Thursday, January 31, 2008

The garage is done... for now...

Although we had some morning rain today, it did not deter our fantastic brickies from completing our garage brickwork.

Here are some updated pics:







We're meeting with "D" on-site tomorrow morning...and really looking forward to it. There are a couple of things that we want to discuss and nothing better than a face to face....

The garage brickwork needed to be completed in order to support the trusses for the front of the house... and we'd expect that the trusses will be on in the next few days...

We're hoping for the fascia and guttering to possibly go on next week..and who knows, maybe even the roof tiles???

We'll wait and see......

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Day 2 of garage brickwork

Well it's day #2 of brickwork to the garage and... well it is actually starting to look like a garage now.....hmmm can't get the cars in yet though????




Did a drive by this morning after doing some school stuff (bring on the 4th of Feb!!!!) and noticed we have 3 wonderful brickies working on our home....

They have finished the back of the garage where our roller door will be:







and bricked up the offset window on the front of the garage....



It's looking good... the boys brickwork is nice and straight... and the black windows are looking niiiiiiiiiice against the bricks....phew we/I stressed to make sure we would be 100% happy with our colours.... but you never really know until you actually see it in real life....

Our exterior colour selections are:

Bricks: Selkirk Ironstone
Mortar: Natural raked
Windows: Night Sky (Black)
Fascia/Gutters: Night Sky (Black)
Downpipes/Meter box: Jasper (to blend in with the brickwork as opposed to standing out)
Feature render : Barn Rafter
Garage Doors: Paperbark
Front Door: Paperbark... but i want 2 pac black...we'll see how it looks when it's in first

Hmmm... more updates soon...

Happy, happy, happy!!!!
GO Henley GO!!!

Still haven't heard regarding the brick colour issue though???? Hopefully we will hear more tomorrow????

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Brickwork commenced...

Our brickies have started work today and a nice job they are doing...we must say...









If you want to know, our bricks are Ironstone by Selkirk... with raked natural mortar.


We did have a small issue with one stack of bricks being a different colour to the rest that were delivered. Our builder has contacted the Selkirk Rep who was going out to inspect them.
We will wait and see.... But a BIG difference in colour (in our opinion)...The brick on top is the correct colour. From what we saw, the stack has been isolated so we'll wait to hear from them...
Can you see the difference???






Monday, January 28, 2008

Long weekend festivities

We celebrated our Australia Day weekend with some relatives visiting
from the "sunny" Gold Coast!!!


Down only for the weekend meant we were rushed for quality time together, but it's been fun...

Took them for a tour of our new house so that they can get the idea of what to expect....next time they are down.... plus they are going to be regular online visitors to our blog... (so we thought we'd give them a special mention...LOL...)

Unfortunately, my cousin & her family left yesterday and my auntie and uncle are leaving tonight....(sigh)...oh well...until next time....

Thank's for a great weekend guys...it is always lovely to catch up...

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Gutters & fascia's delivered

Even on a long weekend, these guys are on the ball....

We've had our black guttering and fascia delivered.



Stacked so nicely along our back fence, it doesn't seem that there is enough for the whole house... but i'm sure they'll make sure we have enough!!!

Seems like next week is going to be busy at our place, brickies, chippies and sundries working on multiple aspects of the house....

Hmmm very happy!!!!

Need to go to Berwick a bit this week, so might visit the site during the day to check these hard working tradies out.... ;-P

Friday, January 25, 2008

Wow, what a difference a day makes!!!

Well, hard to believe it was only yesterday that we had 3/4 of the framing done..

Today on our visit we found the following:

The trusses had been delivered
The bricks had been delivered (partially)
The brickie's sand had been delivered
The balance of the frame had been installed






The trusses were not fully pre-made it seems, partially made and requires a bit of chippies nouse to put it together... They have laid it everywhere, on top of the framework, along both sides of the house, inside the house (all over the house) and what they couldn't fit in the house, they have left on the "driveway".







Well it's better than on the neighbours property i suppose!!! LOL...

Nearly finished the frame......

More framework completed yesterday. Not there yet, but the chippies are doing a great job!!!!


Here are some updated pics:


From the theatre looking forward:
Back of the house:Kids bedrooms still coming together:Front of the house:Our bedroom:Family/kitchen area:Our theatre:Meals/dining area:

We've also been updated by our CSR today and it seems that our house will need to have the garage bricked before they can complete the balance of the framework.....so....guess what.....??????

Bricking of garage to commence next week!!!! Ooooooh fantastic news!!!!!!!!!!

Then the trusses will go on and the frame will be completed next week!!!

After frame is completed then it's guttering, plumbing, roofing, sisalation. And then brickwork!!!!

Not sure if the brickwork on the house will commence after the garage or not, it's a little different to another home that has a similar facade being built about 20 minutes away. But we have made the garage a lot wider at 8.4m's so 2 of the walls are solid brickwork ( i.e. no framework to be used on those sides). So maybe that's why???

Who cares????

Not us.....

Just want to see movement!!!!

Yippppeeeee!!!!!!!!!

"D" great job so far mate!!!!

Go Henley Go!!!!!

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Getting there.....

Well the frame is coming together slowly but surely.....

Again, trying to guess how much they had achieved today, i thought it would be 1/2 finished and hubby thought it would be completed... hmmm...you decide who wins???




What you are looking at from the back of the house going forwards, is the theatre, grand dining, laundry, kids play room/lounge, ensuite and our bedroom and robe... (lost you yet???)







The frame should be 100% complete tomorrow...no idea on when the trusses will be coming, but we are due for an update phone call hopefully this week and we'll know soon enough.


Ooooh, and today our multi-phase meter was installed, it tells the date, time as well as reading the electricity usage... pretty cool hey???

Seriously though, it's required for the air conditioning that we are getting.....LOL
Glad it's finally turned up....




More updates soon.............

Bit by bit....

We are getting there, we have top and bottom plates laid out to plan on the slab today.
More wood has been delivered including the larger beams for the alfresco area.

Here are some pics:


From the back corner of the theatre room:



From the back corner of the kids rooms:



Our bedroom and robe:



Back corridor and kids rooms:


Looking at our family room, from the laundry:


Another installment tomorrow, as if you wouldn't have guessed????

Monday, January 21, 2008

Preparation for the frame.

Well on our ritualistic trip to visit our slab, we found that we had a visit from the tradies today.


They had cut the studs and noggins and placed them in neat stacks on the alfresco area.


Pretty neat job...


Funnily enough, there just doesn't seem like there's enough timber for the studs, noggins, top and bottom plates for the whole house??? But what do we know???


We hope that they will be back tomorrow to start piecing this Meccano set together....
we sure will be..........back that is!!!!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Homeone BBQ

Today, we had a great day at Jell's park with some fellow members from the Homeone Forum.



Back row from left to right:

Ray (Fiona's husband), Mandi (Rob's wife), Rob (Vanderlay),Tony, Emma, Laura, Richard (friends of Tony & Emma and soon to be homeone members), Eng.

Front row from left to right:
Fiona (nzfiona), Sam (Fiona's son), Nathan (my son), ME!!! (Nik) (**Phoenix**), my other son, Matthew, Dana (Kryten), Gill (Al's wife), Al & daughter.

Some of the kids were missing for the photos, couldn't tear them off the playground...

Thanks to everyone who attended. We all had a great time. The weather held out all day...in fact it only started to drizzle when we were in the car halfway home.... Can't ask any more than that when we've had 2 previous days of rain!!!!

Thanks to Jason and www.homeone.com.au for assisting with the BBQ...couldn't have done it without you.

Already talking of another one, possibly a dinner just for the "adults".

LOL, party time!!!!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Hmmm.....

The framing hasn't started as yet... not sure why???
Visited yesterday and today but no work...








We do have some cracks in the slab in various places but will keep our eye on them to see if they increase in size and go from there....

The builders timeframe was:

The time frame provided by our builder was:


14/12/07 - Site cut - COMPLETED 11/12/07

7/01/08 - Set Out - COMPLETED 11/12/07

8/01/08 - Drains - COMPLETED 7/1/08

9/01/08 - Underground Power - COMPLETED 9/1/08

10/01/08 - Concreter to start - COMPLETED 15/1/08

18/01/08 - Frame to commence - ???? nothing yet??? hmmm wait and see???


Hopefully next week we should see the skeleton for our new house???


Thursday, January 17, 2008

Don't blink or you'll have missed it!!!


Well see what happens when you don't visit for one day???
Henley have really stepped up to the mark!!!!
Today, we visited the block to find:


Security fencing, staked to the ground:



Windows had been delivered:

As well as the timber and bracing for the frame and the external doors:

The entire site had been cleaned and back-filled:



And rocks delivered for the driveway:

All set for a BIG day tomorrow on site...


WOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO

GO HENLEY GO!!!!!!!!!!!