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So proud of my babies…

OK, that’s very tongue in cheek, I wanted to clarify that before anyone thinks I have gone completely off my rocker thanks to the stress of the current situation!

The “babies” in question are our Strawberry plantlets which have finally had their runners cut this week, and are doing pretty well so far!

Baby strawberry plants

To be honest, our Strawberries were a bit of a let down this year. No, they were a huge let down. As previously mentioned we had a good crop of blueberries, the corn is middling to poor, tomatoes have been excellent, potatoes still under way, but the strawberry growing was fair from fruitful.

The lack of fruit has been slightly made up for by the number of strong looking plantlets we had come from the runners on the plants. I potted them up a few weeks back, and this week finally cut off the runners, as all the plantlets appeared to be showing signs of fresh growth.

So far, they’re doing well. I know this is small fry to many of the accomplished home-growers on Oxley Woods, but I’m still pleased to see this working out well, hopefully next year we’ll have a bumper crop of juicy red fruit!?

Something in the air?

After many residents’ came together in support of one another (and, it has to be said, in support of the George Wimpey site managers to a large degree as well), perhaps something has stirred in people?

Or perhaps people have just had enough of tip-toeing around dog pooh in the park, and it has nothing to do with the new found “blitz spirit” on site.

Sign of the times?

Either way, whoever put these signs up, good on you! We don’t own a dog, but we do have kids, and we do play in the park, and dog mess is an increasingly messy, disgusting problem.

Residents’ forum is go!

The forums are now live. Not much there just yet, but if you’d like to join in, go to the forums now!

You can also use the link in the main menu at the top of each page.

Any questions on how to register or use the forums, feel free to post a comment here, or use the “contact” link above.

Positive movements?

Well there’s been a lot going on lately that I’ve not been blogging about, purely because a lot of it was timing based.

Unfortunately, it appears that the wishes of over half of the residents here at Oxley Woods may have fallen on deaf ears. Hopefully this will not prove to be the case, but time is running out. More on that perhaps another time, maybe with good news for everyone!

Anyway, aside from the doom and gloom, it does appear that last week and this, there is more activity on site in terms of joiners and other workmen flitting about. I have heard from a number of residents that they have been contacted by Wood Newton about issues that they had not had any news on for some time. This is good stuff.

Perhaps so many residents coming together to express their support for one another, and their frustration, in some cases dismay with the situation on this “landmark development” of eco houses, is paying off. It shouldn’t need this in my opinion. I think everyone expects problems to a degree, but it’s when there’s too many, or they just don’t get solved in good time, that’s when things start to get out of hand and become intolerable for some.

Anyway, hopefully the increased activity on site IS following through and resulting in more people getting their problems solved now. There’s some people out there in a terrible position and maybe that is about to improve! We live in hope.

As for us, after chasing Taylor Wimpey head office/customer service on Friday I had a copy of a letter sent over this morning which sounds very positive indeed for our personal situation. Again, we can only hope it bears fruit and things do improve. We’ve felt positive like this before and had our hopes dashed, this time it does seem different.

Hope so.

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

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.

Residents’ forum coming soon

I’ve had some positive murmurings with regard setting up a public forum here for residents to share their experiences, and basically use as they please as an online community for our community here in the Oxley Woods eco houses.

I’m working on it, and will get it set up as soon as possible. Nothing fancy, but it’ll be there if anyone wants to use it.

Oxley Woods Living

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.

It’s a cracking, moving situation

In no way is the small movement occurring on the windows causing the glazed units to crack.

These words come as part of a brief and incomplete set of answers provided by John Green of Wood Newton when we raised a number of concerns, including questioning why one of our windows, and one of our neighbours windows, had cracked with no impact or other obvious outside cause.

Well, the official line is the “small movement” in the frames isn’t causing the cracks. We’d love to know what is. But don’t expect a straight answer.

Would you consider this curvature a small amount of movement? Would any reasonable person?

Bendy window cill

Bendy window cill

Bendy window cill


Something light and flowery…

To counter act the angst and frustration of recent posts a little, here’s some light refreshment!

The flowers supplied by George Wimpey are apparently quite carefully chosen to be wild/native and/or supportive of the local ecology. All rings true with the eco theme of the Oxley Woods housing development here in Milton Keynes.

Anyway, we have had a lot of small wildlife, lots of bees, wasps, some butterfly activities and lots of ladybirds. Here’s some photos…

Very yellow

Planet sunflower

Bee grade

Red hot wasps


Most of the flowers are originals, we’ve done some growing, tomatoes (great!), peppers (failed), corn (doing OK, but tiny!), strawberries (not so much fruit, lots of plantlets) and blueberry (success!). We’re pleased we left things as they were, apart from maintenance, weeding and the like, as the garden is pretty colourful from spring onwards, the the little wildlife is quite nice to watch.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed some light refreshment!

Oxley Woods war of attrition?

Been meaning to update the site more, but been busy. Bit like when Wood Newton and George Wimpey are supposed to carry out work on the houses in the neighbourhood.

Fortunately, nobody is booking days off work or rearranging their schedules while they wait for me to post my latest, usually depressing update about life in our Oxley Woods eco home. Whereas this is exactly what fellow residents, and ourselves, are having to do while they wait for workmen to turn up. Or not, as the case too commonly seems to be.

Having spoken to a number of our neighbours (“hello neighbours”) it seems our poor experience with after sales and fault fixing with George Wimpey and Wood Newton is far, far from exceptional. It seems people are, quite understandably, just giving up. The hassle to try and get work done is proving too wearing, too time consuming, and just too much hassle for many.

This isn’t how it’s supposed to be, surely?! We’ve paid good money for our houses. We’re living on a multi-award winning scheme with a multi-award winning site manager, but people are struggling to get work done, struggling to know when their snagging and fault lists are going to be addressed, struggling to get any level of customer service from George Wimpey, and main sub-contractor/site builder Wood Newton.

Residents are suffering, or have suffered from, a number of issues. Right up to now it seems that new problems are coming to light in even the earliest properties built. The designs are changing as Wood Newton and George Wimpey build more homes (which makes sense, with a continual improvement programme), but residents who’ve already invested in this award winning housing scheme appear to be the last to know what is going on, IF they’re told at all.

Work not being done when promised is not the only problem. It seems that if certain residents can’t move their schedules to suit a window of opportunity presented by George Wimpey or Wood Newton on site (sometimes without prior notice), then it seems they’re shuffled towards the back of an increasingly growing pile of complaints and problems from fellow residents.

The more I speak to other residents the less exceptional our situation appears to be. It seems we’re in this together. This could be seen as depressing, as it makes it hard to find a glimmering light of hope, but in some ways, hopefully, it can bring the community together to act in each of our interests to make sure we’re looked after.

It’s a distraction, it’s actually traumatic for us, but hopefully some good can come of all of this for the community as a whole. The majority of people living here have chosen to live here. For their own purposes, be it the design, character, “eco friendly” traits of the buildings.

There are many more “run of the mill” alternatives that we could have chosen, but we chose to buy into this dream. Shame it’s turning into more of a nightmare for some us here at Oxley Woods.