Still bricking

We have not quite made it to lock-up by the end of July, but we are not far away.

Most of the bricks are now done except for near the alfresco and in some places where scaffolding is required. The front is now complete:



and most of the East wall:



The brickwork looks good to our untrained eyes, although there is one strange brick near the laundry door:



Inside the cornices are all done, including the garage. First time we have ever had a plastered garage!

Nearly at lockup

This week the builders installed

• Electrical and data cabling,
• Insulation and sound proofing batts,
• Roof and wall plastering,
• Evaporate unit and solar panel for hot water on the roof, and
• Finished bricking the garage

We have not had another delivery of bricks yet, so progress on the external walls has slowed to a halt. I wonder if it is still too wet, especially at the front and rear of the house.



A month ago when the frame was up I took pictures of the family, dining and kitchen room. Today I took photos from the same spot with the plaster in place. Here is the family and dining room:





Here is the dining room and kitchen:





This room is still huge, even with the plaster. I'm not regretting adding the extra metre to the room.

Speaking of huge, the portico is not getting any smaller:



We didn't expect but in hindsight it makes sense for the evaporate unit and solar panel on the roof before the scaffolding was taken down.

We can stop holding our breath now

We are extremely happy with the colours, it is going to work really well with the roof tiles and guttering.

The brick layer is making good progress, with two-thirds of the portico and master bedroom now done since Wednesday.



He said he would be going faster if it wasn't for all the mud out the front and down the side of the house. In fact he can't take another delivery of bricks until they put down some boards over the drive way.



We are very happy with the quality of the work, from our untrained eyes its looking really good and he has done a good job of spreading the colour variation. The brick layer asked several times if my wife was happy with how it looks, which she is.



The internal plumbing appears to be done, but the sparky has not started yet. We still may get the plaster going up late next week, so lock up is still a possibility before the end of the month.

Another brick in the wall

As predicted by the site supervisor, the bricks have been delivered and they are cleaning up the site after the tilers so that they can start tomorrow.



A carpenter has been onsite as well, there is now a temporary front door, and the frame for the bath is in place.

As expected, the bricks are brown with splotches of blue/purple through them, that is going to look great with the blue in the roof and gutters.



They should have the garage wall built by the end of the week, unsure how much further they will get beyond that until next week.

A roof over our heads

We met with the site supervisor for the first time today. The build has been going so well we haven't needed to talk face to face yet, but we thought it was time to meet him and see how things were going.

Like us, he was very happy with the progress so far, everything has gone to plan and if anything they are running ahead of schedule. He expects the electrician and brickies all to start next week, we could be at lockup by the end of the month!

Despite the weather this week, the roof is on and close to completion. The tiles and guttering look great. In the overcast skies they look grey, I expect on a sunny day the blue will come out.



From the side you can see we will not any problems with locating the solar panels...



There is a lot of room in the roof for storage since it is such a long structure with few deviations. The portico however just keeps getting bigger, its the first thing you see of the house as you drive up the street.

From the front you can see our neighbours powerline, the post box and power pole.

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.