Saturday, June 29, 2013

Time Blurred.

Last Sunday morning I woke up feeling ill.  Physically ill.  I had not slept well (baby sick, so up half the night) and had woken before 06H00 concerned about the house.

We then made the decision to contact both PODS and our removalists to see if they come move the dates forward.  In the mean time, we went into overdrive and started packing the PODS in the off chance that they could.

They could.

Monday was a blur at work and at home and on Tuesday morning the PODS guy came to pick up the PODS and drop it off at the house.  Then it was a made dash back to the rental property to pack as much stuff as we possibly could for the movers that were now coming 10 days early.

Wednesday started with me finding our eldest child had left her car door open the night before (my car) and the battery was dead enough to stop the car starting... then finding out that when I had added my (second) car to my RACV portfolio, nobody had gone about asking if I wanted roadside assist on that vehicle (too).  So I took out roadside assist over the phone and waited the 90 minutes for the guy to arrive (he got there early as was there for like 2 minutes...).

We then found out that the booking alteration hadn't been 'locked in' with the removalists...and we started to...worry.  They said they were putting together a team and they'd be there about 4 hours late.  Eep.

Well... what a pleasure.  The team lead from Metro Movers was damn good.   I've moved house well over 30 times in my life... and it is not often that I've seen a guy go that little bit further in service.  Sorting out the balance of the fridge... holding the sideboard up so that my wife could fit protection to the base - after actually asking us if we wanted to put something on it to protect the wooden floors!  They put down blankets everywhere and did a good job.

So now we're in... trying to survive without taps in half the house.  We finally got a quote from UEH on Friday for the damage and stolen items, but now we have to get approval from the group insurer before UEH will do the work... so even more delays.

And then there's the fencing saga...but I'll leave that for another day.

This week has us deal with Telstra and FTTH...

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Day 1... ruined.

So we did handover on Friday afternoon, and before we'd even had a chance to move a thing in, someone had relieved us of several fittings.  Fittings that had been on site for several weeks...

Anyway... police, locksmith, insurance...all been done or being processed.

I'll post some photos once everything is repaired and in...

The monetary 'loss' is irrelevant really.  But the irony of moving to Australia to avoid crime...well... I'm sure it has many people in South Africa chuckling.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Not quite...

Hmm.  Apprehension was well founded.  I have my doubts that AL Windows could have performed the below poor quality of ... work?

Herewith a set of photos taken a week apart (sorry for the layout...), during which time it was claimed an AL Windows technician had repaired ALL the windows.  

In Summary, the person that worked on some of the windows:

1) Didn't protect the glass and has sprayed the windows in several places;
2) Didn't sand down the cuts;
3) Sprayed so much paint (guessing in an attempt to fill the cuts?) that the matt finish is now gloss in those areas and the paint has run in several spots.

The Before photos:


 


  




The After photos:



 
 

 

Saturday, June 8, 2013

End in sight?

Late on Friday afternoon I received a phone call from the site supervisor and he confirmed with me that:

a) AL Windows had sent a technician out to repair all the windows. 
b) The palm-sized chip out of the front patio has been repaired.
c) The last damaged kitchen panel has been replaced.
d) We can do our final inspection next Friday.

I have mixed feelings of joy and apprehension on everything being fixed.

-G

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Window Frames

We were told around 2 months ago, that the scratches to all the window frames could be easily fixed.  So when our first inspection rolled around we were surprised to still see the damage.

And then... having been told that everything had been complete - 4 weeks after the inspection, I went to check on Saturday...and alas, still nothing has been done...

On a side note, the clay in Eynesbury is really soft and when wet is like glue.  Good thing I took my rain boots with me when I walked around the house.