The Frames are up :-)

Our Frames are up and the house is really starting to take shape. 

We can't believe how big the overall house looks but I can see what people mean by how small a room can look at the frame stage. 


There has been a little delay with our bricks as they are not ready yet so hopefully they will start next week and in a fortnights time I might have some brick photos to put up to show everyone but for now you will just have to enjoy the Frames!!

Week One Framework

 Week Two Framework

We also now have windows and our sliding Alfresco door and we are really happy with the colour of the window frames  - they look really nice with our side fences! 

Our Frames have been started...

So my mum drove past our block of land today and they have already started putting up our frames!!!  So Exciting ... I will have to go and have a look on the weekend but for now here is a photo my mum took through the fence!

Frames 24.01.2013

We have a Slab!!!!

Well I am very excited to announce that 'WE HAVE A SLAB' woohoo!

We got a nice surprise yesterday as we went for a drive out to our block of land to see what happens before the slab is poured and when we got there we already had a slab!!

So exciting now - I can't wait for the Frames to go up so then we can see the rooms and things!!

The only thing we thought was OMG this is going to be a really big house as the slab takes up a lot more space than we could even imagine... hopefully we have room to get things down one of the sides but I'm sure we will!

We are underway

After our site was cut on 26 November 2012 there were a few issues with our block of land which were found and which caused us some delays:-

1. Our Neighbours sewerage pipes were connected into our junction and they did not have a junction on their block of land at all... so after a lot of telephone calls to and from Sydney Water, we were able to get Sydney Water to put in some new pipes and a connection for our block of land and for our Neighbours.

2. During excavation our other neighbours telstra cable was dug up as it was crossing right across our block of land into the pit in our front yard.  This took even more calls back and forth from Telstra but finally the cable was removed.  It still goes across where our driveway will eventually be though so we have to make sure we are careful when we get to that point.

3. Our Water Main pipes are on the other side of the road so we needed to organise a plumber to drill and connect our water and this was done in August 2012, however it appears after they did all this they didn't turn on the valve which is about 1.5 metres in the ground and re-filled the hole with dirt so we needed to re-dig this hole to turn on the valve and get an extra bit of work done to bring the connection above ground.

4. During excavation our site supervisor also found some asbestos, which appears to have been used around the garden beds, so we needed to get someone in to remove all the asbestos.

But after all this we are now back on track!!!

On 14 January 2013 our piers were drilled and we came under allowance - Woohoo!!!  So our pods etc are being set up and our slab is due to be poured on Friday 18 January.  So I hope to be able to post some more photos after this weekend but here are some photos I took of the piers being drilled... very interesting haha!!

Piers Drilled 14.01.2013

Our Site has been Cut and we are ready to go...

Alot has been happening lately...

We have sold our house and just moved in with the in-laws over the last weekend.

Things are starting to happen on our block of land too...

        -  2 weeks ago we got a Portaloo
        -  Last week we got pegs
        - Yesterday the site was cut ready for piering which we hopefully be on Friday.



We  have also removed our front fence so it looks like a real vacant block of land now.

With the site cut the pool looks like it is set up on a perch and has its own parcel of land so we will be looking at doing a split level type of set up with a nice retaining wall and stairs up to that level (eventually)!

Before

Before

After

After

We are on the Construction List!!!

We are on the Construction List.... so what does that mean??
Within 20 working days Construction will commence - so around 21 November 2012!!

In the meantime we have cleared the sheds, gardens and trees from our Block and we have had a fence put up between us and our neighbour.  We haven't yet removed the colorbond fence which is half way up the front of our block as we thought it best to leave it there as long as possible in case anyone decides they want to go for a swim in our very dirty pool!!!  I can't wait to see how long the block looks once that fence is removed though!

We have Council Approval - YAY!!!!

We had a little hold up in Council as we had to have an external consultant make submissions on our behalf as we did not have 50% private outdoor space in accordance with Council's requirements as the Water in our pool does not count!!  It cost a little bit to do but was well worth it as we heard today that Council have approved our Development Application  - which took just under 7 weeks in total.

McDonald Jones will now apply for our Construction Certificate and then we should almost be ready to commence Construction!!!

We were working on our block of land last week getting it ready for construction  - as there are a few old sheds, concrete slabs and gardens we need to remove and we have knocked down the retaining wall for the pool which crossed over our neighbours boundary!

When we were looking inside one of the Sheds  - Dave found a baby brown snake which he had to kill with his shovel!! I am a little concerned about where his mother is but hopefully we don't find her!!  I am hoping that once the builders start there will be too much activity around for any snakes to want to stay around!!

We have also completed our Electrical Appointment and surprisingly we came in under budget - woohoo!!  We have chosen all the basics we will need but will be looking at doing things like our downlights after handover.  I was very excited because I was able to get my up/down lights on our two from pillars which I love because we came in under out budget!!

While we were doing our electrical appointment I also took a photo of the colour selections we had chosen for our bathroom which we had forgotten to take last time so here it is:-

Hopefully the next time I write it will be to add a photo of work commencing!!!