Provincial Homes - Kavehman's Modified Fairlight 31: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Unfortunately during the building process you will come across problems, things you don't like and just down right unethical behaviour. But it all comes back to how the builder responds.

There will be good trades, there will be bad trades, and of course lazy trades. Unfortunately we experienced all three. But the outcomes has overall been positive, with caring head office staff doing all they can to make things right.

The BAD

3 weeks after we did our initial PCI, we received our final invoice. Weird I thought because there was still what I consider to be some major work done. With the big one being 3 articulation joints to be installed.

I tried to call our site supervisor on the day we received our invoice, only to go through to a new site supervisor, he assured me he would get our old SS to give me a call the following day. In a bit of a panic I drove over to the house to see if anything had been done. I was in disbelief 3 weeks had passed, and not a single thing had been done. I guess the only credit I can give our SS is that at least he didn't rip off all the little tabs claiming that work had been done.

Out of frustration I complained to our original sales consultant, who assured me he would get the construction manager to call me.

Our original SS called me the next day and I made it clear I wasn't happy, he assured me he would have everything done by Tuesday blaming the door with a hole in it. He seemed to be really fixated on that one door ignoring all the other problems.

Impossible I thought but I gave him the benefit of doubt. I spoke with the construction manager who assured me I would be happy in the end.

The UGLY

I drove by the house on Monday (public holiday) to see if anything had been fixed yet, well it looked like the articulation joints had been installed but upon closer inspection. He had gone ahead and sawed in fake articulation joints. I was in disbelief. Thoughts of lawyers, Tribunals, and fair trading flashed through my head. Needless to say I was pissed.

Firing off an e mail to the head of construction at Provincial with plenty of images attached, I made it clear I wanted to do the PCI again and start over. Thankfully our original site supervisor is out of the picture and we will no longer have to deal with him. He is no longer employed by Provincial.

The construction manager didn't call me back till late in the afternoon with an action plan in place, and promised me he was looking after everything personally. He did apologise and was pretty disappointed in the way my house was being handed over to us. He asked us for a week to sort the issues out and we could do PCI again.

The GOOD

Well the positive outcome is that the bigger issues have now been fixed with a few minor in comparison things left to do. I haven't been able to check the brickwork closer to the eaves to make sure the bricklayer actually did fix the error.

The construction manager in 1 week managed to get the majority of our issues sorted out, he stayed in contact throughout the week to let me know what progress was being made which was fantastic. His attitude made it clear to me just how bad our original site supervisor was. Thankfully the majority of trades we had were good, as I imagine things could have been a lot worse.

PCI Round 2. The issues identified at PCI round 2 were.

Paint touch-ups... Moreso under the bathroom doors were not painted, if unpainted they will suck up moisture and eventually stick.
Guttering along the rear still to be replaced.
Downpipe still to be painted
3 scratched glass windows still to be fixed
Sink plugs to be replaced. The cleaners threw them out apparently
Sink overflow beauty trim to be replaced. Cleaners again.
Toilet bases to be siliconed.
Shower trim to be installed so water doesn't flow out.

Hopefully these will be fixed before handover. I'm still not completely happy with the brickwork to be honest. It could have definitely been cleaned better, and from my photos I don't think the brick cleaner bothered re-cleaning any of the brickwork near the eaves. Maybe I won't notice it with time.

Overall things are starting to look a lot better, you do tend to notice a lot of details when building, and it's the little things that start to annoy you, but I reckon once all the landscaping goes in. You probably won't notice a lot of things.

On with the photos.

Photos taken during overcast weather.