Boundary retaining wall completed

The retaining/boundary wall of the property has now been completed with the pour of the concrete occurring during the Easter/Anzac week. The builder asked me to come past to have a look at the boundary wall to confirm that it was as planned, before the concrete was poured. Unfortunately he had been working from an out of date version of the plan and not the council approved one, so some minor adjustments were required, which he did on the spot. Council made us lower one of the boundary walls and step in the retaining wall so that it would not be as high up on the street/nature strip as a final change prior to approval. 

So apart from this everything is moving extremely slowly due to the poor weather conditions that we have been having during the working week, let’s hope we can catch up real soon!

Bad Weather

The floors for the upper level were completed last week but unfortunately not much more has happened due to the bad weather. The window delivery had to be put off twice as the site was deemed too difficult to work with, hopefully this delivery will occur soon, along with the scaffolding placement required to brick up the next level. Doesn’t look like a site visit will happen this side of Easter though.

Upper level floor coming next

We just received another update from the builder and they should have the floor joists/beams for the upper level in place by the end of next week after which they can continue bricking up the next level. Once this is done we should be able to have our first site inspection – can’t wait!

While the weather is still good they plan to get the boundary retaining wall completed as well.

Rocco the builder also managed to drop off some wood colour samples for the front and laundry Corinthian doors so that they match the Colorbond “cedar” colour garage door – very impressed with the colour match.

Fast brick laying

After just one week of brick laying we are pretty happy with the results so far:

Can’t wait to see the true brick colour en masse once they are cleaned. The off-white mortar will lighten up once it dries so that it will be a really nice contrast to the dark bricks.

A number of days however were lost due to the rain so the ground level brick laying is still continuing, with a slow but steady progress.

The brick laying has started

The drainage was installed the week after the slab went down and a number of deliveries were received with all of the materials needed to start the build. The first lot of bricks were laid yesterday and today we were excited to see some brick walls taking shape.

We have decided upon a double brick construction, using PGH Blue Steel Flash bricks as the face bricks, with flush off-white mortar. Our downpipes, gutters and windows will all be in Colorbond “Shale Grey” and our Monier roof tiles will be in Barramundi (charcoal colour).

 

Slab is Down – Let the Games Begin

The Slab was delayed due to the delay in steelworks needed for the formwork, but fortunately for us it was poured the day before the rains returned at the beginning of this week. So now this is where the fun begins and the clock starts ticking. If all goes to schedule we are hoping to be in our new home by November this year.

So apart from re-requesting our electricity connection for the 2nd time with Origin who strangely lost our first request 2 months prior we have been re-reviewing the inclusion and joinery plans so that the ordering can commence. We are really looking forward to see how this all comes together!

Back to Work

I can happily report that we are making progress. Work restarted early in the new year with all of the excavation now totally complete and two truckloads of additional soil also being removed from the site. Extra digging for the electrical pit has also been done.

The concreter went to work digging all of the holes required for the footing and piers and the first pour of concrete was completed just before the week of rain hit. So the slab will now have to wait till the following week (fingers crossed for no more rain).

During the week we also met with the builder to re-select and confirm the tiles both indoor and outdoor. “Rocco” the builder also suggested that we hold off on requesting landscaping quotes until we can see clearly what the land levels will be once the house walls have gone up to avoid any quotation issues. Sounds like a plan!