Landscaping

Its been a while since the last update. A lot of work has been completed outside the house. Below are some pics of driveway and the backyard.

1. Pathway - This will be the entrance from the pedestrian gate.


2. Driveway. This still needs to be cut.

3. Driveway and pathway from the side of the house.

4. Backyard
5. Steps from the backyard to ground level.

Appliances

Appliances will be installed on wed. - Hot water, stove, dishwasher insinkerator.
Keys and remote control to the garage will be handed over at settlement
Heating will be comissioned after settlement, the guys will call us and organise a time. They will run through the controls with us.

Final Inspection

We had the final inspection this morning and the house now looks really cool. Its been cleaned up from inside. There is not too many things to fix now, atleast nothing major.
Following was observed today that needs to be addressed before settlement:

• Minor paint touchups and cleaning throughout.
• Tap in kitchen to be replaced to veggie spray.
• Some flyscreens are inside out.
• Bifold door does not close properly and needs a handle.
  
• Main water pipe to the house to be underground and is also leaking.
• Render to portico needs paint touch up where the balcony drain is.
• Soap holders in all bathrooms are upside down.

Termite treatment is a reticulated treatment these days, there is a pipe that runs (underground) through the perimeter of the house and weeps for about 12 months and then you top up the fluid. Cool!!
They had a huge pile of dirt in the front this morning, they are going to level the sides a bit more towards where the retaining wall is.

Carpets laid

Carpeting has been completed. The house now looks almost finished and after the carpets been laid it looks completely different.

Autumn

• Carpeting will be started and completed today.
• Alfresco and garage ceiling completed
• Balcony tiling completed
• Retaining walls built
• Flyscreen doors and windows installed.
• Pot drawer in pantry installed

Plumbing

Plummers are onsite and have completed the taps and basins. Tomorrow they will install the shower screens.
Door handles and door knobs have also been fitted.

Splashback

Shelves have been installed in all the wardrobes, Walk in robe and pantry. Below is a pic of the master WIRSplash back in the kitchen has been installed.

Minor updates

Few updates:
* Two coats of paint have been completed throughout. Rumpus looks cool with the dark brown colour.
* Tiler will commence tiling the main areas now
* Garage roof completed
* Down pipes connected
I was surprised they worked for 2 days during the easter break.

Tiling

The tiler has commenced tiling and so far all the shower areas have been completed.

Laundry

Bathroom 2

Master ensuite

Rain water

During the recent rain water has seeped in through the roof tiles into the rumpus. I got a glimpse through the batten holder and two holes where the roof tiles are not fitter together can be seen. I have advised the supervisor to get this fixed up and access if the plaster needs to be redone. But it does not look like any plaster needs to be repaired.

Painting has started

Its been a while since I updated with a picture of the front of the house. So here it is ..

Painters have commenced painting and should be completed this week. Painters started on Sat morning and when we checked in the evening they had covered the whole house with one coat along with the first coat on all the internal doors.

We are told the roof tiles will go in tomorrow (monday). Once the painting is completed next will be tiling.

Fix stage completed

The fix stage is complete with all internal doors hung, cabinets installed and portico and balcony rendered. The house is now locked up and we cannot get into the house unless there is someone working onsite who has the keys. This morning they completed the roof of the garage.

I think the next step will be to paint the house followed by tiling. Balcony floor still to be done.

Hail storms

All the internal doors have been hung - almost all except for a couple and they have started on the architraves. Went to the house after the big hail storm and was glad there is no hail damage and no leaks etc. The good thing now is that the work is not weather dependent as all the work is to be done inside and the tradies can work even if it rains, so hopefully there wont be any weather related delays. In this week we expect to see the internal doors, shelves, skirting and architraves completed.

Fix Stage started

All the cabinets in the kitchen and the 3 bathrooms were installed today. Basins and sinks have been delivered but not installed yet. It has now really started to take shape and is looking more and more like a house and gives a real feel of how the final product will look like. All the internal room and cupboard doors were delivered today and most likely will be installed within the next couple of days. All the shelving in the walkin robes, pantry and various cupboard will also be installed in this time frame.
The entire site has been cleared of all rubbish, I think they got a bob cat onsite this morning and clean up the site.
Current Issue: Niche in the study is missing and I have advised the supervisor to get that rectified.

We have Stairs !!

Staircase was delivered and fitted today. The cabinets for kitchen and bathrooms were also delivered today.

Progress

A lot of changes will be happening in the next two weeks.
The ladder going upstairs has been removed and stairs will be installed today. All the material for the stairs is onsite and the guys to install it also arrived this morning.
Cabinets for the kitchen and bathrooms will likely be installed on Thu and internal doors will be hung this week as well. Carpenter will be back by end of week to install all the internal shelves etc.
Painting should start mid march and is expected to continue for 7-8 days followed by tiling.
Fotos of stairs to follow soon.

Some more updates

Plastering is currently in progress. Upstairs is completely plastered. Downstairs is almost plastered with a few rooms needing skirting. They have also started washing the bricks from outside and its coming up really well. All the cement and dirt marks have disappeared.
The bulkhead in the laundry has not been reduced but I measured the height from the floor to the bulkhead and it should fit a top loader machine plus dryer so I will leave the bulkhead as it is.
Missing - the niche in the study is missing and the wall has been plastered, will have to advise supervisor.
Found out what the plaster board in the wet areas is blue compared to white everywhere else - waterproofing.
Scaffolding is still up as a few bricks and roof tiles still need to be done.

Master bedroom photo:

Photos

Photos in order: Master bedroom balcony, kitchen/dining, family room

Lockup Completed

Lockup stage is complete. Entire house has been bricked. All external doors have been hung except the master bedroom balcony which will get done when the scaffolding is removed.
Plastering the inside commenced this morning. A lot of the downstairs has been plastered.Saw the guys installing the solar panel and evaporative cooling unit on the roof this morning. Photos for that to follow.

Minor Updates

Some minor updates:

• Brickies are now completing the upper storey. Almost done- the sides have been bricked.
• The big glass door in the master bedroom will be put in after the scaffolding has been removed.
• The missing window in the stairwell has now been fitted.
• Still missing the speaker cables. Plaster will start going in on wed and take a couple of days. I have called and advised the supervisor that the speaker cables are still not in. He will call the electricians and chase them up.
  

More photos to follow in a couple of days.

Insulation

Insulation to the entire house has been completed yesterday.

Two different types of insulation have been used - one for the ceiling upstairs and one for the exterior wall. The one used for the exterior walls provides sound insulation from outside too. It took the insulators a full day to complete the job. They contract through CSR who have the contract for PD.

Upstairs Family Room:

Rumpus Insulated:

Ducts installed

Went back to the house today and found that the ducts for both heating and cooling are installed.The heating unit has also been installed in the ceiling where all the ducts connect to.

Bath tub in the upstairs bathroom has been placed in the bathroom though not installed yet. Insulation for the ceiling and walls has been delivered. Cant believe that it will need so much insulation, the study room is full of insulation rolls and a few rolls are in the next room. Another layer of plywood has been installed where all the showers will be and drains are in place.

Antenna cable has been run from the rumpus to the roof.

Scaffolding

Scaffolding has been put up and the top storey has insulation installed.

Updates

The following has been completed:
* Ground floor is completely bricked
* Electrical cables and data cables have been laid throughout the house
* Plumbing works completed
* The guy to install ducted vacuum was onsite today to install the ducts. There will be 3points downstairs plus the dust pan, 2 points upstairs and the unit in the garage will also have a point which will be handy to vacuum the cars or garage.

Ducted vacuum ducts for the ground floor go up to the second floor and then into the garage where the unit is. Only if the house is on stumps, the ducts can go under the floor on ground floor.

Next:
* Scaffolding will go up tomorrow
* Brickies will be back on Fri and will complete the top storey by late next week or early week after.
* Carpenters will be in later in the week to straighten all the frames, add more nails to provide strength to the frame, install the remaining doors and windows.
* It is expected the house will be in lockup stage in a couple of weeks.

Issues:
* The pillar on the alfresco is sitting about an inch out of the slab. Supervisor advised that they will pour concrete underneath.
* The window in the stairwell is missing in the frame. Spoke to supervisor and they will put that in. The window has been delivered but not sure how they managed to omit it in the frame.
* Speaker cables have not been installed along with the electric cables. The electricians may not have yet competed the work, they were here yesterday so they may be coming back today. Either way the supervisor will follow up.

Brick photos

Back Front

Bricks

The brickies were at the property this morning. They were sorting out the bricks and organising. If sand is delivered today they will start laying tomorrow or Monday. It will take about a month for the entire house to be bricked. In the mean time over the next 2-3 weeks electricians, gas fitters etc will be working on the inside before the plaster goes on.

Happy New Year

Its been a month since the last post so welcome back. We got the brick delivered yesterday and work should commence on the house next week. The next task is to lay the bricks followed by all the doors and windows after which the house will achieve lockup stage. Once the bricks are laid to a certain height they will also start hanging the plaster inside.

Christmas break

Sorry its been a while since the last blog update, been busy with a lot of things. We were advised that the color of bricks we selected was out of stock and is not available till 4Jan. There were 2 options:

1. Select a different color and continue with the construction.

2. Wait until after christmas.

Since we had selected all the windows, doors, gutters, roof tiles based on the color of bricks we decided to wait till after christmas. Anyway a lot of this time will fall during the christmas break. At most construction will be delayed by 2 weeks which they can catchup on later.

In the mean time insulation to ground floor has been installed and all the plaster for both floors has also been delivered on site. Further work will commence around 10Jan

Roof complete

The roof trusses have gone up and the roof tiles have been delivered.

Frame for the first floor has been erected..

Frame

Frame for the ground floor was put up today, now we can which room is room

FAMILY ROOM

(The two steel beams can be seen in the picture)

Slab has been completed and Frame started

The slab was completed yesterday afternoon. Went to check back this morning and the timber for the frame was getting delivered at 7:00AM. The contractors said it takes about 4 days to put the whole frame up.

Concrete pour has begun this morning

Completion Date

We got a letter from Porter Davis today advising that the completion date will be 13April 2010.

Waffle Pod slab

What is a Waffle Pod?

Waffles are made of heavy duty moulded Polystyrene. These are about 1 sq meter and about 375mm thick for H class soil.

uses moulded void formers, which are arranged on a levelled building area in a grid (similar to waffle)pattern. Once the concrete is poured it fills the spaces between and across the Waffle Pod and Rib Raft System to form a concrete slab over the entire area. The Spaces between the void formers effectively become concrete beams resulting in a slab which has a structural element of immense strength. The system uses less concrete than the conventional method, of beam trenching, so the need for labour intensive digging has been eliminated.

Will try and get some pictures tomorrow..

Pebbles have been spread and the land levelled. Steel rods have been delivered.

Gravel

Gravel was delivered this morning. This will be used to level the land in preparation for the concrete pour. Concrete pour will now occur on the 18th. Nov. It was delayed a bit since they needed time for the concrete in the piers to dry completely.

Piers being dug

Holes for the slab's piers are being dug this morning. There are 42 holes 1.5m deep. The piers are necessary to provide extra stability to the slab since the soil gets disturbed after demolition. Digging the piers will take all day. They use sort of a bob cat with a massive drill bit.

Concrete will be poured into these holes tomorrow then gravel will be poured over the ground and levelled and made ready to pour concrete for the slab. The concrete piers will stay exposed when leveling is done. The piers will bond with the slab when concrete for the slab is poured. In essence the slab instead of just sitting on its own on the ground will have 42 piers 1.5m deep to sit on for extra support. This is where a lot of the site cost goes into I guess.

I spoke to the site supervisor yesterday. Concrete will be poured on 10nov and frame will be started on 12Nov

I thing the images in the last blog were too small .. heres a bigger picture

Construction Begins !!

Its been a while since the last blog. Construction on the house has finally begun.

• Temporary fencing has been erected at the front.
  
• Portable loo is also in place
  
• Ground has been levelled for the slab to be laid.
  

This morning the guys had dug trenches to lay the plumbing pipes. Once the slab has been laid, it will be clearer how much fall there will be at the back. From what the guys were saying this morning, there will left over soil and we can decide what to do with it later. Either gradually level the back or have a drop.

Electric cable from the underground power pit at the nature strip has been drawn into the block.

Construction on the property should begin this week. On the weeked a new tap was installed on the property and a new pipe laid from the front of the property to somewhere on the side so that the builders can use the water connection from there.

The rubble left from the power pit installation has been removed. However there is a pot hole on the opposite side of the road where the electric company would have dug up to pull the underground cable. It is sealed with black tar but is not level with the road. I have called the electric company and asked them to fix it up.

Final drawings

We have received the final construction drawings to be signed. These are the drawings that will be supplied to all the trades.We have also been provided the contact of our site supervisor

We have heard back from Porter Davis this morning. The slab needs to be upgraded from class H to class HD. The cost to upgrade will be $2385. Good news however is that the site start has been brought forward. The file will be given to construction on 16/10/09 after which they will place the order and organise trades. Building should commence around 28/10/09

The rubble from the power pit has still not been removed and one of the neighbours complained about it. I have called the local power company Jemena to organise to fix up the place.
Good news finally on the soil test front - The Engineering company has provided a soil survey report back to Porter Davis. This will now be given to the drafting team at PD to see if they need to upgrade the slab or if it is all OK. The dates for the construction to begin as it stands at the moment is 30 Oct. So if all goes well then we might even have a late Oct start.

More digging

I thoguht the power pit was installed but obviously not. There was some more digging where the power pit is installed. I guess the power pit is NOW installed.

Results from soil test are back, it has now been passed on to the drafting dept to see if they need a slab upgrade.
POWER PIT