Thursday, February 9, 2012

Day 202: More progress and ... some quandary

Only two days after my last post, I wouldn't have thought much that there would be some activity inside the house other than more plastering ... and maybe the cornices.  We were expecting the stairs to be installed this week, although, I do remember our SM telling us that it will be Thursday.  Ah, that would be tomorrow, we're hoping.  But something was very obvious as I passed by the house again tonight.


Our front portico has got a lid, or in technical terms ... a cantilevered flat roof under construction.

But wait ... there's more ... let's go around the side of the house, shall we ...



Peering thru the Laundry door window.
It's lock-up.  I got no access into the house anymore :(

and what's this blocking the door???
CABINETS!  We got cabinets!!!

Now peering thru the Kitchen's horizontal picture window.
MORE CABINETS!

Wow! That is quite a pleasant surprise.  But hang on ... is that a bank of 3 pot drawers? And another one on the left? Uh-oh.

THE QUANDARY ...

Just right after the signing of the final contract, there were a number of variations that were agreed upon between M and us.  All documented and signed by all parties concerned.  One of these variations is the provision of 3 banks of 2 pot drawers (in lieu of the banks of 3 pot drawers as specified in the construction drawings).  We previously saw them from a display home and we loved the look and practicality of it.  Besides, my wife wants to fit most of our pots and pans into these deep pot drawers, specifically a 20cm high pressure cooker.

Since the final construction drawings have already been drawn and signed previously, Metricon still accepted the variation, credited us the difference in price, but they did not have to amend the plans.  The person who would do the ordering (CM?) will know what to do, and so we thought.

Now, I haven't told my SM about this, yet.  We can't.  Not yet.  We're not meant to be on the site without the SM. Right?  I will have to take this up with my SM on our weekly meeting this Friday (have to act surprised and looking like we just noticed it then).

But that's not the quandary.  This is ...

Should we reject this, ask them to follow what's on the signed contract variation, and risk delay?  Or ...
Should we just accept it, and maybe ask them something in return as compensation?  And ... risk being reminded all the time by the better half that this is not what she wanted ... for a long, long time.

Will a 20cm high pressure cooker fit on one of the 3 pot drawers?  If it fits, we could potentially compromise.

Does anyone have a 20cm high Fissler pressure cooker and can you fit it on one of your 3 pot drawers?

Shall we continue the tour?

OVERHEAD CUPBOARDS!

Peering in from the Outdoor Room ...
our Ash White crystal gloss overhead cupboards ... standing upside-down on the Family Room floor.

Peering in thru the tri-slide door glass ...
more cupboards and drawers

On the background, leaning by the wall, it looks like a wooden base for the kitchen island Caesarstone bench.
The previous picture above, you can actually see the cutouts for the double undermount sink.

Now peering thru the french doors in  the Sitting Room.
More cabinetry components for I'm not sure where.
 LOOK MA, NO LADDER!!!

We can now see some of the cabinets temporarily stowed in the Laundry (left side),
to the right, closer to the middle is where the stairs going to be constructed
(oh, look! No more ladder! S&A must be building the stairs pretty soon. Tomorrow, perhaps.)

And lastly, peering thru the Guest Room window, more cupboards.
These look like for the powder room, ensuites and bathroom.  These are the non-glossy laminates. 

Not sure what those are against the wall (on the right).
And after taking these photos from outside the house, I went home to tell my wife the good news ... and some bad news.

Have a good week all!


4 comments:

  1. We were on site all the time so we could pick up things like this in advance I'd tell your SM there is a problem before the cabinets get installed otherwise it'll be harder to rectify and you wouldn't wnat your wife moaning for the next 20yrs everytime she can't fit her pots and pans in the drawer

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  2. Hi guys - nice progress on the house. We have 3 pot drawers, and ours are large enought to fit a wok and lid, or a big deep pasta pot without a problem. Quite like them! Another thing with 2 pot drawers is that they get very heavy if you load them up and the rails can sag. I would bring in your big pot to the next inspection and see if it fits, or just bring a ruler and see how tall the drawers are? GOod luck! T&T

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  3. Hi Guys,

    You have a right to visit your building site to check progress. Here's the Consumer Affairs website on the topic...

    http://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/housing-and-accommodation/building-and-renovating/buying-and-building-process/checking-building-progress

    If you want the pot drawers and have the signed paperwork to prove it, then get them changed. Especially if your pressure cooker doesn't fit!

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  4. Thanks for the advice everyone. They're all greatly appreciated.

    We had our meeting with our SM this morning on-site and it all went well. Cabinets have all been installed and it's good seeing these in place. With the exception of the 3 pot drawers, of course.

    We've raised the issue of M not putting the 2 pot drawers as per our contract variation, and told our SM to have them replaced as per the contract. But, we've also put in a proposal for a compromise just to put both sides (M and us) on a win-win situation. We put in an option for M to retain one of the banks of 3 pot drawers in place (appliance tower) to minimise what they need to re-fit AND we put forward a slight variation request for the remaining banks of pot drawers (either side of the oven). Taking into consideration what T&T had mentioned re heavy load, we requested to have the 3 pot drawer configuration replaced with a 1x drawer + 2x pot drawer configuration (1 small, 2 deep drawers), instead. Fingers crossed, hopefully, our CSC will accept this proposal (additional cost to us, I would presume). Otherwise, we would just have M replace the cabinets as per the original contract variation (at no extra cost to us).

    We'll keep you posted. Cheers!

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