So where were we? Ah yes, getting screwed over by our old builder how could we forget! In fact it has been a source of much stress and sleepless nights but then who wouldn't worry after what happened on Sunday night. So in reverse order starting from the Ugly, here goes...
As you know, we sacked our original builder over 2 weeks ago and sometimes being nice doesn't work out for you. Mani allowed the builder to keep the keys to our house so he could come back and pick up the rest of his belongings. I wasn't so comfortable with that and wanted the keys back and he would then need to arrange a time to meet us there. So after asking for the keys back numerous times and in the meantime receiving nasty, abusive phone calls for not making the final payment to him (we are withholding monies due to damage to property and missing property - pics below!) it all came to a head on Monday 30th July. Our new building team arrived on Monday morning to a pile of their tools on the lounge room floor. They also noticed a bad smell so investigated where it was coming from. They went upstairs to the back master bedroom and found in a bucket in the middle of the room in a plastic bag was a sh*t. Yep, that's right. It was also nicely coated in some p*ss to top it off. So someone, and we assume it to either be the builder or one of his associates, got into our house using they keys he won't give back to us and left us a nice little present. We assumed it was a threat and we treated it that way. Of course we changed the locks and we also reported the incident to the police. Mani's mate is a cop and he advised us that the builder refusing to give the keys back after his job was finished is effectively stealing. Not to mention entering the house without permission and stealing our stuff and the new builders equipment. Unfortunately, the new builder had some of their belongings stolen during that period so they have also gone to the police to report the theft. It is really not how we imagined this project going and I guess no one could have seen that coming a month ago but we are really disappointed it has taken this turn.
And now the Bad - we thought we'd share some of the pictures that caused us to question the ability and care of the old builder. The pictures speak for themselves but I will explain them all!
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| Normally you would cover the newly installed items so they don't get scratched, there are numerous scratches on the bath so it is no longer 'new'. Also the mosaic tiles around the bath will have to be redone as around the bend of the bath, they are badly cut and look terrible. |
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| The state of the new basin after not being protected. |
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| Quality workmanship on the tiling... not. |
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| An example of the scratches on the new tiles (the whole floor was covered in them) it was suggested by the builder to cover them up with permanent black marker. All of the tiles had to be taken up and with underfloor heating, there was a risk we would have to replace the heating system if it was cut in any place. |
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| The new mosaic tiles that were ruined with adhesive after having to remove the new basin to replace the floor tiles. |
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| The brand new toilet! |
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| Covered in adhesive and grout... |
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| No care was taken to protect the toilet. |
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| The broken soil pipe, that was covered by the builder and he hoped that no one would notice. |
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| Completely cracked and exposed by the new builder when they checked the foundations. |
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| Paint all over the new door handles... |
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| The door (although hard to get a good picture) is now bent in the middle |
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| Quality of workmanship from our old builder, filling in the kitchen window. |
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| Compared with the quality of workmanship from the new builder on next door's kitchen window. |
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| Our couches, which we can't store anywhere else, have been exposed to so much dust as they were not covered the whole time - even after we asked for them to be covered and protected with dust sheets. |
So there you have it, some of the lovely examples that we have of the quality of the workmanship we were left with. In the interests of moving forward from this bad period, I will leave the Good to a new blog!
