DAY 85 - A catch up with the site super

Thursday 8th November.

I happened upon our site super this morning which was great as I haven't seen him for weeks, even though we've talked on the phone.  We spent some time going through the house and I was able to ask question and point out things we were not quite happy with.

In particular the sink which went in yesterday and I've thought about half the night.  He agreed that it didn't look right and on closer inspection thought there was a problem with the sink and it was bowed.  He will get the stone masons back later today to pull it out and I have to take it up with the sink supplier.  Because we've provided the sink ourselves, it's our problem and our cost to fix it.

After a call to Abey warranty section, they say the warranty is void once the sink is installed.  Any defects are supposed to be picked up before it goes in.  Who holds a spirit level up to a sink rim?  Seriously!  They also said that the sink shouldn't just be siliconed in place but also have the clips installed which clamp it to the bench.

I met the stonemasons this afternoon and after about an hour of trying, we couldn't get the sink flush with the bench tops and can't get the clips on because there's only about 10mm either side of the sink and the side panels of the cupboards.  This is really frustrating!  I had them take out the sink and I'm trying to work out if it's a sink problem or if the person who drew the plans for the cupboards didn't allow enough room for it to be installed properly.

Another call to the Abey warranty section but they were closed for the day.  I managed to get a hold of the local showroom even though it was after hours and I've emailed him (the manager working late?) some pics to see whether it's a defect in the sink.

 

A plaster also came by with a couple of hours to fill and I was able to explain the patching needed to the aircon vents.  He decided it would be better to draw the circles over the square holes and patch only the corners rather than the whole square.  This is so the patching doesn't get damaged when the circles are cut out.  Sounds ok to me.

The wet sealers came today to do another coat in the bathrooms before tiling. Tomorrow morning I meet with the tilers to go over the tiling layout. Can't wait to see the tiles in the wet areas installed!

I spoke to the site super about a possible handover before Christmas.  He will know more in the next couple of weeks, but that this stage it's looking unlikely :(  Boo hoo!  They are not doing any handovers after 14th December as they close on 21st December.  Last year they were doing handovers right up to closing which caused problems when they had to get trades in to fix any little defects up.  That's understandable, though it may mean work will stop for about 5 weeks until they open in early January.  I did ask him whether we could lay our main floor tiles during that closure and he said it's possible, so at least we can have something progress so when they come back it's a week we've saved after the house is ours.  Our lease is up late January so we really want to have the house by mid January so we can move in without the pressure of being in between.  If not, we're camping out at our new house!

Of course we'd love hand over this year, but we still don't have a front door as it's on back order!  Our incorrect bricks still need fixing, and there's all the fitout to be done.  The little things being held up make it feel like it will still be forever.  Though not having a front door means we get to keep going and seeing all the stuff being down.

On the upside, it will be a more relaxed Christmas without having to fit in a move :)


113 days to go... today was a long one