Next comes.... Bricks!!

Yesterday, most of the roofing was complete. There is still the alfresco to finish off and all the the cappings ( ? not sure of tech terms lol). They have left a strip down the middle at the front. Probably so they can hook up the solar panels and piping for the hot water.

Here is pic of the back... and then the front (sorry this is so dark, I was too busy looking around and forgot to take the front pic until it was almost dark).

The bricks also arrived. There is a lot of broken ones, and some that are brown, instead of red.. but I am sure they will pick through them. They are not exactly as we chose, because these ones seem to have a variation in them, like someone took a bleach rag and wiped it down each row of bricks... but we think it will look good :) The first picture seems to show the true colour of the bricks, (well on my monitor anyway lol) ..

-Sha

roof started, windows in.. baths arrived!?

We got to see our roof colour today.. we hadnt seen it at all, except on a tiny sample.. and we love it! It looks grey, with a tinge of green.. Sometimes very light like silver, other times darker.. We need to ask "M" about the wrapping they are putting under the colorbond. We are meant to be getting R2.5 insulation batts to the ceiling, so we think this is the sarking.. Some of it is being lapped the wrong way, and there are large holes in it, so any condensation will go straight onto our ceiling.. It might be alright, we just aren't sure.
Here is the garage, and the next pic is the left hand side -our bedroom and ensuite, the family room and the alfresco out the back

Our windows and sliding doors are all in. They are Paperbark colour but at the moment the black tape is still covering them for protection.

They need to swap these two windows over, so they both open from the corner out.. We specifically asked for them to be put in that way, so we can capture more of the view of the mountains from our ensuite.

Yesterday, we noticed our baths had already arrived- a bit early maybe? lol Here is Katelyn, checking them out :) We were worried the main bath would be too small, but it seems to be big enough, atleast for kids, and they are the only ones going to use it.. lol

Can you believe its only been 3 weeks since they started the slab!!

We had a call today from the office to check everything was going fine, and we were happy campers. :) I told her we were thrilled, and loving every minute of it. She will pass the comments onto "M" , who we are still yet to meet.. actually we haven't met any of the workers at all yet. It's like little fairies go onto our block and do a bit more every day... and judging from the cans, casks (yes! a cask of wine) and even a large rum bottle! , they are drunken little fairies! lol

Oh! we have some doors delivered to site, that we can't work out where they go... We had a closer look, and they have a different builder's name and suburb on them.. soooooo if you are building in Carole Park and are missing some doors.. I know where you can find them! *grin*

-Sha

It's sooooo exciting to see little bits and pieces turning up!!

....except our frame invoice, which we received today :( but it does mean that we are moving along, and at a very fast pace I might add!! :)

Our windows and glass doors arrived today and I am happy that we have little lines on the doors that are meant to make you realise the door is closed.. (I was dreading getting the 'olympic' circles that I see some people are getting) - I know.. small things.. small minds lol

On the construction side of things.... they started to build our gables.. there are 2 of these on the front of the house..

The back of the house looking great, with our beautiful big alfresco..

-Sha

No updates on the house tonight.. but...

Check out the bargain we picked up today at Freedom Furniture..

It was marked down 25% off.. then another 50% off that price!

It will look perfect in our entrance area.

-Sha

The start of our colours....

Due to the rain and a very muddy site, there was no more work done on our house today.. but.. The first sign of some of our colour choices has arrrived..our fascia and gutters (and furring channel).

We were a little concerned about the colour of our gutters and roof (both colorbond "Bushland") - it's sooo hard to choose colours from those tiny little samples, but we need'nt have worried. We LOVE the colour! It has a greeny tinge to it, and changes colour slightly in different lights. (Looks grey in these pics though)

-Sha

Way to Go Newstart!!!

Looking a bit more like a house now!
I left work early so we could go up and meet the guys that are building our house, but it was pouring with rain when we got there, and everyone had already left (they didnt know we were coming).
Here is the Front..

here's the Back.. still a bit to go...

View from the road.. a bit hard to see due to the rain..

-Sha

Roof trusses ready to go..

The workers were back onsite again today, putting up the bracing etc.. The crane must of been there aswell, as most of the roof trusses were raised up, ready to be installed tomorrow. (Son2 looks so excited to be moving to the country.. lol NOT!!)

The beams were also installed for the alfresco, front verandah and garage. It is now easier to see the size of the Alfresco and Verandah.. we are very happy!!

We did notice some of the frame overhanging.. There are 2 places like this.. the rest of the frame looks good. Tim will talk to "M" tomorrow and see what can be done. We are also going to ask if we can place some insulation batts in the western wall to try to reduce some of the afternoon heat. Hopefully "M" will allow us to go in to do that, and while we are there, we want to install some extra noggins in the bathrooms for towel rails :)

-Sha

We have been "Framed"!!

Our Entrance..

This is how strangers will enter our home.. (Friends and Family will probably go around to the back door lol)

Our Living Areas..

This is looking at the Kitchen (on the left), dining (middle) and family (on the right), overlooking our Alfresco area..

Our Home..

This is the front view of the house.. garage on right side. Main bedroom on left. There is a front porch in the middle, which will be under the main roof.

Roof trusses are due to be installed tomorrow!!!

We had a wonderful time walking through all of the rooms. It was good to see the sizes etc.. My only concern is the hallway is wayyyyy too narrow.. Its 950mm wide.. what size are hallways normally??.. maybe its because its soooo long! lol.. Any ideas to make it feel wider??

-Sha

Random pics..

Our Frames have arrived :)

I have heard this pic is mandatory!!

Our new choice of bricks.. what do you think?? Pretty red! lol.. but they should look fantastic we think.

-Sha

This is what dreams are made of...

We have our slab! Isn't it beautiful!!


Our wall frames were also delivered.
The framing will start on Monday, and the roof trusses on Wednesday.
Oh! and we finally have a porta loo on site.. :)
-Sha

Slab prep'd, raintank and hstp installed 15/01/09

-Sha

Holes.. the good, the bad and the ugly

THE GOOD - The excavator was on site today to get the (huge!!) holes dug ready for the water tank and the hstp system to be installed. They are due to be delivered and installed at 8 o'clock in the morning. Wow! everything is moving so fast now.. I hope this keeps up lol

THE BAD -At around 3:30pm, We received a call from our CSO to say the excavator had hit rock :( He finally finished digging about 7pm, though only 2 hours of 'rock' digging.

We also noticed our roof trusses on site .. already! I am not sure how they will install them without our walls..lol.. (and we dont even have a slab yet).. but we aren't complaining!

THE UGLY - On a negative note... One of the truck drivers has hit our front fence post. The post is loose in the ground and damaged, the gate is buckled and the rails are crushed. We called the builder to let him know, but only got the answering machine. I will email our CSO tomorrow and find out what they will do about it.

-Sha

plumbing installed

Today is the day our plumbing was installed. They are hoping to have the slab done by Friday... I guess we will let them! hahaha In this next pic, the group of pipes you can see closest to the camera is the main bathroom.. the kitchen is in the middle and our ensuite at the other end of the house.

Here is Tim, standing in what will eventually be our front door.

Brick Issues Resolved...

Our CSO called me today to say that they were totally unaware of the issues with our bricks... so she called Austral Head office, who confirmed our fears... We need to choose another brick as they are unable to supply the "Monticello" in its original form.. Our bricks are due to be on site in 3 weeks, so we have to pick another brick immediately!
We had sooo much trouble choosing the first brick, that I was dreading this..

Anyway.. we rushed down to Austral this afternoon, and after a LOT of bantering back and forth, we finally made a decision.. I must admit its not a brick either of us have looked at before, but .. to be honest.. I think we are both extremely happy with the choice.. I think it will add a bit of depth to the house, and not look so washed out..

Our mortar will be natural grey, raked. Our roof, gutters and fascia will be the greeny/grey sample called "bushland" and our garage door, windows, downpipes will be the creamy coloured sample called "paperbark". Photos taken with phone, so not the best quality sorry.. bricks are probably a bit redder in real life. (The centre of each pic seems to be a bit more accurate)What do you think????




-Sha

Yayy!! We have been Scraped!!

We received a call from our friend who lives up the road from the block to tell us the excavator was on our block again, scraping our site.. Of course we rushed up there!! and this is what we found!! We were sooo excited, and took heaps of pics. Here are a few..
-Sha

Brick Issues

We went for a drive to Austral yesterday to see if we can get a sample of our bricks. The last time we were there, we were told they were having issues making that type of brick.. that was about 3 or 4 months ago..
Well yesterday was no different. The bricks are all white, with some having a very thin red line through them.. they are meant to be half red and half white.. Its something to do with the crusher machine crushing the white rock too finely.We told them we are due to start building now and will need the bricks in a couple of months.. He is putting a note in the Newstart Reps tray to advise him of our build, and see what can be done.. We may need to choose more bricks!!! This has us really worried as there are no other bricks we like in this range, and it means we may need to upgrade.

On another downer.... still noone on site, despite us being told Excavations due for 5th and Drain installation due for 8th January...
-Sha

This is what our bricks should look like..

and this is what the 'Monticello'bricks they are supplying now look like.