Harley's New Build Blog

February 2006 - Not off to a good start

Just before going off on a weeks holiday the chap in charge of our project promised that the terrasments would be commencing the following week but, that we would need a meeting on site the following Monday to discuss a small problem with the foundations.  Well, they did not arrive, which is what we expected.  Are we being too negative too early on?  Surely not!

The following monday off we went to our field to discuss the project. Apparently, because of the lie of the land we would need to change the entry onto the property which we agreed to.  They also told us that the land was steeper than they had at first anticipated and they would therefore need to put in three additional layers of blocks at a charge of 1700 euros (plus tax).  This was something we needed to go away and discuss.  He also told us that work would commence Friday 10th.  When we went off for a meeting with our translator, we realised there was no work going on (again) and asked our translator to phone them and find out why.

Apparently we had not given them the go-ahead to change the drive. Hang on a minute, I thought we had, last Monday.  As a result of this, he cancelled the work for Friday.  We told them at this point that we were not prepared to pay additional charges because they had made a mistake when they surveyed the land (or did they?). Aaaaaagh!!!!!

We are now five months into the project and a sod has not been turned!

We now await their call on Monday - And in the words of Julia Roberts - Slippery Little Suckers!

February 13th 2006

Over the week-end we talked about how we could avoid having to raise the house up and therefore eliminate the possible need for new planning consent and the huge cost!  We came to the conclusion that the only way they could do it  would be to dig out and change the direction of the entrance.  We drew up some plans of our own.  When we called the office to arrange a meeting to discuss the problem, we were told that our project manager was on site with the chap from the terrassement company.  We drove to the site.  They were just waiting for the diggers to arrive.  Introductions having been made, we put forward our suggestion and the chap from the terrassement company was very helpful and indicated that the changes would not be a problem for him.  In fact it was a very sensible way to do it anyway.  Why they couldn't have come to this conclusion when they first surveyed the land I shall never know.

The diggers arrived and in a very short space of time the area had been cleared and excavated ready for the foundations.    We were of course presented with the bill for the extra work involved and we expressed our deep annoyance at being asked to pay for someone else's error of judgement.  We are, after all, paying them for their expertise in this field.  We will be discussing this further with our building company.  It was no-where near as much as the cost of raising the building and didn't involve the delay associated with doing so, but it's the principle of the situation. 

Having left several messages, we are waiting for them to contact us to arrange a meeting...........................