16-4-08 Second storey frame

During the week the guys were hard at it again!
The second storey flooring has been laid....

...and our windows and sliding doors have been delivered.

We've chosen Coloubond 'Paperbark' for all the windows and sliding doors (along with the Fascia).

We also decided to get double glazing for all of the windows (not sliding doors) along with wall and ceiling insulation. We thought we'll probably only ever build once, and we wanted to get the most out of our budget. With all of the obvious benefits of double glazing, we hope to be rewarded in our future heating and cooling bills too.

The place looks so big from this angle!

And yet so small from this one?

The speed at which these guys have been going is just fantastic - All smiles here :-)

12-4-08 Framed!

From what we had heard from others building with PD, we were expecting to see some of the frame go up in say around 6-8 days after the slab went down. On Sat we took a drive up to the block to see the completed slab. We were driving toward the estate and saw a frame in the distance and were saying "is that our block? No surely not....OMG it is!" and low and behold we already have the first storey frame!! woohoo!! We couldn't believe it - I didn't think two grown ups could get so excited over bits of timber.

Here's some of the pics...the Front...

...the rear...


...side.


Here's me planning the garage set-up (as you do). "Mmmm..... - is it big enough?"


Here's the two cherubs just sitting enjoying the views.


We decided we would duck up to the local shops and buy some fish 'n' chips and have an early dinner in the 'new' house. While we were sitting in the 'family room' a couple turned up at our temporary fence calling out to us. Turns out they are our new neighbours, also buiding with PD (Hamilton 34) just around the corner.

Apparently they travel past the area at least once a day and had seen our frame go up on Thursday, 2 days after the slab was poured! How happy are we?

9-4-08 Slab laid

We have a Slab! Lou went out with the Cherubs yesterday and grabbed a few pics of the guys laying the slab. When she arrived they had already used up seven truck loads and were waiting for some more to arrive.




This pic shows the balcony footings from the last post now filled to the brim.


The boys hanging around waiting.....


....and waiting....


They have to allow for it to set for 48hrs so there probably won't be much action for a couple of days. No doubt we will soon receive payment advice from PD to cough up the first installment of the 5. The framing should start on Thursday 'maybe'.

8-4-08 Formwork complete

The Formwork is DONE - Yippee.


This shot shows the 'chairs' used to support the reo mesh on top of the waffle pods. It also shows the step that gets formed as part of the slab for which the bricks sit on around the perimeter of the slab.


You can see here how deep the footings go under for the balcony at the front of the house. There is a lot of set up required to get this right.

Here you can see the trench that has been dug for the footings for the Alfresco area at the rear. The footings in this area do not support any structure but prevent the slab from shifting and also link the pier that supports the corner of the roof line.


As daylight savings has now ended, it's going to be increasingly difficult to make it out to the block after work before dusk. I think Lou will need to go instead of me.

I just had to post this last shot, the sunset was awesome.

SO hopefully tomorrow we should be able to show pics of the Slab being poured!!

5-04-08 Waffle pods and reo mesh

Went out on the weekend and the slab was FAR from complete. The temporary fence has been erected and the Reo Mesh delivered.


… the waffle pods have been dropped off… (FYI – waffle pods are large sections of foam. These are laid as part of the slab and the concrete is poured over and around them. Saves the builder using a heap of unnecessary concrete to achieve the same thickness)… The cherubs loved picking the foam to pieces :-)




….and the footings and piers have been dug. The image below shows the footing for the Balcony.

Our Site Super 'F' rang and introduced himself today. Seems like a nice bloke. He said the slab is being poured on Tuesday - bring it on.

1-4-08 Retaining Wall and Pipes

Visited the block on Tuesday and they had completed the retaining wall and laid all the plumbing. So much for our nice flattened and sculptured block - it is now been dug up and driven all over!


Our Meter box has been installed too.

This is looking from the rear of the block - looks like giant grey worms coming out of the ground.


They have also installed all the Silt Pits for drainage due to the shape of the block and slope of the land. These will need to be lifted to the ground level once we add the pathways as part of the landscaping.


Also spoke to our CSC yesterday as I realised that our external tap was located near the laundry door on the side of the house -not a great location I thought (apparently South East Water determine the position of our front external tap). I would have preferred it to be closer to the rear of the house. She has agreed to raise a building variation to shift the location which is good news.

Well it seems they are on track to pour the slab on Friday - stay tuned.

25-03-08 Post Holes

Got up to the block on Tuesday and they had commenced with the retaining wall. All of the holes had been drilled ready for the galvanised ‘H’ beams.



Some holes were deeper than others due to the height of the beams.



Lou went up today and they had dropped the posts in. Not quite sure what the PVC tubes are? Maybe to do with drainage....



What would a building site be without the port-a-loo ;-)



Current street view

20-3-08 Site Scrape

Well, as promised, on Thursday they commenced construction. The site has been scraped and shaped ready for the plumbing to be installed. We took some close friends down to the block on Good Friday and we were overjoyed at the level of surface shaping they had done to accommodate the slab and retaining wall. I have added pics below which you can 'click on' and open to a larger size. This first pic shows the site and the positioning of the house and garage (along with the cherubs having some fun in the dirt. They thought it was fantastic!)

This one shows how much soil they have had to remove from the upper side of the block and what the retaining wall is going to support. It should make an interesting front garden having the rise in front of the study.

This next one shows the block from the rear. You can see how they have had to build up the alfresco area to be level with the rest of the area.

The picture below is hopefully the main angle we will use to show the gradual construction of the home. (Provided the neighbours across the road don't start building within the next few months)

The girls get really excited when we say that we are going to visit the 'new' house.

Tile Selection

Finally got some time to show what tiles we have selected. We were waiting for one of the sample tiles to arrive in the mail as when we selected them they didn't have a sample for us to take home. So here goes...

Date just keeps coming forward

Got an email from 'Holly' yesterday; the final drawings have been issued for our signoff and our start date has been brought forward yet again to Thrusday 20th of March!! 12 more days to go.

Woo -Hoo