Brickwork Started

We are happy to report that our Brickwork started yesterday!!!

So far it looks like the tedious 2 rows have been done around the house  - which I think take the longest as they have to be straight!! Now that those rows are done I'm thinking it shouldn't take too long for the rest to go up!!

I was hoping to get more of a look at our brick colour but at the moment they are covered in mortar so they look more white than anything so I will just have to wait until they are cleaned.

Not much to see yet but here are some photos from yesterday!

New Bricks Chosen

On 5 February 2013 our Site Supervisor called to advise that due to the Floods in QLD there would be an even longer delay on our bricks than expected and that they would probably not be delivered until the end of the month.  He said we could wait for the bricks or contact our interior designer to look at a different brick.

I contacted our Interior Designer *who has been wonderful the whole way through  - I should add*.  The Manager spoke to Austral, who kindly offered us a replacement brick (which would normally be an upgrade) at no extra charge.  The replacement Brick was Metropolis Topaz (our original choice was Urban One Pepper).

We went back to Austral that weekend to look at the difference.  It is a little bit browner in colour (our original pick had more of a grey tone) but in the end Dave ended up liking the new colour more than our original and it is a brick which is the same colour the entire way through too which is good in case of chips.

I also liked that it has orange coloured speckles in the brick as I think that will tie in well with our Orange splashback in the kitchen!!

We did a few driveby's of houses who had built in that brick.  This made my decision a little bit harder because a lot of people had used an orangey/browny colour mortar which I didn't like because the whole house looked brown and a lot had either cream or brown roofs.  After seeing a lot of houses I didn't like... I eventually saw a house which used a white mortar and had cream colour tones and a grey roof like ours.  Seeing the brick with the same colour pallet as what we had chosen reassured me that it would look nice and I decided then that I was also happy with the new brick - Dave didn't need any convincing after seeing it at Austral!!

Our SS called on Friday to say that the bricks had been delivered and that hopefully the brickie will start this Tuesday or Wednesday... I don't know how long it takes to brick a house but hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will have a photo of a bricked house to show you!

For now here are some photos of our new bricks!

Metropolis Topaz

Metropolis Topaz - showing colour in the shade

The wall at Austral with our Colorbond roof colour

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