29-05-08 Bath hob, external doors and insulation

Well the inspection has been postponed till Sat as 'K' couldn't make it, which may not go down to well with 'F' as he is wanting to start plastering on Tuesday. Anyway it appears that BSS (PDs own building inspectors) have been through the house and marked up several items that need rectifying with pink spray paint.

Our External doors have been installed in readines for Lock-Up which is due today. (front doors are temporary versions)

They have aslo replaced our door frame to the garage entry from the house. Not sure why, whether the size was wrong or the step had gone rotten from water and mud from the tradies.
Our bath hob has also been installed.
And I went out in the arvo yesterday and installed some sound insulation. I need to go back out there again on Sat to finish it off before and after the inspection.
Our Laundry door has been instaled and I believe it be the final version (not a temp version)
The fibre cement sheeting has been installed across the back wall of the second storey and the timber strapping added. This is going to painted in colourbond 'Sandbank'. From recollection this is slightly darker than our windows which are 'Paperbark'.

27-05-08 A few more bricks to go...

Well the bricks are almost all done. The only things left to complete are the base of the windows and the top of the balcony. The AC sheeting has also now been delivered so they can start working on the wet areas.

Here you can see how much rain we have been getting! And all of that mud is through the house. We were a bit concerned about the front door threshold (is that what you call it?) being wrecked from all of the the traffic and dirt being tracked in. We noticed that the external laundry door threshold has a galvanised steel plate over it to protect it and asked 'F' if there was a way of doing the same for the front entry - he said no, they normally don't cover the front entry. Well we will certainly be checking it come handover to see what (if any) damage has occurred in the meantime.

Looks very nice now that you can't see the ugly sarking (Alfoil wrap) anymore. Can't wait for the bricks to be cleaned and the scaffolding to be removed.



Here is a quick pic of the HT wiring. Made sure I kept the AV cables away from the power supply.

25-05-08 Pre-wiring

This weekend I had hoped to get all the pre-wiring done and also fit some Insulco Acousti-therm batts for some of the rooms.
Well you know what they say… “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry”

On Sat I got out to the house nice and early just as the sun was trying to get through the fog.
A good friend had kindly offered to come out and help and we were able to:
- install all the cables for the video intercoms
- install CAT5e data cables to all bedrooms, rumpus, family, study and games room
- install all the Home Theatre cables and speaker wires

The plan for Sun was to go out reasonably early again and knock off any remaining wiring, install the power packs for the Video intercoms and install the wall batts.
Started the car and I had no power steering – Damn! 3 hrs later after I had removed the offending part, sourced a new one and fitted it, I was back on the road to the house.
With the remaining day I was able to finish off the wiring which by the way had grown overnight as Lou had requested a few additional power points throughout the house (Did I say 'a few'?).

At this stage I will probably fit the batts next weekend after the inspection which is due this Thu/Fri.

Many thanks Sean for you help! No doubt we will be calling on you sometime in October :-)

Sorry folks, no photos this time.

21-05-08 Scafolding up

Had a phone call from ‘F’ on Tuesday. He said that he was really happy with the work & the progress of the brickies, that they do a really nice job & are in fact one of the best crew’s around. All music to our ears. I promptly called wifey on the way home to inform her of the great news (mind you, we were already very impressed with their work so far). Lou then decided that this great news should be rewarded with some kind of homemade treat.

Lou then went to visit ‘the boys’ on Wednesday morning. Made ‘em 4 chocolate truffles each (which is just perfect for hungry boys) but was then confronted with a major dilemma. When she arrived she saw 2 extra trucks belonging to other tradies. She then snuck off around to the back where they were bricking-in the rumpus room & joked about her dilemma. They all came to the unanimous decision that ‘they’ wouldn’t tell if ‘she’ wouldn’t tell!

Lou took lots of photos & we are just wrapped with the brickwork. To top it off they are a great bunch of guys as well. She tells me that the guys are quite chatty & helpful too & whenever Lou asks questions they are only too happy to answer. If anyone has the need for some brick work to be done, we can highly recommend them. Brian Lee Bricklaying Ph: 0417 943 281 ('F' has highly recommended them too)

As you can see, all the scaffolding has been erected so the brickies can finish off the second storey.

I have also planned for this weekend to go out and do some pre-wiring for the Home Theatre and computer (nothing like M&Ms place mind you 'The Telstra Exchange'). Also spoke to 'F' about shifting the power point and washing machine taps under the laundry sink so we can tuck away the hoses and cables. He seems to think there shouldn't be any dramas with the relocation which is great.

17-05-08 Getting there...

Well the rain has stopped for a while long enough for the brickies to get on with the job. Lou went and visited the boys during the week and brought them some cake to keep em' happy. They mentioned they were under the pump to get the job done as the rain had affected their progress somewhat. They also mentioned they may come back on the weekend to get some more done. I think when they woke on Saturday morning and realised how crap the weather was, they just rolled over and went back to sleep. Here are some pics of the progress to date.

This is the window in the Garage. The Garage is actually lower than the house due to the fall in the land. When they originally drew the plans for this variation they had actually aligned the top of the window to fall in line with the study windows which would have been higher than the garage entry - not an attractive look. We have since had the window aligned to be central in the garage wall.

These next 2 shots are of the side of the alfresco and side of the house showing the Walk in Pantry and Family room windows.

And here you can see the boys hard at work

They have also set themselves up with picnic chairs and other creature comforts.

I have been organising some gear for the pre-wiring this week as well, things like wall plates, and cables. Within the next couple of weeks the sparky should be out and we will be able to go in and pre-wire some the gear to be connected up post-handover.

While we were out on Saturday we were checking the windows and noticed that the ensuite window is not double glazed. We had included this as a PCV (Post Contract Variation), so obviously they have missed this. I have since left a message with 'F' to follow this up. Maybe I should send him a copy of the PCVs and let him check them 'all'....

14-5-08 Brick walls and Plaster

Lou went up to the block yesterday and the brick work is coming along at a great pace. We love the colour and 'I' can't wait till the weekend to see it in person. By then I assume the lower level should be complete at this rate.

When we visited the block last weekend a truck pulled up on the neighbouring block with two guys and they just sat in the truck like they were having a tea break. They had these strange green sacks on the back of the truck. Turns out they are sand bags and they have been placed across the front of our block! I am assuming the rain has been casing a fair bit of soil and water run off and they are hoping to minimise it using the sand bags?

We have also had our plaster delivered. They've had to knock out the Games room window to crane drop the load into the second storey. I assume it will sit here for a while yet as they need to get a lot more brick work done before they start.

We now have access to the upper level via the ladder that has been installed and padlocked in place.

Oh, and by the way, I have added links to our floor plans (for those who are interested) on the top right of the blog underneath the intro blurb.

7-5-08 What happened to the workers?

Well the inevitable has happened. The rain has set in and the workers have run for cover. The house has come to somewhat of a stand still at the moment - no work has been done since the 29th of April :-(

As it stands as per the pic below, all of the lower level has been wrapped in sislation ready for the brickies.

Got a call from 'F' yesterday to give me an update. He said that the recent spate of rain we have been experiencing has slowed down development everywhere. The Brickie who was meant to be starting this week on our place has not been able to complete his current job and therefore won't be able to start on ours until at least next Monday. I should probably start counting the number of rain days we have as PD have a clause in the contract to allow for 10 rain days on top of the standard schedule - gotta keep the buggers honest.

Also spoke to 'F' about our window locks. As part of our Post Contract variations we included to have window locks to all of the lower windows for security & peace of mind (keeps the Insurance company happy too). When they fitted the windows we noticed that none of them have locks. He said that this can sometimes happen and that he would look into it and rectify.

All the while the building has been progressing, we have been busy bees looking at items to be completed post-handover, things like carpeting. We've had two quotes now, both somewhat higher than we had budgeted for....OK... almost double. Yes, I know, many posts ago I uttered the words '...no more upgrades...' but when you go out and sample the carpet and the underlays that are available (and when I say sample , physically take your shoes off and walk on the carpet) and you consider how much of the house is carpeted and the length of time that we hope to be in the house, well, you start to realise that you do need to spend a bit to have a good ROI (return on investment). We have another quote coming back this week and will then need to crunch some numbers.

I have also been tossing around ideas for the electrical work to be carried out after handover, things like the lights in the Garage, front of the house, security lights around the sides, down lights in the upper storey (all of the lower storey will fitted out with down lights by PD - cheaper that way). Have decided to go with these lights for the front, one each side of the garage door and also one each side of the balcony. They are Compact fluorescent compatible so I can ramp up the wattage if the old 60w is not enough in 'incandescent' terms.


We have also been looking at fences for the perimeter of the property. We like the Stratco 'Good Neighbour' range and have been getting quotes for this as well - 100m right round is a LOT of fence!! We spoke with the agent who sold us our land about the land owner going halves in the cost and then passing that on to the new owners of the surrounding land as it gets sold. Ba-Bow! The vendor has a clause in the land contract which removes him from any involvement in the fencing of properties, therefore we will need to cough up for the entire amount and request the new surrounding owners to chip in when they move in - that should be fun :-) NOT :-(