A snag!

Poor Simon! His mulcher has been mulched. Apparently, many years ago someone planted a steel rod next to a tree and the tree has engulfed it completely. Simon's boys didn't realise and put it through the mulcher. Oops! I wondered why they gave up so early on Friday afternoon. Simon seems to think that they will be now finished by tomorrow afternoon.
Here are some progress photos for you...

From a few metres from the back fence

From the street

Jack is out of my life!

He has been paid...after I received 3 ignored phone calls from him early this morning. I was just waiting to hear from the tree lopper in writing about exactly what he was going to do today before I paid Jack his money. I did need to chase the clearance certificate even though I was told it could be sent 10 minutes after money had been received. An email from me, an SMS from me....nothing. Brad rang this afternoon and it was emailed to us within 20 minutes with a note to say that we had been a pleasure to work with LOL.

Brad has just returned with a bottle of Moët to celebrate with all our good friends tonight over some Canasta.

Simon, my wonderful tree lopper is doing his bit today & tomorrow. Barring any catastrophic events, the site will be completely cleared by the end of the day tomorrow for pool excavation next week or the week after.

Yesterday also saw us receive our 'Authority to Commence Construction' letter from CBA - another step closer to the building starting.

Phew!

What a relief! With the heat of yesterday, I lost sleep last night worrying about whether Jemena & Ausgrid were able to do their utilities disconnection. My brother sent me photos this morning showing me the ACTION on the site. My friend, Lucinda, can attest to the screams of sheer delight as I was waiting for the email attachments to open - her ears are still recovering.
The excitement levels remained high until I received a phone call from the demolition company at 2pm, declaring the job complete and the payment due NOW. I told him that I was not paying until the site was cleared and ready for the builder (no tree work has been done yet) Again, we argued over his ambiguous quote getting nowhere. He said he needed the money to pay his staff on Friday! I told him that I didn't care about his cash flow issues. He told me that the contract was redone when I engaged HIS treeloppers services. Um....I have not re-signed any contract! The quote & therefore payment was now for demolition of the house only.
Whilst I was waiting for Simon, the treelopper, to call me back, I decided to drive back to Sydney to check on the block. Finished? Not quite! There were still a few guys there at 5pm working on the block. Interestingly, one of the guys told me that he was expecting as per normal to clear most of the vegetation but was told not to for this site. Ask me privately for words to describe this company!
I need the clearance certificate from him so the builders can access the site - not worth fighting at this stage. The job has been done well - the process has been so stressful especially when dealing with the owner of the company.
Looking good now. Treework to be done tomorrow.

Going on holidays

Au revoir! Going away tomorrow for a week and don't I need it! If anyone drives past the house, feel free to snap a pic of the current state of demo and send it to me.

Another BIG day on trees & demolition

I received a phone call from Jemena yesterday to inform me that the contracting company has our job booked in for January 8. It is a little more complicated in that Ausgrid needs to be present because mains power is involved. Demolition of the house therefore cannot occur until Wednesday.

I received a phone call from the tree lopping company contracted to do the job last night quoting me $5k to do the job of removing all vegetation & stump grinding. Aargh! No way! Told him that I couldn't pay that on top of the $15K demo job especially when the quote says that it includes removal of all shrubs, bushes & trees (with an extra charge to take trees from the site). The lovely man Simon rang back at 9pm to lower the quote to $3700 which still was not acceptable to me. He really wanted the job and was prepared to do it on Saturday. I explained that I had a trusted CHEAP tree lopper that I was going to get a quote from.  I SMSed Jeff straight after and we organised for him to quote today.  After a false start (read he didn't meet me at arranged time due to a doctors appointment), he walked through the property while I was on the other end of the line. I could tell that Jeff really didn't want to do the job (HUGE). Said the tell the other company that he would do it for $3300. Jeff also suggested that we get rid of the palm tree that we were planning on keeping - they are bad news. Called Simon who is going to do the job for $3500 including palm removal.
At some stage, I need to nut out this terrible quote with State Demolition. After losing sleep over the past few nights about this, we might wait until after my holidays.
Be wary of cheap quotes, I say!!

And now for another BLIP in the journey

Update on this afternoon.....
So I did receive a call from Jack to meet him at the property at 3:30pm. I don't think he could quite believe the amount of vegetation to be removed LOL! He is organising a quote for mulching & removal of trees that are to be lopped. He gave me an approximate timeframe of Monday & Tuesday for demolition of the house and the trees after that BUT.....
He did notice that the gas had not been disconnected as yet. This is obviously of great concern when knocking down a house. I organised this on Dec 11 with a note to say that it would be done ASAP after Dec 23.
So I came home and spent a frustrating hour on the phone to Energy Australia and Jemena. EA (retailer) told me that they had done their part and it was with Jemena (provider) now. We should allow up to 20 working days for it to happen so it may not be done until January 11. Aarrgghh! I explained that the house is partly demolished and we need disconnection before it can continue, I rang Jemena who told me that the job has been dispatched but they cannot tell me when it will be done as it is the hands of the contracting company. The lovely CS lady was going to send the Manager of said company an email to hurry them up and requesting a phone call to me.
So in a state of limbo now until we know when the gas can be disconnected and really hoping it doesn't end up costing us money due to a delayed building start time.

And now for NO action :-(

So the course of no-events......
* Sent an SMS on Friday morning regarding tree work. "When will it me done as I need to identify trees to be kept?". Rang me in the afternoon to say that we could walk around the yard on Saturday morning before tree lopping is to be done. I rearrange my day on Saturday to wait for him to call. NOTHING.
* I send another SMS on Monday morning asking the same question. NO RESPONSE
* After driving by this morning and seeing no work being done, I call him. No answer. He calls back and when he hears that it is me, he hangs up. I try 4 times to call him over the space of an hour - no answer. I send an SMS to say 'Please call me urgently'. No response.
* Sneaky me calls his mobile from my landline and BINGO, it is answered!!! He blames his children on the hangup. Informs me that he cannot get the machinery needed to do the job this week. I ever so politely say that it is OK but it would be courteous to just let me know. I thought he had done a 'runner'. Jack promises me that he will be in contact to walk through the yard today or tomorrow. I encourage you all not to hold your breath waiting....
* Message me if you would like the name of this company...or scroll down to read the quote and you will find it there!!