Weekly Update

We have been so lucky with the weather last week- absolutely gorgeous. Great weather for bricking and roofing, wouldn’t you agree? Unfortunately, great weather does not equal a busy lot. Nothing has happened this week. Oh, I lie- some guttering has been delivered and is sitting in the garage. That is the only change for this update. Peter has spoken with the site supervisor and apparently this week we should see the gutter and fascia go up. Not sure what happened with the roofing that was meant to be done last week- there are no rooftiles on site so hopefully they will be delivered this week. 

That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading- have a wonderful week.

Scaffolding and a completion date

I wrote a bit of a miserable post this morning, so I would like to balance it up with a positive post this evening.

Today we went out to look at the house and were elated to see that the scaffolding has been erected so that the bricklaying can be continued. While we were at the site, the site supervisor called Peter to give the weekly update.  Next week that roof tiles will be delivered and if the brickies are on another job, the roof will be completed. Wow- that means very little down time. He also told Peter that the estimated date of completion is the 24th August! More good news…we are running 5 days ahead of schedule…yay!

The plumbing is in, the electricity meter box is in…very pleased with the hard work that has been going on. Each day brings us closer to completion.

Here are some pictures I took today.

Our meter box

It’s all happening!

Scaffold is ready to go!

Thank you for visiting.  Peter and I hope you have a great weekend!

A hiccup and a sour taste…

Peter and I have been so fortunate with our purchase of land and build. Any issues we have had have been minor, and Wisdom have been keen to sort them out reasonably quickly. However, when you build, you also need to deal with external companies for the kitchen, electrical needs, air con, flooring etc. For the most part, this is rather painless and the consultants lead you through the process. Once you have had your consultation, the quote is written up and sent back to us to be signed. This all happened back in September, and we felt that it was ‘done and dusted’ so to speak. Until this week- something happened that left me feeling a little miffed and with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

We recently visited the display home of the house we are having built. In the main bathroom above the bathtub there is a niche, and Nicola commented on it. I imagined it with the feature tile we have chosen and thought back to our tile order. I couldn’t remember seeing the quote for tiles in that niche. We had told our tiling consultant that we wanted all niches tiled in the feature tile, but for the life of me I could not remember seeing a quote for that particular niche. We got home and checked the house plans- yes the niche was included…we checked the quote and the consultant had not included that particular niche…not only that but we had not realised till now! I emailed the consultant, but she no longer works at Di Lorenzo.

I know it’s too late to make this long story short, but I will try. Di Lorenzo said they could change the order but it would cost us an additional $250 for admin costs. I went in to speak with them about it, because we had asked for all niches to be tiled in the feature tile- we would have assumed that the consultant would have had all the niches included in the quote. End of story- we have to pay the $250 for ‘changing our mind’. I respectfully asked for this charge to be either waived or absorbed by Di Lorenzo because the consultant had made an error, but the manager said that since she was no longer working at Di Lorenzo she could not ask her and therefore Peter and I have to foot the bill.  Hmm, seems fair…*shakes head*

Moral of the story- Check, check and check your quotes again. Everyone makes mistakes, and that’s fair enough, but you don’t want to have to pay for someone else’s error. I understand why Di Lorenzo have this fee, if they didn’t people would be constantly making changes. However, we did not change our minds, we had requested for all niches to be tiled in the feature tile at our initial consultation. So, that’s the story of how Kez and Pete flushed $250 down the toilet. 😦

There goes our money down the loo!

 

 

This week has been a great week for progress on our home. On Monday, the brickies were onsite getting everything prepared to start laying the bricks. They mentioned to Peter that the bricks are very slightly smaller than they should be (too long in the kiln?) and the colours vary between them. They assured us that they would blend them and it would be ok…we appreciate their efforts. My dad was a bricklayer and I remember how hard he worked.

We have visited the site a few times this week and it has been exciting watching the brickies’ progress.  There have been 2 days of bricklaying- I think they have done pretty well! The mortar looks quite dark, but we have been assured that it will dry to an off-white colour. Nothing will happen over the Easter break, but weather willing, they will return on Tuesday. Here are a couple of pictures that I took today.

The doorway leads into the laundry- this is the side of the house.

This is the front of the home. Those windows look into my study.

Thank you so much for visiting the blog!  As I have said before, it’s so nice of you to share this adventure with us. Wishing you a Happy Easter! Best wishes from Kerrie and Peter 🙂 🙂 🙂

We have windows!

On Friday afternoon, Peter and I popped out to see how things are progressing. This has been a routine of ours for the past few months. After work we go out to Harrington Grove, check out what’s happening on our lot,  then head back to St Andrews for some Chinese food and to talk about house related stuff.  As lame as it sounds, this is something we both look forward to. Anyway, we went over yesterday afternoon, and by the time we got there it was dark! Dark at 5:30 pm. Sad  😦   This signals the end of our Friday evening sojourns.

What’s happened this week? The windows have gone in! The colour we chose is anodised white, and we are really happy with it. The bricks were delivered yesterday, and they look fab! Angelo told Peter that the brickies will be starting on Monday or Tuesday…so guess what? The rain has started!  Angelo said that every day it rains pushes us another day back…fantastic.  I am now on holidays, so I am hoping that the rain stops so we can see real progress as the bricks are laid.

Front view- from here you can see our bedroom and my study

Side view- this shows the media room, ensuite and upstairs leisure room

We have also been out looking for furniture for our new home. ,We are checking out lounges and dining suites at the moment. It’s very hard to find what we want. Many lounges look great, but they are uncomfortable…we have sat on about 100 couches over the last few weeks! We will be out looking again tomorrow- we might get lucky.

Thank you for reading! Have a great weekend.

We’ve been framed!!

I meant to update on the weekend, but we were actually having a life that had nothing to do with building this home (for the first time in a while).  We didn’t look at the house, we didn’t shop for furniture, we didn’t look at colours…nada!

I have to tell you that I am blown away by how quickly things are moving along- once the slab was settled, (about 10 days after pouring), the frame was delivered- the very next day they began to assemble it. Our neighbour were at her site and told us that she had never seen so many guys working on a site. The entire first storey was assembled in 1 day! The next day it rained (of course), but on Friday they came and completed the second storey. On Monday, the roof trusses were put on and voila! Our frame is complete.

Here are a few pics of the process:

1. First storey- Wednesday

Weather looks a bit dodgy, but the first storey is complete!

2. Second storey- Friday

Second storey

3. Roof Trusses- Monday

Frame is complete!

We are very happy with how it’s going. We can see where the rooms are and how it is shaping up. Here is a picture of our Laurabelle giving  the first storey an enthusiastic ‘thumbs up’.

Glad you approve, Laura!

Now we are waiting for the windows to be delivered and installed- hopefully later this week. Peter should hear from our site supervisor tomorrow or Thursday, then we will know exactly where we are up to.

Thank you for reading and sharing this exciting time with us.

Have a great week!

Moving along nicely- week 2

On Thursday our site was very busy- the drainage has been dug out and now we are ready for the frame. I was also excited to see that our water meter has been put on. I realise this may sound a bit strange, but it was something I have been looking forward to- a real sign that things are progressing.

On Tuesday, the frame will be delivered, and I am pretty sure that they will start erecting it on Friday. I have no idea how long it takes to put up a frame…hopefully not too long. The exciting thing is that now our home will begin to take shape!

I took Laura out to look at the slab yesterday and she was very surprised by how much is going on at Magnolia right now. Homes are complete that hadn’t even started when she was out there last. It’s hard to believe that 12 months ago, there were only vacant blocks, most of which were still for sale.

Here are a few pictures- thank you for reading. I hope you have a great week!

 

Drainage Pipes. This is where the water tank will go.

Water meter

I wonder who our builder is?

 

SLABBA-DABBA-DOO!!

YES! The slab was poured today which is very exciting! We are well and truly on our way now. YAY!

This afternoon I had the pleasure of meeting our site supervisor. He was friendly and informed me that the the slab will need to sit for around a week so that it’s nice and dry for the next stage. The digging for the drainage etc will take place on Friday the 21st March, and the frame will be delivered the week after. He told me that he will call each week to keep us informed of the progress of our home.

Here are some pictures of our slab- it looks really small!! We were wandering around imagining where everything would be- probably the most excited we have been to date.

View from the back yard.

Standing on the front porch.

As a sidenote- the slab was laid this morning, and I received the bill from Wisdom at 12:25pm. There’s an aspect of admin that is quick!

Thanks for reading. Will post again next week.

And…wait for it…GO!

We are off- for real this time! Last Friday Peter popped over to the block and the peers had been  put in. We were very happy to see that work has commenced and were on a high all weekend.  The formwork had also been put in place for the slab. Here are a few pictures…

Peers are in place!

More peers.

Today bought more happy news! The plumbing has been dug out and the wafflepods have been delivered. Looks like we may have our slab down by the end of the week.

Plumbing is in!

Wafflepods- notthing more than polystyrene!

I would say things are starting to move along nicely. Such a relief- we would really love to be in the house in time to celebrate Peter’s 50th birthday!

Thanks for reading. I will post more once the slab goes down.

False Start

It’s time for an update even though I am feeling rather disillusioned tonight. Last week we were so excited to see that the land had been levelled in preparation for work to begin…alas, here we are over a week later and nothing has happened- at all!

Last Thursday, I received a call from Wisdom. They had some unfortunate news for me. Apparently the glass we have chosen for the front doors and sidelights is not compliant with BAL 12.5. Are you kidding me? Why is this only being mentioned now? Of course this will delay things…they also told me that the pitch on the downstairs roof will have to be changed from 20 to 18 degrees. I find it hard to believe that these things have been overlooked. We have been through drafting for goodness’ sake- did the draftsman not pick up that the roof was not going to work with our design? When the costing for the BAL was with the estimator, he had it for 6 weeks. Unbelievable that he didn’t check on the front door glass then- he certainly had enough bloomin’ time!

Anyway, they told me that I can choose from 4 different types of glass:

1. Cathedral- looks like glass from the Depression era. Not appealing to us at all.

2, Africana- The 80’s called- they want their glass back. Uh, no they don’t, it’s revolting.

3, Spotswood Obscure- this is the type of glazing that you use for bathroom and toilet windows.

4. Clear- it’s ok if you are an exhibitionist and want to be visible from the street I guess. We don’t roll thay way (Thank God I hear you say)!

The person 2 doors down from us has the glass we requested in their front door and their BAL is the same as ours so I am not sure what’s happening there. 

Anyway, because we didn’t like any of the awful glasses they offered, we are back in estimating. Last time we were there the file sat for 6 weeks until our CSO brought it to a manager’s attention.

This is taking such a long time- we haven’t caused any delays. Everything that has been requested has been handed up immediately. I am not regretting this yet, but if it drags on much longer I certainly will. 

By the way, I was so spoilt by Melissa- she returned emails and calls on the same day. Now we have moved to production, things are different. Still waiting to hear about the glass- and still waiting for a start date. 😦 😦

Maybe some good news next time if we are lucky!

In spite of all my negativity today I am convinced that we wil have a beautiful home at the end of all this. I just hope that we are still young enough to enjoy it.