Update - 21st Dec'14

Merry Christmas everyone! 
Not much activity over the last few weeks, but some good news about the weeks ahead.  The underfloor heating in the bathrooms was completed, and a pile of sand was delivered.  Some screed has been laid down just recently, in preparation for floor tiles going down.  A few other things have been completed, such as installation of some sinks, and the extractor fan going in. 

We learned that the kitchen cupboards either side of the extractor were the wrong size, but that was fixed up without any hassle whatsoever which is great.

Some good news from the site supervisor - the tiling company is planning to work over the xmas break to get the tiling done before the industry re-starts mid-Jan.  We really hope they get this done as it'll help things along nicely.

We had a response from the owner after we responded to his letter and removed the email from one of our posts.  It noted that someone reading the blog doesn't have both sides of the story and asked that we be mindful not to say things that could be seen as negative.  It also noted that they're working tirelessly to build our home to expectations and due to the magnitude of the build, some issues will be encountered along the way. Nothing was sent to us which challenged the accuracy or reasonableness of the specific issues we've flagged through our posts.

Fair play or not?  Let us know what you think.  In our opinion, it's perfectly reasonable to encounter issues along the way.  It's also reasonable to ask that we're mindful when posting.  We don't think it's reasonable to ask that we don't post negative comments.  

Issues as they arise should be dealt with such that Alkira would be happy to have prospective customers see the way they've dealt with them.  I don't think there's anyone out there who expects to build a home without any issues.  It's how those issues are dealt with which will make the good stand out from the bad. 

Anyway, it's great that they're trying to make progress over the break on the tiling and I'm sure many builders wouldn't bother.

Progress to 7th December '14 & letter from the owner

Things are clearly winding down now.  The carpentry has been partially completed - kitchen cupboards and also cupboards in the bathrooms are in, along with the marble worksurfaces.  Further work has been completed to try to rectify the issues with the fireplace previously mentioned in other posts.  It looks like it's almost there, although the gyprock still isn't covering the fireplace walls.

We were told over a week ago that the tiling would commence earlier this week.  The only thing completed was the underfloor heating as far as we're aware, so hopefully tiling will be done before the end of next week, which signals the start of a 5 week shutdown.  Still cannot get over the fact that the industry takes 5 weeks off.  Most companies only provide for 4 weeks leave and that's for the entire year.

We received a letter from the owner of Alkira Homes last week.  Our blog was brought to Alkira's attention by a (prospective?) customer.  They noted that the posts could be damaging and harmful to their reputation and also in some instances defamatory.  We're pretty sure that defamation involves false statements... we absolutely believe we haven't made any false statements in this blog and have asked us to note what they believe to be factually inaccurate.

They asked that we remove an email we copied in to one of the posts.  The email did not contain any names (they were all removed), but we have now removed the email in good faith.

It's worth us noting for the record that everything we post we reasonably believe to be true, and everything written either reflects our opinion or a factual representation of things that have occurred.  We responded to Alkira and noted that if they feel like anything does not reflect their view of the facts, we're happy to correct the blog. 

We didn't go in to this process with any intent of giving people a hard time... we obviously want a smooth process and a good quality home.  We've been very deliberate in posting good things along with the bad to ensure we're balancing the posts whilst also recording all events.

It's our opinion that if Alkira doesn't want a damaged reputation, they should focus on lifting their quality of customer service.  They should also discontinue the practice of not righting their wrongs.  As previously posted, after we paid thousands of dollars to draft various plans, we learned that their sales staff who had confirmed in writing that the build time would be 36 weeks had made a mistake as the actual build time would be 45 weeks.  The cost to us in additional rent is substantial but Alkira refused to compensate us.  There have been a few other smaller things which have frustrated us including an absence of an apology after they tried to claim thousands of dollars from us which they were not legally entitled to claim under our contract.

Anyway, we're hopeful everything will be smooth sailing from hereon in, and if it is we have every intention of noting so in our future posts.  We really hope that we'll be in a position to write about a fantastic finished product which was completed way ahead of schedule!

Lock up - plenty of progress

It's been a while since the last update - sorry about that!  Lots has happened since the last update.  A few dramas but generally all has gone well.  The following is now done:

• interior walls and insulation
• ceilings
• internal and external doors (one issue here)
• architraves
• waterproofing in and around wet areas
• garage door
• guts of the kitchen (one problem encountered), including all carpentry (no bench tops / appliances etc yet)
• carpentry in bathrooms
• Bathtub in main bathroom
• Guts of the aircon throughout
• fireplace has been installed (a few times, see below)

Also, finally (after all the insurance dramas previously mentioned relating to the fallen tree) our electrical pole and wires have been installed and we now have an electrical supply to the house.

Fireplace / TV niches
We mentioned the issues in the last post.  A month on and it's still not resolved but we think it's now close.  They ended up having to moving the fireplace out and down, and build the wall out so that the cavity is wider... this meant we lost some space in the rumpus room which wasn't great.

Speaking with the site supervisor it was clear that the communication was poor from the main office and that Alkira seemed to have never had to install the set up we asked for in any other house.  Bear in mind that the set up we asked for is on display at Kellyville and you can understand our frustration.

Kitchen issue
Not so much of a big deal but frustrating.  We specifically asked that we have a deep drawer under the bench so that we could fit a few bins in it.... we didn't want our bins out in the open and we previously lived in a property where they were concealed within a deep drawer until - it worked really well that way.

Anyway, they told us during the design phase that they'd be in touch nearer the time to discuss the design if they encountered any problems with it.  You've guessed it... they didn't contact us and went ahead with fitting in out without designing it how we specified.  We now have a strange 'U' shaped deep drawer which you can't really use for anything.  We've requested they fix things up and we need to meet them on site shortly to discuss... more to come later.

Door issue
Again, not a big one but another thing to have to work through...  during design with home option gallery we selected our internal doors.  We chose a sliding cavity door for one of the doors because we didn't want it opening outwards in to the hallway, and it couldn't open inwards due to the interior design.  We were told by home options gallery that the internal doors we selected couldn't be used for a sliding door, so we had to select a plain door as a compromise.

Fast forward to now - we're told by the carpenters on site that there's nothing wrong with selecting the matching internal door and that it could be fitted as a sliding door.  We say great and ask them to fit it.  We're then told it'd cost $240 for the new door... a whopping $180 increase on the $60 / door upgrade cost from the time of selections.  We're advised the increase is due to 'admin costs' and because they'd already purchased the other door.  We argue that we received incorrect advice from home options gallery.  We're then told that Alkira no longer uses home options gallery (for these type of reasons) and after some negotiation we ended up paying $180 for the matching door.  We could/maybe should've fought it harded because Alkira is ultimately responsible for the companies they chose to outsource to, but decided to focus on the fireplace and kitchen issues and pay the extra $120...

We're told that the tiling isn't too far off now.  The site supervisor is now a bit more chatty with us which is great so we're getting much better information and guidance and we now tend to avoid the construction office.  We still think February is an achievable move in date, although March is looking more realistic due to the stupid 5 week shutdown (wish I had 5 weeks off!!).


 

Last few weeks to 1st Nov'14 - gyprocking, cornices, fireplace problems

It's great to see the rooms take shape now.  You get a real sense of the dimensions and natural light throughout the house.  You also get to start imagining the fun to come decorating and furnishing the different rooms.

In the last few weeks, the main things to occur were

• finishing installation of all of the insulation (we upgraded this throughout for sound and heat and they installed all the right stuff)
• gyprocking throughout - almost all finished... just one issue mentioned below
• cornicing throughout

We're also advised that the kitchen is scheduled to commence on 12th November.  Our latest discussion with the site supervisor was promising - he's estimated March / April for completion and we're really hoping he's being conservative! 

They've just sent us the latest progress payment which means we're now officially on to the interior linings stage.  The time taken for that stage was by far the longest we've had so far... almost 11 weeks, vs 6-8 weeks guidance.  We're now at 29 weeks since contracts were signed.

Fireplace / TV niche issues
We're having a fireplace installed in an interior wall which separates our rumpus area from our theatre room.  It'll be a glass two-sided one so that both rooms benefit from the heating and aesthetics.  Above the fireplace on both sides, we requested a niche for a television.  The set up is identical to that in their Elyse 15 show home in Kellyville.  It was quoted clearly in the tender, including dimensions.

It was clear from looking at the framing for the wall in question that they'd not structured things correctly.  It transpired that the site supervisor didn't even know the show home had such a set up and had to call out the manufacturers of the fireplace to discuss placement, and safety related separation between the fireplace and TVs.  It seems like we'll now need to either have the TVs quite high on the wall, or instead have the niches built out, such that we lose around 100mm from each room. 

Bit strange that their display home can't actually be functionally replicated (the display home has fake TVs), and disappointing to learn of the issues so late on.  Hopefully fixing it won't delay the build.

Last few weeks to 19th October '14 - scaffolding down, waterproofing, frame approval

Few more things ticked off... certainly not a hive of activity but things continue to progress.  It's been two weeks since the last post.  In that time, we've resolved (we think at least) the fallen tree insurance claim issue and we'll cover that in another post.  We had the exterior almost completely finished and had the interior fit out commence.  We've also been told that insulation starts next week (exciting!), and gyprock gets delivered on 22nd.

The alfresco roof eaves were completed, along with a few other finishes touches on the exterior, and it was great to see the scaffolding come down so that we can properly see what the outside looks like.  It looks like there's just some painting to finish up now on the eaves.

Inside, things are moving on.  It seems the electrical roughing, plumbing, gas and aircon is now all in the walls and roof cavities.  The wet areas have been waterproofed also (we thought when they said waterproofing was scheduled that they meant the exterior / roof area was having something done to it).  The waterproofing seems to consist of a thick rubbery paint and a small lip around the edge of all of the bathrooms, which is obviously designed to prevent water leaking on to the frame if the bathroom floods.  It goes up around 6 inches.

We've largely given up trying to get a basic level of service and information out of the construction office now.  We were told from the start to route all queries through their office, but at the last time of asking for an update, we got next to nothing back from them. We therefore got in touch with our project manager.  He gave a simple short and clear response listing everything that was scheduled for the next few weeks which was great.  He's advised that lock up is pencilled for 4th November.  That will put this stage of the build at a few weeks over plan, but overall we're still within their estimates given the earlier stages completed ahead of guidance.  We still think Feb/Mar '15 is realistic for receipt of the keys.


 

External selections information

Now that the exterior has been completed, I've had a few people comment on and ask about our selections.  Thanks for showing interest!   Below is a summary of what we went for...

Bricks:  Austral Urban One Silver
Roof Tiles:  Monier traditional flat profile caper
Windows:  Anodic silver grey frame
Fascia & downpipe: Colorbond dune
Gutter: colorbond woodland grey
Front entry door:  Hume Savoy XS26 in Cabot's jarrah
Garage door:  Decowood western red cedar (woodgrain textured finish), slimline style

Anything else you want details on, let us know.

The week that was - to 5th October '14

Few new pics below.  No communication on the fallen tree / insurance claim all week.

You can see in the image of the rear of the house how low the stacker doors to the alfresco area are.  They're low because there are two sliding doors which meet in the corner, and we paid for a variation such that no column was required.  The removal of the column meant we needed a reinforced beam. The beam has caused the height of the doors to be lowered.  A real shame because we paid a fair bit to remove the column in order to open up the room and the low height of the doors closes it in.  They're only around 1.9m high.  This reminded us early concerns around not having 3D plans (and of course not having an architect or a savvy salesperson to consider these issues).  We've updated our general tips blog to cover this.

Pretty good week of progress.  Electrical wiring installed throughout.  The electrician was a good guy.... pretty simple really - he dropped us a text message before arriving, asking if we wanted to meet him and chat through what we had selected so that he had an idea of what we were trying to achieve. He then made a few suggestions on improvements.  He got the job done quickly and we were happy.  We'll use him for some work once the house is released to us.

The tiling on the last few sections of the roof were also completed.  Feels like we're now very close to lock up. 

We had a call from the interior tiling company, advising that our selection for the patio area had been discontinued so we'd have to go back to their store and re-select.  Not the end of the world, but pretty inconvenient given Alkira only use one tiling company and it's a 2 hour drive for us.  Another example of average customer service.  Can't be that hard to pick a couple of tiling companies to source from.  Anyway, on speaking to the tiling people, they advised that Alkira don't order the tiles until they have good visibility on having to install them... that was pleasing to hear whilst being a bit surprising as the gyprock isn't even up inside yet.