Our sidelights are not currently a highlight

As it stands at the end of '07 we are still waiting for the correct sidelights to be installed, so that the final bricking can be completed. The door frame needs to be in before they can do around the front door, so the whole house has been done to full height and over 1/2 of the window sills have been done - including under the sliding doors. All that remains is above the garage door, and the front face including the top of the portico (above the pillars and across the front). 5 stars to our fabulous brickie and his assistants for doing a fantastic job - we could not be happier with the quality of their work.

Lets hope the start of '08 brings some speedy (but not shoddy) work on the interior so we can move into our own home! Lockup date has been set for 16th Jan, so we should have the correct door frame and sidelights, and bricking done by then.

Build it up, build it up, build it high.

We are progressing. The bricklayers have been working every day (except Sundays) on our place and doing a very nice job of it too. We now have all sides done to 2/3 high except the front (they need to change the sidelights before they can brick around the front door), and today we noticed that they have bricked the full height of the garage wall adjoining our neighbours. They may possibly be done at the end of this coming week?

Lay it on me

We visited the "block" (although at this stage "house" may be more appropriate) this morning (Sunday 2/12), and found that the brickies had worked Saturday. Friday night they had gone around the back to the toilet window where there is an expansion join, and this morning it was bricked to the rear of the garage. That means that about 1/2 of the outside of the house is bricked to about 3/5 (or 2/3) high. With any luck we hope to be locked up by Christmas so that we may get some bits and pieces done over the holidays.

She's a brick and it's building slowly....

YES! The brickies have finally started! We were phone this morning on the way around to our house (prior to work) when we were notified that the brickies were onsite. Sure enough, 2mins later when we arrived there were 2 guys out the back putting down the first row of bricks! We were in a hurry so we didn't get out, and we didn't want to be too nosey so we only drove by - so couldn't see the actual bricks.

May begged and pleaded for me to not go to the house before he got home, so I patiently waited and we went around at about 6:20pm. Here is what we found:

So we now have a bit over 1/2 of one wall... at this rate I wonder if they will be done by Christmas?

On the birck colour issue - I don't think they look bad, but they are definitely different to BOTH display walls and all the houses we saw. At least they seem to be doing a good job of blending the bricks so that the darker ones are spaced evenly.

But Wait... (we are)

We have had our bricks sitting on the block since I last posted (14th November) and now (27th November) we still have not had one single brick laid! We were told early last week that they would start "Wednesday", which we took to be the next Wednesday according to the calendar - but alas, no. Wednesday it rained all day, so fair enough they couldn't start. We thought for sure that they would start the following day, and it did look very overcast early on, but not one drop fell, so they could have been working all day. Friday - same thing. Saturday was fine so we thought they might make a start, but no. Didn't expect anything Sunday, so we drove by 8am Monday expecting a bricky to be started/starting but nothing. Everything was "locked" up and the only difference we could see was some lintels had been delivered - but the bricking wouldn't have been held up by them not being there! May rang the CSC to find out what was the hold up, but she was conveniently on holiday until today, and today she rang, but as she had been away she didn't know anything about it, and our SS was at an OHS meeting all day.
We noticed tonight that some of the pallets at the rear of the house have been unwrapped and the bricks stacked next to the house - but we are unsure how long they have been like that as we have been mostly driving past without going to the back.
Hopefully we see some action tomorrow - "Wednesday", or at least find out what the heck the hold up is...
Fingers crossed for some bricklaying tomorrow... but showers are forecast :(

The long awaited arrival!

Monday our bricks finally arrived - hooray! I didn't realise that they had been delivered (thinking that they wouldn't be packaged yet) so I didn't bother driving past - then after finding out, we drove past in the dark to find that there were 24(?) pallets of bricks dotted around the outside of our house.
Tuesday I drove past early (8am) to check them out in the daylight (and take some pics) and was a bit shocked to see that the majority of them seemed to be orange in colour (mixed with brown, but definitely orange tones).

I visited again after work, and was not convinced that they were the shade of brick we had chosen. I knicked 4 bricks out of 4 different pallets that seemed like a fairly overall representation of the colours of the bricks (as below)

After considering them and the photos we had taken at the Austral display (see below)





we decided to take the bricks to the Austral display not too far away. Despite the fading light, the bricks seemed to match fairly closely with the display wall. It was now a matter of the 2 display walls not matching.

I rang the CSC, left a message and mentioned that I didn't think that the bricks looked like the ones we had picked, as the ones we chose were mid browns with some sandy coloured lighter ones, but that the delivered bricks had mostly oranges. I got a message back saying that they had checked the paperwork and it indicates that the Cotham bricks were delivered (which we knew as it said so on the pallets), and that our site supervisor had been and looked at them and to his eye they looked like the right colours for the Cotham bricks. They had also contacted Austral to see that there was no mistake.

We knew that the response would probably be that each batch is different, and that they are the right brick. And sure enough it has been blamed on the plant moving, and them hitting a "different pocket" in the quarry which would account for the colour variation. It looks like we are not going to get any resolution, so we are trying to like them and have our fingers crossed that they look ok once they go up and are blended.

My gripe is that we have been waiting over 4 weeks for these bricks, as well as paying $1300 in upgrade for them, and now that they have arrived they don't match what we based our selections on. I don't want mostly orange bricks, I want brown bricks that maybe have a bit of orange in them. (Please look different laid... fingers crossed... breathe in, and out. In, and out).

Our bricking is scheduled to start Wednesday, and according to the Site Supervisor today, we have been allocated his best brickie, that is "not the fastest, but he's the best" and is very particular with blending - so hopefully he makes it look good... According to SS it may take 3 weeks to fully brick, but as soon as about half of the bricks are up we will have the electricals fitted, and once it's bricked the plasterers will be straight in to plaster internals. Hopefully it's plain sailing from here on.. (not holding breath).

Raise the Roof!

Our roof has been on for a bit over a week now. They go delivered and went up in a matter of a couple of days. Probably 70% of the roof was done in one day, then the next they had all the rest of the tiles and capping on. It hasn't had the pointing done yet, but I'm guessing they'll wait til our bricks are done. We had a walk inside (shhh) and looking up we've spotted a few "broken" tiles - corners broken off, etc so we will see if they get replaced when the bricking has been done - if not we might have to mention it to the CSR. Last thing we want is water damaged plaster!

Here's a pic:

When I drove past yesterday there was a big sand pile in our driveway (inside the fence) so I'm guessing that's the bricking sand - but they're a bit early... we don't get the bricks for probably 2 or more weeks yet. To top that off Mebourne has had the most rainfall in the last 24hrs that it's had in the last 2 years, so how much of the sand will still be there is yet to be seen.

More of "not much".

We are still sitting at a standstill. We have been awaiting the roof tiles to arrive and be put on, but it seems there is no hurry, so the SM hasn't really been pushing for it to get done ASAP.
May sent a message to our CSC asking if we could have regular updates so that we are aware of what is happening or will be happening. In the reply it was stated that we are about to swap Site Manager's (now it will be after the roof is done). Also we were told that there is a wait on our bricks. Apparently Austral have moved their plant (or something like that) and our bricks (Cotham) will come out of the kiln on 12th November. We will then get them onsite some time after that.
We are disappointed that there will not be any real progress for the next 3-4 weeks, but are willing to wait for the bricks we really like (and paid extra for).
Looks like we can kiss goodbye any hopes of being done by the end of the year. I just really want to be moved in by the time school goes back next year!

Um, not much...

Well, It's been over a week since I last posted and the only thing we can see that has been done is that someone (plumber?) has put in pipes where the basins, etc will go. They run up the walls and into the roof. There is also a largish yellow pipe which I believe is the gas that runs in the roof and comes to a hault out the side of our bedroom (to the side) which is just behind where they have put the electrical meter box. Problem is that we were planning to fence all that off so that it would become our backyard, so it looks like we will either have to push the fence back another 3-4 metres or include a gate so that there is access to the meter boxes. I didn't want a gate there as I was going to have garden/trees right across there but looks like either our backyard is reduced to not very much or a gate... I'm going the gate at this stage - but that's a while away.
Matt saw a truck heading down towards our block on Thursday and got all excited, but when I checked Thursday night there was nothing new.
So, no guttereing or fascia, no roof tiles and no bricks.

Through the looking glass

As I wrote about yesterday, we were a little concerned that the sidelights in the front door frame were not what we had selected. After writing an email last night, and a phone call this afternoon it was all cleared up (thanks "C") and they will replace the sidelights later on as they are a special order. It appears that the sidelights we currently have were manufactured from the drawings in our contract, but I remember "B" saying at the contract meeting that the computer software they use only had the standard sidelights as a picture - so the drawings looked wrong, and that we would get what was written in the contracts as the wording overwrites the drawings.

We also have a minor issue with the glazing for our toilet window (otherwise known as a WC) because we selected "satinlite" (like frosted) and yet it appears that they have installed "white cathedral" (that bubbly obscure glass). After a quick google (don't you wonder how we ever survived without it?) I found a website that explained all the names of the different glass finishes, and I was correct in my memory of what it should have looked like. We are awaiting the reply for this matter (but as I said, no biggie).

So yes, we have our windows and doors/frames in. Below are some of the pics - please note, the colour of our windows is Colourbond "Paperbark". It still has some black tape over parts of it.

We were also told during our chat with "C" that the invoice for frame stage was sent today, the gutters and fascia will be installed some time next week, followed by the roof tiles and then bricking will begin. We reckon that if work continues at this rate (and we know it won't) we should be at lock up in about 3 weeks.

Now the only question that remains is where they installed this:

Rip rip woodchip

YAY! This is our house as at 5pm 4/10/07:

On our drive past on Monday (early afternoon) we discovered that they had started our frame. We decided that we couldn't resist the temptation to take some pics - so this is what we found:

Bedroom 2, Laundry, Bathroom, Toilet and Bedroom 3

From the Front

We drove past Tuesday before we headed out of town for a couple of days, and the chippies were having morning smoko. We took the opportunity to hop out and say hi and ask could we please have a noggin put in the laundry for the dryer. The guys were lovely and despite my lack of bribery (beer) they were happy to oblige. We couldn't get over the fact that they were putting it all together from scratch (well, from lots of long bits of wood) - and what a fantastic job they were doing!

On our return this afternoon we were totally ecstatic to find that we not only had a full frame - we also had a roof!!!

This is the view from the end of the court (the side of our house)

The view when standing in the entryway looking towards the rear of the house. To the left is the sitting room, to the right is the doorway to the master bedroom - with the WIR the small room you can see that backs onto the passage to the right. The doorway to the Linen/W.I.P/Garage is just behind the sitting room wall on the left. The doorway at the end of the passage leads to the dining (right), kitchen (left) and family (straight).

And what's more we have windows sitting there ready to be put in.

Some are below:

The first complaint we have with them (which I have to add, we haven't spoken to anyone about yet) is that we paid $750 to put in "Corinthian PMAD101SL" sidelights to match the front door - because we wanted translucent glass and we wanted it all to match.

From what we can see the sidelights are in the doorframe laying on the ground waiting to be installed - and they aren't the Corinthian PMAD sidelights as shown on the website - infact it has a sticker on them from the manufacturer. We shall see what happens...

BRING ON THE BRICKS!!!

It rained on our parade...

Monday - Nothing. I drove past after work and all that I could see that had been done was the wooden crossover protector thing.

Tuesday - We were very excited to find that all the boxing had been done in preparation for the concrete to be poured. The guys must have worked at it pretty hard to have the whole thing boxed out in one day.

Wednesday - Concrete (WOO HOO)! Because the boxing looked complete, we had our suspicions that the concrete would be poured today. We decided to leave for work early and do a drive by, and sure enough the concrete truck was there with the pump, hose, etc and they started pouring the concrete as we drove past.

By the time I got back after work it was all done and looking fabulous. I was a bit surprised that all of the boxing (wooden boards) had been removed already, but after a closer inspection of our new pad I found that the concrete was hard already - which was a lot faster than I expected. The only down side is that it rained (showered?) for about 1hr this afternoon so it got all wet, but I'm not worried that it will affect the concrete - I just couldn't get a decent pic!

Current Photo

Taken this afternoon - the backhoe did a good job of shifting the dirt around all the pipes!

Something in the pipeworks....

Our visit on Monday was a pleasant one as we noticed that we now have a temporary fence - haha. No more hoons on our block!

When we went on Tuesday we had our power connected, so we thought that something should be happening soon.

Yesterday I went and I noticed the presence of concrete - they had put in the 5 concrete piers in readiness of the slab, and a blue swirl spray painted on the dirt that I have no idea what it means!

Well, after our regular check today, we have pipes. The backhoe thing was there finishing off moving the dirt, and all the pipes were sticking up - although I am a bit concerned about the one in the middle of our driveway...

I am a little concerned that the front of the house is too close to the footpath. It is supposed to be about 2.4m from the footpath to portico, but judging by the scrape and pipes etc, it looks like it will be about 1m! I sure hope they measured right!
There is still no portaloo so I hope it comes soon, or that the tradies have the ability to hold on!

We finally have something to look at!

With our house start date of yesterday we were eagerly awaiting something to start. Wednesday evening I drove past to get some final "before" photos, and was surprised to see that the water tap and meter had been installed at the front of our block. We had something to see 2 days before anything was supposed to start. Thursday I again drove past and was very shocked to see that the excavators had been in and scraped our site ready for the slab! A day early. It was soooooo good to finally see where our house will go and we spent about 45 mins on Thursday evening (until after dark) walking on the scape site working out which room we would be standing in.
Friday we thought maybe we would get some of the boxes or something in preparation for the slab, but (insert cricket chirps) nothing. It all happened before it was supposed to and then nothing.

On a not so happy note - we have had people drive through the scrape site. It was the second thing we noticed (after the shock of seeing the dug out dirt). When we were there on Thursday night there were 2 cars that attempted to drive through our land and I think it was only for the fact that we were standing on the block that they drove around and went through the next block. One of the cars that had come through, came back again to go back the other way and decided to be smart and came really close to our boundary on the block next door and then cut through the back corner of our block - where unbeknowns to them (there are weeds covering it and it was dark) the sewerage/easement drain has sunk as the dirt from the development has settled, and as the wheel dropped into the hole there was a crunch as the underbody of the car hit the ground. We had to stop ourselves from laughing - but it serves them right for coming back!
We have sent off a letter to Vic Roads as we found out from the council that they own the land behind us, and it is a traffic issue. We have appealed that they put some sort of barrier at the end of the service road to prevent cars driving through. We'll see if anything eventuates from it.
Metricon have said that we should have temporary fencing up early next week so at least that should stop them driving on our block.

These are some of the tracks on our land and to the rear, prior to the scrape. The first pic is of the driveway, the second is taken from the rear of the block, and the third is looking to the left of the second photo towards the service road.

We have a date!

We have been given a date of next Friday 7/9 as our site start. They will need to mark out the block (although by some rare fluke most of our markers are still there and all of our pegs are visible). They also need to do a slight scrape of the ground and may have to fill and compact a couple of shallow holes that have been created by people driving through our block. We are considering contacting the water authority who owns the land behind us and asking that they block off the access to the service road where they are cutting through. My guess is that they will continue to try and drive through there, and they will just go around our house through the block next door until the new access road is connected when the last subdivision is done early next year. It's just people being too lasy to drive all the way around (which is a fair bit longer), so they cut through the closest point - our block. We've seen a few hoons rallying along the back of our block and past the other blocks in the subdivision, so I'd like to see that stopped well before we are set to move in! Alright, enough said...

We have had unconditional approval for our finance so all we need to do now is go in and set up the accounts in a branch.

We have approval!

We have been waiting for council approval for our building plans and we finally found out that they have been approved and we received in the mail today.
We had a bit of an issue when the final drawings were forwarded to us, as these were the first plans that had the correct spa bath in our ensuite, and were the first electrical drawings that showed the heating and cooling. The spa (Signature Spa's Ovelle Deluxe) that was included in our upgrade was the "Harmony" which is a rectangular single spa, but we wanted an oval spa (to fit 2) and we also were keen to have the headrests either end. This meant that they had to be re-drawn, then the wording of the contract didn't specify between 2 oval baths, so we had to get clarification which it was that was being included, and then the drawings re-done again as the 2 oval spas are slightly different dimentions. So our final drawings had the right spa (finally) but by the time we received them they had already been signed and approved... with the tap on the near side on the left "corner" which is where someone would potentially be getting in which we thought was a bad idea. We asked for the tap to be moved to the opposite side of the bath (still on the left but at the back of the bath in the corner of the room). We were told that we couldn't change anything as they could not be re-drawn (yada yada) but after a couple of chats explaining that it was the first time we had sighted the bath (even though the tap was in that position all along - we just hadn't noticed) they have decided to swap it over to the back for us (YAY). This means that the mixer and the spout are being moved, and it will make it harder to turn the tap on, we still think it's a better idea than having the spout at the front.
As for the electricals, we get 5 evaporative cooling points in the house as part of the summer promo ($1500 instead of $4500) and for the first time got to see where these would be placed. There is one in the master, sitting, dining and family room, with the 5th in the doorway of the 2nd bedroom. We thought this is a silly place for it - 1 the bedrooms aren't overly big and 2 - the 3rd bedroom misses out (which will probably end up being Miss Emily's). We thought it would be a much better idea to have it located in the middle of the passage way so that the air can flow to both bedrooms. After we approached them about this they said that they don't determine the location of the heating and cooling points but that the supplier/installer has set locations for maximum effectiveness (yada yada) and they couldn't do anything about it. We got the suggestion that we could bring it up with our site super (when we get one) and ask if it could be changed - but seeing as we won't have anything in writing I don't like our chances...
Finance is being finalised this week, so all going well we may actually have something to look at in a couple of weeks (just need to wait for the ordering). YAY!

Our Plan

Thought I'd better add our house plan.

Due to the shape of the land we had to delete the outdoor room. We also have a different ensuite to the one shown here, with the shower being where the first hand basin is, then the spa (the ensuite is longer and the bedroom shorter to accomodate). The basins are on the wall where the short WIR shelf is, and the toilet runs the other way from off the far end of the ensuite - with the WIR changed to an L shape... clear as mud, right?!