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.