Stairs.......and a couple of other things

A few things have been done since my last post. The lower floor brick work has been cleaned. So pleased with the brickwork, they have done a really great job.

And the chipped brick on the balcony I mentioned from an earlier post.....well that was for the electrician as that is where they drilled through for the electrical wires, as we are having a powerpoint in that spot and I forgot!

Last week they also installed the cornices over 2 days. They are decorative in most areas of the house except the walk in robes, pantry etc

The roof tilers were also back to cement the lower floor ridge capping.

Today, the staircase was installed.....and we love it! The hand rail will be stained. Also the edging where the balustrade is will be stained, as will the bottom two steps.

 

 

The kitchen is booked in to be installed this week, so I am guessing we'll be locked out soon too.

2nd floor eves done and bricks cleaned

A bit quieter on site this week. The 2nd floor bricks were cleaned on Monday, very happy how they look. The majority of brick work looks great but we did find one large chip in a brick on the balcony, so hopefully they can fix this.

Later in the week the 2nd floor eves were done and today the painters were there. It did rain around 12pm for about an hour so they must have managed to get it all done.

Next week they will remove the scafolding and complete the 1st floor roof and eves.

 

Front balcony

 

Second bedroom window

 

Master suite window. Broken glass will be replaced once scafolding is removed.

 

 

Chip in the brick on the balcony

Bricking finished

Yesterday took a drive after work and pleasantly suprised to see the builders have finished bricking. But the house is looking a bit dark for me at the moment. We are having a lighter garage door (evening haze) and planning on having light window coverings, so hopefully that will lighten things up a bit.

The bricks are pretty messy with mortor, looking forward to seeing them cleaned. Lots of bricks left over too so hopefully we can keep a few (or dozen or so).

Hopefully next week will be the guttering and roof.

 

Bricking continues

Last week the first floor bricking was completed and on Monday, they started erecting the scafolding for the 2nd floor bricks. Some bricking was completed up to Wednesday, but looks like no work on Thursday or Friday due to the rain and wind.

Our block is on a high elevation so if there is a bit of wind we really feel it where we are. It will be great in summer, but pretty cold in winter.

After a couple of days of rain the site is a real mess, inside and out. Hard to imagine it being all cleaned up, gyprocked and tiled. Now the first floor bricks have been done some of the rooms look quite dark, including the kitchen. We now start to see things we wished we did differently. Too late now! Hopefully once the gyprock is in the rooms will look a bit brighter.

Some more indoor plumbing has been done this week too where pipes have been connected through the house.

Weather forecast for next week is for sunny weather, so hopefully the brickies will get some more bricking done.

Front porch

Leisure room wall at the back

Western side of the house

 

 

Eastern side of the house

 

 

Front side on

 

 Front of the house

The temporary fencing around our house has now been extended to the other block on the right, as they are building with Wisdom too. They now have their loo and builders sign, so I guess they will be starting very soon. Wisdom will just have to move the 2 large pallet of bricks sitting on the boundry and into their block before they can start.

Brickies have started

Today the brickies started. Looks like quite a bit was done as most of the bricks have been used. So I guess we'll have another delivery soon.

Our bricks are Austral Symmetry Asphalt.

Home theatre window

Study

Salinity issue

Received notice that the council approved DA has indicated the block could have salinity issues. This would mean we need to upgrade the slab, have extra piering and upgrade the bricks to exposure grade.

We can get an independed report done to check this. Not sure how much this would cost but I would imagine a fair amount. The report could then come back and confirm salinity and we would need to upgrade the slab etc anyway. Or do we just do the upgrade without the report? Either way, it means more money spent. Haven't started the build yet and already extra costs.

Not happy to hear we needed to change the bricks to exposure grade, as we spent such a long time looking and deciding, then deciding on external colours. Wasn't too keen to go through the whole proccess again. So did a little surfing around the internet and found the product data sheet for the Austral Symmetry Asphalt bricks. Guess what? They are classed as "exposure grade". Thank goodness for that.

We were hoping the build would start mid June. If we decide to get the report first, I am sure that will delay the start of our build. Or do we just go ahead with the upgrade? CSO was not in on Friday, so hopefully we'll know some more details on Monday.

Land registration

Good news.......our solicitor advised us this week that our land is registered. We settle on our land the 29th February 2012. That date we won't forget!

First draft of plans received, a few changes required. While we wait for the 2nd draft, we have been busy looking at bricks. We have decided on upgrading to Austral Symmetry Asphalt.

Now we are looking at all the various external colour combinations. Decisions, decisions....