tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-218420962014-10-05T16:35:22.791+08:00My blog, my words, my thoughts, my opinions. Enjoy and SMILE!glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-22600990911883135252006-12-14T13:28:00.000+09:002006-12-14T13:30:51.703+09:00

I must apologise for the lengthy delay since my last post, the combined pressures of moving house, unpacking, housewarming (cleaning up after housewarming), more unpacking, re-arranging the unpacked stuff, trying to organise the air conditioning, yelling at the air conditioning salesman, more rearranging of unpacking and buying a kitten, has taken up more time the I anticipated.So, the house...

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-77891199107049632262006-11-06T13:37:00.000+08:002006-11-06T13:38:57.387+08:00

Well, the PCI has been and gone, the 10 day deadline has been and gone and we are still waiting for things to start (let along finish!). On the Saturday after our PCI meeting (which was on the Friday) I spent some time at the house and I noticed a few things that I (and my building inspector) missed, 4 things in total:1) The brick paving to the driveway was poorly laid, no sand between the pavers

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-21226361612585271912006-10-25T14:58:00.000+08:002006-10-25T15:00:22.038+08:00

Well, I haven't been sent to jail. The PCI Meeting on Friday was fairly trouble free and successful. It didn't get off to the best of starts though, our inspector for some reason thought the meeting was at 2:30 as opposed to 2:00, so he was late arriving.Our supervisor was already there when we turned up, fitting the bathroom door of all things. We went through each room together and I pointed

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-62086453672793214402006-10-16T09:12:00.000+08:002006-10-18T10:29:52.975+08:00

Well 5 days to go before its all over!! (See - even after all this time I still haven't lost my optimistic outlook!).The electrician has been and installed everything he should have (and something he shouldn't have - but more on that later), the sand has been delivered and the block landscaped for the paving that needs to go down, and only the gas related plumbing is left to be completed (all of

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-11292893512428614252006-10-04T13:35:00.000+08:002006-10-04T13:36:02.469+08:00

Well the tilers have been and completed their work, and on a Sunday no less! We were over at the house on Saturday afternoon looking at paint samples and the tiles were not done, and then we went back on Sunday afternoon because we still couldn't make up our mind and the tiling was done.. on a Sunday morning.. I'm stunned.Plus the fence was FINALLY removed last Friday and it is very obvious that

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-71699936026942511982006-09-27T10:26:00.001+08:002006-09-27T10:26:54.660+08:00

As you know we have a new supervisor now (our third) and the word from him, relayed to us via our Client Liasion Officer (almost our third) is that our PCI Meeting should be on the 20th of October. Now if any one knows just what 'PCI' stands for I would love to know, as I doubt in this case that it stands for Periphial Connection Interface. I sat here trying to think up some amusing building

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-69927610903918591522006-09-21T08:26:00.000+08:002006-09-21T08:41:04.730+08:00

Well, I survived International Talk Like A Pirate Day but it was a close run thing!Anyways, back to the house...The blog title for this post come from the first thing that ran through my head when I recieved an email from my Client Liasion Officer (ahh, I still chuckle when I say that) at Ventura the relevant part in the email was this line "Just a note to let u know that you have a new

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-48538386773489065882006-09-19T10:10:00.000+08:002006-09-19T10:16:09.237+08:00

Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrghwww.talklikeapirate.comIts also known in my house as "If You Dare Talk like a Pirate for the Whole Day, You'll Get a Wooden Leg Up Your Roger" Day, or IYDTLAPFTWDYGAWLUYR Day, which is quite pithy don't you think.I will refrain from making any of the obvious snide comments about Pirates and todays Builders...

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-3134375517336521672006-09-18T15:23:00.000+08:002006-09-18T15:25:38.340+08:00

Just cause I can :-)Technorati ProfileI have little to say on the house at the moment, hopefully as I speak (type?) the orangu tang ... err I mean plumber... is moving the dishwasher cold water tap to its correct position, and the tilers are, well, tiling.More to follow... as always.

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-31300139390647464022006-09-11T09:16:00.000+08:002006-09-11T09:18:59.795+08:00

Well the Tiler turned up as planned, on time and ready to go... bugger me! We had a quick chat about where the tiles were going and which bits had the feature/border tiles and which didn't and they were off. By the end of the first day they had built the hobs around the two baths and under the vanities, screed both floors and waterproofed the showers. I was impressed. I was less impressed

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-24672010884598464352006-09-04T13:48:00.000+08:002006-09-04T13:51:31.741+08:00

Well it would seem that we are in the PES (Perpetual End Stage) of house building....Definition:PES - The state a house ends up in when the end of the construction is in sight, but the date supplied to the house owner by the builder is forever moving just out of reach, this situation is also known as "The End of The Raindow" Stage - you can see it, but you never get any closer to it!For the last

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-38929945822457032782006-08-22T11:34:00.000+08:002006-08-22T11:35:25.101+08:00

The main reason I'm writing this post is simply because I can write it using Google's new Writely word processor (all hail the mighty Google!). Writely (www.writely.com) is a online word processor that allows direct posting to a number of blogs (blogger being on of them) and considering my usual posting habit was to write everything up in MS Word first and then cut and paste into the blogger text

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-1155518556738992432006-08-14T09:17:00.000+08:002006-08-14T09:22:36.750+08:00

Well the house has been locked up and my supervisor has given me a deadline of approximately 6 weeks until the house is completed. I’m not going to hold my breath, but its looking positive especially since they have a tiler organised.There are still some issues that need sorting out (surprise surprise!) such as:1) The dishwasher issue (lack of waste water drain) is still an issue and nothing has

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-1154392747034527852006-08-01T08:36:00.000+08:002006-08-07T12:01:58.236+08:00

It seems to be Ventura’s policy to change supervisors at a whim, we have just been informed of the fact that our supervisor that has looked after (I use the term loosely here) the construction has been moved into a different department and we now have a new supervisor I have never met. Oh, and I use the term ‘informed’ in its most generous sense, where we actually only ‘informed’ when I asked

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-1153121509962718952006-07-17T15:31:00.000+08:002006-07-17T15:31:49.973+08:00

Well, one good thing came out of Thursdays on-site meeting with Ventura…. I wasn’t arrested for throttling anyone JNow, on to the meeting itself. I must admit from the start that I approached the meeting prepared for a minor confrontation, I had emails backing up the claims I had previously made and dates for everything etc, which may have been a bit over the top but this is my house and I want

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-1152579805586253752006-07-11T08:53:00.000+08:002006-07-11T09:03:25.600+08:00

I am SO riled up at the moment (or more accurately I was when I wrote this a day or so ago), I need to find a defenceless kitten to yell at or something.I just had a phone call from Ventura (a stand in Client LIASON(HA!) officer) today. She wants to book a on-site meeting between me and my brick supervisor which we have pencilled it in for 13th Thursday.During the phone call she mentioned (in no

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-1152165886959772852006-07-06T14:02:00.000+08:002006-07-09T11:23:09.766+08:00

Another stage down, another inspection completed. And this one went fairly well actually.In the words of my building inspector the roof carpentry is “excellent” and “above spec” in many areas (like the use of long bolts instead of nails in some high load parts of the roof and using thicker stronger timber then the standard in areas). So that is quite good news.However the colorbond sheeting on

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-1150441634253671912006-06-16T15:06:00.000+08:002006-06-16T15:07:14.273+08:00

Yesterday I had my own electrical contractors (as apposed to Ventura’s) go out to the building site to start the installation of the house’s Cat6 and coaxial cabling setup (the engineer in my is drool, seriously).Maybe its just a case of tepid water tasting like pure heaven to a man dying of thirst, but these guys are wonderful (as compared to Ventfury… sorry, Ventura). Met them on site, walked

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-1149831848716087422006-06-09T13:25:00.000+08:002006-06-09T13:44:08.730+08:00

Took the day off work on Thursday to meet the Houspect building inspector onsite because finally the brickwork has been completed.About half an hour into the inspection guess who turns up, the missing roof guys (who should have started on Tuesday, but until I wasn't even sure they existed). Well they turn up and get straight to work (rather industrious) claiming they will be able to roof the

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-1149145265658549402006-06-01T14:44:00.000+08:002006-06-01T15:01:05.683+08:00

Well tuesday has come and gone (for those that arent paying attention, it was 2 days ago!.. wake up!)That was the "we will be finished by this date, really, honestly!" date, needless to say they are not finished. but in this case it was raining constantly all Monday and Tuesday so I can forgive that, hopefully they will be finished today, since today is 2 days since the promised end date, and 2

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-1148881117797341792006-05-29T13:29:00.000+08:002006-06-05T14:36:45.543+08:00

Some times it feels like manning the barricade I tell ya!According to the actual brickies (whom I spoke to on Saturday morning) they will be finished on Tuesday the 30th. Of course this was before it absolutely bucketed down with rain most of monday morning, so assuming no work will get done today then maybe just maybe the brick work will be finished on Wednesday....maybe...I tend to trust the

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-1148546527602084832006-05-25T16:08:00.000+08:002006-05-25T16:42:07.663+08:00

Well the 19th of May has been and gone and, you guessed it, the brick work has not been completed.Its now coming up to the 26th of May and in my completely unprofressional opinion it is not going to be finished this week, not unless they employ 4 or 6 builders for the next 2 days.Still to do before brick work is complete:The top two thirds of the interior wall of bed2 (they have done the wallto

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-1147827644051361872006-05-17T08:55:00.000+08:002006-05-17T09:00:44.063+08:00

Appearently the brick work will be finished this week, on the 19th of May....uhuh..They have the entire interior to START, and about 20m of exterior double brick to complete, so we shall see. But the timetable I have managed to grugingly extract from Ventura (its like pulling teeth from a comatosed elephant, really) states that the bricks will be complete on the 19th, the roof carpenter will

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-1147654572797245132006-05-15T08:54:00.000+08:002006-05-15T08:56:12.806+08:00

Oops, its been nearly a month since I posted here to say where the house is up to. If any one was reading this SORRY! Things just keep cropping up.So on to a quick summary1) We now have about 3/4 of the external double brick walls built. 2) The only reason I havent changed builders is because it would cost me more then it would cost them 3) We are still holding out for a october completion

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21842096.post-1145582766182211952006-04-21T09:08:00.000+08:002006-05-11T10:34:36.750+08:00

Well all the bricks have arrived (3 different types of bricks!) the steel lintels and various other pieces, so now we just need to wait from the brickies to turn up.On the soakwell side of things I have just about given up with it all together. I finally managed to get Ventura Homes to pass onto me the phone number of the guy installing the soakwells. I nice guy, quite happy to chat about what

glint.bladesonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08374843783593410616noreply@blogger.com