Tuesday 28 June 2011

And then the rain came down ...

... pouring down and wet everything so thoroughly that

the brickies haven't been able to do anything yet.



Even the birds were complaining and hiding in the trees:


I know we need the rain (desperately) but it would have been nice to
have been able to report a little bit of progress.

Oh well.

These things are sent to try us and patience is a virtue ...

yada, yada, yada ....

I want my house built!! Waaahhhhh!

Sunday 26 June 2011

We have bricks ...


... sitting on the pad! They're all from Austral Bricks (got to keep myself in a job!). The red ones are Sandfire; the cream ones are Prevelly and the rest are Armaclay internals (the ones we make at my plant).
We also have window frames and a front door frame:And they have filled in the 'swimming pool' with all the extra dirt:They should start actually building in the next week or so ... woohoo!! I'm loving all this progress!!

Sunday 19 June 2011

We have concrete!


At long last we have a concrete house pad!!



Now all we have to do is wait about two weeks for it to dry/cure and then they can start building. Woohoo!!!

Thursday 16 June 2011

We have footings and the beginnings of a house pad!

Looking in the front door:




From the alfresco:



From the other back corner:



Now we just need concrete!

Sunday 12 June 2011

We officially have a sand pad

No real progress but I took the boys out to have a look. they had a great time walking around trying to figure out where things were going to go:



Couldn't work out why they dug this 'swimming pool' though.


I'm sure it will become clearer as time goes on....

Saturday 11 June 2011

And we've started ...

On my way back to work from a visit to another plant, I took a detour past the block on Wednesday on the off chance that there would have been some progress. There was!

I pulled up, jumped out of the car and started snapping pictures like there was no tomorrow. Meanwhile the loader guy kept shooting me dirty looks as if I was some sort of industrial spy trying to get him in trouble. I didn't care though ... I was just so happy that we can finally see something happening.


We have a water meter:


and a power box:
The difference in the level at the back of the block is huge. You can't really see it in these pictures but you can see almost two whole blocks high of the retaining wall instead of the half a one you could see before. That will make putting in the gardens and lawn so much easier (and cheaper!)


I will be making weekly visits from now on to take heaps of photos keep Peter updated as he is only able to visit once every three weeks. I may even get to meet the neighbours and their massive Rottweiler dog that is already trying to dig under the fence to get out ...

Tuesday 7 June 2011

What a load of rubbish ...

Brad, Drew and I took a drive out to the block on Saturday to have a look at what we thought would be the beginning of the earthworks. The horrendously expensive bobcat man hadn't yet been so we got to see the 'huge amounts' of rubbish and sand left on our block by other people instead.

It doesn't look like there's much rubbish here until you take a walk over the whole block.
Even then, it doesn't seem like there's much to be removed until you realise how much higher the back of the block is when compared to the front.

The earthworks people reckon there's about 20 cubic metres of sand to be removed and after looking at the block again, I can see where they get that amount from. I'm just thanking my lucky stars that I don't have to move it all with a shovel and wheelbarrow.

Hopefully next time we visit the block there will be some proper progress.

Monday 6 June 2011

We are finally moving ...

... into the pre-construction stage, that is!

We have finally finished the 'planning' stage; have made it out the other side of the scheduling stage and are now well and truly into the pre-construction stage.

We have received a flurry of communication in the past week, mostly relating to issues of one sort or another that need resolving before we could progress. The oven I selected (and paid a kidney for), is not being made any more so I had to peruse the now available options and have 'managed' to select a suitable replacement. What do you think?

Old oven:


New oven:

Big difference huh? The thing that really cracked me up (after totally rubbing me the wrong way) was that the pre-start consultant said "We have decided to not charge a variation fee for changing the oven". Gee how generous of you, seeing as it's totally.not.my.fault you guys have taken so long to get your act together and actually place the order.

The hotplate I paid the other kidney for has remained the same:

... luckily for pre-start lady or I think I would have removed her kidneys through her nose ... just kidding! She has actually been really good but I'm just a bit frustrated with how long everything is taking. My mum signed up to build a rental house two months after we did and her house is almost at lock-up. OK, she didn't make as many changes to her new place as we did and the house itself is smaller and the level of finish is lower buuuut hers is at lock-up and we still haven't started ... waaah!!

Then the pre-earthworks guy (talk about specific job titles! I mean really ... pre-earthworks supervisor? Come on!!) rang to tell me that our block is covered in rubbish that we need to clear before they can start earthworks. That really threw me because last time we built (18 years ago!) that was all included in the site works. Apparently builders don't like paying to dispose of other people's rubbish now so they get us suckers the new owners to do it.

He very nicely offered to get us some quotes and I had immediate visions of $5000 - $10,000 disappearing without a trace, so when he called back with two quotes, one for $2000 and the other for $1780, I was quite surprised. When he then explained that they would be removing something like 20 cubic metres of rubbish and excess sand, I was even happier. It means I don't have to barrow all that extra sand out myself .. woohoo! .. I just have to pay for someone else to do it. Good thing is, we don't have to pay that amount until the last progress payment is due so that should give us, oh, about another year six months to come up with the dough.

Then he said the words I've been longing to hear for the past 9 months .. "Your concrete house pad should be down by the 17th June." If he was in the room, I'm sure I would have hugged him and as it was, I was doing my own little happy dance around my office (much to the confusion of the guys standing outside. I think they thought I was having a fit or something!)

So, there you go. As it stands, we should have a pad down by the 17th June and bricks should start going up 2-3 weeks after that providing the weather isn't too bad.

Progress is good. Veeeeerrrryy good!!