8-11-08 Our Second PCI

Yes, we have been a little quiet with blogging, and some may have believed it to be because we were busy moving into our new home; but in this case "no news means, no bloody house".

The shortish version of events goes a little like this. 'D' (our new SS) has been cracking the whip to get the place back into shape ready for our second PCI which had been scheduled for Fri the 31st of Oct. Sadly the more he looked the more issues he found. Subsequently, the date was then moved out to Monday the 3rd to allow the new painter, 'L', to work right through the weekend to eventually re-paint the entire house. Then on Monday morning we got a phone call to say that they would need to move the date further out to Wed the 5th as they didn't realise how big a job it was.

Finally, on Wed, the inspection took place, starting at 2pm with both 'D' and the 'L' onsite. First impressions were that the finish was much, much better than the original; 'L' was a providing an excellent finish to the gloss woodwork with a mirror result. We were alsolucky enough to score a bonus of 'Wattyl ID' paint on all the feature walls and skirts/Arcs as part of thr re-paint. 'L' advised that some have taken 5 coats to get it right and said in some ways we are lucky that this has happened because the finished product is looking just 'shmicko'. Anyway, as we wandered through the rooms and pointed out paint defects, 'L' was straight on to them, scraping and filling as we went - how's that for service! 'L' was a very friendly & lovely guy who was only too happy to fill & paint anything missed and just apologetic and explained that it was a huge job and that sometimes he could miss some dents. The number of defects found was around 5% of what we had found in the first PCI and a much welcomed surprise. Several items were still to be rectified from the original PCI list which annoyed me a little as this should have been completed for this inspection, but we had confidence that they were in hand and know that these things can happen. During our external inspection we were happy to see that all of the brickwork had been cleaned up nicely from the re-bricking for the inclusion of the weep holes. (Ohh, and just on the cleaning, the cleaner had not turned up that morning, so the house was not in a totally clean state to be able to determine the finish on certain surfaces). A lot of the guttering had been replaced due to dents and scratches and was looking very nice till we rounded the back corner of the house and Lou noticed several scratches across a 1 foot section of guttering. 'D' wasn't happy - "It wasn't there on Monday" he said. The PCI concluded in a couple of hours, which is what the first one should have been.

In the end 'D' said they would be able to rectify the remaining issues and would more than likely be able to provide us with the keys on Friday afternoon, the 7th Nov - Woohoo!! (note this is the same day as settlement on our existing home). Late afternoon on Thursday the 6th I received a call from 'D' saying that the cleaner had been in and that they had been unable to get the grout clean in the main walkways throughout the lower level. He went on to explain that because the tradies had been tracking mud through the inside constantly they would need to get the tiler back in to scrape out the old grout and re-grout most of the flooring. Handover has now been set for Wed afternoon :-(

On handover day, as most PD owners would know, you normally inspect the house, confirm acceptance and then drive out to the relevant head office to hand over the cheque and accept the keys. In our case 'D' has offered to bring the keys along with him to the handover inspection and save us a 90min round trip to the Berwick head office. He said it was the least they could do, after the process and experience we have had prior to our letter to PD management. I must also say, he has bent over backwards trying to make it all right again and we have confidence he means what he says. He cant stop apologising enough!

Our existing home has now been handed over to the new owners and we have had to shift our household belongings into storage and then move in with Lou's Mum and step dad. As annoying as it is to have to move our stuff into storage, we would rather have the house completely finished and feel it is wholly ours, then to have tradesman entering weeks on end to finish off minor issues. We have explained this to 'D' and he agrees that this is what you should always do too, so that is comforting :-)

While we are on the subject of storage, we found a company that provides what look like medium sized containers, which they call PODS (Portable On Demand Storage). They drop off a POD and you fill it. You can then either get them to pick it up and deliver it to your new address, or they can take it away and store it for a while and drop it off later. We have had to use 2 PODS as well as a couple of trailer loads to friends and relatives.

At this point we must say a BIG thankyou to a few people who have helped us thus far with making the move as effortless as possible; Leam & Shez, Ails & Scotty, my Mum and Dad, Lou's Mum and step Dad, Sean and Gary and Hayley. Thanks also to all our friends and family and fellow bloggers for their well wishes and support.