Few Words

Our Pool was supplied by Barry Michael at "Just Pools" and installed by Steve Vote. Whilst Barry can literally talk underwater, he is a man of his word and the price he gives you is the total price right down to the last cent. Steve, Terry and his team are fantastic blokes who are true professionals at what they do. Whilst installing the pool they found a water table about two meters down which a number of other pool builders had issues with at other installs in our estate but Steve was able to deal with the problem and get the job done. I would not hesitate in the least to recommend both Steve and Barry as you will not find better or more honest people to deal with.

Barry Michael- 02 45797823, www.justpools.net.au

Steve Vote- Steve's Pool and Spa Services, 0438823097     

One thing to mention...................

Never again would I have a pool installed like this whereby the shell is in the ground and the rest is up to you. At the time of instillation we paid an additional amount to a concretor organised by Barry and Steve to pour the bond beam and an additional area around the pool which was done without issue. 

Now some three years later when this job of completing the landscaping around the pool came to the top of the list we find out that the concrete is no less then four centimetres out of square resulting in huge issues when paving around the pool not only in labour but also in cost. 

I would strongly suggest that anyone going down this path gets a price for a pool finished in its entirety to avoid this pitfall.                                             

 We decided to lay Sapphire Buffalo Turf that we had supplied from Bills Turf at Wilberfore/ Freemans Reach. Carol is the lady to chat to and they are more then helpfull with advice and guidance both before and more importantly after sale. Again I highly recommend them and they are far cheaper then buying from a nursery or garden centre,

Bills Turf Supplies
435 Freemans Reach Road,
Freemans Reach, NSW. 2756

Phone:  02 4579 6173         
Fax:      02 4579 6646

Email:   sales@billsturfsupplies.com.au

And now for one of the more challenging parts of my build, I call it the "Necessitator". Because if you want me to build that deck I will need to buy a new drop saw and maybe new cordless and a impact driver and a power saw and the list goes on. However I assure you all these are all "Necessities" that are required for a professional finish!

The deck is 9m by 4.5m and was all done in spotted gum and to be honest it came up fantastic although it was a lot of work and was pure punishment for the knees!

Finally we had some external LED lights supplied and fitted. The LED lights worked out to $30 per light and that came with five year warranty on the bulb. I wish we had found them this cheap at the start of our build as they were at $75 per light when priced against the $26 compact fluro. On the upside they are exactly the same diameter so eventually they will be a direct replacement.

The porch light in these pics is a compact fluro.

And on the Two Hundredth Day................

And on the Two Hundredth day the Gods of technology said unto the people "Thou Shalt Have Internet"! So its been a long time between posts but the pace has been constant. Let me bring you all up to speed but to do so we need to go back to the day of "Bazinga".

In the days leading up to Bazinga, we had arranged our flooring and pool for the days closely following so delaying our handover was not an option. I had taken leave from work that I could not delay any longer and had already burnt a week of it already with some issues with our SS. I got a call out of the blue from an "Independent" building inspector that had been organised by MDJ to do our final walk through with rather then our SS which I was more then happy with. He gave me a bit of background about himself, his company and that it was quite "Routine" for him to do a final walk through as a bit of QA for MDJ.

As you may be aware if you have read our previous posts there was not a great deal of issues to address as we had been having them corrected as they arose. However there we some painting issues, flashing adjustment, mortar and other cosmetic issues that we were intent or raising. As we commenced our walk through with the "Independent" it soon become aware that he was not exactly batting down the middle. It became very apparent and I might add on occasion quite rudely so that he had zero interest in anything we raised. Halfway though our inspection our SS and the painters turned up which made it even more difficult and off putting. To his credit though our SS did rectify a number of issues that the inspector was keen to dismiss.

On completion of the handover, a cheque was exchanged for keys and it was finally ours. In the days following handover I must say that our SS became a different person and any little enquiry we made was dealt with and rectified swiftly with the professionalism that we had only half hoped for during our entire build. We just wish it had been this way with him from the get go!

As this was just about the end of dealings with MDJ I thought to myself "Would I do it all again and if so would I with MDJ"? The short answer.......... Yes! Apart from some poor tradies and a difficult and poor communicating SS MDJ were people of their word.

I cannot express well enough the commitment and dedication to her clients that we were shown by our client liaison Suzz. The was not one single thing that she was not able to organise, answer or enquire about on our behalf and she truly took a huge amount of stress and anxiety out of our build. Suzz you are a credit to MDJ and even after nearly a year in our new home we still are indebted to you.

Our SS boss Mick is an old school (Note I didn't suggest you were old Mick) fellow and one of old principles and morals. You came to us at a shitty time in our build not with arguments or defenses but with a desire to solve issues and progress the build to a level not only you but also we were over the moon with. We truly appreciate the efforts and lengths you went to in helping us with our build Mick, you are truly a great bloke.

Whilst we only had a few visits and conversation with Bill McDonald, to get the owner of a company out on site actively wanting to listen and then address his clients concerns is outstanding. Thanks Bill we really appreciated your time and openness.

So whilst we were at the end of our build, we soon realised that our journey was no where near its end. Now it was our problem to organise everything else, lawns, pool, deck, other fixings inside, lights, driveways etc and the list goes on!