A few quick pics

Hi All,

Things have been moving at a rate of knots this past week.

We have doors, window frames, STAIRS and tiling has begun....hooray!!!

We have walls!!!!

We've been a little slack in blogging lately.......by we I mean Sariah......j/k.

So much has happened!

We had a massive rain period here in Sydney for a few weeks which delayed everything for a little while. We literally needed one more day of sun to get the roof finished but it wasn't to be. So as soon as we had a dry patch the roof was finished and it looks hot!

Next came all of the roughing in for electrical and plumbing. Jared was kind enough to come and help me wire up the house with Cat 5E cable to network the whole house along with speaker cable in the roof for when we put some surround in.....one day.

I went and met with the kitchen dude aka Elias. He is a great guy and brilliant at what he does. We designed the whole kitchen, picked colours and we're getting Elias to quote on the glass splashback.

The gyprock came next, we can't believe how dramatic the change is! I went one afternoon and the entire downstairs walls were in and the upstairs roof was in....I couldn't believe it, there were about 10 Korean's running around the house and they were ripping along! They then piled into one van and took off......classic.

A few days later and the whole house is gyprocked and the cornices are half up. It really does look amazing now that rooms are really coming together. I think there's one or two days to go with the cornicing and then it's just flooring, kitchen, bathrooms and painting to go.

The first time we went to see the finished walls Sariah was so desperate to see upstairs so I boosted her up the 2.8 metres for her to have a look...she got absolutely covered in white dust, work clothes, face and hair all COVERED in dust....she's crazy....which I love!

Sariah and I have been stressing out about the colouring this past week. Every decision has been so easy thus far but this one was tough! We had a heap of help from Tamara and Caley on our best colouring options and we just finalised our decisions last night.....Sariah was right......again.......we're going dark timber floors with a heap of white everywhere else. You'll just have to wait and see!

Not long to go now, we're thinking a conservative 6 weeks but Joe is thinking it will be a bit quicker. Joe has continued to be fantastic, he's always just a phone call away and he has had all of the answers....definitely taken all the stress out!

Till next time....you stay classy!

The roof!

I'm back! I thought John might have gotten a taste for blogging and taken over my job...I was wrong :P

Anyways, so much has happened with this awesome house!! The bricks are completed now, they still need to be "washed", or chemically high pressure hosed, or whatever it is they do...I'm not sure! But they are all in place :)

The carpenters came back to put the finishing touches on, like the floating walls, niches and bulkheads.

Next came the gutter and fascia..colours were chosen to fit into the scheme of the facade, and look great!

Our next big decision was the roof tiles. We went with "Midnight", and they look awesome! We had to choose between the flat type and the curved type. The flatter they are, the more expensive they get, so we got the mid-range 'curviness', and I do not regret that, I actually prefer them ! (I know I'm a little biased) ;-)

They have also installed our balcony door, plus the alfresco stacking doors...and wow!! It really makes the room!!

To top all of that progress off, we went shopping on Saturday, and added substantially to our growing furniture collection. We purchased a dining table, lounge chair, buffet and coffee table. As pictured below! :)

We have more bricks...........

So, after watching Julie vand Julia I really feel so much more inspired to blog........

Sariah went to the house today and we have more bricks! Most of the brickwork is finished and they are due to complete tomorrow.

We spoke to Joe today and he said we will

 have the house to lock up by the 20th of January.....so freakin excited!

We just need to pick roof tiles now which will be happening this weekend. It'll be between black and charcoal.....and 17 shades in between. Who'd a thought how tough these decisions would be!

Well....i'm all blogged out, maybe that movie really didn't inspire me as much as I thought....

Stay classy!

John

Brrrrickwork!

Thus far the bricks have been the longest part of the building process, but they look grrrreat! It's been progressing for about two weeks now. I went past to watch yesterday, and I can understand why it takes so long! They have to be so meticulous so that all the mortar is the same width along, it looks like a real skill! The houses around us are really happening too! Two doors down they are building an 'Allworth' home, which they built with frame and truss which were pre-made so they come up really quick! In our area there are 5 houses being built. It will be so strange in 5 years to look back at these pictures and see vacant land! Joe has found some really good floor boards within our budget this week so we are choosing from the samples soon. We are also picking our roof tiles as soon as we return from our holiday to Melbourne, so the tiles will be on, bricks done, and the house at lock up stage in about a month!

At present the bricks are just about completed on the bottom storey, the windows are all in, and the front pillars are just beginning :)

Frame Completed

In just two weeks the bottom storey, first storey and roof are complete! It has gone up really quickly! The weather has been great, with minimal rain, so we really haven't been delayed at all. 

The plumber came and connected all our water and gas lines, so now we have pipes running through the walls. We made sure to get a gas line running to the alfresco area, which will eventually be for the BBQ...no running out of petrol station gas bottles any more!! :)

The bricks have been delivered (we chose the Boral Storm...after much deliberation!) and the windows should be arriving tomorrow! 

Double Storey!

We started this week with 'Ice-cream Monday', as the boys were working in 41 degree heat! I thought Joe should have sent them home, but he is far too conscientious! So to compensate I took ice-creams and powerade :) There is very little shade so at least they were simultaneously working on some very deep tanning! The second storey went up in no time! This was probably the most exciting thing we've seen thus far, we were actually able to climb up and walk around our upstairs area! We were able to get a real sense of our room size, and the view! I'm guessing that Occupational Health and Safety regulations would stipulate we shouldn't be climbing around up there....so pretend you never saw these pictures! While we were up there we were able to make a couple of minor changes to door widths etc, which is really hard to preempt from the drawings. This is a major benefit to having an independent builder, it is no trouble to move things around!