Painting and Cabling

For those who have been following this blog - sorry about the delay but things have been a bit busy.The painter has been through and painted the hardiplank boards on the outside. The colour is heifer. This wasn't the original colour selected but somehow we and NDH couldn't track who made the original colour. This colour still achieved the same effect.

Also we belatedly realised that we had selected colorbond downpipes after about half of the downpipes had been installed with zinc alume. Once we brought this to the attention of CSC (Customer Service Consultant) and that it was in the contract, it was changed over.

No - it's not more scaffolding but its the beginning of the staircase. This is the central frame and at the top you can see the balustrade and guard up on the second storey.

Also the we got in the house and data cabled up the areas where the computers are going. Everything is then terminating into the under stairs. This picture is of the under stairs and all the cables coming in. We will end up putting a patch panel in there as well as the modem and a router.

Cabling into the lounge room. I selected the nice pink cabling so at least it wouldn't get mixed up with all the other cabling such as electrical and phone cabling.

Clad in Hardiplank

The cladding is complete. The house is starting to look like the finished product. The display home only had the cladding at the front but we opted to have the cladding all the way around. Specially as we are on a corner block, we wanted to present uniformity from the front and side.

The view from the front. The eaves have also been done in the verandah and the alfresco.

The back of the house. More guttering has also been put in.

Action, Action, Action

The week has been quite wet with most days having rain. But that hasn't stopped the builders from getting things done around the house. The eaves upstairs are in and the downstairs eaves are almost complete. The guttering has been attached in many places.

By then end of this visit the pile of bricks in the foreground had been moved. More on that further down.

Some of the hardiplank has been put up. The left side and half the front of the house have been done. The verandah has nearly been completed but it is really starting to look like the finished product.

While it has been wet, it hasn't stopped the work inside with the ducts for the central heating being installed upstairs and downstairs. It seems each time we visit we have to look everywhere to catch up with the changes.

A stack of bricks. These bricks were originally in the foreground in the first picture. As the brickies have finished we get to keep the left over bricks so long as we move them to the back corner of the block out of the way of the builders.

So in the traditions of the agrarian age and having a large family, we put the kids to work moving the bricks. Once we got a system going of Angela giving the bricks to the kids, and then they carrying them to me and I stacked. They enjoyed themselves, even though it is work. Patrick (3 years old) didn't want to stop even when he was tired. Looks like he has a good innate work ethic.

Roof complete

The progress has slowed a bit due to synchronisation problems. The brickie being late starting and going for a little longer than expected meant that the carpenters couldn't then do the hardiplank sides and the eaves.

The roof is now complete. The tiles have been laid and the capping put on and pointing done. There are a few loose tiles left on the verandah but they will be removed in due course.

We took at trip up the scaffolding and climbed in through a window to have a look at the top floor and how things are progressing. This was Angela's first look at the top floor as she wasn't game to shinny up the studs as I have been doing.

In the garage there was the supplies for the next week of work. Hardiplanks - probably the first lot as there doesn't seem to be enough to do the whole house and cement sheeting for the eaves.

Piers and Scaffolding

The brick piers are now capped and the brickie is working on the last one. On a Sunday no less! The actual capping seemed to be a fiddly job with the brickie having to cut bricks into sections. You can see the cutter and brick offcuts on the ground in front of the meter box.

Even though we have had a lot of rain and water pooling near one of the piers, the ground was firm underfoot so it seems to drain quite well.

Scaffolding has been erected on this side and the other side so the hardiplank can be added to the second storey. The eaves on the top roof will also be done at the same time. Once that is done, then the roof can be completed. Not far to go until we get to lockup.

Bricks are nearly done

The brickie is nearly finished

All the walls have now been bricked up and a lot of the sundry bricking work has also been completed. The brick columns on the alfresco are done.

The brick piers that create the californian bungalow look that we are trying to achieve have also been nearly completed. Two more still remain to be done and the capping on the top of the piers also needs to be done. The facade is really starting to come together.

While the walls were done some more things were also done inside. The frame for the sliding door to the walk in pantry has been completed.

More bricks in the wall

The bricks have been laid at a rapid rate. Most of the walls have been done up to the height where there hasn't been a requirement to use scaffolding. The bricks should be completed this week if the weather holds up. A bit of quandary, the fine weather means our house gets completed quicker but then also we need the rain.

Here is a closeup of the feature in the bricks that's on the front. This feature also continues to about halfway down the street side as well. The baths and shower bases have been installed upstairs in the ensuite and main bathroom. It seems that they have more than one type of contractor on site at any one time. This is good for us getting the house completed on time.

Chicken cross road

Men lay bricks

We have a start on bricking up the walls. One side of the house has almost been bricked up. The picture is of the garage.

We also have a laundry door. The bricks look at bit dirty from the mortar and will show their true colours once they have been cleaned off.

And we have a front door. The green is not the actual colour and it will be painted Jaspar later. The front has been bricked up to 900mm and then a row of bricks will be placed end out. There should be a sill created then the bricks will go up to the first storey. I'm not sure if the brick piers for the verandah will be done at this time or later.

Roughing it

The bricklayer has been delayed on another job so we haven't managed to get any of the outside walls done. However the electrician has come in and roughed the ground floor. Roughing is laying cables and marking out where switches and lights are to go. The plumbing has also been roughed in.

We also have a side fence. Also the brickie has come and put out the bricks in readiness for the walls.
I've added some views from the second storey. This is from the back of the house. As you can see the houses behind us are lower down as the ground falls away just at our back fence.
This is from out of the window in the media/study room. So far nothing has managed to block our view. The kids are already starting to enjoy playing on the block even if we don't have any grass.

More roof tiling

The ground floor roof tiles have been placed except for two small sections. The arch over the entrance way hasn't been done and a small section of the alfresco.


We get a look at how the tiles appear in sunlight. So now we have seen them in the dull light and bright sunlight. We are happy with how they look. We should see some bricks being layed this week.

It's a cover up

The roof is going on. There hasn't been a delay at all. A relatively fine week of weather and the tiler was ready to go.

These pictures are from Wednesday. The roof tiling was to be finished on Thursday and the brickie to start on Friday. These guys are machines - working so quickly. So far it looks like an excellent job.
I talked to the Site Supervisor about spare bricks and tiles and he said that if we wanted to keep the left overs, to stack them at the rear of the property and we can keep any left overs. More pictures to come soon with the bricks to the ground storey being layed.

Bricks, Tiles and green walls

It has been a busy week for the builders. The structure is complete and we have green wall foil around the ground floor. Also pallets of bricks and tiles have been delivered in preparation for bricking and tiling.

The scaffolding has been put up so the tilers can begin work. The roof tile is called Caulfield. The bricks are H-H-Hawthorn.

Sorry having a few problems with that word after the AFL Grand Final.

The gutters and fascias have also been erected. They are Colourbond and the colour is Jaspar.

Its exciting to walk through the house and look at everything coming together.

We was framed

The frame is now complete. Apparently the plumber has started, he called up and asked us if there was anything else that we wanted to do, changes at the last minute such as putting a gas line out to the alfresco to connect to the BBQ. We don't actually know exactly where we are putting the BBQ yet so we had to turn the offer down. Still it was nice to be asked.

So here's an updated side shot with the windows now installed.

The ground floor trusses have been completed. The window frames are jaspar.

The front with the verandah trusses in and the windows installed. The small portal (round) window is to the ensuite.

We had to change the electrical plan due to the changed location of the meter box and move an external light and modify the living/dining room TV and power points as we didn't realise how big the windows were. A chat and a fax to our CSR and it was all sorted. Not a problem at all. It's great to have an easy to deal with CSR.

It's another storey

The second storey was going up during the week. The builders were onsite working hard to get the it done.
This picture from the front of the house also shows some of the trusses also being sized up.

By the weekend the second storey was mostly completed and the trusses were up.

The main roof trusses are all up. Some of the other smaller roofs on the ground floor and the garage need their trusses to be put up.

Also the beams for the verandah have been put up with some basic support to hold the beams up. There is also a lot of scrap timber around as a result of the frames and trusses being built onsite.

I shimmied up through the stairwell (no stairs yet) to get a look at the second storey. So here's a picture of the second storey. Angela wasn't too happy that I did it, thinking I might fall.

This is from the front - the master bedroom - looking down the corridor to the back of the house. On the left you can see the hole where the stairs will be and I climbed up through.

Joist travelling beautifully

The joists were delivered on Wednesday and when we visited on Sunday they were all up including the board forming the floor of the second storey.





The builders are really able to get these things up quickly.












The steel support beams have also been put up. This is from the front of the house. As the second storey is set back from the ground floor these beams will have to hold up the second storey and the main roof.















Another picture showing the interplay of the beams and the joists.













The south west corner of the house showing how it's coming along.



The kids like looking around now that it's starting to look like what they define as a house.