Plastered

For those following this blog - sorry about the delay but we went away for a month for a holiday.

The bricks have all been cleaned so the true colour of the bricks shows up. The outside of the house is now complete.

And a view of the front of the house with the verandah. We still need to get the garage door put up.

The plastering has been completed downstairs at least. We can't get upstairs to see if it has been done there also. This is looking down the main corridor to the front door.

The entry to the living room has two cutouts. They have come up quite well.

Looking down the from the corridor to the kitchen. The doorway on the left is to the walk-in pantry. The floor also has been cleaned. Now with the plasterboard on, you really get a feeling of the house and how it will look.

We have also been busy getting carpets and tiles ordered. The end is now in sight.

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.