It's been a long time...

So I am a Melbourne supporter. At the football. I think my time will be better spent updating the blog via my iPhone seeing we are almost 70 points down at the start of the 3rd! We have got one goal so far though. Here's proof! Haha



Back to the house. Firstly we had our full electrical fit out - optic fibre cabling, lighting, speaker cabling and powerpoints.

Dad came along one weekend and installed some noggins for us :) thanks dad!



Insulation was then installed. Thanks to our awesome SS who allowed us to install some extra soundproof insulation.

Plastering followed. No real issues apart from finding that one section had not been properly insulated. SS called them back to fix it up no problems.

In between all of the above the bricking was carried out. Looks to be a good job to me. Loving our choice of bricks (Boral Mocha). Bricks have now been completed, cleaned and feature locations rendered.

Only had one small issue with the bricking (or the wrapping to be precise). Part of the garage was bricked without wrapping or damp proof course in place. SS had them pull it down to install the wrapping and damp proof course, then rebrick.

Here are a load of photos below.

Some of the insulation and electricals.



Front entrance plastered. Looking though the family room at end.



Looking down hallway back towards front door.



Front door scratched. Hope they fix it!



Master bedroom



Master bedroom looking into ensuite



Looking at family area



Looking toward alfresco from same location as above



Looking toward kitchen from same location as above



Front of house with bricks all cleaned. (not rendered yet)



Along back of house towards alfresco



Close up of bricks



Another close up of bricks



Three quarter time and we are still only down by 71 points. Kicked 3 goals that quarter :)

Hopefully we get cabinetry before Easter!

- Sarah

House with a hat!!

It's seem to have been a long time between updates because so much has happened!

Our wall frames finished, closely followed by roof trusses.

There was a few issues with the roof trusses which have now been resolved. Firstly, they forgot to add the eaves on the northern side of the house. This was resolved by adding timber onto the chord of the truss. The timber extension overlapped the truss by about 1.5m so as to reduce the cantilever forces caused by the weight of the tiles. The second problem (picked up by dad) was that the roof trusses were not blocked. Blocking has now been added :)

The next time I visited the block the roof tiles were up! In the 3 days between the gutters and fascia was installed, followed by the tiling. Some pics below from most recent visit on Friday.




From front of house



Looking towards back from front door



Looking up to roof. Can see some of the blocking in this pic too



Feature wall behind bed



From kitchen looking towards living area (alfresco on right)



Looks like we will need a small laundry basket. The door is about as wide as Glens shoulders!



Bricks have been delivered!! Love them!!! (Boral Mocha)



More bricks. There was about 18 pallets all up!!



On our way out to visit again. House was wrapped yesterday! :)

- Sarah

Frame walls done

Just a quick post (using iPhone BlogPress - thanks Chris!).

Our frame walls are finished. Well they finished last Friday but I have been a bit lazy to update. Hopefully this app will improve my response time :P

Will post some pics later!


- Sarah

FRAME!

First up is a pic from when the slab was put down last Wednesday. Definitely felt like a milestone was finally reached when the slab went down! Had been over 2.5 months since site scrape already.


Frame started today. Went past after work to find that the slab had been drawn out and plates had been put down along where the walls are to go. Nice to finally see the rooms in real size! The display we chose the house from was 36sq, whereas we went for the smaller version.

Builders seem to be very neat! The studs were all cut and perfectly lined up ready for making the frame (hopefully tomorrow!)

Seems to be a small mistake in the laying out of the pipes.... Our powder room basin pipe seems to be half in the home theatre room! Not sure how much use it would be in there.. haha

Received a call from the Carlisle Operatons Manager last week to explain the delays which we have experienced. Basically they were due to waiting for developers approval of grey water piping, and then waiting for concreters to come back from holidays. He mentioned that they were expecting our PCI to occur in early June for a mid June handover. Probably a bit earlier to give an accurate estimate though!

Following the call we were mailed a variation requesting 28 day extension to contract time due to delays with developer approval. This was fine with us as we were emailed when the delay started and were also notified when it ended.

Happy that we are finally seeing progress now though! So far no such holdups with our carpenters =D *touch wood!*

Slab Party!!

WE HAVE A SLAB!!!

It's been a long time in the making... But we finally have one =D

Went past the block this morning before work and there were about 10 guys finishing off the footings and framework. At lunchtime the concrete truck was there still with about 10 guys...

Hope they can keep up the hard work!

Forgot to take camera and phone to the block... so no pics.. will get some tomorrow though!!

Concreters have appeared!

I went for a drive past the block during my lunch break today absolutely expecting nothing to be happening. Afterall they have been AWOL for 2 weeks, so never would have expected them to arrive the day before a public holiday.... But there they were!! Three guys working away at our slab footings =D

A visit after work was in order to check out what had been done...

There is only a couple of bits and pieces to go to finish the slab footings... Missing some waffle pods at the edge of the garage and some of the framework... Hopefully this can be quickly finished up on Wednesday morning in time for the slab to be poured same day!

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!!!!

Where are our concreters?!?!

Sooo... it's been 2 weeks since we got our drains.... 5 days since our waffle pods got delivered.... and STILL no sign of the concreters!

I just want my slab =(

When I visited the block yesterday the carpenter showed up as he thought he was going to be starting today... No such luck... At least I know I can rely on someone to show up!

Pipes!

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Years!

We had our site scrape on 11th Nov, and then nothing until this week... Basically to cut a long story short there were some delays with getting approvals for our drains / pipes though City West Water as the Developers did not pass them on for approval earlier. Unfortunately this took approx 1 month to go through and by then Carlisle did not want to do anything else until after Christmas.

Ended up signing our final plans just before Christmas...

In the mean time we had a few small issues.
Firstly, our chosen timber laminate was discontinued. Went in and rechose another similar looking one... Although I think I like this one slightly better. Glen didn't come as he 'trusted' my choice!
Secondly, had to change a couple of kitchen door handles to the smaller size to fit smaller cupboard doors. Somehow this was not picked up on until the last minute and Carlisle tried to charge us a variation fee for it. Got ourselves out of that one though... It should have been picked up by the draftsmen!


Below are a few pics which have been taken since the last update...

Site scrape was carried out on 11th Nov. Here are some pics taken about 1 week later (clearly after some rain). I don't think I ordered any swimming pools... One for the porch

And in the background you might be able to see a super dooper one for the alfresco!

Visit to the block on the 10th Jan found a tap!

AND a water meter!!

We also found a nice pile of dirt in preparation for the drains. This green thing along the front of the block was called a "sediment barrier". Not many people in the estate have one though... so not sure why it is there?

Monday was 43degC, Tuesday night was the hottest night ever... and Tuesday morning (12th Jan) didn't drop below about 34degC... Some time during during that heat they put our pipes in!

Good work boys =D

Two days later (14th Jan) the land was flattened and we have a temp fence...

Had a call from CLE (a diff one as 'M' is on holidays)... Our slab is definitely going in on Saturday (16th Jan)! Things are moving so quickly now! (Clearly they want money.. But I want our house too!)

SITE START!!!!

So today I visited the block in my lunch break... and found the scrape had started!!! Site start was officially 11th November.

So exciting to finally start building! Can only hope it all goes smoothly now =)

Sorry no pics yet as I forgot my camera and phone... ooops

Going on holidays for a few days.. Will try to get some pics middle of next week! Might even have some pipes by then!

Some more land pics...

Just a couple of new pics from our visit to Alamanda on Friday afternoon.

First is from the back of our block looking towards the street (and my car.. lol)


Second is of the wetlands progressing down the back of the estate (a few houses down from me). They are really starting to come along and look great! I can't wait to see the finished product :)


Also noticed the other day that the block a few down from ours has a temporary fence already!! Quick starters, especially seeing as our land only titled 2 weeks ago!