Quick update

Had a call from my SS last night to say electrician had been in and completed his work and that the brick work was half done.

Lock up has been moved to next week as all this rain has slowed the brickie down. The lock up carpenter is coming in on Friday to put the external doors on and he thinks lock up will be middle of next week with plaster work starting at the end of the week.

This weekend will probably be the last time I get into the site as after lock up I will be looking through windows unless I make an appointment to see my SS (SS in pretty fussy about going on site without permission).

Will post some photos Sunday.

Brick Work Begun

Today is officially day 53 of the build and around 1/3 or the brickwork is complete.

I must say (although I don't know too much about bricking) that the brickie does a very neat job compared to some I have seen although he has left a lot of broken bricks around the yard. I'm not complaining as he's the one that has to work in the mess.

One half of the back of the house, and all the whole of the south facing side has been done up to about 5 feet. There is very little brickwork to be done at the front, just below the windows and the pillars of the front porch along with the front of the Garage.

The progress chart on myMetricon says that they expect lock-up on 28 August which is next Saturday. This is too good to be true, at this rate I could really be in before Christmas. I just don't want to get too excited as I don't want to jinx myself.

Rob my SS works on two week blocks and says he does not look ahead any further than that. This is not good for a Sagittarius who likes to be organised and organise everyone else - heck I'm organising next Christmas before this Christmas arrives. I've just got to take a step back and have patience.

I have 9 weeks before I have to be out of the house I am living in at the moment. I am surrounded by packing boxes and garbage bags sorting through what I'm taking with me and what I will throw away (fun times).

Anyway below are some photos for you to look over.

There are now quite a few houses springing up in my street and looking around I think there is one couple who have moved into the Estate and another who are just about ready too.

This photo is just for Janine, Amanda, Leanne and Barbi. This is the scrap booking room - lot of late nights to be had in here girls and plenty of room for guest scrappers lol, oh and it is a kid and husband free zone...how good is that?!?!

Heating installed

Took an early drive down to the block this morning to see what has been happening.

The roof is finished and is looking great. Seems to change colour depending on the time of day, as you can see below it is not looking as dark as it did the other day.

I now have a wirliebird, a solar panel and an antenna. Inside the heating unit has been installed as has the gas and water.

Rob my SS has been true to his word and called me on Monday night to let me know what was going on. The house will be wrapped on Monday 17th, bricking will start Tuesday and if you can believe 'myMetricon' it is due for completion 23rd August. Things just seem to be flying. Rob said he is going to do all he can to have me in before the Christmas break which is December 10.

I checked all of the points that appeared on my independent inspection and from what I can see they seem to have been attended to.

Hopefully next week I will have some brickwork to show you.

Solar panel and antenna now up. The roof is looking a lighter grey than it was when I photographed it last weekend. I can't wait to see how it all comes together when the brick work goes up

I was thinking that the Alfresco dining area was looking rather small but now that I can see it in real life it's looking good.

Internal fittings, the yellow pipes are the gas, purple is the re-cycled water and black is normal water, electrical still to be done.

Plumbing in main bathroom. Shower on left, bath on right. Vanity will be in between.

Roofing Started

Popped down to the block after work today to see if there had been any progress with the house. To my surprise there were two guys there working on the roof. As you can see by the photos below the gutters and fascia are on and the roof is almost there. I said a quick hello to one of the guys but didn't want to go on site while they were working. From what I could see outside it seems that the things that appeared on my building inspection have been attended to. Yet again I received no phone call from my SS on Thursday confirming this, I'm not going to call him next week, I will just wait and see how long it takes him to contact me.

Also noticed that the bricks have been delivered which means we can't be too far away from the brickwork starting. The bricks seem to be a little darker than the sample bricks I have at home but I guess that is to be expected as my sample brick is probably a couple of years old and comes form a different batch.

I noticed that some trees have been planted along the main boulevard to the estate during the last week. These trees are the same type of tree planted in the area I live in now and are a great shade tree. I hope that they plant these trees right through the estate as a nice leafy street adds great value to the house.

I dropped into the Land Office while I was down there as I had spoken to them some time ago about getting the cross over to my block changed. I had accepted that it would be my responsibility however the ladies in there told me that it may be possible to get the developer to do it when they were doing the cross overs and pathways for release 10. I was told to bring in all my paperwork and they will put it into the developer. Looks like they will be doing this stage in about two months time which would be great timing for me. Will see how things go.

Hopefully next week I will have some brickwork to show you.

Back of the house, rumpus room in the back right corner.

Front veranda and garage are all that is left to be completed of the roofing. I can't believe that somewhere in that front yard I am expected to plant a tree that will grow to over 4 metres in height. I will have to start doing my research to find a tree that doesn't have roots that travel too far. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any ideas.

Austral Mushroom bricks. I just hope I have made the right choice. Choosing the brick was a very hard thing to do. I disliked most of the choices on offer at the entry level. Every brick I liked was quite a few thousand more and just didn't fit into my budget. I guess I will have an idea by this time next week.

Frame Update

Spoke to my Site Supervisor this afternoon to see if he had received my Private inspection report and he said he was meeting with the Carpenter tomorrow morning at 7:30am to go over it and also to look at a few other things which he had found himself.

Maybe I am gullible but I do like my SS. He seems to be quite honest and makes himself freely available. I will forgive him for not contacting me for the first couple of weeks given that he was off work with a slipped disc and just hope that he does the right thing by me.

He said he would call me later in the week to update me on things.

I've just been advised that I have to be out of the house I am living in by the end of October. There is no way my house will be finished by then so I may have to pitch a tent in the back yard of my block until the house is ready lol - then I could really keep an eye on things.

Keep you updated