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! :)
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!
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!
Then, we pop over today to find our frame is now 3D! We could actually walk through the rooms and see where each of the walls, windows and doors would be. 
Joe has had a great idea to put a two-sided fireplace in the theatre/family room. It would look so awesome so we need to look into the $$$!! We need to make a decision pretty soon as all of the structural elements of the house will be finalised by the end of the week. Tomorrow they are planning on finishing the windows, then its on to the 1st floor! Given the pace they have been working at, it looks very likely that we will be up to Lock Up stage by Christmas. Things will get slow after that as each of the tradies take their Christmas break :)
