Around the outside

Some more photos from house now the frame is up.

Here is where the dug around the pool and cut some of the pipes (at least they caped them again) to access the sewer point.



The east side of the house...



Rear of the house...



The Alfresco...



The west side of the house, from the rear...



The west side of the house, from the front...

The frame is up

Its been an exciting week since we are at the fastest stage of construction; slab and the house frame.

The slab was poured on the 16th. I think we were lucky with the weather as it was rainy and cold most days that week.



The next day they have marked where all the frames would go on the slab so that was our first chance to really start picturing the size of the rooms. For the first time in months it seemed real to the kids.



It was also our first chance to see how big the back yard would be since we extended the house by 1m and the standard council setback pushed the house back a little more. I have to admit we were a little shocked how small it was, but at the same time could see how we could deck all the way from the alfresco to the pool.



In no time at all the frame and roof trusses have gone up. Many of the windows are in, external doors including the corner-less alfresco sliding doors!

Today was the first chance we had to look during daylight hours...



We never intended to have a portico, it seems like it could fit 20 people under it and not get wet in the rain.

Here is the view from the family room with the alfreso on the left, the dining and kitchen straight ahead, and then into the living room.



Looking back the other way we can see dining, alfresco and family rooms. I'm so glad we added the extra metre to the dining room, there is going to be more than enough room there for a large square table.



The living room looks bigger than we expected, with the two windows and the fireplace in the middle.



We just happened to be there when a steam train was going past, this picture is from our driveway.



We are rapt with the progress so far. Soon we expect the tiles will be delivered for the roof and then the bricks. Hopefully the weather stays as nice as it has been this weekend.

Who needs a display home?

I've been playing with an iPhone app called Home Design 3D.

In the past I've found most programs for house deisgn to be very difficult to use, especially when you try to go beyond a 2D plan and try to draw something in 3D.

I've found this app very easy to use, it took me about 2 hours to put together our floorplan. It then has some templates for furniture, doors and windows you can add to generate something like this:



A recent update included some more furniture temapltes, but it would be great if there were more.

The best bit is yet to come. Press the 3D button and it renders your design:



and allows you to walk through the house. So here is what it might look like from the family room:



and looking back the other way from the kitchen:



Here is an aerial view of the back half ofthe house which shows what we changed with the kid's bathroom (adding another vanity) and the kids retreat:



I was amazed at how easy it was to put this together, so I thought LiveCad deserved a plug.

So who needs a display home anyway?

Work has started

Work has finally begun on our block, with the site scraped, pipes laid and the trenches dug in preparation for the slab. The weather for next week looks good so hopefully we will have a slab in the next few days.









I'm going to try to take a picture every few days from the same spot until lockup stage.