BUSY TIMES

 

The trio above is interesting. The one on the left, of Herbert Gardens in the final stage of construction (back in 1965) has become startlingly popular on Facebook.  I don't know who posted it first, but it has been shared by many.  Herbert Gardens is hitting the internet waves!  The one of scaffolding on the right is from a photo sent by Jude Day.  And the one in the middle is of the  top lawn, beautifully manicured by Brigid, and is there to credit yet another beautiful spring day.

Having the top two levels returned to their owners has proved to lead to an extremely busy job.  The project team, headed by our architect, Max Wiles, who is with SPA, inspected the apartments the day before they were handed over.  Next day the owners who were in Wellington arrived to make their own inspection.  I had the opportunity to look at 13C, and was delighted with the cleanliness and new warm feel.  Well done Aoraki for a great job.

Obviously, people have found small defects.  The owners were given lists of what the team had found, and some have found a few more. So that is gradually being worked through, with lots of meetings and emails and phone calls.  No apartment owner can possibly feel neglected!

Rachel and the team also had the usual shareholder meeting with those who are due to move out of their apartments.  This time, it was level 4.  After so much practice, it is no wonder it went really smoothly.  Everyone left the meeting feeling as if their questions had been answered, and now knew what to expect.

And we expect the handovers as the apartments are completed to become equally smooth, with practice as the levels descend.

Curtains. Opie and Lido have been putting up blinds and curtains in levels 13 and 12, a much longer and harder job than taking them down in the first place. They are currently about half of the way through the job, quite a feat considering they work here only two days a week.

Lifts.  No, this is not an update on the replacement of the elevators, as there are a lot of meetings and decisions ahead before any kind of announcement can be made.  This is a complication of the fact that the lift now goes to levels 12 and 13, after a long period of all the lift buttons being masked off, the levels above four being a construction site.  And of course there was a glitch. Somehow, a lift stopped at level 9, and the door opened.  This led to a stuck door problem, as construction material fell into the gap and prevented the door closing again. Brigid called Otis, and they are fixing the glitch.

Furniture. As for Brigid herself, apart from manicuring the lawns on both top and bottom levels (and the bottom garden is well worth visiting), she has been working with Conroys to get furniture and whiteware back to their homes.  Long may the sunny weather continue, as it makes it so much easier. 

DECISIONS TO MAKE

 

Welcome a New Director!

At yesterday's Board meeting we had the great pleasure of voting in Geoff Fougere as a fellow director.  He has great past experience of managing our building, and will be a definite asset in future discussions. We all look forward to working with him.

Levels 13 and 12 complete!

Teams from Aoraki, SPA and HGL have inspected the apartments for defects, and lists of small remediations have been made, but the major job is done.  The next excitement will be to see those residents move back in. 

The scheduled delays for the completion of other levels are unfortunate, but cannot be avoided. The big plus is that is looks as if the final completion will be only about eleven days late. While the vacating time of lower apartments is uneven, so far the end result looks close to the original estimate. Time was used up in discovery and decision-making on the highest floors, but the lower floors should benefit from what has been learned in the interval.

Washers, dryers and combos.

DRYERS:  As we all know now, vented dryers are no longer possible.  The recommended replacement is a heat pump dryer, and Damien (in his usual heroic fashion) has been researching models and costs. He has negotiated with four suppliers, and found the best deal is from Noel Leeming.  Shareholders are welcome to shop around on their own, but Jon Gartside, Commercial Business Manager, Noel Leeming, has guaranteed the best price, no matter what model dryer you choose to buy.

The figures in BOLD include GST.

Fisher & Paykel: $1069.82     $1230.17

Haier: $841.38                        $967.59

LG: $1358.10                         $1561.81                       

Samsung: $1216.52                $1399.00

Westinghouse: $1125.00        $1293.75

Apart from the Samsung, which is rated for a 9kg load, they take 8kg. They all also need a stacking kit, as they are not allowed to hang off the wall any more.  This costs about $126.00 plus GST. And, while there is usually a water tank, which has to be regularly emptied, the water can be piped into the same drain as your washing machine, but this would need a plumber.

WASHERS. It also means that you cannot keep your toploading washing machine, as there will not be room to lift the lid. It has to be replaced by a front loading machine, and Noel Leeming Commercial offers a deal for these, too.

Fisher & Paykel: $891.25    $1024.95

Haier: $541.20                     $622.38

LG: $991.52                        $1140.25

Samsung: $1042.61             $1119.00

Westinghouse: $818.40       $941.16

COMBOS. Combination washer/dryers seem to be the flavour of the month, probably because they are so suitable for apartments, being compact. They have their disadvantages, as the two cycles take a long time.  Also, as with heat pump dryers, they often do not do a complete job, and the laundry has to be put out on a rack to finish off.  However, because of their convenience and compact size, they are worth considering.  And Jon at Noel Leeming Commercial has prices for these too.

Fisher & Paykel: $1108.13    $1274.33

Haier: $1046.25                     $1203.19

LG: $1060.26                        $1219.30

Samsung: $1216.52               $1399.00

Westinghouse: $1224.00       $1407.60

DECISION. This is entirely up to you.  Your cost, your choice. My recommendation is that you research the options very carefully. Consumer NZ carried out a survey early this year, and it would be well worth while to look this up.  If you don't have a subscription, there should be a copy in the public library.  Look for reviews online. Remember that every option has advantages and disadvantages, and you must choose what suits you best. And look around for competitive prices, though the Noel Leeming Commercial offers would be hard to beat.  If you have made up your mind to buy one or more of the Noel Leeming machines, tell Damien, and he will take it from there. 

EXCITEMENT ON THE SITE

 

Photos courtesy Beckie McKinney

I was out shopping. And arrived back to find I had missed a great deal of excitement. 

A worker who was demolishing some blockwork around a fire hose cupboard accidently flicked an unseen cable out of its socket, and the fire alarms blasted into action. Brigid phoned the fire service, and THREE fire trucks turned up, bearing hearty and muscular crews. Naturally, there was no fire, but it turned out to be a very smooth evacuation exercise. The construction crews evacuated via the scaffolding stairs and the internal fire stairs, and the current residents (only the lower four levels are still here) behaved in their usual exemplary fashion. Twenty minutes later, the site and building were assessed as clear, and the activity resumed to normal.

I do wish I had seen those fire trucks, but no one, not a single person, had thought to take a photograph.

As an accident, it was understandable.  It is very dark back there in the riser, and the cable was not at all visible. But, as Gazelle says, the teams will take more thorough steps to trace existing cables and positively identify them prior to demolition. Perhaps a strong torch will be necessary.

But it was not the end of the excitement. In the evening a shareholder reported to Brigid that there was a distinct sound of running water from above.  Brigid listened, agreed, and contacted Gazelle, who came out right away. It turned out to be flapping plastic from the vent of the asbestos enclosure on Level 6 (Apartment 6C); which was making more noise than usual. An extraction fan had been left running for the night, and that, with the Wellington wind, set the plastic flapping. 

The plastic was cut back so that it wouldn’t flap against the window frame, which lessened the noise significantly. No more fears of massive flooding were felt.

More good news.  The Aoraki plumber has been installing tobys downwards in the shaft, so in future it will be easy for us to control the water in the bathrooms, laundries and kitchens, a major plus to avoid one of those massive floods.

As you can see from the collection of photos above (kindly sent by Beckie Aoraki) great progress is being made on the finishing of the top two levels.  As Gazelle said to me, meeting the deadline has been a challenge, but they are certainly getting there. 

More good news for the top two levels as that the north face watertightness has been apparently solved, all due to brilliance from Gazelle and Lance. Where aluminum flashing has been installed in the lower corners of the windows, there is no sign of leaking. And there is hope for the  future. These flashings are being installed throughout the building where windows either meet aggregate panels or concrete columns, and an equally good result is expected. 

Aoraki will be water blasting as part of job to test. Damien observes that it would be great to have a north west rain event to fully test.  As if we need more rain!!

CHALLENGES AND REWARDS

 

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Your editor is back! -- After an amazing adventure and a tricky trip home.

Arriving at Paris airport at 6 am was frustrating, as the flight to Perth was delayed by seven hours, which meant (a) waiting for five hours for the check-in counter to open, and (b) the start of a snowball effect, where the delay was followed by more delays, meaning I got to Wellington almost a whole day late.

And somewhat the same sort of snowball effect has happened with our project. While levels 13 and 12 will be returned to proud owners on time, there are delays within the next levels.  As Ken, our chairman, has revealed, dates of leaving apartments and getting back into apartments have changed. 

An interview with Martin Hubbard, our project manager, revealed the reasons for this. A great deal was learned when work began on levels 12 and 13. Configuring the slab tendons proved to be a challenge -- a challenge that took time to solve, but was fixed with very favourable results. Other major discoveries were made, and with their solutions the process is now going smoothly. Asbestos removal is going well, and weather tightness solutions have been found and applied, and are going well too. 

This is resulted in a huge plus.  The finalization date for the project as a whole is going to be almost exactly as planned, which is something quite miraculous in the construction industry.  Right now, the estimate is that the project will finish just eleven working days later than the original estimate.

The schedule changes do mean challenges to shareholders, and Board directors, with Damien and Brigid, are working hard to make this go smoothly, too.

It does mean that some residents will be looking for alternative accommodation to fill in the gap between the original date of reoccupation and the new one. I can recommend Quest Atrium, where I am staying, but with a proviso.  Right now, the apartment building is pretty empty, with plenty of apartments available, but John Chin, the manager, warns me that by November the building will fill up.  So, if that is part of your plan, make sure to get your booking in soon.