Happy Anniversary

To us!

It was this long weekend last year that sent Rayleen and I on the home building adventure. We're off to celebrate with an ice cream.

Thanks to www.sugardoodle.net for unknowingly letting me use their graphic.

Customer Service 1 - The Reply

I received a reply to my email to SPH:

" A***** is aware of this and will be contacting National Steel to swap this around. The wrong frames were delivered (twice) ,this (SPH must mean bricking in a door frame even though it's wrong) is a standard building practice to keep things moving (But the bricklayers have a heap of work to do elsewhere), He will let you know when things are rectified . "

So SPH can talk the talk, hopefully they can walk the walk!
(These are my comments)

Taking Shape

The house is really starting to take shape right now, there is a little more work to do with the exterior but most of the internal walls are finished. At the front of the house the bricklayers have yet to finish (or even start) the portico, so things look a little 'flat' there.


There used to be external bricks where that pole is, was about 12 courses high. A couple of the bricks were a little wonky, nothing that anybody else would notice, but it would just bug me because I knew the brickwork wasn't right. I was not going to bother calling SPH and ask for it to fixed, it was only minor and besides, two wonky bricks out of around seventeen thousand is not a bad effort. Well, the bricklayers forgot to put this pole in and the existing work had to be removed. So, in a way I had the problem fixed without even having to ask. :)


The view across what will become the al fresco area into the Dining Room / Kitchen. Or, the other side of the pole :)


Looking into the powder room. Yes, that is the door in question. As you can see from the picture, the door will open into the middle of the room. Not something that would make getting to the toilet easy.


The view from my 'computer room'. The gap on the left is the passage leading to the entry, the door fram is for the linen cupboard, which is where I will be keeping a lot of my IT and network gear. The door right in front leads into Bedroom 4. On the right are the doorways for the Bathroom and Bedroom 3.


The ensuite begins to look more the way it should. This is where the vanity will go, the bath is opposite this, to the right of the photo.

Customer Service 1

Rayleen and I are about to find out how SPH deals with rectifying mistakes.

While wandering from room to room this morning , oohing and ahhing over what has been done this week, we noticed the frame for the powder room door has the hinges on the left, not on the right as is on the plans. The door is meant to open against a wall.

Will email SPH later tonight, so I have proof that I alerted them to the issue, then phone early Monday morning. The wall this door is in, isn't completed yet, so getting in early means less fix-it work for the bricklayers.

It needs to be fixed as the way it is now would make getting into and leaving the powder room a pain in the b*tt!

Signs of Life

I have been stalking the letter box for the last week or two, probably longer than that to be truthful. Waiting for 'the plans'!

Received a letter from SPH today ..... yippee!

..... your preliminary plans and other relevant documentation have now been completed ..... yae!

..... take approximately two weeks ..... d'oh

..... provisional sums will be adjusted accordingly ..... hmm

So, basically SPH sent Rayleen and I a letter saying that they're not finished yet and that we have to wait another two weeks. Oh well, I have been told that this is the boring part of the build process, just hope the adjustment to the provisional sums isn't too drastic!

The House in Question

Rayleen and I have decided upon a design called "The Sovereign" by Scott Park Homes, a West Australian builder. A company who incidently built the home we are in at the moment and built my nephew's and his wife's current home for them. So, from what we have learnt, it should be a good build - but will keep my fingers crossed.



The dotted areas are where we have up-specced to high ceilings, 31 course instead of the usual 28 (I think)