On go the roof tiles

After only one day, all the roof tiles are up and it is suddenly very dark inside our house! It's hard to believe that it only took them 1 day to put down all those tiles - by tomorrow afternoon, all the capping should be done as well.

Gutters are on.....roof is ready to go!

After what has been a slightly infuriating week of delays, work finally started again on Thursday. Our Site Supervisor, Luke, didn't book in the fascias & gutters early enough, hence the site came to a stand still last Thursday. But all appears to be moving in the right direction again now, with the fascias & gutters having gone up on Thursday, the "rough in" for the plumbing & gas completed and the delivery of roof tiles on Friday.

This next week is going to be a big week - roof tiles start going on tomorrow through Wednesday and the bricks are meant to start on Thursday. By the end of the week, it's going to definitely start looking more & more like a house!

On Friday, we also made our second progress payment for the "Frame" stage. Between our deposit and the first two progress payments made by the Bank, we have now paid for 30% of the build. Hopefully we will have a slight respite for a couple of weeks until the next one is due as there is quite a bit of work to be done before they can send me another invoice.

I'll also be seeking another site meeting with Luke this week to get a handle on the timeframes for the next couple of weeks and will update once I know more. But judging by what needs to be done for the house to be at the "Enclosed" stage, I imagine it is at least 2 weeks away:

• Installation of windows & door frames - pending
• Installation of fascias & gutters - DONE
• Roof flashings & valley irons - pending
• Plumbing rough in (water & gas) - DONE
• Brick layer complete - pending
• Straightening of walls - pending
• External doors fixed - pending
• Electrical rough in - pending
• Ducted A/C rough in - pending

We have also had a good sticky-beak around some of our "neighbours" - the good thing about where we are building is that it seems that everyone is looking to build ASAP. Looking from the street, the four lots to the the left of us have had their earthworks done and will be starting shortly; to the right of us - their wall frame is up and their roof trusses are across the road waiting; there is a house nearly complete diagonally opposite us to the right (painters were there last week) and another one has started almost directly opposite us; and just down the road are another 5 homes - 3 of which are almost complete and 1 that is at a similar stage to us, though will probably finish before us as it is much smaller. It is certainly a little "hive" of activity at the moment.

I have put up some photos below of where we are at now, and will obviously have more next week :)

Plumbing works for vanities and bath in ensuite

Plumbing for one of the showers in ensuite

Plumbing in kitchen

Alfresco area BBQ Gas Point

Laundry plumbing

Bath and vanity plumbing in main bathroom

What sits under our island bench top in the kitchen

The home of our gas hot water system

Looking from the street - alot of roof tiles have been delivered!

The next steps

I had a catch up with our Site Supervisor, Luke, on-site this morning to "formally" inspect the works so far and raise any issues (which I had already noted down). The only semi-serious issue is the location of the slab recess for our ensuite shower drain. For those of you we haven't openly spoken to about our ensuite, we are looking to get one of those long, skinny drains (like you see in a hotel and I have put a picture below) that runs the same length as our niche. However upon reviewing the slab recess for the drain, it appears to be off by quite a bit. Luckily Luke agreed with me and he is seeing to have it rectified. But other than that, everything appears to be in order.

Our Ensuite Shower Drain

The timeline for the next few weeks looks something like the below:

• Early next week (Mon - Wed) - rough in for plumbing and gas pipe works
• Later next week (Thu & Fri) - fascias & guttering fixed
• Following Mon - Wed - roof tiles start going on; wall insulation and flashing goes up
• Wednesday/Thursday week - brick work to start

Whilst there will be constant progress, visually it will appear to slow down a bit for the next week or so. However once the roof tiles start going on and the bricks going up, it is going to be a good sight overall.

Something that resembles a house....

After all of 2 days (yesterday and today), around 90% of the frame has been erected! It has been such a speedy process, but it has been wonderful to be able to "walk through" what will be our home. Everything seems to be going quite smoothly at the moment and I have a meeting with our Site Supervisor at the site on Friday morning just to go over what the next steps and timeframes are for the coming weeks.

I have posted some photos below of the progress over the last couple of days. Enjoy!

Wednesday 1pm - majority of wall frame up:

Thursday 5pm - roof frame now up:

Inside the frame:

Front porch

Theatre

Kitchen/Dining

Dining/Living/Alfresco

Alfresco from rear of house

Master Bedroom

Kids TV Area

The slab is poured!

On Tuesday, our slab was poured and has been sitting idle for a couple of days for the concrete to cure before they start putting the frame up. The frame has already been delivered to site and is ready to go and most of this should be up by the end of next week. Hard to believe that after what will only have been 3 weeks, we will be able to see the "outline" of our house :)

The downside of the house progressing is that we have now received our first invoice from Plantation......oh well......the price one has to pay to get a lovely new house :)

The block to the left of us (looking from the front) was in the process of being "cut" this morning and on return this afternoon, has worked out perfectly as the level of our lots is virtually identical. Great news as it means that no retaining walls will be required, other then possibly right down the back - but if required there, would only be minimal. Another cost avoided!!

With the slab now poured, it is also now very apparent that our driveway and front yard will actually have a very marginal upward (positive) gradient to the front of the house and the garage. This is ideal as it means we won't need a drainage grate anywhere on the driveway and the water will run away from our house rather than towards it.

Some photos are below from our visit today:

Frame delivered and ready to go

More frame delivered and ready to go

Looking across the front of the house

The view up to the alfresco area

Looking from the front left corner of the slab

Looking from the back right corner of the slab

All boxed up and ready for concrete!

By this time tomorrow, we will have a slab poured!! And then the house will really begin to take shape over the next two weeks as the frame goes up and the bricks take shape around it. At this stage, there is still no additional costs relating to rock, and now that it is all boxed up, I can't imagine there being any. So thankfully, we may have passed through without any financial scars.

Now that it is all boxed up, it looks HUGE!! And it's only going to look bigger as the frame starts going up towards the end of the week!

Below are a few photos from the site this afternoon, after it was all boxed up (thank you to my mother-in-law who took these photos for us whilst we are relaxing on the beach in Vanuatu!)

Looking diagonally across from the front left hand corner of the block

Looking diagonally across from the front right hand corner of the block

Looking across the front of the Garage

Looking across the back of the house

Looking across the front of the house (porch and two bedrooms)

Looking from the back right hand corner of the block

1 week down!

At the end of Week 1, progress has definitely taken place although I'm not 100% sure they are on track for the slab to go down Monday - that might get pushed back to Tuesday.

Here is the basic run down of what happened this week:

  •  Cut & fill of block

  •  Silt traps put out

  •  Edges of house pegged out on block

  •  Initial plumbing works

  •  Temporary meter box installed

  •  Temporary toilet placed at front of site (ugly looking thing too!)

  •  Trenches for footings started

  •  Delivery of steel for slab and footings

At this stage no rock has been hit and I have again queried the earthworks charge given that no additional equipment or labour was required.

The only 'surprise' so far is what the cut/full has revealed - there is quite a decent fall away from the house to the back fence and we will need to do some retaining and landscaping out the back to make the most of the space. But nothing that can't be worked around.

I have put some photos below of the progress over this last week.