Framework Complete

The builders are now flying. Frames were finished on Wednesday and the plumbers have roughed in the pipes by Friday. Bricks are onsite and windows will be onsit next wednesday. Brickies will then start on Thursday or Friday. The house is now taking shape.

We've Been Framed

Our frames were delivered to site last Wednesday and Thursday and on Friday Linda went past the block after dropping Isaac at school and the first floor external walls had been stood!!!!  Unfortunatly I didnt finish work until 8pm that night but I still went past and had a look in the dark (thank you Apple for the toch app) but didnt get the full feel for it in the dark.
Went back with the family on Saturday morning and walked through all the rooms to get a feel of how big it is going to be. Everyone was very happy!  It was also good to get the tick of aproval from my 6 year old son that the man cav was big enough, he just wants to know if we can fit a scanner that will only unlock the door to the man cave if your male... I told him to aks his mum.
Went back on Monday night and all the joists and flooring for the first floor was fitted and the first floor frames had been craned on to the first floor, very impressed.
Woke up this morning and it was raining so I wasnt expecting anyone onsite today bit I went past anyway. To my surprise the first fllor external frames were all up at 9:30am and the framers were fitting the internal walls even though it was raining, very very impressed.

These 2 photos were taken on Saturday morning. This was all done in 1 day!

Slabs Down!

Well as promised by our SS our slab was laid yesterday! Its a nice change to things happen when they are supposed to... Next step is for the plumber to come on Monday and lay the external plumbing, then the frames are booked to be delivered on Tuesday.
  I went past the block yesterday afternoon to see the slab and Drew & Renee were there admiring thier almost completed house (sooo jealous Ha Ha) with their kids so our kids all got to have a play and ride their bikes and scooters up and down the street together for the first time which was pretty cool.

Slab looking from the front

Slab looking from the back

Everybodies Waffling, Waffling

Got a phone call from our SS this afternoon to let me know our waffle pods and rio had been laid today and the slab will be getting laid tomorrow! Originally the slab was programmed in to be laid on Thursday so we are now 2 days ahead of schedule, something seems to be going right for a change.
I went past after work to have a look at the waffle pods and to get a couple of photos and noticed something wrong with our plumbing, the drainage for our kitchen was where our back door is supposed to go!!! A quick phone call to our SS to ask him if this was wrong and after a couple of photos sent to him comfirmed that the pipes were in the wrong spot. To his credit he hd the plumber back on site within an hour and the pipes were moved to the correct position. Not sure what would of happened if I didnt pick this up before the slab was laid...
     On a lighter note our SS let me know the plubmer has been booked in to lay the external plumbing next Monday and the frames will be delivered next Tuesday. Fingers crossed the weather stays fine for a while.

Image from rear of slab.



House Plans

Below is a copy of our plans and front facade

Formwork up!

After no progress for 2 weeks  I recieved a call on Wednesday from our site supervisor Joe to introduce himself and let me know whats happening. Since wednesday Joe has organised to have the piers drilled and poured, the formwork for the slab is up and the plumbing and electrical from the street has been run. Hopefully this weeks progress is a sign of the speed the rest of the build will go at.
Fingers crossed!!

The fun is about to begin!

Got an email today from our builder to let us know that they will be excavating our land either tomorrow afternoon or Thursday morning! Its been a long time coming but we will finally see something happening on our land. we went past the block tonight and took some photos of  the kids turning the first shovel of dirt and to our surprise there was a port a loo on site! Its pretty sad that seeing a port a loo makes you feel so happy but its a sign that work is about to begin

Finally Something is Happening!

Went past the block last night and found a series of red pegs on our land. Asked our builder today what these were and she informed me they were the pegout for our slab. I could not believe it, after sooo looong we finally have something happening on our land!!

Upgrades???

How do you know when its time to stop?? LOL

There is so much we could get but there comes a time when you have to stop. Anyone else have this problem?

Kitchen upgrades we got were:
Poly doors
Poly Pantry Doors
x4 Extra cupboards (because I wanted the Bulkhead to run all the way across and it couldnt been done unless I purchased these cupboards)
Cold water tap for the fridge
40mm benchtops with waterfall

Electrical
extra powepoints
points for fans to be installed
downlights
footer lights staircase
outdoors lights and powerpoints

All we have left now is the flooring which they said wont be done until the frame is up and the way our house is going that might be Easter......

The one upgrade I would love is the gas fireplace, all I have to do is convince Matt that its worth it

Colour Selection

We had to confirm our colour selections again so hopefully its a sign they might be ordering our building material shortly. So I thought id share our colour selection

Benchtops ice snow in 40mm with waterfall edge

Doors in White Poly  and Latte Glass splash back

Internal Paint: White Smoke with a feature wall going up the staircase still unsure of that colour

Bricks by Boral : Graphite

Garage door, watertank, downpipes  all in Dune

Cladding and eaves in Surfmist

Gutters : Ironstone

Here we go again on the admin rollercoster

Has anyone else had the ride from hell with the admin of their builders??

Well after our builder FORGOT to put several documents in with our council application which was put to a stop because it took another 7 days to raise these documents, one of which matt actually got and done himself and the so called landscaping plan we paid $550 was MISSING it then had to go back for approval from Stockland. AFter another week of not hearing anything once again WE had to chase and fix it up with Stockland it finally went back to council and now is approved , yeah woohoo.

Until yesterday after speaking with the builder they are now saying its going to take another 6 weeks before we even turn dirt. So disappointed I just feel I want to walk away its so frustrating.

For those of you who have already started building is it true that after council approval it takes another 3 weeks for a construction certificate and then after that another 15 days to order materials before they even turn the dirt.

Welcome

Well its about time we started a blog!  The time has finally come to start building so I thought it was time to start a blog to share this experience.
We bought our block of land(lot 1009) in October last year and it finally registered in May this year so now we can start to build. After looking at what seemed like thousands of display homes we finally settled on the Manhatton 36 from Wisdom Homes to be our dream home. Our plans have been in council for 2 weeks so far so hopefully it wont be too long before we can start to build.

This is the first time I have created a blog so I am still learning how to do everything but I will upload plans and photos soon.