1) Review week 14
+ All jobs done on the schedule
+ Surprised for scaffolding installation. It had done by 3 guys on the full two days (last Wed and Thursday), but it is needed to be fix more!
+ Thursday (May 24) rain so that the total building duration will be plus 12 days
2) Schedules
- bricks can't be completed on next Tuesday as there is only 3 guys working on Wed and Thursday due to other guys could not complete other jobs on Wed
- piles on the first floor
- carpenter will be back to install balcony
- termite guy will complete the job
- facia and gutter have been booked on the next week (after bricks done)
3) Jobs to chase up:
- island bench's width and the distance between cupboard in the new kitchen layout
- gas points
- robes
- electrical plan
Our rebuild modified Vienna 42 with Fowler
OUR REBUILD MODIFIED VIENNA 42 with FOWLER
Thursday, 31 May 2012
Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Week 14 (Tue May 22 - Mon May 28): complete ground floor bricks but I made another huge stupid mistake
- Last Wed (May 16) - today ( Tue May 22): almost ground floor bricks were done on schedule
- Today (Tue May 22): Frame company finally fixed windows to Bed 3, Study Nook and French door to Balcony.
- Today, I finally received a new layout for pantry and Fridge area
- Wed (May 23): scaffold set up
- Brickies ("Dream" Team/ "A" Team) are supposed to back as they finish their job on other site which will start tomorrow. Brickies said they need just 4 full days to get their job done (weather permitting) and they will be back on Monday or Tuesday as lastest.
***** Very sad as there is another "damp" drawing for Alfresco's open height. Actually, it is MY HUGE MISTAKE again. I can't understand why I did miss out reading that drawing and did sign for that drawing. Frankly, I never want to cry for my stupid mistake as I'm sure that there is always a resolution. However, any resolution come up with an expensive cost and big effort. Instead of crying, I wish to work harder to earn more money to fix that mistake.
I will check again with new SS to see if we can change. Otherwise, I should try my hardest efforts to learn to live with that Alfresco's open "stupid" height in an immediate stage.
- Today (Tue May 22): Frame company finally fixed windows to Bed 3, Study Nook and French door to Balcony.
- Today, I finally received a new layout for pantry and Fridge area
- Wed (May 23): scaffold set up
- Brickies ("Dream" Team/ "A" Team) are supposed to back as they finish their job on other site which will start tomorrow. Brickies said they need just 4 full days to get their job done (weather permitting) and they will be back on Monday or Tuesday as lastest.
***** Very sad as there is another "damp" drawing for Alfresco's open height. Actually, it is MY HUGE MISTAKE again. I can't understand why I did miss out reading that drawing and did sign for that drawing. Frankly, I never want to cry for my stupid mistake as I'm sure that there is always a resolution. However, any resolution come up with an expensive cost and big effort. Instead of crying, I wish to work harder to earn more money to fix that mistake.
I will check again with new SS to see if we can change. Otherwise, I should try my hardest efforts to learn to live with that Alfresco's open "stupid" height in an immediate stage.
Friday, 18 May 2012
Week 13: thank you but paintful farewell to our SS of 3 months
Now, I looked back what had happened in our site since last Thursday and I figured out the reasons.
As I posted in the previous entry, we had full activities on last Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur. Particularly, last Friday was originally booked for commencement of bricks. However, I decided to hold on bricks on last Thursday to seek for a resolution from Austral bricks regarding our brick color variety.
However, there was not any meeting with Austral bricks since last Friday (May 11) until this Wed (May 16). Certainly, I had some wondering due to 2 reasons:
# 1-- over the past 3 months, I have been convinced by the facts that our SS has always booked activities for our site at the earliest speed among Fowler's projects
# 2 -- other Fowler's client has experienced the similar problem but their SS helped to get a resolution within 24 hours
# 3 -- our SS had yet responded to my phone calls and SMSs (about brick color issue) which considered as strange because we have had excellent communication over the past 3 moths.
Honestly, I thought our SS was occupied with his 4 th wedding anniversary party and our poor communication over the past 3 days can be acceptable as we still have a long way to go together....
BUT it was all beyond our nightmare and unbelievable imagination, our SS is no longer for our site since this Monday May 14.
On Wed May 14, I accidentally met new SS at 7am on our site. But I wrote a request to Construction Manager to request our SS should stay working for our site.
Construction Manager came to see us on site to assure that our new SS will be as good as P- our SS of the past 3 moths.
Well, it is a part of life. People come and people leave. Actually, we are so lucky to have P as he is the best SS from Fowler. Over the past 3 months, there have been a lot of problems in which many have yet completely resolved on our site. But we know that P has tried his best to get our problems under control and provided the best of care for our site.
Now I'm sure our much tougher journey is ahead
As I posted in the previous entry, we had full activities on last Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur. Particularly, last Friday was originally booked for commencement of bricks. However, I decided to hold on bricks on last Thursday to seek for a resolution from Austral bricks regarding our brick color variety.
However, there was not any meeting with Austral bricks since last Friday (May 11) until this Wed (May 16). Certainly, I had some wondering due to 2 reasons:
# 1-- over the past 3 months, I have been convinced by the facts that our SS has always booked activities for our site at the earliest speed among Fowler's projects
# 2 -- other Fowler's client has experienced the similar problem but their SS helped to get a resolution within 24 hours
# 3 -- our SS had yet responded to my phone calls and SMSs (about brick color issue) which considered as strange because we have had excellent communication over the past 3 moths.
Honestly, I thought our SS was occupied with his 4 th wedding anniversary party and our poor communication over the past 3 days can be acceptable as we still have a long way to go together....
BUT it was all beyond our nightmare and unbelievable imagination, our SS is no longer for our site since this Monday May 14.
On Wed May 14, I accidentally met new SS at 7am on our site. But I wrote a request to Construction Manager to request our SS should stay working for our site.
Construction Manager came to see us on site to assure that our new SS will be as good as P- our SS of the past 3 moths.
Well, it is a part of life. People come and people leave. Actually, we are so lucky to have P as he is the best SS from Fowler. Over the past 3 months, there have been a lot of problems in which many have yet completely resolved on our site. But we know that P has tried his best to get our problems under control and provided the best of care for our site.
Now I'm sure our much tougher journey is ahead
Tuesday, 15 May 2012
W 13_ D 2: our FIRST brick walls
I 'm very happy with neat bricking here but it seems we have 3 different color level here
I pray very hard to have a bit fair uniformed color!
Though 30 years experienced brick layer told me if he were me he would never think of paint the bricks and the nature of brick color should NOT BE uniformed! And he said it is the best in his classical opinion and preferences. I hope I will be convinced later on.
I pray very hard to have a bit fair uniformed color!
Though 30 years experienced brick layer told me if he were me he would never think of paint the bricks and the nature of brick color should NOT BE uniformed! And he said it is the best in his classical opinion and preferences. I hope I will be convinced later on.
Week 13_ D1: Brickies will start tomorrow___Worry
SS advised in this morning our brickies will start tomorrow Wed (May 17).
As indicated on my previous post, the original schedule was on last Friday (May 11) right after our plumb rough-in done. However, I requested to hold on in searching for a resolution on our color variety bricks. It was supposed to get a resolution on last Friday, however, SS said he was waiting for a commitment till today. I have been unhappily surprised for such 3 days - awaiting as I'm sure a resolution for our color variety problem is not a big "deal" due to its obvious unacceptable mistaken color. Furthermore, our problem is not new at all as other Fowler client has got a resolution for the same problem last Wednesday.
By the way, what I have learn another lesson is if some thing goes wrong, even if wrongful thing is not new and there is an existing resolution for that problem, I should not expect to get a resolution within 48 hours. This time, we lost over 3 days for brick variety color issue.
After making phone calls and SMSs to SS, I have yet been advised what kind of color will be a "standard sample" for our bricks. So, my biggest "job" tomorrow is to make sure darker color as standard color for our bricks.
As indicated on my previous post, the original schedule was on last Friday (May 11) right after our plumb rough-in done. However, I requested to hold on in searching for a resolution on our color variety bricks. It was supposed to get a resolution on last Friday, however, SS said he was waiting for a commitment till today. I have been unhappily surprised for such 3 days - awaiting as I'm sure a resolution for our color variety problem is not a big "deal" due to its obvious unacceptable mistaken color. Furthermore, our problem is not new at all as other Fowler client has got a resolution for the same problem last Wednesday.
By the way, what I have learn another lesson is if some thing goes wrong, even if wrongful thing is not new and there is an existing resolution for that problem, I should not expect to get a resolution within 48 hours. This time, we lost over 3 days for brick variety color issue.
After making phone calls and SMSs to SS, I have yet been advised what kind of color will be a "standard sample" for our bricks. So, my biggest "job" tomorrow is to make sure darker color as standard color for our bricks.
Sunday, 13 May 2012
Week 13 (May 15 Tue _ May 19 Mon): Bricking
1) What had done in Week 12:
- In accordance with the plan, on Mon (May 7) Framing company sent their carpenter to fix the wrongful roof trusses pieces. Actually that carpenter worked only few hours to fix the problem.
- Fowler 's 3 very professional and generous carpenters led by A were back and finally completed our frame on Tue (May 8)
- On Wed (May 9), our site was clean up
- On Thur (May 10) , 3 plumbers installed our hot/cold water and gas lines. I had a very long chat with SS in which I had confirmation that :
# Fowler will re-order all 3 sets of stacker doors (2430mm) to our rear yard and will fix all frames to mat with those higher stacker doors. They plan to do during our bricking to save our time
# Our brick will be commenced on the next day FRIDAY (MAY 11) by the team of 6 brickies
- Bricks were delivered on May 10. And I was upset but not surprised to see a color variation of our bricks. However, it took me 2 hours to think of it and then I finally decided to get a resolution for that color problem. Therefore, we were willing to get our very awaited bricking commencement canceled
- On Fri (May 11), sand was delivered and it was supposed to have a meeting between Fowler's construction manager with Austrial representative to reach an agreed solution for our variety color brick. I thought we don't really need Fowler management level to go there for our brick resolution as I knew such kind of resolution was already reached from site supervisor level.
- Unfortunately, our dear SS had a day off on Friday (May 11) to celebrate his 4th wedding anniversary so that his boss was there for him. However, I hoped it would work but I also felt it would not work as SS advised that SS was not sure the brickies would be on our site on Monday (May 14)
- Actually, it would not work so I'm now waiting for SS further information.
2) Week 12 's features:
- Everything on the schedules
- our bricking commencement was arranged 1 day earlier than my expectation. However, we decided to cancel it and looked for a resolution for our bricks
- I was very very grateful for generous help from Fowler's carpenters, particularly A. I will always remember your generous help as I'm in .....Laundry.
3) my "jobs" for Week 13:
- Stacker doors to Court Yard
- French door to Balcony
- Relocate sliding door to Bed 1
- new bricking plan
- kitchen for new layout around Fridge
- electrician layout for Laundry area
- In accordance with the plan, on Mon (May 7) Framing company sent their carpenter to fix the wrongful roof trusses pieces. Actually that carpenter worked only few hours to fix the problem.
- Fowler 's 3 very professional and generous carpenters led by A were back and finally completed our frame on Tue (May 8)
- On Wed (May 9), our site was clean up
- On Thur (May 10) , 3 plumbers installed our hot/cold water and gas lines. I had a very long chat with SS in which I had confirmation that :
# Fowler will re-order all 3 sets of stacker doors (2430mm) to our rear yard and will fix all frames to mat with those higher stacker doors. They plan to do during our bricking to save our time
# Our brick will be commenced on the next day FRIDAY (MAY 11) by the team of 6 brickies
- Bricks were delivered on May 10. And I was upset but not surprised to see a color variation of our bricks. However, it took me 2 hours to think of it and then I finally decided to get a resolution for that color problem. Therefore, we were willing to get our very awaited bricking commencement canceled
- On Fri (May 11), sand was delivered and it was supposed to have a meeting between Fowler's construction manager with Austrial representative to reach an agreed solution for our variety color brick. I thought we don't really need Fowler management level to go there for our brick resolution as I knew such kind of resolution was already reached from site supervisor level.
- Unfortunately, our dear SS had a day off on Friday (May 11) to celebrate his 4th wedding anniversary so that his boss was there for him. However, I hoped it would work but I also felt it would not work as SS advised that SS was not sure the brickies would be on our site on Monday (May 14)
- Actually, it would not work so I'm now waiting for SS further information.
2) Week 12 's features:
- Everything on the schedules
- our bricking commencement was arranged 1 day earlier than my expectation. However, we decided to cancel it and looked for a resolution for our bricks
- I was very very grateful for generous help from Fowler's carpenters, particularly A. I will always remember your generous help as I'm in .....Laundry.
3) my "jobs" for Week 13:
- Stacker doors to Court Yard
- French door to Balcony
- Relocate sliding door to Bed 1
- new bricking plan
- kitchen for new layout around Fridge
- electrician layout for Laundry area
Sunday, 6 May 2012
Week 12 ( May 8 Tue _ May 14 Mon): Finally Frame done ?
1) Roof trusses problem and solution
- Problem was noticed on Tue May 1
- Our SS organized a meeting between his supplier, construction manager and himself on our site on Thursday May 3. I were very happy as I have seen SS has tried his best to reach a quickest solution for us by organizing on site meeting at management level.
- Framing company will send out their carpenter to fix the wrongful pieces on Monday May 7
2) Planning
- Fowler's carpenter crew will finish off our frames on Tuesday May 8, which was thesecond THIRD time re-schedule
- Our original schedule to have framing done was on the week ( April 21).
- Then, it was carpenter's own delay and rain. So, the framing was re-schedule for the first time on April 26.
- There was a problem with a strange heavy frame, so we needed an extra big crane. As a result, our framing was re-schedule for the second time on May 1.
- Again, we had another problem with roof trusses so our framing was re-scheduled for the third time on May 8
==> if the frame done on May 8, we had already suffered 2 weeks delay
- Plumb rough-in and site clean on Thursday May 10
- Brick ....delivery
- Bricking commence on Mon May 14 (weather permitting)
3) Week's feature: one day can indeed make a huge different
I can see how easy for people to make mistakes in building industry....
I also painfully recognize how unbelievable mistakes have brought us 2 weeks delay. However, if the carpenter came to our site as scheduled on Mon Apr 16 (they didn't advise SS they didn't come on that day, in fact they came on the following day and left due to rain) then our extra crane and roof issue would be discovered much earlier, then we would just suffer 2 days delay instead of 2 weeks delay.
- Problem was noticed on Tue May 1
- Our SS organized a meeting between his supplier, construction manager and himself on our site on Thursday May 3. I were very happy as I have seen SS has tried his best to reach a quickest solution for us by organizing on site meeting at management level.
- Framing company will send out their carpenter to fix the wrongful pieces on Monday May 7
2) Planning
- Fowler's carpenter crew will finish off our frames on Tuesday May 8, which was the
- Our original schedule to have framing done was on the week ( April 21).
- Then, it was carpenter's own delay and rain. So, the framing was re-schedule for the first time on April 26.
- There was a problem with a strange heavy frame, so we needed an extra big crane. As a result, our framing was re-schedule for the second time on May 1.
- Again, we had another problem with roof trusses so our framing was re-scheduled for the third time on May 8
==> if the frame done on May 8, we had already suffered 2 weeks delay
- Plumb rough-in and site clean on Thursday May 10
- Brick ....delivery
- Bricking commence on Mon May 14 (weather permitting)
3) Week's feature: one day can indeed make a huge different
I can see how easy for people to make mistakes in building industry....
I also painfully recognize how unbelievable mistakes have brought us 2 weeks delay. However, if the carpenter came to our site as scheduled on Mon Apr 16 (they didn't advise SS they didn't come on that day, in fact they came on the following day and left due to rain) then our extra crane and roof issue would be discovered much earlier, then we would just suffer 2 days delay instead of 2 weeks delay.
Week 11 _ happy again with our chosen plan
After being very sad as we saw we lost very beautiful view from first floor WIR, I have done a lot of homework and many consultation with friends and professional builders. And now I can say that our chosen plan is still the best comprise for the overall house.
I red again and again all my written reasons to how and why then we had chosen for each corner in our new house. I have felt very good that I started to write down in our diary building since the first time I did homework on our knock down and rebuild project in April 2010. I have learned even we have extra budget for our new house, but we still can't have everything we want that we still need to make our choice among available options. In short, I only made a big mistake for our wet area on the ground floor that we are now trying our best to prepare for fix this mistake in our near future.
We have decided to build this house for "the love of our life" _ our princess and I hope in the next 10 years she still likes the house.
I red again and again all my written reasons to how and why then we had chosen for each corner in our new house. I have felt very good that I started to write down in our diary building since the first time I did homework on our knock down and rebuild project in April 2010. I have learned even we have extra budget for our new house, but we still can't have everything we want that we still need to make our choice among available options. In short, I only made a big mistake for our wet area on the ground floor that we are now trying our best to prepare for fix this mistake in our near future.
We have decided to build this house for "the love of our life" _ our princess and I hope in the next 10 years she still likes the house.
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
W 11_ D2: Wrongful measurement on roof trusses is very rare?
I met a crew of 5 professional and nice carpenter on our site before 7am yesterday. Furthermore, they happily informed me that they will tried their best to complete yesterday. If they could not, they would complete in the following day.
However, I noticed they all left by 2.30pm while front roof and all most of window were not done. It was unusual as I know they are hard working and very professional guys. Immediately, I sent SMS to our SS mentioning my concern and question if is there again a problem with our frame. He did not respond. In the later afternoon, DH and I came back the site and I had another concern regarding our view (I posted in the previous entry) which switched me away from my concern why did 5 good carpenters left many uncompleted works so early....
This morning, I went to the site with heavy drink bag for carpenters and was again shocked to see no one there. Obviously, my yesterday concern became true. Again I sent SMS to our SS and this time he responded quickly that Fowler couldn’t complete our frames as their supplier has made a mistake on the manufacture of our roof trusses, it seems that the computer has calculated the incorrect measurement on the front section of our roof.
# I think their explanation is just an excuses…I think it is their unbelievable mistake. Indeed, this mistake hit me very hard as this mistake arrived right after last week mistake which brought almost 1 week delay to us. Last Tuesday, 5 carpenters came by 7am and they found out that they could not lift (by hands) frame for rear house as engineer made unusual/strange order for 385 kg frame package. As a consequence, SS have to organize an extra big crane to lift such frame package.
# SS also said this issue will be rectified as soon as possible. I wish “as soon as possible” terms does not mean 1 month.
However, I noticed they all left by 2.30pm while front roof and all most of window were not done. It was unusual as I know they are hard working and very professional guys. Immediately, I sent SMS to our SS mentioning my concern and question if is there again a problem with our frame. He did not respond. In the later afternoon, DH and I came back the site and I had another concern regarding our view (I posted in the previous entry) which switched me away from my concern why did 5 good carpenters left many uncompleted works so early....
This morning, I went to the site with heavy drink bag for carpenters and was again shocked to see no one there. Obviously, my yesterday concern became true. Again I sent SMS to our SS and this time he responded quickly that Fowler couldn’t complete our frames as their supplier has made a mistake on the manufacture of our roof trusses, it seems that the computer has calculated the incorrect measurement on the front section of our roof.
# I think their explanation is just an excuses…I think it is their unbelievable mistake. Indeed, this mistake hit me very hard as this mistake arrived right after last week mistake which brought almost 1 week delay to us. Last Tuesday, 5 carpenters came by 7am and they found out that they could not lift (by hands) frame for rear house as engineer made unusual/strange order for 385 kg frame package. As a consequence, SS have to organize an extra big crane to lift such frame package.
# SS also said this issue will be rectified as soon as possible. I wish “as soon as possible” terms does not mean 1 month.
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Week 11_ D1: SAD as I made the biggest mistake on house plan
This afternoon, DH and I climbed up to our first floor for the first time with the purpose to know our house frame and shape. But we
can't believe we have such so vey beautiful view and we are happy with our
each room.....
And suddenly I noticed that view from our .....WIR is the best view we have from our house. We stayed there speechless as we have ever ever thought/dreamed of such view from such position.
I was really shocked and then very sad to recognize that we lost that dream view....When I feel better or when I can find some way to keep that view , I will post a photo of that view here.
On the ground floor, I also made a big mistake by locating Laundry in one of the best location of the ground floor. However, our SS, plumbers, and carpenters are helping me to fix this mistake by generously re-organize this area for me. In the near future, I must do a minor renovation in this area to narrow Laundry.
Maybe, lucky arrives only 1 time and I had used it for re-organize Laundry. And now I have to accept the location of WIR and learn to live with it?
Well, I let my sad emotion stay tonight and tomorrow I will go to get some consultation with hope that I can still save that beautiful view by a bit moving our WIR around.
And suddenly I noticed that view from our .....WIR is the best view we have from our house. We stayed there speechless as we have ever ever thought/dreamed of such view from such position.
I was really shocked and then very sad to recognize that we lost that dream view....When I feel better or when I can find some way to keep that view , I will post a photo of that view here.
On the ground floor, I also made a big mistake by locating Laundry in one of the best location of the ground floor. However, our SS, plumbers, and carpenters are helping me to fix this mistake by generously re-organize this area for me. In the near future, I must do a minor renovation in this area to narrow Laundry.
Maybe, lucky arrives only 1 time and I had used it for re-organize Laundry. And now I have to accept the location of WIR and learn to live with it?
Well, I let my sad emotion stay tonight and tomorrow I will go to get some consultation with hope that I can still save that beautiful view by a bit moving our WIR around.
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