It is all coming together nicely....haha famous last words.
I can't believe it has been almost been 2 months since my last post - and what a frustrating 2 months it has been. I really did think all the communication problems and delays were over now we were in the building phase but I was wrong. Frustrating is not quite the word for it.
I have begun to think that building companies have their own special take on communication. In my line of work if we make a commitment that something is going to happen on a specific date and things change we communicate the change, in order to minimise the customers disappointment. In the building game you call the customer on Friday and let them know what you think might happen over the next week (you don't use the words 'think' or 'might' mind you - you say it will happen). The next Friday give them another call, if what you say would happen last week didn't happen, that's ok promise it again for the next week and blame 1 of the trades that left you down. Now the following Friday make sure you call the customer again (because that is the most important thing) and if what you promised the previous 2 weeks still hasn't happened, that's ok promise if for the next week....and so on and so on.
This happened to us with the bricks for the top storey. We were promised 2 weeks in a row that they would start on following Monday which didn't happen. On the 3rd Friday our SS said he actually wished I hadn't picked up and the call had gone to messagebank as he hates to deliver bad news but the brickies definitely would be on site on Monday. Well they didn't turn up and I left it until Tuesday afternoon to call him and he informed me, after we spoke on Friday, he called the bricklayer who said he wouldn't be able to get to our job until Thursday/Friday the following week. He was very surprised when I said I would have thought he would call me back on Friday if the weekly update was found to be incorrect an hour later. He also said he was hurt because he prides himself on his communication WTF???
At this stage I think we have to agree to disagree on what good communication is and keep going... and despite all the delays we are still moving forward albeit slowly. The good thing to come out of all miscommunication is we did receive confirmation from Wisdom that we are still on track to complete by the end of March. That is good news!!
We are now in the Christmas shutdown period however here are a few photos of where we are up to...
2nd storey roof tiles complete (love them!!!)
Render to front complete although the painters started to paint the 2nd storey the wrong colour (Grrrr!). It is supposed to be a light colour but was painted a dark grey
This is the Alfresco area with bricks cleaned - they look amazing however there is a few spots where the bricks are chipped and the base colour is coming through - this is on the list of things to discuss with the SS in January
This the front entry. The render is beautiful - a lovely job. It is not painted yet (top storey painted the wrong colour)
Lots of action on our street as well over the last month. Our 2 direct neighbours and 1 across the street managed to be finished and moved in by Christmas. We are very jealous although I don't envy them in a few weeks being woken early every day by noisy tradies starting their day.
Here's to exciting (and less frustrating!!) times in 2015...
