Oxley Woods Living

Life in an Oxley Woods eco house

 
 

Archive for the ‘Decor and DIY’ Category

 

Are we nearly there yet?

April 24, 2010

Maybe so… at least, sat here on a sunny morning in Oxley Park, with the estate feeling quiet and bright, it feels like we may really, nearly, be there.

We now only have a handful of outstanding items. Sure, some of them seem quite big, some seems quite mysterious and apparently very hard to solve, but it feels like, ALMOST two years in, we’re finally approaching a point where we can just settle in and get on with living in our Oxley Woods home.

So there’s a couple of hurdles and no doubt stumbling blocks to be negotiated yet, but we’re almost there.

It’ll be amazing when we finally arrive!

Lies and the lying liars who tell them

April 12, 2010

It feels like one step forward and two steps back here at Oxley Woods.  The dishonesty and craftiness of the people building and selling these properties never ceases to amaze me.  Once again I am physically shaking with rage and upset, and thank goodness I have this blog to let off steam!

After cutting short and damaging the carpet my late grandfather gifted to us (having been pre-warned of it’s financial value and emotional significance) Wood Newton and Taylor Wimpey between them appeared to rapidly backtrack on their assurances that any damaged flooring would be repaired or replaced.

It took a lot of pushing, but they agreed to go with the advice of the carpet suppliers.  Who we’ve found to do a great, honest job.

AMCO, who fitted the flooring, assessed the damage made to our flooring on all levels of the property.  They felt they could stretch the wool carpet where it was left short and fraying on the top floor, but that the first floor lounge carpet (our “best” carpet) would need replacing as the strong stripe and material (pure wool) would not allow for it to be stretched into the gap that was left between carpet and door frame.

We’ve been chasing to get this done for some time, but after a phone call to Wimpey today by my wife it turned out they didn’t know that AMCO had quoted for this to be done.

So my wife called AMCO to find out why.  We’ve been waiting a long time, we’ve been back since December 2009 and it’s April 2010 now!

After talking to Abi and Wood Newton (and I believe Wimpey) representatives together, it seems a Wood Newton manager had a quiet chat with the salesman from AMCO and told him DO NOT QUOTE on replacing our damaged floors, they don’t want to do it, and to only quote on possibly replacing our Son’s damaged floor.

That’s right, if AMCO are to be believed (and why would they lie to quote for LESS business?) Wood Newton explicitly told them to NOT replace our carpet.  Despite the fact they know how upset we are about the damage caused and the fact they promised to return our home to us in the condition we left in their care, which includes with carpets that fit and are not damaged!

Here’s the carpet in happier times: Sunrise in the Living Room.

There could be more than meets the eye to this.  But I personally doubt it.

Tired of being lied to, and the same old same old…

September 18, 2009

So Yesterday afternoon, weeks after we had our walls and ceiling filled on every floor of the house, out of the blue Peter from Wood Newton arrives at our door.

The painters are on site “I assume you want it painting” (could he be any more antagonistic with his choice of words?!) and can they do it today?

The answer had to be no. We had visitors, my wife and I both had work to do, and I was leaving the house in a couple of hours while my wife would be sorting out the kids.

Apparently it now looks like next week.

As for our windows and doors all being replaced. Fed up of the lies on that one.

The work due originally for sometime in August (18th I believe was the first date we were given), has simply vanished. The windows were going to be tested weeks ago, were tested last week, are being tested as I type. Depending who you ask when. It’s just bull, and it’s pathetic and rude and damaging.

June we had holes drilled all over our house, windows taped and filled up as a “temporary measure”, walls pulled off and radiators removed.

Here we are in September, weather getting colder by the week, and we’ve no idea what on earth is going on.

Shameful, disgraceful behaviour on behalf of Wood Newton and Taylor Wimpey. The way they’re treating our family, their disregard for the well being of us and our young children, I believe, is totally scandalous.

Oxley Woods Living

September 8, 2009

Well, here we are, over 14 months in our multi award winning eco home on Oxley Park. You’d think by now we’d be settled, getting used to our home, be in the advanced stages of decorating. You know, happy families.

This is the first time we’ve ever bought a home, let alone a new build, so perhaps we’re being a little naive. But let me show you how we’re living in Oxley Woods just now, courtesy of George Wimpey and house builder Wood Newton.

The holes, they’ve been here since June. The uncovered patching, that’s been here since the week before last. When is it going to be sorted? We don’t know. Neither do George Wimpey. And if Wood Newton do, they’re not saying. This is Oxley Woods Living. This is some of our house, as it stands, today.

This is our six year-old’s bedroom. He hates the holes. We want to get some more storage and shelving sorted, but can’t because the window is going to be replaced, and that will have a major effect on the walls we need to work on. Life on hold, and a boy who get very upset now and again about the holes in his room.

Boy's room

This is in our one year olds bedroom. There’s another hole by her cot. She quite likes being able to stick her fingers through the wall and play with the plasterboard dust. We don’t like it.

Baby's room

This is our living room, again this has been like this since June. There was no point in fixing it up, because window replacement work was due to start quite quickly. We’re still waiting and it’s now 8th September. When will things be done? We don’t know. We hope it happens before it gets too cold, those pipes are supposed to supply a radiator, currently sat on the floor in our office.

This the room we like to relax in as a family, watch films and unwind at the end of the day (if possible). Now with one wall holy and covered with bare plasterboard, it’s not such a pleasant place to be.

Living room

This is our bathroom. The wall was “warped” or had a “bulge” where two plasterboards meet. And some screw pops. Now it looks like this. Not such a big deal if we had ANY clue when it was going to be painted again.

Bathroom

This is our top floor landing and stair case to the first floor. Notice how the flood of light picks out the different shades on both wall and ceiling so effectively! Walls, ceilings, they were all cracking and creasing due to settling. Now we have to settle with this. For how long? Nobody knows. If Wood Newton or George Wimpey could arrange something with us, or even talk to us properly, that would be smashing.

Landing

Stair case

This is our first floor landing. More of the same. And the same old story about if and when it’ll ever be finished:

First floor landing

Landing

This is our stair case, and ground floor hallway. Seems a little familiar doesn’t it? Tired of looking at the pictures? Imagine how tired we are of looking at this every day.

Stair case

Hallway

This is our kitchen and dining area. Plaster since a couple of weeks back, holes since June, same as pencil marks and water stains. Repair completion date, unknown.

Dining room

Kitchen

Hope you enjoyed the tour and it gives you an impression of life in a multi-award winning George Wimpey / Wood Newton eco home.

WTF?! Seriously, WTF?!

July 24, 2009

Thought for a while about the “headline” for this post, then went back to the original. Because that is EXACTLY what I’m feeling right now.

To cut an increasingly long story short, Wood Newton and George Wimpey plan to solve our issues by replacing all windows and doors. A VERY big job. But we all hope (and it can only be hope, not believe, not feel sure) this will be the end to the water ingress we’ve been suffering for over a year.

We, understandably, want some clarification before such huge work is undertaken on our “new” eco house. We have asked several questions, and raised several issues, which we, quite fairly, wanted clarified before work starts. You may say we have no right to ask why certain things have been done to our property, why certain things will be done to our property, and why certain parts of a report we received from John Green of Wood Newton made no sense to us, or the George Wimpey site manager, whatsoever. But we feel we do have a right to know.

Today, only a week after submitting a list of bullet pointed issues and questions (so to be fair, in very good time by George Wimpey and Wood Newton standards) we have received a reply. Of sorts. And it is that which has us reeling.

For a start, the vast majority of points and questions have, perhaps unsurprisingly, been completely ignored.

Secondly, it adds to the confusion we’re feeling by somewhat contradicting the earlier report it is a response to.

PLUS, it states that the work Wood Newton and George Wimpey carried out in July and August of 2008 following our initial water ingress problems was PURELY COSMETIC and not at all related to water ingress. Which means they did NOTHING about our water ingress on a number of windows (only unsuccessfully dealing with one window and one door by applying Tyvek) before stripping cladding and applying resistit tape as banding around our Windows a full three months (and more) after we initially had problems. While at the same time cosmetically wrecking our windows as they carried out needless, stressful, and untidy “cosmetic work” several times over on the remainder of our windows, telling US this was in an attempt to solve the water ingress. Which takes us back to the heading really…

WTF?! Seriously George Wimpey and Wood Newton, WTF have you been doing to us and our property?!