Brickwork complete

So from the completion of the frame on 11th of November, the builders have today completed the brickwork, so thats just under a month, of which they worked about 2 weeks solid due to rain delays etc.

 

The builders have even done a partial clean of the interior.

So from what we've been told the brick cleaners are on site next week and then the downpipes etc will go on around the same time as the roof, hopefully all before Christmas depending of the wild sydney weather.

Bricks, bricks and more bricks

So someone pointed out that we'd not posted any pictures with bricks going up as of yet, so here they are.

Front of house, pillars growing and window surrounds.

Two sides of the same wall.

Rear of house.

Then one day later, more bricks....

Same shot one day later....

Right wall of garage.

Rear of study and pier from the alfresco.

And then the wife snapped this on her way past today....

Onwards and upwards as they say.........

Frame almost complete

So with a good few days of sunny weather we have an almost complete frame!

Second Story...

A day and a bit of sunlight later and we have the second floor frame almost complete and the windows on site ready for installation...

Frame progress and moving well

So its been a busy week for the builders, even though I thought they would be delayed due to the fact it has poured with rain on and off all week they've actually made some good progress, without the rain they'd probably be close to finishing!

Anyway some shots from the week and some close-ups taken today to follow, only one are of concern to us at the moment but we will wait until next weekend before raising it with the site supervisor if required.

This was taken on 02 Nov.

By the afternoon of 03 Nov this was what had been acheived.

As of today this is what the site looks like, from the inside!

Anyway we are hoping the second story will be in place by the end of next week weather permitting and maybe some of the roof trusses as well, finally we have something that looks like a house!

Storm Water complete

So more progress this week, the builders have been on site and have dug the storm water pipes, the sewer connection nad put in the detention pit.  We've also seen some steel delivered so hopefully the rest of the frame will be on site next week and we can start to see the house take shape!

Pano from the rear of the house, big drop from left to right!

Connections for the kitchen water in the foreground, the laundry up the back.  Also shown the split in the middle section of the house, 4ish steps from memory.

Not easy to see but this is the cover for the storm water detention pit, nicely covered to stop all the soil falling in.

Steel for the frame.

Progress at long last

So it's felt like an eon since we commenced building our first home, and at last we've had some progress.

After the weather cleared the builder appear to have had what you could call a rocket up their bums, not sure why but they have been very busy this past week and a bit.

We've gone from this.
 

To this.

 

And at the end of today this is what we looked like!

Thats right, we've been slabbed!! and its a boy! The height of the slab at points is a little scary, but hopefully it will all come together nicely.

20 Day's till commencement

So after what seemed to drag on Masterton have taken over the site pretty quickly, they have 20 days but it only took 5, so thats a good sign I guess.

We're looking at the piers to be in place next week and were told the concrete is scheduled for pouring soon so this first bit should fly.

Looking forward to documenting our build over the next 36 weeks.

And then the house was no more.....

So after what seems like an age we have cleared the site.

The demolition company were due to start on Monday the 3rd of September, but they obviously got bored as some time on the proceeding Friday the roof off the house mysteriously disappeared......

After the weekend they really hit their straps and come Wednesday afternoon most of the site was cleared.

The site looks so bare without the house and the jungle come backyard, but its now clear and awaiting the final peg out and construction to start at last, home ownership here we come!!!

Once upon a Mortgage.....


In a suburb very very far from many places, but not so far from Sydney CBD, there lived a family of Nathan, Vivien and the little prince Christopher.

Chapter 2

It has been a dark dark time for the family, the evil council has provided a great many headaches and delays as a result of their tyrannical grasp on power in the local area, but alas the side of good is prevailing.....
 
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So after a long long wait, between Colour Selections, Electrics Selections, issues with the storm water run-off and all manner of requestes from the council we have come to a milestone in our build (the second time around) and it appears that the council has finally approved the building for our new home! I should be excited I know but its a bit of an anti-climax really, we've worked so hard to get to this point but it feels slightly hollow given it wasn't our first choice of house and that the land we've had on the market still hasn't sold after the one real buyer we thought we had turned out to be a dud.
 
But in the end all we need to do now is pull down the old house, hopefully soon, and cash ourselves up as we have done everything that needs to be done and are basically waiting on the final cost from Masterton prior to starting the build, which means everything going well this 2.5 year process may actually result in us moving into our new home by mid 2011!! wow
 
So as an idea for what we are building here are some shots of the plans we have.
 

This is the site plans showing where the house will sit on the site
 

Front and Side Elevation
 

Rear and Side Elevation
 

Ground Floor plan
 

First Floor plan
 
Added to these plans are our electrics and 'colour selections'.  The downstairs will be Blackbutt Hardwood, sanded and polished with the exception of the front living space and the office, these like the upstairs will be carpeted.  As for the other important bits we chose well the house will be pre-wired for foxtel but we arent having data points going with a wireless network inside the house in lieu of hardwiring, an intercom (colour image) will be installed for the front door and a schmic alarm system with remotes for the cars is being installed as well.  The upstairs living and alfresco are all going to be wired with speakers for entertainment purposes, the kid(s) will have a ball with the surround sound in their rumpus in the long term.
 
So thats all there is really for the moment, hopefully the real action will commence soon and we can see some tangable results of all this money and time we have invested, bring on occupation date I say......