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@MajorRage that's shithouse, people suck.
Building is stupid stressful, but then something new happens, and it gets exciting again.
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@MajorRage are the light issues (assume you mean daylight angles for your building blocking light on thiers) not covered under the Council bylaws or plans?
I know when I worked in Building Compliance here, saw some really amazing and oddly designed homes to get around daylight angles, more so as a lot of land here is not flat don't have straight boundary lines, although many new sub divisions on smaller packed in sections are mainly square or rectangle.
Buildign process is odd, for so long it seems nothing is happening, then all of a sudden so much happens, then it slows...rooms look tiny at points in the build too.
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@taniwharugby said in Housing hornets' nest:
@MajorRage are the light issues (assume you mean daylight angles for your building blocking light on thiers) not covered under the Council bylaws or plans?
I know when I worked in Building Compliance here, saw some really amazing and oddly designed homes to get around daylight angles, more so as a lot of land here is not flat don't have straight boundary lines, although many new sub divisions on smaller packed in sections are mainly square or rectangle.
Buildign process is odd, for so long it seems nothing is happening, then all of a sudden so much happens, then it slows...rooms look tiny at points in the build too.
It looks like nothings happening to the client , I had this jackass come in early one morning snivelling that progress wasn't what he expected and what had I been doing? I patiently explained what I had in fact been doing and it didn't seem to register so I had to explain it again and then rather impatiently one more final time. A couple of weeks later he realised he was wrong and apologised to the guy I was contracting to rather than me, the main contractor didn't have a clue what he was on about so he called me and I explained and he replied "what a fuckwit" , I agreed and he rang the guy back and told him not to get in my face again. The fuckwit also designed the house himself and had a toilet on the same wall as his deck, rather handy if you're having a barbie you can just open the window and get someone to pass you in a burger while you're taking a dump and keep up with the guests conversation too .
tldr? It might look like fuck all happened, but tedious crap like nailing off anchor pile kits, straightening walls etc looks like fuck all.
Edit, sorry TR if that looks like a dig, it wasn't . Your comment triggered me.
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@Baron-Silas-Greenback said in Housing hornets' nest:
We are having an interesting time of things in regards to life plans and housing at the moment.
We have a house (3 bedrooms plus office) 1 bathroom and extra toilet.. pretty modest. Has views over harbor and top half of mount and also part of golf course, plus biggish yard with fruit trees, trampoline, tree house etc. All very middle class suburban, but in a nice area 2 minutes drive to CBD.
We also own a rental in same neighborhood.
We also own a rural residential piece of land inside the city limits, about 8000 sqm. Nice spot, very nice area got a few hundred sqm of native bush etc enough room for pool, tennis court, pony/sheep etc.We did plan on living there....
We are currently building a house on it, about 250 sqm, so not huge McMansion, but definitely nicer than our current house.
But now.. we are just going to build and sell. We basically had a choice of living in a very expensive house... or not.
We have chosen to sell it clear all our mortgages and have a large wedge of cash in the bank, and keep our rental. But we will still be living in quite a modest house. I think it is an age thing. I just really like the idea of not having a mortgage, having money in the bank and a rental giving us goods money every week.... alot more than owning a super flash house. I drive a clapped out Kia and the wife drives a little Suzuki Ario.. we probably wont change cars either.
Basically i think we really look like we are struggling, and to be honest it is weird when I pick my kids up form school in my crappy old car and are surrounded by massive flash SUV's, I do feel like i m pretty poor! Makes no logical sense.
Now I am just rambling, but I do find the whole finances vs images social dynamics massively fascinating. Most people do not not how well off or poor they really are. we have some friends who are on a continual mission to be in the best house they can afford, always totally leveraged, I suspect they will likely do quite well .. as long as house prices don't crash.
Yep this is a fascinating issue and I experience exactly the same feelings. Personally I've never been interested in shiny things and making money for me is about peace of mind, i.e. a nice little buffer so I don't have to worry about money. I work from home and my work attire consists of ruggers and Kmart shirts and thongs. Some kids in my son's class assumed we must rent because I don't look very rich or successful. I mostly find that hilarious, but a small part of me found that a wee bit hurtful. The again, what should I do? Put on nice clothes and buy a nicer car just to make me look more successful? How absurd is that?
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@jegga yea, try seeing it from our end, where we sign a contract in mid-September, and pay a deposit. We go and see all the contractors to make all your selections, and nothing happens from the Builder. And you get to mid-December having heard nothing, but get "oh, the approval process takes a long time". And then miraculously the approval comes through the day the builder goes on his 4-week christmas break.
And then they come back from christmas break, and still nothing happens, because reasons.
If you know nothing about the building process it can be very frustrating to wait months with seemingly nothing going on. A little bit of communication wouldn't go astray.
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@mariner4life thats pretty shitty behaviour from the main contractor and I wouldn't excuse that at all. I don't really have anything to do with that side of things very often but when I do I send heaps of emails to let clients know whats going on so if there's ever and issues you can both go back through and check before things get heated.
I get that its very exciting and you can't wait to get in to the place and make it a home, thats perfectly understandable .Most people come out once or twice a week and take photos for facebook etc and ask questions about whats next etc. -
@mariner4life in NZ, the consent is legislated to be issued within 20 work days...obviously there can always be reasons for a delay, but sometimes a builder (not a dig at you @jegga ) will use the COuncil as an excuse for holding up the process!
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@taniwharugby said in Housing hornets' nest:
@mariner4life in NZ, the consent is legislated to be issued within 20 work days...
Did you see this? I'm sure theres more to it than this guy is saying
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@taniwharugby said in Housing hornets' nest:
@mariner4life in NZ, the consent is legislated to be issued within 20 work days...obviously there can always be reasons for a delay**, but sometimes a builder (not a dig at you @jegga ) will use the COuncil as an excuse for holding up the process!**
Very risky, a quick phone call to the council from the homeowner can leave you with a lot of egg on your face. Best to blame the supplier/digger operator etc.
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@taniwharugby yeah its similar here. I went to an interview and the mrs told me to shave and at least attempt to look presentable , apparently jandels, t shirt, board shorts and a three day growth are unacceptable in todays job market. I turn up to the guys house and he's sitting outside in jandels, a t shirt board shorts and has a three day growth. Ffs
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@MajorRage said in Housing hornets' nest:
@jegga Presentation of hirer ... presentation or hiree - big difference!
Although I have zero experience in hiring in the trades, so I'd just assume it's about who can use the word fuck the most time in a sentence.
Obviously thats a vital component, you could also add in knowledge of which inspectors are good fluffybunnies/dickheads , where the best pie shops are in different suburbs, which suppliers have the hottest reps/if they arent hot are generous with pencils, t shirts or beanies.
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@jegga I have a suspicion i can't prove that they didn't want to start another project before the break, so they drew the process out untill it was too late.
Over all they have been great, but that "unexplained" delay with little communication pissed me off.
Speaking of being dickheads, i was speaking to the foreman about how his phone comes through as private number. Yea, apparently building foremen have to deal with a lot of dickheads, so it's easier if they don't give out their number.
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@mariner4life I'd say your suspicion is probably right . If it's any consolation their subtrades do exactly the same thing to them, hence the foremans number not showing up. Chances are some of his subbies like for example his tiler are busy as fuck so he quotes for the job gets it and then turns up close to the day he's expected lays a few tiles which effectively means the job is his now and then buggers off to another job where he's going through the same process. He would ignore calls from the foreman to get back and finish the job if he could recognise the number . My window guy has two cell numbers, the one on his website he doesn't answer when he's busy and another one for his regular customers.
by the way I had a look at those tiles you mentioned and they are very nice, with a price to match .
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@Baron-Silas-Greenback the whole flaunting wealth thing is interesting. A guy I know who worked in banking for 20 years said a lot of the people that "looked" rich (flash cars, clothes etc) were absolutely swimming in debt. Makes me a little suspicious of people that appear to go out of their way to look wealthy.
The idea of flaunting wealth is probably a fairly modern thing as well. In more lawless times gone by I'd say showing off how rich you are would end up in your death/robbery. With all the security around money and a society influenced by celebrity culture it's quite normal to show off now.
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@mariner4life yeah the wood look ones, very nice but expensive . To be honest I can't get my head around putting down a tile that looks like wood instead of just putting down wood .
Housing hornets' nest