Tiling

Ensuite tiling is almost complete
















Stainless steel mosaics in kitchen splashback

Kitchen cabinets are installed

We now have steps up to the bedrrom level and finally the kitchen cabinets are in place. Its always interesting to see if the designs you chose months ago actually look as good when they're in, and I'm pleased with the way the kitchen has turned out.

Internal Linings (in other words.....plasterboard!)

The scaffolding is finally down and work has started on the inside. Insulation was installed last week according to the supervisor. I'll have to take his word for that because I was too busy to check it out. Apparently there was a bit of a flood when a water pipe got in the way of someones saw (its not like they were hidden so don't know how that happened). Anyway its all fixed and back on track and as you can see by the photos the plasterboard is nearly complete. If all goes well, they say another 9 weeks or so to handover.

Kitchen/Family room looking through to rumpus

Kitchen pantry and enlarged fridge space

Meals area and bifold doors to alfresco

Glass now installed in bifold doors

View from alfresco sans scaffolding, site needs a bit of a cleanup.

Too cloudy to see Blue Mountains today but nice to know they're there.

Electrical work started

Returned from visiting family in Perth to find that the electrical work has started. Not very exciting photos to look at, although I was excited to find I finally had stairs to get up to the master bedroom instead of having to do a very unladylike clamber up the concrete.

I also found a huge butterfly in one of the bedrooms so I opened the window to let it fly through.

Early Christmas Present

I was feeling a bit down yesterday what with all the rain and work on the house being slow, so I decided to call the supervisor to see when he thought work might start up again after the holidays. I asked him when he thought we'd have a roof, expecting him to name a date in February, to which he told me, that yes the roofers have just about finished! Whoo hoo, now no need to get depressed everytime it rains. When we went up to take photos the neighbour came over and told us that 5 guys had worked and finished it all in one day. My initial thoughts were that they'd put on the wrong tiles because they looked a lot lighter than I expected, but looking at the leftover tiles they are the ones we picked and it looked fantastic anyway. It really looks like a house now.

This is a photo of the sarking (silver stuff) under the eaves, it was a council requirement as it gets very windy on top of the hill.

This is inside, looking up at the sarking through the roof trusses.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Slow progress

All the brickwork bar a small amount in the garage (the window still is not in place), and around the windows is complete. It's taken so long the the supervisor said we'd not a get a roof before Christmas and we're looking at February now before thing start up again, so it looks like there won't be much to post. Meanwhile heres a few of my tile choices.

Stainless steel mosaics for kitchen splashback

Bathroom tiles

Entry tiles

Oops, forgot something

Well the rain has continued and the bricklayers still haven't finished. They've nearly got the garage completed, except that there are bricks where the garage window should be, and the window is propped up in the lounge. I feel a phone call to the site supervisor coming on. We've had the progress payment request for "Completion of Brickwork" since the 16th November, needless to say we haven't paid it yet!




Still some brickwork to do above the entry.

Not sure what happened to this brick.

Inside the fence

There just happened to be a small gap in the fence and I just happened to squeeze through it and took these photos from inside. And no, the bricklayers haven't finished yet.....more rain delays.


View from alfresco

Looking from the kitchen across to the alfresco, complete with swimming pool

The nib walls with cutout sections in the kitchen/family area where the stairs will go up to the bedroom level.

Bricklayers still dodging the rain

A week later and progress is still slow and yes its still raining.........

Drought.....what drought

Well the plumbing appears to have been completed. The purple pipe are for the recycled water that will go to the toilets and outside taps. Just had one issue where they misplaced the outside gas point but a quick call to our supervisor had it repositioned very quickly. Next up was the bricklayers, but as soon as the bricks were delivered and unpacked the drought broke. It seems like we've had rain or showers everyday since, so after 2 weeks, instead of being finished, the brickies are way behind schedule, and I know its selfish but I'm fed up of people saying how great all this rain is!

Windows fitted

Got a call from a friend to say she'd driven past our place and she liked the windows. What windows, you mean we have windows???? So jumped in the car and drove up and sure enough the windows, stacker doors and bifolds (minus glass) have been fitted. We opted for aluminium awning windows as opposed to the standard sliding windows and I'm pleased to say they look great, the photos were taken as it was getting dark so they're not very clear. It looks more like a house every day.

Framwork started

The framework has started with only the garage and part of the roof trusses still to go up.

Slab

Now the slab is down the house seems a bit smaller than we imagined, but everyone says thats normal and they start to look bigger once the walls go up. Hope they're right!

Excavation

Had a drive up to the block today to see if work had started yet, and wow what a surprise, huge chunks had been carved out of the hillside and the site marked in the shape of our house. Then later the site supervisor contacted us to tell us that they will be starting the slab next week. Its fantastic to see something happening after all this time.

The top level will be the bedrooms, bathrooms and laundry, then it drops to the kitchen, family, rumpus, formal living areas, then drops again to the garage.

Finally we have D.A. Approval!

Double celebration today. Not only is it our wedding anniversary today but we finally got D.A. approval from Council! Can't believe how long it has taken. It has taken so long to get through Council people had stopped asking us about the house. Now a huge weight has lifted and we can think about having a new home at last.

Letter from Council

Seems like our plans still don't meet the Council requirements, and despite meetings with the planning department, and the fact that our immediate neighbours have a retaining wall higher than the one we propose, they want us to increase the amount of drop edge beams and reduce tha amount of cut and fill on the site. So now we are waiting for the plans to be redrawn yet again!

Colour Selection

While we were waiting for Council approval we went along to pick our bricks, roof tiles and pavers etc. Eventually we decided on:-
Bricks PGH Summervilla - Vanilla
Roof tiles Monier Traditional profile - Barramundi
Pavers PGH Lassiters Gold
Facia & gutters Colourbond Ironstone
Garage door & downpipes Colourbond Surfmist

Council D.A. Lodgement (again)

Today we were informed that Eden Brae have lodged our house/excavation/retaining wall plans with council. The retaining walls are 1.8m at the highest point so still above the recommended 1m so we supplied a covering letter and photos of our neighbours 2m wall......so now we wait.

Finally we have D.A. Approval!

Double celebration today, not only is it our wedding anniversay but we finally got D.A. approval from Council! We can't believe how long its taken, neither can all our family, friends or work colleagues who eventually stopped asking us when we thought we'd be building. A huge weight has been lifted and we can't wait for it to get started.

Contract Meeting

After lots of amendments and redrawing of plans we finally settled on a plan that we liked and that we hope will get through Council. We added upgrades to several areas:-
opted for eaves
increased the bathroom/ensuite tile height,
back to wall toilets (we have boys!)
awning instead of sliding windows
added extra window to rumpus and garage
opted for Bifold instead of stacker doors on family room
put stacker doors instead of rumpus window
extended the garage to the back and side
had part of the huge master bedroom partitioned off to make a separate computer room
changed the kitchen layout to be wall oven instead of six burner stove
added ducted air conditioning

Today was the contact meeting with Eden Brae where they talked us through the plans and the wording of the contract then we got down to the bottom line price......gulp.....well we did make quite a lot of changes. Some of the things we requested weren't in the contract but we were assured they could be added as a Post Contract Variation, and once that is sorted and Eden Brae get confirmation of our funds, then it can be lodged in Council.