Last of the Earthworks....

Last week Mat made a call to the bobcat man hoping that he would be available Sunday to do some more work at the house.  We have a house warming/grand final BBQ in a couple of weeks and we wanted to crack on with the outside works to get ready for the influx of people that haven't seen the house.   Unfortunately he said he was not available, which put a dampener on things.

Yesterday morning we got a call from him to say that the job he had booked did not take as long as he thought and he could come around straight away if we still wanted him.  Yes Please!!! So five minutes later he was dropping off his excavator and going home to pick up the bobcat.

We wanted him to move the big piles of dirt and clay from the front of the house, take them around to the back of the house and level out the ground on the side of the house so we could continue with turfing.

This is the progress that we made yesterday.

The dirt piles dont look that big, but after over an hour of going backwards and forwards with the bobcat, it looked like not much had been moved

Over two hours of moving dirt - we now have a level pad so that we can start turfing.

The bricks have also been moved to the side of the front yard.  They are the bricks left behind by the brick layers when the replaced the window sills on the ground floor last week.  Another blog post coming up about the work that we have had done with the bricks

Where did the dirt go?

Firstly it was dumped off the edge of the house pad

It was leveled off to make a smooth slope that we can turf and mow. 

Do you know what we are doing next weekend???? 

Trying To Be Organised

I have visions of being a totally organised person, but they are just those - visions.  With the new house, I have decided to try and become more organised.

My pantry is usually a nightmare.  I find that I clean and organise it and then when I am busy, I shove things back in willy nilly and then it all gets messy again.

My new pantry, it is bigger than I have had before and I have become a little obsessed with organising blogs, so my pantry was a great place to start.

My pantry is 'builder basic' so it means that I have not added anything other than what comes standard.  I have had to 'make it work'

When you walk into my pantry and you look straight ahead you will see the photo above.

Top shelf - lots of cereal.  The Nutrigrain - that is Harrý's fault and he is a little obsessed with the stuff.  The crunchy nut is Mats fault, my cereal of choice - Cocopops are missing at the moment. Must add to my shopping list.

Second shelf down.  I love storage containers. I have dreams of a perfect pantry that is all beautifully labelled Tuperware containers.   One I am too cheap to buy Tuperware and secondly I find that having a mix works better for me.  In these storage containers I have sugars, pasta, stocks etc.

Third shelf down. My baskets. I found this idea on an organising blog and I can seriously say it has helped keep my pantry organised more than anything else.

The basked on the the left, it is sauces and condiments. Maple syrup, vinegar, salad dressings, vegemite etc. You get the drift.  Basket in the middle is noodles and nuts.  The third basket on the shelf is for my packet mixes.  I know it looks like it is stuffed in there, and it is, as my secret to a great shepards pie and beef and red wine casserole is a Maggi packet mix....shhhhhh

Bottom shelf is all my utensils that I used to keep on the bench in the old house.   Storage for paper towel. Usually I have more than I have as I am a bit obsessed with paper towel.  The loner basket on the bottom shelf contains everything you need for baking.

On the floor I have a large ice bucket which I keep all my recycling in.

The shelf on the right of the pantry. Again it is  divided into a couple of different types of storage.

Top shelf is flour, oats and rice in large containers.

Second shelf down is baskets again.  It is this shelf of baskets that I find the most useful

The basket in the corner - it holds salt/pepper, gravy and seasonings.   The next basket up contains everything you need for a cup of tea or coffee.  Third basket along is for oils and there is cordial thrown in as it is handy to get to.  The fourth basket is all our breads and the last basket is snacks.  The snack basket used to be housed on the bottom shelf, but a little three year old helped himself too often so it has been moved out of his reach.

The third shelf from the top has all the appliances.  In the corner there is a basket that contains all sauces for cooking.  This is great as you can take out the whole basket at once and have everything handy.  Another reason that I have found these baskets work is that if one of your bottles leaks, or in my case it is the sesame oil that always seems to leak, you only have one basket to wipe out - it does not leave messes on the shelves.

Back to the appliances. After handover, I had an electrician install a powerpoint on the wall as you walk into the pantry.  I did this after handover as i thought it would save some money, but I should have been more clever and had the powerpoint put on the back of the pantry wall and not on the side. Anyway, it still works so nothing lost.     I have my toaster, coffee machine and kettle on this shelf.  My powerpoint is a 4-gang plug so everything can stay plugged in and ready to use.

Remember those baskets - they are perfect here as the one for bread is perfect for doing toast - no having to walk around and the one with the coffee/tea is perfect for making a cup of tea.  Maybe I need another basket that has mugs in it - then I would only have to leave the pantry when I needed milk.

The other thing that lives on this shelf is the knife block.  I wanted to keep the kitchen benches free of clutter, so this is close to the pantry door.

The bottom shelf has a basket with all my spices and we have cut part of the shelf out so we can put the bar fridge in there.  It saves Mat about twenty or so steps to go into the garage to get beer.   On the floor I have another larger basket for my potatoes and garlic etc.

To the right of the pantry door, I have more shelving where I store all of my other appliances - mix master, slow cooker etc.   I also have a shelf where I store all of my excess platters and we have a large bin that holds our dog food

On the wall behind the pantry door we have a white board.  It is great to be able to write down any items that you have run out of and need to add to your shopping list.    I am also going to start writing our meal plans on the white board so that I don't get the same question everyday "what's for dinner"


So there you have it. For us it works well. I am always open to other ideas and suggestions.

Update on Monet

Writing that blog post on Saturday put me in a foul mood and my family felt it.  At the end of the day it is only just a house, but building a house, I feel like I have birthed a child and everything is pretty personal and so bricks aren't just bricks.

Yesterday I had a bit of a dummy spit.  I had that unpleasant phone call with the SS when I advised that the brick cleaner had not shown up again and I was beyond annoyed at it.  I listed my options, and I was quickly offered a solution to have it rectified - that day.

Yesterday afternoon I met with my SS at the house and went through all my issues with the bricks and brought up some new ones as we walked around.

The house will have another FULL brick clean.  I have had a word with the brick cleaner and told him that what he has done previously has been crap. He told me that he has been to my place four times already - well make sure the fifth time you actually clean some bricks!!!

All of the window sills on the bottom storey of the house (barr the home theatre front window sills) will be replaced.  They are rubbish and they should have been replaced as soon as they were laid.  The course of bricks under all of the sills will also be replaced as the mortar joints are either too thick or too thin

My concern with the mortar being blown out of joints.  When the house is cleaned again today there will be more mortar that is blown out.  The house will be re-pointed where it is needed.  What happens when it is re-pointed, it needs another brick clean.   So that will happen once the re-pointing goes off.

Bricklayers will be back Thursday to replace sills.

We also have an issue where the paint from the feature board at the front of the house has bled down the left hand column and the front of the house.   They have tried to paint strip it and acid clean it, but so far it is still visible.   So they are going to try again today.  If it does not come off, we have been offered moroka (bag/paint) finish to the three feature columns.  Don't know how happy I am with this.  I like my bricks and would love to not have to resort to this.

So I am happy that action has been taken so quickly.  I am happy that the issue has not been glossed over.  

Watch this space - I'll take some pictures of the bricks once they have been cleaned.

Brickwork of Monet

Do you know the saying "Its a Monet -  Far away is great, but up close its a mess".  That is the perfect description for our brickwork.  Don't look too closely!

Before I even built with Rawson, I was warned by a brick cleaner that we use at work that the brick layers that Rawson used were rubbish.  I took his warning with a grain of salt, as he was generally a negative person. Maybe I should not have been so quick to dismiss his words.

I was promised from before the brick layers started that they were the best. They had completed the show homes for Rawson at Waterford County.  We thought the bricklayers were good at the start, and then they must have gotten bored or fed up with the house and then it all went down hill.

I wanted to keep this off the blog. I have always tried to be positive towards Rawson as I have a good repore with the SS and I believe that we have had a beautiful house built. I have decided to blog about this for two reasons.  One I said from the beginning that I would blog about the good, the bad and the ugly and if I leave this out, then I am not doing what I said I would.  Secondly, I have been trying to get these bricks cleaned for months!!!  I was promised that the brick cleaner would come last weekend and he did a no show and then I was promised that he would be coming yesterday or today.  Seeing it is now 4:00pm in the afternoon and we have not seen him, I doubt he is coming - so another no show.

Our bricks were finished 26th February 2013 - this is over six months since they were completed. Our bricks have been cleaned countless times since they were completed.  The last time the brick cleaner came out, which was a couple of weeks after we moved in, the only thing he managed to do was soak the garage as he brick cleaned the garage door and little else.  So after the amount of times he has been here, we either have bad brick layers or bad a bad brick cleaner - I think a bit of both.  So get ready for picture overload and you can make the decision.

When I sit in my ensuite toilet - this is the view. Tell me how the brick cleaner missed this when the scaffolding was up?

You dont have to walk too far from the ensuite - only as far as the main bedroom balcony. Looking at the balcony annoys me to no end - how are we expected to accept this???

Close up of the balcony wall

The top of the column on the balcony.  This is just over a metre high off the deck, so in plain view. This one has actually been hand scrubbed with acid, so you can only imagine what it looked like before.

The top of the column at the front of the house

The other column is just as bad, but I didn't want to break my neck getting a photo of it, so you can have a photo of the side of the column instead as that has not been cleaned.

The sill for the sliding door on the balcony - I don't think the brick cleaner ever bothered with this one. 

The whole of the sill is like this, so I guess we should accept a snow white sill.

Now time to move outside as there is plenty more to see. 

Next stop, left of the front door.  That joint is about 30-40mm thick and messy. 

Window sills for the home theatre and the 5th bedroom.  I complained about these sills from the day they were installed.  They look messy, they are crooked and they have laid bricks that are chipped and have tried to disguise them.

The brickies answer rather than removing the bricks was to wipe concrete over the dodgy joints - as then they would be less noticeable.  Five months on, it is still there and the sills are still dodgy and crooked and have chipped bricks

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Check out the wall next to the 5th bedroom

Blown mortar from the amount of times the house has been brick cleaned.  The block spot just above half way up the photo on the left - that isn't a black spot, its a hole in the mortar.

The next photo is of under the kitchen splashback window.  Do you think it could do with a clean???? Maybe all the mortar on the slab could be cleaned off as well.

Above the splashback window is lovely too - neat isn't it

My favourite part of the mortar is the one that has been put between the splashback window and the first course of bricks above it. 

This mortar is done so well that is falls apart when you touch it and you can rub it out with your fingers. Yes, the black bits are holes in the mortar.

This is a good one - on the corner of the house where the mortar was blown out from the initial brick clean - lets just wipe mortar over the joint and then it needs to be cleaned all over again

Another spot where the mortar was blown out and they thought they would just wipe it with mortar.

Blown out mortar on the side of the garage. Unfortunately this isn't uncommon and I would bore you to death if I showed you the extent of it. The bad thing in, it still needs to be cleaned, so it will only get worse.

Front columns - these badly need a clean and they not only have blown mortar, but the mortar joints are uneven. 

Above the front door.  

More blown mortar joints.  A lot of the external corners on the house are like this

Look at the mortar on the alfresco.  Hmm I don't have any words to describe this one.

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So there you have it. I have lots more pictures, but I don't want to bore you and I don't want to upset myself any further

The problem with the brickwork is the more you look at it the more you notice everything that is wrong with it.  It is pitiful. 

I feel let down by Rawson.  I feel let down that they would expect that I would accept the brickwork in this condition. I guess for only spending $400,000 what can you expect. 

I can tell you now, I feel that I have made a huge mistake.   I didn't get any independent inspections before we handed over or during any stage of the build.  I should have, but I trusted my relationship with my builder.  I tried not to be one of those clients, I wanted to be easy going and enjoy the process and I feel when it comes to the brickwork it has bitten me in the backside.  My piece of advise, is you are spending a huge amount of money. Protect yourself and protect your investment and make sure you are having a house that is built right. 

What am I going to do about it???   My SS is going to get a not so pleasant phone call from me on Monday. I am furious over this.  I am also going to email the Construction Manager at Rawson to voice my disgust over the state of my brickwork. 

My last resort is to go to Department of Fair Trading.