Bywater Grange Tower Extension Progress Notes

There are some changes and details here and here.

3 November - Tiling in Progress at last.

Now 15 October. Ensuite tiling has yet to begin. The tiler arrives and discovers a crack in the concrete covering the floor and designed to put slope on the floor towards the drain. Tiler claims that this is a problem because the concrete set too fast. This is a hard claim to believe as it only cracked as Kay went in there to clear the way for the tiler who finally called ahead to say he was coming. It was fine for the week before. I suspect that the floor flexes. Whose fault will it be if the tiles crack once the job is "done"? Tiler or builder?

This photo shows the shower pan... remember the one that broke in transit? This thing turns out to be no more than a slab of foam material. The tiler arrived to tile, but reported (correctly) that the pan was not fitted correctly and moved when he walked on it, so tiles would crack. Also the drain was not fitted low enough. Kay figured this was Jason's problem, so she let him know. Jason arrived the next day, pulled out sections, checked that the floor itself was solid, and put the sections he had cut out back in place, as shown in the photo. These are now glued down hard, and do not sink as you walk on them.

We now wait for the tiler's return to see if this is OK to tile.

In the mean time, I put hanging rode in the robe and jacket closet in our new bedroom, and I moved my clothes from the old master bedroom and Edwin's old room.

Kay was miserable much of today, mostly from trying to clean up after the continuous flow of tradesmen, none of whom think to clean up after they finish.

On the 26th the electrician came and wired up what he could. Then he came back to fix the phone that was left unconnected (good thing we had Skype!) and the next day he came back to restore the power to Edwin's room, pool and spa.

On the 27th the tiler came again, pointed out that the shower pan still was not installed correctly and the drain was still mounted too high, and the grate was scratched. Jason came to fix the pan but mysteriously missed fixing the other bits. Kay gave up trying to do Jason's job and asked him to do it.

Next I installed the lock and closer on my study door, which took some effort as the door has been hung about 1mm too close to the jamb and it required too much force for the closer to close it.

Andrew emailed us suggesting that our perceptions of the quality of service did not reflect quality so much as preference. I was pretty short with him, but then I have first hand experience with tradesmen onboth sides of the Pacific. I sat down to type up the littany of cockups that Kay has been diligently writing down. After the three points above I realised that the message was clear!

On Saturday 22nd of September, the carpet man came and finished carpeting the extension. We moved into the bedroom, although the stairs and one wall have not had their final coat of paint. No electricity yet, and the bathroom has only just had the shower pan installed. The power cord is our source of power for the bed, lights and clock.

The plumber will take 3 days to waterproof the bathroom, then the tiler and plumber can finish it off. When anyone flushes a toilet in the place we hear a concert in our bedroom, because the pipes are in place but there is no toilet and u-bend.

We bought the lock and hydraulic closer for my study. Once the painters have finished (Monday?) the heat engine man can come and finish. I think the builders have forgotten the duct for air entry to the attic exchanger, but the lower rooms will then be ready. The electrician is due on Wednesday... my study should have power, air conditioning, and will finally be usable and complete.

We have decided that Merinda will move into the "playroom", and Edwin into our old Master bedroom, leaving his old room as library/storage, and Merinda's old room as guest room. This is on the condition that the dining room becomes a toy-free zone, and that toys do not overnight in the sunken lounge.

On the 17th Tony arrived. Kay and I moved back into the old master bedroom from the lounge to make room for Tony, the old master bedroom having been re-walled and re-plastered by this stage.

On the 17th and 18th the carpet man recarpeted what rooms he could, but the carpet supplier had delivered too little carpet... and so we wait until the end of the week when a new roll is to arrive, and we find out how different is that dye lot. We assembled our bed in the extension, but there is no power there and we cannot move the office in because it remains uncarpeted and unpowered.

The painters should be done by the end of the week when Amelia arrives. Once painted, the electrician can finish and connect power. (Theory.) Then we will await only the completion of the bathroom and installation of robe fittings to move up there to sleep. With luck this will make room for Amelia when she arrives on Saturday.

At least the granite and sink are in the ensuite.

It seems to be universally acknowledged that Kiwi tradesmen are apalling, but this is not featured strongly in publicity literature.

By the 14th of September the stairs had been filled in. Kay bribed a tradesman to work all weekend so that the plastering was done by Monday... the day Tony is due to arrive.

Sadly, the shower pan was broken in transit to the plumber, meaning that he could not do the ensuite on 14th, and the tiler could not complete it on the Monday 17th, and there will be at least a week of delay there. The plumber informed us by-the-way, having assumed that Jason would have told us. We told the tiler not to bother coming. Jason seems to have overlooked telling us, or the tiler, who was not impressed.

By the 10th of September progress had been made, but much less than you might expect.

Kay chased Jason up, and he promised to phone plasterers to find out why they did not show up, to ask where shower pan had got to, and he explained that the tiler was waiting for the shower pan, and so forth. The staircase man turned up, and the stair rail guy was booked for later in the week. She also chased up Waikato Stonecraft about granite counter again (they were supposed to callback Monday). The door at the base of stairs opened the wrong way and that was fixed. We could find no power points or lights (or cabling) in the attic, so this got added to the electrician's list (we trust).

Kay is effectively managing a lot of the arrangements, and this is stressing her out a great deal... she was crying when I got home tonight.

On Monday September 3 the workmen broke through to join the extension and the main house. The finishing is supposed to take only one week.

We switched to sleeping in the loungeroom.

By Tuesday morning it was evident that the corridors only aligned on the window side, and the cornices that they were installing were square chunks of wood, not matching the rest of the house. The workmen disappeared on Wednesday morning.

By 30 August the work resumed, the delay coming from the fact that the wood was too damp to apply the drywall boards. After days and days of dehumidifiers and heaters, an inspection revealed less than 20% moisture content. In one day most of the walls were covered. The stairs must soon go in, and then they break into the existing house to move its walls and form the main corridor through. No photos of the attic, there is no hole in the ceiling yet!

Humble occupants getting very tired of the rate of progress. First guest in 2 weeks.

By 20 August the scaffolding was removed. Work falls to a halt because inspection fails on grounds of wood too wet. (Council actually a good thing at these moments, protecting owner from builder.)

By 15 August the windows were in save the skylight flashing, the corner woodwork was finished, the external painting finsihed, and inside the plumbing and electrical work was all done up to the point where internal walls could be finished.

Not until August 8 did the windows arrive, and this did not include the all-important skylight, plus the bathrom window glass was frosted contrary to spec. The electrical was all done in the mean time, up to what can be done without water-tightness.

By 18 July there was more cladding and internal structure and holes sized for the windows... ready for electrical, external painting, and plumbing.

By 17 July there was a whole roof and a lot of cladding. The cedar cladding will weather to match the rest of the house.

By 16 July there was half a roof, and a bit of cladding appearing.

By 12 July there had been deliveries of roofing materials, and a couple of dry days but only one of which saw workers. At the end of that day, we had Japanese-style walls. Spots the cats coming to check out the latest new smells.

Unfortunately the next week it rained a lot. It was the 6th of July before the scaffolding for the roofers was in place.

By 28 June we had an attic and roof framed up! Sadly this required another tree to be turned into firewood. If you look carefully at the picture you can see the truncated trunk.

By 27 June we had a second story floor and some second story framing in place.

After another day the framing of the first floor was obvious, and the framing of the second floor was stacked and ready to go.

Bugger all happened while we were overseas. This is a major lesson: you have to keep on people's back if you want any kind of service in New Zealand.

A day after the workmen actually started, the subfloor of the ground floor existed.

May 17, 2007: Here you see the pylons driven into the ground. The house shook like a scene from Jurassic Park all day.

May 16, 2007: The day the work is to start. Here is the "before view". Kay had to turn two of the trees into firewood. The pile of logs in the foreground are the pylons that will form foundations.