Harley's New Build Blog

We are getting there.................I think!

Ok - the internal walls have been changed - Plasterer has made a lovley job. The Electrician is also working on his department

It's really coming together now - I can't wait to be in.

We went through a few other bits and pieces at our site meeting and then got round to the roof.......................

The constructeur could not say anything other than it wasn't a first rate job.

He argued about them being the correct tiles until we showed him a copy of the contract, the permis and the technical specifications of the two tiles from the manufacturer. Low and behold....two different tiles.

He also could not deny that the standard of the surface finish of the tile was not great but that we could get some product to clean them. Ha Ha! I went to the local builders merchants and picked up a tile for comparison. Nothing like the rubbish on our roof.

He went away promising to arrange a meeting next week with not only the roofer but also a representative from Lafarge.

We shall see what happens

September 2006 Eeek!

Well, that's the school hols over with. Now back to dealing with builders. The Electrician has made a start putting in all the conduits for the cables and now the Plasterer is doing his thing. Some of this has been done during July and August (they must really be fed up with me)! We have windows and doors, oh, and a chimney. However, they have put the wrong design of tile on the roof (not as the contract) and to make matters worse they look like seconds. We have looked at new builds on our travels over the hols and not one of them has this terrible "mess" on the finish. Yet another recorded delivery letter off to the builder then. I really don't like the look of the tiles they have put on the roof at all and feel that we may be asking them to take them off and start again - jeepers!!! That should be an interesting conversation. Would any of you do the same? I don't really like making a fuss (how English) but when you are paying for something as expensive as a new house then you want it how you want it and not how the builder thinks it should be. Neither do we want it built with cheaper quality materials so he can improve his profit margin. Sadly that is what I am thinking at the moment with regard to the roof. Wish me luck![:(]

UPDATE

Have just been back to the house as the plasterer is working. Left a modified plan with them at the end of July as we needed to correct an error by the building company and move a couple of walls over by a few feet. This was well before they started work. No problem, they said. But, have they worked to this plan, or the original one. Yep, you guessed it, they are working to the original plan. So three walls and one door are in totally the wrong positions. Deep deep joy!!!

HOW DO I STILL HAVE A SMILE ON MY FACE?[:)]

Happy Happy Day!

I can't believe it is now July and my last post was in April - Where has the time gone?? Since the last report we have advanced a huge amount. The walls are now finished the roof timbers are up and they are putting the tiles and the guttering on. The windows and doors are due to arrive the second half of July and be installed by the end of July so that the house can be closed up for the August break. We have not come this far without incident. I have had to nag and moan and withhold payment. Due to an error with the level of the first floor over the garage we have (through no choice of our own) had to slightly change the external appearance of the house. This error would also have meant that we would lose habitable space upstairs. However, the company we are using arranged for the overall height of the roof to be raised to counteract this, at their expense. As it should be. My biggest gripe with them at the moment is the lack of communication. They are taking it upon themselves to make decisions about things without discussing it with us first, which I find a little unnerving. As a result of this I find myself keeping an even closer eye on them which I'm sure must be getting right up their noses but hey-ho. They told me several weeks ago that they felt that the walls had been finished. This was when the next payment was due. I knew that the Macon was not yet finished as all his tools and supplies were still on site and in actual fact he was back and finishing the walls this week. I have been witholding payment until I felt we had reached the next payment stage and I will continue to do so until I am satisfied with the amount of work they are getting through and the quality also. [:-))]

Now we are getting somewhere!

Well, the meeting we were supposed to have didn't happen. They called late Friday afternoon to say they had to delay the meeting on the following Monday, by a week. Bit fed up at this point so we requested that the MD of the company should also be present. During the following week the foundations were started. We arrived for our meeting and to cut a long story short we made the point that we were not very happy with the way things were going. The MD apologised on behalf of the company and assured us that they would now be pulling out the stops on our project. We told him in no uncertain terms that a delivery time of April next year was not an option for us and he is now commited to acheiving delivery by mid December. We have been told that if they can get the roof on by the end of July that this shouldn't prove a problem. Over the last couple of weeks they have completed the foundations and when I visited the site today they had started putting up the walls. Yippee. I have only now released the money that they have been waiting for for the last two months. The last thing we wanted on this build was to have to keep nagging and chasing but that is exactly what we are going to have to do to bring this project in (on time?). Had it not been for the salesmen leading us astray with the delivery date I think we would have enjoyed a much better relationship with this company. It's going to be an interesting few months.

Have your contract gone through in fine detail by someone who knows what they are looking at (before you sign). They slip in delay options which they don't tell you about!

Problems,problems..............................

Having arrived for our meeting with our Constructeur we imediately wanted to know why we had been sent a letter giving us a completion date that would mean a six month delay beyond the date which we had been given up to now. He looked very uncomfortable. Tried very hard not to talk about that part of our complaint but chose to tell us instead about the project insurance being the problem and the fact that their Macon had left the company. I feel the same when the children are caught doing something they know they shouldn't have done. Hands behind back, shuffling feet, not looking you in the eye and claims of "It wasn't me, I didn't do it". Anyway, we came away feeling that he had a good idea of how unhappy we were but perhap that he had got off lightly.

Just to be certain I put everything in writing to the company, telling them how impressed we had been up until this point but how unhappy we were with being deceived in this way. And having found out exactly what the process is in the project, it does look as though we were deceived. Having seen the quality of the houses they produce I am still certain of receiving a top knotch home and I have told them as much. Included in the letter was the diary of meetings and phone calls covering the things dicussed on those occassions. We sent the letter recorded delivery. A week later as we had heard nothing, we have contacted them via our Translator. She contacted our "salesman" and was told that the letter was with the company director and he didn't sound very happy about it. We decided to give them the opportunity to investigate our case but in the meantime I called Head Office and asked for the name of the Director/s of the company. When I gave my name they imediately asked if I wanted to speak to the Project Manager ( someone who had previously been impossible to get hold of). At that time I didn't think it was a good idea(feeling a bit too miffed to be polite).

However, the fact that he now seemed to be "available" when our translator had previously been unable to get hold of him or get him to call back, inspired her to try again. He agreed that some things had happened with our project that perhaps shouldn't have happened. He is away next week but we have a meeting for the following Monday by which time, weather permitting, the foundations should have been laid. I'm not holding my breath but we are still smiling.[:)]

Tips so far would be:

If your French (technical or otherwise) is not that good, invest in the services of a translator.

Ask for a project schedule (in writing) ie Contracts, Permis De Construire, Insurance, Utilities (connection and who is arranging it), start date, finish date. We were told: Sign contracts, allow two months for PDC, 10 months for the build. We were not told that the project can't be opened until they have arranged the Insurance, which they didn't until January. They then have two months in which to start work and if the build is then 10 months not allowing for unforseen circumstances, well.............................

Keep an accurate diary of all contact with the company ( meetings on site, off site, phone calls, E-mails) and all the things discussed at the time and who was present. Staple envelopes to letters when they arrive. Any promises made by the company you should ask to be put in writing.

If you have need to complain, send it in writing, recorded delivery.

February 2006 - Oh my God what a nightmare and not a brick laid yet!

February 2nd 2006

Have been contacted by SAUR to arrange a meeting at the site to discuss connecting the water. Strangely, this only occurred after we chased the building company to find out if they had sorted this out yet. Meeting went ok and they will be sending out their Devis in the next ten days - once this is approved it will take up to twenty five days for the work to be done.

Have finally arranged a meeting with the building company to discuss where this project is going - Ha Ha!

Having arranged this meeting and still being assured that our house will be ready by October 2006 we received a letter from our building company requesting the money (almost 20,000 Euros) to open the works. At the bottom of this letter it stated that they will not be able to complete our house until at least April 2007!!!!!

It's going to be an interesting meeting tomorrow..................................

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...........................

January 2006 - Still smiling.................

JANUARY 2006

This month we have been to visit three properties under construction by our chosen company. Each house was at a different stage of developement. The first needed the internal work to be finished - bathrooms, floors, tiling etc. The second had the blockwork finished and the roof timbers being fitted and the last had only the block work completed. Each stage of work however, seemed to be finished to a high standard. We know very little about the building trade and our opinion is really based on the overall finish of the work we have seen in these three properties and houses being built on English housing estates. There were no rough edges, if you know what I mean. It looked as though a great deal of pride had gone into the work rather than just being thrown up. The large roof beams were finished with wooden pegs and were hand cut by the carpenter assembling them rather than using pre-fabricated frames. The block work was very tidy, inside and out and finished off very neatly. The slate roof of the first house was extremely well done and if our tile roof goes on as well, then I for one, will be very pleased.

The first real negative has been the start date. We were first told that they would begin on the 2nd January. It didn't happen! We were then told it would be within 15 days. It didn't happen! We were then told that they would be marking out the land today (Monday 23rd) so that the company who are carrying out the groundworks would be able to begin. The ground has been duly marked out today, so, I hope this is a good sign. We have signed and returned the site insurance paperwork complete with the cheque. Just need to confirm that they have arranged for SAUR to connect water to the site so they can mix cement etc. We are now awaiting the arrival of the diggers................

At the moment I feel quite determined not to get too stressed over this build. We had a truly horrible experience selling our little home here and want to stay as chilled as possible. We are not expecting this to be an easy ride but my only gripe so far is being told something is going to happen on a certain date and then.......it doesn't. I feel that this is going to be a problem throughout this build and to a large degree we are already resigned to it. We do know, from friends and posts on this Forum, that when people arrange for building work, plumbing, electrics etc, to be carried out, that it is quite normal for the workmen to fix dates and then not turn up for days, weeks and even months.

In the beginning...

SUMMER 2005.

We didn't want to move away from the town we are currently living near because the children have settled so well at school and we love the area and the people. But could we find a house within our budget that wouldn't then need an enormous amount spending on it? Not a chance I'm afraid! Bought some land instead.

We looked at three building companies and settled on the last one we visited. They were as friendly as the previous two but overall they seemed more professional and better organised (we shall see). We had a look at the standard house plans until we found one that covered all that we required and they gave us the standard price for this property. Before they would give us any additional costs they wanted to have someone look at the land and ascertain where the services were in relation to the property and how much would need to be dug out for the foundations. A week later they came back to us having drawn up the initial plans and gave us a price. We then made some changes to the original plan (no fuss here, very helpful) and were given a revised price. Once we had agreed the plans - they dealt with all the planning application paperwork (thank goodness) only problem here was a document missing from the application which was quickly sent off and consent came through two weeks later.

Having received our planning permission we had another meeting to discuss the internal details. We changed the plans again (no fuss). Also added another Velux window (they will deal with additional planning consent). Meanwhile, work due to start (groundworks) within the next fifteen days.

We will keep you posted, warts and all...........................................

NB Our French is improving and we can understand a great deal of what is going on but, even so, we have employed the services of a translator (very reasonable) and well worth it for the peace of mind.