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.

Road to ... 'Nowhere"

We were told by our CSO that works was due to start again on 05/01/09 and drains due to be installed on 08/01/09, so we went out to the block today, hoping to see an Excavator preparing our site... but instead we found nothing... nada... zip...

We left a msg on the 'M's mobile, but as yet, we haven't heard back.. (There was a missed call on my phone, so may have been him).

Anyways... here is a pic of our new driveway.. all 85 metres of it!! - This is the view looking from what will be our garage to the road.

-sha

Tanks and Poles and Signs

We went to the block today, and first thing we noticed is we have a sign! :) :) I took a pic of Tim pointing at it, cause he was amazed that they printed it up specially for us, with our lot number on it .. hahaha

We also finally managed to get a pic of our water tank.. :) We were wishing we had a shed or other roof hooked up to it, so it would be over flowing now.. ahh well.. its still 3/4 full , as we had a truck bring a load of water in..

We also have a power pole! yayy.. our electrician (B.I.L.) wasnt sure if it would have been installed as we had more rain, and may have been too boggy.. but we do. and it looks fantastic..

I know only 'Homeone' guys will understand my excitement at having a powerpole.. lol

I hope you enjoy the pics.. Oh and I will add a couple of pics of the kids, playing in the dirt of our attempted site scrape... Tim had to get his hand in too! ( biggest kid of all lol)

-Sha

more $$$$!!!

"M" called today to say the excavator guy had been back to our block, hoping to cut it again.. nope! still too wet. (not surprisingly)..
He advised us that we need to cut out the driveway and put some shale or roadbase down .. yes on all 85 metres of it!! First thought.. this is gonna cost some big $$$..
We got some quotes from a few businesses (not too bad priced, but they didnt seem confident with what had to be done), so we then called a 'local lad'. He knows our soil type, and says that it will not work by doing what the builder has suggested, as the water will simply push its way through, and we will make a huge mess, once we start cutting. Instead, he said we should not cut it, but just put some crushed sandstone down, mixed with cement powder over the top of the exsiting grass/mud. He seems to know what he is talking about, and we will be going with this method, even though its the most expensive. If the weather stays fine, then he will be on site on Saturday to get that done.. and fingers x'd, we will be able to have the site cut next week!
Also..
We had our water tank delivered yesterday. It holds 5000 gallons (22700 litres). So that combined with the one we are having underground off the house (another 32500 litres) should be heaps of water.
DH forgot the camera yesterday, and it was too dark once I got there, so I will get pics on the weekend :)
-Sha

Wet Wet Wet

Well.. we tried to get the trench dug and the gravel down on the driveway... but with so much rain around, it was not to be.... The builder is very keen to start, but he is going to have to postpone for a few days atleast until it dries out... Pictures speak for themselves.....

We only managed to get a few metres of the trench done, and the gravel is still in a pile where it was dumped.. With so much mud, the gravel will just sink into it. When it dries up a bit, the builder is happy to spread it out for us...

We think a few more truck loads will need to be ordered.

The kids wasted no time jumping all over it!!

-Sha

rain, rain go away, come again .. in 7 months time..

They attempted site scrape today, but it was sooooo boggy that it looks like the excavator must of bellied out in the mud.. He had to give up.. :( and... we have had more rain tonight.. *bugger!*

Tomorrow we have a friend and his trench digger coming to dig our trench for the electrical cables, and hopefully the local quarry is turning up with some gravel rocks for our driveway (we need to supply all weather access). Hope it dries out a lot over night! but we arent very optimistic..

Does this mean that today is still officially our first day of construction??

Here is a pic of our 'attempted' site scrape.. DH standing in the mud...

(Please excuse quality of pic, as it was taken with phone camera, and it was getting dark)

We have our rain tank turning up on Tuesday, and our electrician is coming out next week to install the power pole on our property, bring the cables in to the house and install our meter box near where the house is going.

Full steam ahead, if only the rain would stay away!

-Sha

YAY!! We are starting today!!

We had a call from our 'original' SS "M" this morning , asking us where our block is! lol as the excavator man couldnt locate it...(It is a little bit hard to define, especially since all this rain, the grass has grown quite a bit - We must get out there and mow!) So.. it looks like we are getting scraped today... wooohooo!! Now the fun begins :)
(Guess they just got the SS's name wrong, and "M" will be our SS for the duration.. hopefully :))
-Sha

No Action Tonight babe..

We were advised by our SS - "M" that our site scrape was booked in for today - 04/12/08.
Tim and I both had to work late, so it was a mad dash up there in the dark tonight. We were expecting to see lots of mud (we had storms this afternoon), and when we got there we did see lots and lots of mud.. and soggy grass... but none that had been turned over with an excavator :(
In the mail today was a letter from our builder, congratulating us on beginning our construction, and an invoice for the base payment! Since we havent even had site scrape yet, we think this is a bit premature!!
It also mentioned that our Site Manager "B" will be in touch with us prior to excavations.. What the.. or rather Who the..??
So we have no idea now when we will start or who will be running the show..
Lots of rain is expected for Friday through to Monday, so we dont think we will get anything done now until late next week.
That hasn't stopped us crossing 'everything' in the hope that we have a slab for Christmas :)
-Sha