It makes perfect sense to post here for moral support.  However, I thought
it would be a good idea to *also* post to the other group because they might
have some sounds ideas about what is causing your structural problems -- and
whether it is likely to cause further problems in the future or if it is
something that can be corrected at reasonable cost and effort.

Whatever you do, good luck.  I hope everything works out well for you.  I
would like to add a sunroom onto the back of my house in the next year or
so, and I hope I don't run into any "little inconveniences" along the way
(which often does happen, I know).

MaryL

Oooh! I think its time for building horror stories :-)

We had our house built back in 98/99

Afer the signing of all thepapers I was told it will take 3 months *tops*
before the house was ready to move into. That supposedly included rainy
days, strikes etc etc.

So, figuring that 3 month was a short period of time, Joel and I moved into
the dingiest darkest smelliest most digusting flat because ti was cheap and
why waste more money on anapartment we'd only be in for 3 months?

We went to visit our house every week.

It got to lock-up stage within 3 months.

Then it sat there, doing sweet FA for another 6.

I kept ringing the contruction company and kept getting BS excuses like the
roads weren't ready or the council had put a moritorium on work that week
etc etc etc. All complete lies, I know, because I checked every single one
of their alleged excuses.

The closest I can get to the actual truth is that the building company was
building allthe houses in my area at the one time. So the concreters came in
and laid the slab for every single house. If you happened to be the first
house that had its slab laid, you'd have to wait forever for the last house
to have its slab laid before the frame was contructed.

And right in the middle of the building process there was a housing boom in
Sydney so that you couldn't hire contractors for love nor money

So it got to lock-up stage and just sat there, doing nothing, while we went
mad in this pokey, dingy, smelly disgusting little flat. I would have
willingly gone in and done the painting and tiling had they let me, but no,
I didn't "own" it yet, and therefore I couldn't.

After nearly a year, we finally got the keys to move in. And literally while
we were moving in, the landscapers were still doing the driveway and putting
in the lawn.

I'm really glad you trust your builders, Grace, because I wouldn't trust a
builder as far as I could spit one, which wouldn't be very far.

If there's a next time we are goign to buy a second hand house, and be aware
of its "eccentricities" before we move it, rather that discovering them too
late to do anything about but knowing we could have had it fixed if we'd
just been aware of the problem before it was "set in concrete" so to speak.

You have my utmost sympathies. Here, have a nice hot camomile tea Úº to help
soothe those nerves.

Yowie

I worked as a security guard while I was in college.  Most of my time
was spent at a particular factory and the adjoining scrap-metal yard
(owned by the same company), but I had some days at other locations.
On one occasion, I spent a night guarding an office building that was
still under construction.  The building, all on one level, had
aluminum-stud-and-sheetrock interior walls (non-load-bearing) about 8
feet high, and about 4 feet of open space above the walls, reaching
up to the building's roof.  Presumably they were planning to put in a
suspended ceiling, with air ducts and the like above it.  The floor
was plywood.  I was not impressed with the sturdiness of the
construction, particularly given that, everywhere I walked in the
building, I could see the walls visibly vibrating to each step.  I
felt like I was walking through one of those traditional Japanese
houses with sliding paper walls.

(snippety)

Heh.  G*d help you.   :-P

------
Krista