This is what a site office looks like when it’s waiting for the works to begin. It’s been a long time coming, but work is about to get underway!
It’s been a few months since I wrote about the trials and tribulations of finding a builder. Getting building consent approved for a change of use was starting to seem like a walk in the park! I’d been using word-of-mouth referrals to find good local tradies, but hadn’t been able to find someone willing and available to take on the job.
Fortunately my well-networked neighbour came to the rescue with the name of a friend who had recently started their own building business after moving back from Auckland. We arranged to meet on-site in early July, and he was keen to take on the job. Unfortunately he wasn’t available to start until early September, but I figured that would give me enough time to get rid of the mountain of boxes I hadn’t sorted through before my move.
Unfortunately the start was delayed until December, which gave me heaps of time to sort out the things you need to have in place for a major works contract:
- Construction contract – recommended for all building works, and mandatory for anything over $30,000 including GST. Fortunately the government’s building website has a link to a free contract you can download and use.
- Insurance – if you have domestic building insurance then you may need to get additional cover for the construction works. My kirk is classified as a commercial building, so my insurance policy covered $100,000 worth of construction work.
However, trying to get an insurance certificate via my insurance broker was a drama that took nearly three weeks to resolve. You have to provide your contractors with a copy of your insurance certificate as part of your contract with them.
In the process of getting my insurance certificate, I discovered that the insurer wasn’t going to extend my cover beyond 28 February 2020. They had seen it as a short-term arrangement, and despite taking over $6,000 from me in 18 months, they didn’t want the continued risk of an un-occupied commercial business.
The pressure was now on to get the conversion completed to a stage that would enable me to get domestic building insurance cover in place by the end of February. I would need to make sure that my builder had everything on site when he needed it in time to meet this deadline.
I already had the cabinets onsite as well as the tap-ware. He’d order the timber he needed so it was just the shower and toilet I’d need to sort. My original choices were no longer available, so I did the expedient thing and chose standard items from the local builder’s merchant catalogue.
I already had a bench-top oven, electric jug, and coffee plunger on site, but decided to add a fridge and toaster to the site ‘kitchen’. I’ve also dug out my old microwave just in case. Note the old-fashioned bowl on the bench-top oven for washing up – but not at the same time. Now all we need is to get water connected to the building!
Next time: Driving with the whole body
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