Floor plan changes for end-terrace house from the developer

Another month has passed. The thread reminds me that things are definitely progressing, even if there are occasional little problems here and there.

So what have we achieved:
- after a lot of drama, water, electricity, and fiber optic cables are in the house! (Nothing happens with those inside the house - but let’s be happy about the things that are there) There were probably 14-15 back-and-forths about whether each provider digs by themselves and opens up the street or not, and if not, who works together with whom (and then three times around again), but hey, the cables are now in the house!
- after a bit of drama the painter is now also finished! (For us it was mainly delays, but in our opinion, the work was decent. For the neighbors, it was the sub-subcontractor and at times quite shoddy.)
- we have a kitchen! Without electricity and water, but a kitchen (and we also immediately intensified our construction site monitoring – phew)
- we have a foundation for the prefabricated garage. Also later than originally planned, but it was an important step for us.

Currently in progress:
- we have taken the first steps in the fine installation of electricity (and there are the next little problems)
- the landscaping gardener is still busy outside, rainwater and wastewater connections are in progress, and next week the garden is supposed to be leveled.
- we are currently laying laminate ourselves.

What should start soon:
- erect the garage!
- fine installation of sanitary and heating(?) – allegedly we were supposed to be scheduled in November, but that is already halfway through. Heating is still a question mark because of electricity, and the outdoor unit has to go on the garage.
- next week we will get a front door!

Briefly about the electricity again: We had feared it a bit, but from the start we were told "it would be good if you continue with the previous electrician" – well, only he didn’t want to. Now it is apparently sometimes tedious for the successor to find out what is where (or not). According to current assessment, the employee on site doesn’t really feel like it either, so it tends to take even longer. Sigh. But step by step it’s also moving forward.

Hooray, the heating is running! It was close, but before everyone went on holiday shutdown, we were still able to tick off quite a few things:

- the prefabricated garage is in place (important because the outdoor unit of the heat pump is on it)
- we have internet (wasn't top priority, but we'll take the successes we get)
- the most important parts of the sanitary installation are completed (a few things are still missing, but it's "enough" that you could theoretically live in the house, i.e. kitchen, guest bathroom, and in the main bathroom shower and bathtub)
- the most important parts of the electrical installation are completed (many covers are still missing and there are still a few question marks at some sockets. A lot of network patching is still missing)
- the heating has been installed, connected, and is running (not optimized at all yet, but it’s running. The actuators and individual room controllers are still missing—but that’s a bit controversial with heat pumps anyway whether you really need them)
- we have interior doors! (except for one - more on that below)

In the end, it turned into a real final sprint. Of course, all accompanied by various construction site chaos.

Let's start with the easy part: The garage was erected. The foundations were deemed good and the installation went smoothly!

Now into the chaos!

Our electrician disappeared for a good month and soon became unreachable. Promised appointments were not kept, and at first, we heard there were problems at another construction site (this was already the case at the last post but the delay was not yet significant...) but then after "next Wednesday to Friday we’ll be back with you" (they were there for one day instead of the promised three) and "I think we’ll be mostly finished by next Friday" (they didn’t show up at all that week), weeks of radio silence and zero availability followed. After many unsuccessful attempts to make contact, we started to inform ourselves legally about how to proceed (i.e. what our options are... first setting deadlines and so on) and then he reappeared from nowhere and before Christmas they really picked up the pace: installed the meter, added a lot of sockets, did the electrical installation for the heat pump. Of course, we're glad it’s moving forward now, but it gave us a few sleepless nights in the meantime. "Finished" is not yet the case, but at least it’s moving.

Our heating/plumbing guy is also at the famous "almost done" stage. At the beginning of December, he was onsite for a few days with an expanded team and in his estimation, apart from small remaining tasks like installing the fans in the bathroom, they wanted to finish during that week. Then he wanted to go to another construction site... After those few days the statement was more or less "heat pump is (virtually) finished and as soon as the electrician connects, we can start it up." Well, say luckily there was a delay on the other site and he couldn’t start there, so (albeit with fewer people than in the first few days) they have since kept working from "almost finished" to still "almost finished"... I’d say NOW we are at the point where we can speak of a few remaining tasks. And when the electrician reappeared, the HVAC person was suddenly surprised at how quickly things went. Ultimately on Friday, the heating was filled and started just in time, and the reason it didn’t work at the neighbors was actually more due to missing HVAC installation rather than the electrical work. Yes, I suspect that if the electrical work had progressed more, they would have prioritized the heat pump earlier... although we and the neighbors always said it had priority, but... well...

We also still have homework regarding the interior doors. For some reason, in one of the drywall walls the door lintel is 8-9cm too low. I measured several doors but apparently not that one. So we still have homework to correct that... The other doors were installed without problems and the door fitter will be at the neighbors again in mid-January anyway.

Despite all difficulties, we have at least rudimentary water, electricity, and heat in the house and will probably apply for the building completion notification in January, as soon as our supervising architect is back from vacation.

Christmas greetings