiles were cut for the main bathroom splashback. He advised to lay only two rows up rather than three which would put the sharp edge of the tile on the to the vanity bench and where the mirror would meet. Once these edges get caulked it would no longer be a problem. I agreed and gave him the go ahead. I left him one of the extra boxes of tiles I had purchased.

The tiling completed today was the laundry splashback,shower walls and top area surrounding the bath in the main bathroom.............................................and the kitchen splashback.
The screeding was also completed to both shower bases.
The basins were also installed today.

Carpet change.

We found out on Friday that we are about 6 weeks away from completion which is way ahead of schedule. I rang the carpet place to see if they had ordered the carpet in and they said they need to come out and do a measure before to order the Navy Miracle twist in. They rang the manufacturer and found that it would take 8 weeks. Eeeeeeeeek They asked if I could come in because they had a fair amount of new stock and I might be able to switch to something in stock.

I dropped our boys off to my friend Janine's house and then went to the carpet place. It was so wonderful to go there on my own. I was able to take my time and decide what I wanted rather rush because one of my boys was causing a disaster. Janine if you read this you made my day, thank you!

I found a navy carpet that was far better quality, half the price of the original one I chose and in stock which took care of the boys rooms. We decided to change the carpet of the spare room to the same colour as the master bedroom being the fawn coloured "interior charm." We also changed our minds about having navy in the home theatre as it clashed with the colours in the kitchen. So I chose a donkey brown colour and liked it so much that I got an extra piece as a rug for the family room. In the end I saved $300 and also got two extra 2x2.5m rugs out of an off cut which we can use under our desks. The $300 we saved will pay for the over locking of the rugs.

We are really happy to not have to wait for our carpet, when you add up the savings and extra rugs we get on top, today was a really good day!

Meeting on site.

We met the construction "head honcho" and branch manger from PD Keilor Park out on site today to go through our independent inspectors report. We felt that we were listened too, that we got the chance to express why we lost trust in PD and felt the need to escalate to head office. We stated our disappointment in the quality of workmanship from some of the trades. We also explained our dissatisfaction of the way that our issues have been handled to date.

Once we started pointing out everything on the report as well as the other issues we had including the kitchen wall that is bowed and the flashing missing from the laundry door frame. They realised our complaints were legitimate and that we were not just going on about nothing.

They took down notes and said that they will fix everything on the report plus the other things that we were not happy with. Time will tell if they act on these things and restore our faith. In the meantime we will continue to hold payment to enforce that it does all happen.

Now for the kitchen bench saga.........we were mislead regarding the edge finish and the manufacturer does not provide a full rounded edge including the face to the stone bench. They showed us a booklet with the edge finishes they do provide and in the end we settled to keep the existing one. It's not what I wanted but in the end I can live with it and will have to get over it.

The bath waterproofing issue. The bath and shower areas had been waterproofed. we took photos to show Dad and explained to him what they had done, he believes it may do the job but urged us to keep an eye on it. In Dad's opinion this window should be raised and is poorly designed, I agree and think who ever designed this doesn't have kids!

Tile issue resolved.

I arrived on site today to meet with the Sales Rep from National Tiles and was bailed up by the painter saying I needed permission to be there. I growled back at him saying that I had spoken to Probie and wouldn't be there without asking permission, so he backed off.

The feature tiles delivered on site were incorrect. Four out of the six boxes were the correct tile, however two boxes as well as the one extra tile that was on top were the incorrect colour. The rep from National tiles removed the two incorrect boxes and extra tile, he noted the batch numbers of the correct tiles on site and will replace them with the same tiles from the same batch. I email Probie to let SS know so that he does not think tiles have been stolen from site.

I had a look around and noticed that the flashing is also missing on the back laundry door, they will have to take this frame out too. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

The painter was repainting the wall that was on the inspectors report so they must be starting to fix the substandard work.

Meeting postponed and yet another mistake on site.

I rang this morning to see if Construction head honcho coming on site he can not make it, we have rescheduled for Friday. There was no point in meeting the Keilor Park branch staff out on site as we did not feel they would address the issues adequately or take us seriously.

We went out again to check what is going on with the master window but nothing has happened. We have noticed a dent in the frame of the dining room window on the external wall.

We also saw the tiles are on site and guess what? Yep you guess it, the wrong tiles are on site, unbelievable!

Extra tiles for kitchen and spa

I rang National Tiles today because I purchased extra (Metalic Rust) tiles from another branch of Nat Tiles and wanted to make sure I had the same batch colour as the one that PD are laying. We want to extend the tiling to the kitchen splashback right up to the ceiling behind the rangehood. We also need extra tiles for the spa bath we are installing ourselves as we are laying these in our ensuite shower.

The lovely bright spark I spoke to at National tiles Port Melb today rang me back with an hour and confirmed that we had the same batch, issue resolved.

We have your attention!

I got a call first thing this morning from head office and feel like I have finally been heard. This manager was apologetic and proactive in wanting to get things resolved. She is trying to arrange for a construction head honcho to meet us out on site Monday.

We went out again today and found that the bricks have been removed from the front master bedroom window edge sill. What are they up to now? We know that the window appears to be set too high and needs to be dropped, but now we now have the two windows at the front with different brick laying, the study has split bricks and the master does not?

Enough is enough!

We are now annoyed at the number of mistakes as well as the lack of response to our inspectors report. We have escalated our concerns to management at PD Keilor Park. We feel that we are constantly pointing out things needing to be fixed and nothing is happening to rectify them. We are no longer prepared to accept "it all gets fixed in then end".

Management at PD Keilor park passed our concerns off to an assistant, in our eyes this branch makes no apology for the substandard work performed on site and is not taking our concerns seriously.

We have now escalated our issues to head office. We are continuing to hold payment for the fixing invoice and do not intend to make any further payments until all items big and small are fixed. We do not want to end up in dispute with PD we just want our house built to the standard of the display home and to date that is not what we are getting.

Painting finished and stone bench in.

The painting has finished and all the window protection has been removed so we can see inside again. We are fairly happy with the painting but will reserve judgment until it we inspect it with proper lighting. We have seen a few areas which need attention but they are more to do with the plastering than the paint job.

The kitchen stone bench has been fitted and has the wrong finish on the edge. Also where the return meets up with the wall the have caulked a joint and the gap does not run straight. From what I can tell it is due to the wall having a bow in it. Why am I still picking up walls that are out? Honestly this is getting ridiculous. We are as frustrated by the poor workmanship as we are with the number of mistakes being made.

Internal painting.

We drove out today "Easter Monday" wondering if anyone will be on site. When we arrived we found the painter was working so we got to see the inside of the house. We are really happy with the colour we chose it is warm and sunny just what we were after. The colour of the walls is 1/4 strength Spun Toffee, the colour for the architraves and doors is porcelain. The photo makes it look a lot more yellow than it really is.

The ceiling and cornices were already finished, as were all the doors and architraves. The painter was still painting some of the walls and had just started the garage.

We were never asked at Hopetoun what colour we wanted in the garage and it gets assumed that is part of the internal painted walls. Looking at it now I would have preferred it to be the paperbark colour to match the external painting but is not a big enough concern to want to change it, so no big deal.

Our Inspectors report.

We received our own independent building inspectors report and we are not pleased with the number of issues that need to be fixed. We are so relieved that we hired him as he has now confirmed that the issues we have are legitimate.
We have several items and naturally the major ones are our biggest concern. These include plaster needing to come down so that a frame that was cut and "fudged" can be rebuilt to meet the standards. The front door as well as alfresco frames that we felt were not level now have to be removed and refitted because the flashing is missing underneath them both. Sections of brick wall also have to be relaid because they have not been laid straight which is very disappointing. The garage and front fascia needs to be replaced as does the guttering over the portico because it is damaged or poorly fitted. All the quads at the front of the house are out of level. We have forwarded a copy of the Building inspectors report to PD and has stated that we are holding payment on the current invoice. Probie has passed it on to be addressed.
We started out so well and now ..........Hmmmmmmmmm.........NOT HAPPY!

Ready.... set..... paint!

The painter has arrived on site. He has commenced the external painting and has painted the front eves, alfresco ceiling, quads and lintels.

He has also prepared the internal of the house for painting, all the windows have been covered in so that the paint does not pray on to them.

Pipes & panels

The hot water solar panel has been installed and the pipes have been run to the ensuite, I hope they will be finished off a little better than they have been. They have removed half a brick and the pipes are hanging out, they may just mortar around it which is not the finish I was expecting. I would have expected them to put proper fitting like the other pipes. I will speak to SS.



The colorbond down pipes have been installed and we are really happy with the colour of them as they seem to disappear rather than stand out. The colour we chose was jasper which is the same as the gutters. The back rollerdoor to the garage will also be the same colour.

More holes!!!!!

We went through our photos and asked our inspector if could check the wall with a probe where we believe there is still insulation missing. He advised us to meet SS out on site and have him cut holes as it would be easier to patch up now rather than later when walls have been painted.

So I met SS out on site today to cut holes in the plaster and found another 10 out of the 12 spots were missing insulation. Larger holes will now be cut and insulation will get stuffed in. This is frankly very disappointing considering we asked the question and were told that it was in the walls. Between this issue, the master bedroom window and the poor BSS report we are fast loosing faith in PD.

The bath has been delivered and installed, there was heaps of room for it to be lowered but it is too late now. I will request that I have something in writing explaining how they intend to waterproof to prevent water seeping into the frame below at the window.

Kitchen update

Next time check, check and check again!

The plans for the kitchen were wrong on the final drawings. The floor plan was correct but the elevation was incorrect. That is why we ended up with four door cupboards instead of three doors either side of the rangehood. My original administrator Madam X called and confessed that she did recall us asking for 3 doors. I was pleased that she was honest enough to say I buggered up.

What has been negotiated.......
We will pay cost price for the new correct cabinets to be made.
PD will pay to take the incorrect cabinets down and relocate them to the laundry. Also they will cover the cost to put the new cabinets up. PD will also have the cupboard doors above the fridge changed to a single door as per the drawings.