The kitchen is in... but we're bullied over the tiles

The photo to the left is the doorway to our ensuite- there will be double sliders there. The double vanity will be where those tap hole things are!

My husband started painting today (Greybox allowed us to do some of the trades... apparently now they only allow owners to do one of their own trades). BTW, we chose Dulux Lexicon half for the walls (a very white white, with a tinge of cool grey) and Lexicon full for the door frames, etc. Anthony (our supervisor) had advised that he wants to get the tiler in as soon as possible (thank you, Anthony, for keeping things moving!), so he told Tony to go in and paint the wet areas first. Tony mentioned that the kitchen cupboards and bathroom vanities are in, and the internal doors. That's the good news.
The not so good news? In no particular order:
The slider from the living area to the rear hallway is supposed to be timber and glass... it's just a normal door. The laundry door and rear garage doors are supposed to have glass panels. They don't.
We finally got a copy of our 'final' electrical plan (apparently drafted in March, but never forwarded to us), and there are some mistakes. Greybox customer relations has advised that they don't want to correct it, as the electrician was given a copy of the *hand drawn* rough-in a year ago, and apparently he doesn't need the final plan! The rough-in is missing the microwave provision powerpoint, and the rear floodlight. The 'final plan' is missing several powerpoints.
I asked if we could add a powerpoint to the living room, and, given the fact that we never saw the final plan, and it had to be amended, perhaps Greybox would be kind enough not to charge us $250 for the variation. Apparently not!
Greybox also advised the following yesterday regarding our tiles...

Hi Tony & Carolyn,

I have been inform that you recently visited Dave from Westile to reselect the tiles for your ensuite, ensuite toilet and bathroom. It has been brought to my attention that you would like to extend the tiling to these areas to the ceiling. I have had the estimating team work out the added cost for this and I have sent this as a variation in the mail for you this afternoon.

Until we have confirmation from yourself regarding the acceptance the variation for the extension of the tiling or keeping it as per standard, your home will be placed on hold.

Following this I have also asked management regarding your request for an extra power point. All electrical items have been roughed in according to the original draw plans which I have attached for your convenience. The discrepancies on final plans would not have affected the rough in as the electrician received the original drawn plan.

Any further questions please feel free to contact me.

My reply:

Hi Vanessa,

Thanks for your email.

David from Westile informed Jessica back in last October that we wanted our tiles in the ensuite and main bathroom to go to the ceiling. I confirmed this in writing to Jessica, who responded that Brett would quote the 'non-standard' height, on Sept 10th 2009, prior to us signing the contract, so the price of tiling to the ceiling should be included in our contract price. I've copied the text from this email below - Jessica's response to my question is in blue. (BTW, the tiles in both toilets they are standard height, eg. one row of tiles up the wall.) 

From: Jessica Gatt [mailto:jessica@greyboxhomes.com.au] Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 4:13 PMTo: Carolyn UzelacSubject: RE: Lot 1068 Tooronga Rd DE05

HI Carolyn,

·         Re: tiling - David at Westile said that he won’t actually quote anything beyond what’s “standard”, and gave us the impression that nothing ‘non-standard’ will appear in our building contract price. (Which seemed weird.) Specifically, we wanted all the walls in the ensuite and main bath tiled (floor to ceiling), but David said he would only quote ‘standard heights’ and ‘standard tiles’ ($27.50/sqm) until we had signed the contract and gotten our loan approval. I wasn’t clear then how we would account for anything non-standard in the contract price. It kind of confused me. We will have to discuss this in our next meeting as we do not tile to the ceiling as standard so I will need to get Brett to work this out.

Given that Greybox were informed of the need for tiling up to the ceiling in both bathrooms almost a year ago, they could have been included in any of our previous variation forms, or indeed, as an update to our specifications.

When we asked David about the extra potential cost (as both the height, and tiles we chose, were upgrades from the builder's standard), he noted the following:

a) since we were making our selection so far in advance of installation, he couldn't confirm that the tiles we wanted would be in stock

b) new tiles come out all the time, and closer to installation we might want to choose something else

c) he would advise us of the cost difference when it came time to ordering

Dave asked us to come back over a month ago to confirm our tile selection. He showed us a new tile, included in the builder's standard range, and we chose it.

Considering that David advised Greybox a month ago of our selection, and re-contacted Greybox a week ago to chase up the order, it seems a bit ridiculous that three days prior to the day the tiler's been booked in (Friday), you advise that we need a variation form, and that our home is 'on hold' until we approve it.

Also, previous variation forms have been emailed or faxed to us, preventing any additional delay.

We will review the variation form when we receive it (hopefully tomorrow), and bring it into the office. Given that David has 150sqm of the tile we selected in his warehouse in Campbellfield, and can deliver the following day, if you forward the order for our tiles to him on the day you receive it, the tiler can still start on Friday as Anthony advised us.

Regarding the electrical plan, as I noted earlier:

We never received a copy of the drawn up version of the 'final' plan, so we had nothing to check to see whether or not all of our requirements were met.

The original drawn plan does not indicate a powerpoint where the microwave provision is, nor does it indicate the location of the rear access floodlight. Nor does it indicate the position of the light switches. It does however indicate a double power point next to the ensuite vanity, and one at the end of the kitchen bench, neither of which are on the final plan. I'm imagining at some point the electrician would double check he's got everything right by checking the final plan, not the rough-in that was hand drawn a year ago. And I'd assume that as a builder, Greybox would want the final plans to be correct.

We look forward to receiving the confirmation of our tiling requirements.

cheers,

Carolyn

The lack of attention to detail is astonishing! Check, double check and check again!

Progress too slow to write about

 Tony, standing in front of the doorway to the front hall and the pantry. You can see the entry to the rear hallway to the left.

The kitchen. The living room.

T

My dad, standing in the front door.

Hi! The progress thus far has been so slow, and so painful, that I couldn't even bear writing about it. However, having been inspired reading 'Building the Dream in Eynesbury', I thought I'd give everyone an update.
Let's see. We have a frame, roof, bricks. We have plaster (done by our brother-in-law, in less than a week.) We have timber floors (130mm Blackbutt, acclimatised about 2 weeks on site, installed in one week by our flooring contractor, as at the time of signing contracts Greybox told us they no longer installed timber floors. They've since changed their position on this!). We have scribbles on the ceiling where most of our downlights are (still missing some marks). We also JUST RECEIVED a copy of our final electrical plan, which was missing several powerpoints that we had requested (including one near the vanity in the ensuite, an obvious one!), and at the end of the island bench. Also, the elec plan doesn't currently include the locations of the light switches. And, the IXLtastic noted for the ensuite lists a two-light fan, not a four light. Well, considering the size of our ensuite, you would have thought a four light would again be obvious. I've checked our specs, and all it says is 'required', so I'm sure we're going to have a fight on our hands.
We had a similar situation with the front door, which has four glass panels in it, and the front sidelight, both of which are clear. As you'd expect, we asked for frosted. (Who wants clear glass in their front door!?) However, silly us, all it says on our specifications is "required", so it's their word against ours. And in that situation, guess who wins? Not us!
Other issues? When the 'building designer', Tony from Acquire Designs, drew up our plans, he neglected to factor the brick count in to the placement of the windows, front door, and rear doors. So, in order to avoid some ugly brick cuts, the brickie 'spaced out' the bricks, meaning way more mortar between each brick. Looks very yucky. In addition, the brick joints (mortar) on the rear of the garage are rolled (a groove in them), not flush, as we requested. Why? Someone from Greybox told the brickie to ignore what was written on the plans, because 'Greybox does them all rolled now'. Thanks for that. Fortunately Tony (my husband) visited the site when the brickie was completing the garage, and BEFORE he started on the rest of the house, so he instructed him to do the rest of the house with flush joints.
Oh, and we also had yet another issue with the order for our plumbing fixtures (taps and spouts), (we had several mix ups to begin with) that required me taking another day off work, and two more trips to Reece, before we got it all sorted out.
Now, on to the serious oversight, that makes me question Greybox's competency. About three weeks ago, we visited the site to find that the brickie had cleaned the bricks... all good... until we went into the garage and discovered a huge pool of water at the back, seeping into the rear wall where plaster will be installed. Yes, the garage slab has been installed with a 'negative' slope, towards the back wall! A particularly amazing feat, especially given that our block actually has a 600mm fall from the front of the block to the rear, meaning that it would have been no effort at all to actually make the slab 'fall' towards the garage door, so any water could drain properly. After 3 weeks of chasing Anthony, he's let us know that the garage slab will have to be dug up and replaced. Nice.
AND, last but not least, he doesn't think we'll be in before Christmas! He's blaming this on the fact that we did our own plastering, flooring, and painting, however, by our estimation this would have only added two weeks to the length of the job. What happened to the Oct 2nd completion date? Well, since neither the start date nor completion date have ever been confirmed in writing (despite repeated written requests), guess no one actually knows when our house is officially supposed to be completed! Is this conducting work in "a competent manner and to a professional standard" (as per the Building Commission's requirements? I think not! We'll see what BACV has to say. Blah!
By the way, if anyone wants to call me directly and chat about my experiences with Greybox, and some things to look out for, feel free: Carolyn @ 0417 346 847.