Plastered.......oh yeah!

We got plastered this week. No it was not the alcoholic type - but of the gyprocking kind :)

There was a few weeks delays finishing the lower roof due to all the rain Sydney had in the beginning of June. But the guys bolted down and got the roof completed a couple of weeks ago. We also finally had our electricity connected...which Wisdom were patiently waiting for me to organise. We wanted three phase power - but unlucky for us we have underground power - and our power was connected about 50m around the corner. I had to get a level 2 electrician to dig a trench and run extra cables. This alone cost a small fortune - but we are just happy it is now done.

Last week we had the insulation team come through. They were a lovely elderly couple (certainly not your typical tradesmen!). They installed all the bradford R2.0 wall and R3.5 ceiling batts. I also went through afterwards and installed some sound proofing batts in the ceiling between the home theatre and one of the upstairs bedrooms.

On Tuesday the plaster/gyprock team started. What a hard working bunch of guys. They were there at first light and worked like maniacs until it was dark. They got it all done in three days - which I thought was very impressive - considering it is a 51 square house. Then on Friday last week the stairs were installed - and we are very happy with how they have turned out.

I spoke with our SS on Friday arvo - and he reports the chippies are coming in on Tuesday to installt he doors so we can get to lock up. The Kitchen is then scheduled to go in on Wednesday!

Some pictures below....enjoy!


The house from the front with scaffolding down and roof completed:


The view from the front door:


Our lovely new staircase. It is not quite finished here. The under stairs door and plaster still need to be done:


The front entrance niches:


Entrance to home theatre:


Looking down the hall from the upstairs front balcony:


Living room and rumpus:


Kitchen & dining:

Roofity roof roof

Gday gday gday (I must be happy - i keep saying each word three times in my head!)

We finally had our colourbond Roof completed last week. Were there some issues? Yes there were....but we accept most of the blame for that. It all goes back almost 12 months when we did out orignal colour selections. We had decided on 'Evening Haze' colour for the roof, gutter, fascia, downpipes & garage. However - before we made out final colour sign off we had another meeting with Wisdom and asked to change all of the external coloubond colours from 'Evening Haze' to 'Dune'. Unlucky for us, every item on the list was changed...except somehow the roof colour was missed. Even though we checked a gazzillion times we still signed off on the colour sheet. So you can imagine our surprise when all the roof panels were delivered in Evening Haze colour (and gutter were already installed as Dune). Anyways - to cut a long story short - we had to live with our stuff up - as it was going to cost circa $5k to reorder the roof panels in Dune. Luckily, our SS allowed us to change our Garage door to 'Evening Haze' to match the roof - so in the end it is only the gutters that do not mactch. We have come to like it anyway - as the colours are so similar it kind of makes the roof stand out more anyway. Then the roofers miscalculated the amount of panels somehow - so we had a week delay whislt waiting for the rest to be delivered. They finally finished last week. Earlier this week the eaves were installed and painted...they look very nice.

Moving on inside - our SS also allowed us to make some small cosmetic changes to the positioning of the media alcove in the main bedroom - which now looks much better. We are also getting the prep work done for a laundry chute - which is pretty cool. All the A/C ducts were installed yesterday - and it now looks like some kind of alien invasion with all the metallic duct work. We are having a 23kw system with 8 zones, 2 master controllers and 6 individual zone controllers :). So every room can more or less set its own temperature with its own controller....pretty neat if you ask me. The electrians are coming tomorrow to do the rough-in....and our Home Theatre guys are coming around to run all the HDMI and speaker cables in preperation for the 100inch HD projector and surround sound :). On the weekend all our Networking cables will be installed (24 cat6 cables terminated under the stairs).

Next week should be the lower roof and insulation. The plastering should start the week after!

A picture from the front is below. I will add more internal pictures on the weekend.

Take care.

Bricking finished...now for the roof!

As of Monday our brickwork was 99% completed. There is just the second storey window sills to go. In total there was over 20,700 bricks used! The guys worked hard and seem to have done a good job. There are a couple of cracked/chipped bricks in some places - but I am sure they will be replaced when I mention it to the site supervisor. They still need to be cleaned - but you can already see the nice mixture of browns (even some tinged with blue) coming through.

Today they installed the upstairs guttering - which is in 'Dune' colour. The SS tells me that the roofing should be delivered tomorrow with the roof to be installed next week! We cannot wait to see what the house looks like with a hat on :)

Fingers crossed for an August move in.

Some pictures attached:

Front of the house:



Close shot of garage:



Garage side wall (you can see the brick colour best here):



Front Portico:



Alfresco and pool area:

Bring on those bricks!

Gday all,

We got back from our Thailand trip last week and as soon as we were off the plane we headed to Austral. You see, we got a surprise email from Wisdom informing is that Austral had a delay in the brick we had selected (chosen over 12 months ago!). Anyway, to cut a long story short, Wisdom/Austral kindly offered us a free upgrade to the Austral Bowral full clay dry pressed bricks. In the end, we did not end up with the exact colour we wanted - but we are still happy. The new brick is 'Gertrudis Brown'. Sure, the name is not as flashy as our previous 'Earth' coloured ones - but we remain hopeful that the end result will still be what we were aiming for.

So the bricks, sand and cement have all been delivered - with the brickies due to start first thing in the morning! Good thing as the weather in Sydney is meant to be almost perfect for the next week.

Onto some pictures.

This is the current view of the house from across the street:



This was taken from where the kitchen is - looking out towards the living/dining/rumpus rooms:



The view from the dining out over the Alfresco (which will be decked) and across to the very full pool. The pool will be surrounded by travertine pavers.



Here is a picture of our gorgeous little son (almost 8 months old).



This is the view from our master bedroom looking out towards the blacony and the raised section of the backyard:



The view of the pool from our balcony. Thanks the the delguge we got at the end of January it is completely full of dirty rainwater. I plan on pumping it all out tomorrow.



The upstairs lounge:



The view from our master bedroom looking down the hallway towards the front of the house. The entire left side of the hallway will be linen cupboards:



The master walk-in robes. 'Hers' is on the left - 'His' is on the right.



The view from the front balcony looking towards the street:



The study downstairs:



This is taken from the front door - looking through the ground level:



Thats about it for now. Next update should be next week some time :)

We've been framed!

Bit of a late post. We are actually overseas in Thailand for a 3 week holiday at the moment - so it is difficult to keep an eye on the progress :P

A friend of ours sent us some pictures of the Frame which was completed on Monday 22nd Feb. Some pictures below. I will update the blog with more details when we get back at the end of next week.

We have a Slab!

We were not expecting our slab to be poured to the end of next week. Wisdom surprised us by getting in poured on Saturday. We were a little concerned as the temperature got to around 42 degrees on Saturday. The concreting team started early at around 7am - when the temperature was a nice 25 degrees. By 12pm they had they had the slab poured and were in the process of finishing - the temp was around 36 degrees at this time - but luckily it was somewhat cloudy and did not receive the full punishment of direct sunlight. They had completed by around 2:30pm - and at this time the temp hit 42 degrees and the sun came out. We were very worried that our slab would dry out way to quick - but luckily, a big southerly came through at 4:30pm along with some very light showers. The temperature has remained a fairly constant 22-27 degrees since this time which is almost ideal for the curing process. Our Site Supervisor (F) has informed us that drainage is scheduled for the 2nd February and framing is due to start on the 4th! Some pictures of the slab below.

Piers and Pipes

Gday all. I hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas and New Year.

Wisdom decided they would get cracking early - starting back on 14th Jan. By Friday the 15th we had our piers drilled and filled (from last count over 75 of them). They found the level had to be 80mm less - so the concretors didn't fill them quite to the top surface. Then on the Monday, the excavators came back and scraped down another 80mm. Some pictures of the Piers are below.

Then today we found that the pipes had been installed for the slab and some steel has been delivered. We are hoping that the waffle pods will be done this week for a slab pour sometime next week.

Thats all for now...hopefully the next post will be next week after the slab is completed!