Santa says "no house yet" :(

The sad news is that we will not be getting a new house handover by christmas. At this point we are expecting early February delivery if we dont hit any further hurdles. Having a house built is definitely a marathon and our patience has been stretched and sometimes I find myself  asking "what was I thinking building?....I am trying to focus on the end product to help retain my sanity (yes I do consider myself sane despite some who know me and are shaking their heads).

Since mid October the bathrooms have their bathes and vanities, including the undermount basins in ensuite courtesy of another variation.Our kitchen joinery and stone bench and island are in and the pantry is complete. The stone island and the finger gripper on drawers and cupboards with softclose on everything has been executed well by our cabinetmakers.

 Kitchen Joinery with finger grippers instead of handles and Essastone wrapped to waterfall edges

Ensuite undermount basins in essastone

All gyprock reveals for our windows have been finished and are looking great, and with the doors and their architraves being installed now the house is really taking shape and starting to look like the computer model that we built prior to embarking on this project.

View down the hallway from family room

The feature wall has been clad with stonesheet ready for the 20mm thick travertine marble that should be installed soon. The Rinnai gas log fireplace has been installed and my IT rack space behind the wall is a good size for all our electronic stuff.

Feature wall soon to be covered in 700 x 350 x 20 travertine marble

The 920mm front door is in and the portico has been tiled yesterday and looks great, no grout and of course a good clean is needed but I reckon the selection will come up a treat and we are liking the tilers work already. And last week our panel door was installed on the garage and we think the contrast choice in colour helps to highlight the excellent stonework.

Portico tiling with the 300 x 600 matt tiles (600 x 600 semi gloss to be used for main floor inside)

Contrasting panel door

Well we dont expect much over the next couple of weeks but the tiler is keen to get the bathrooms, alfresco and all other rooms completed and expects that it will take about 6 weeks. Painters electrician, plumber and Landscaper are expected in mid January so finally we feel the end is in sight.

A note of thanks to our site supervisor, yes the job may be a little behind the projected finish date but his attention to detail has been excellent and we have always felt that he understands the quality and look we are after and he has imparted this to the various tradies.

Happy xmas everyone.

Time to get Plastered

Well it has taken longer thn anticipated but with the brickwork, stone and roof tiling complete we have seen some action this last week on the inside.

 

 In the last week or so we have had all the pre-wiring for electrical, data and alarm system. Finalising and checking the location of every light, switch and powerpoint was a little time consuming and ponderous but this really highlighted how much I dont know about lighting. I just hope that I have a happy medium and not a dimly lit house with flashlights required to get around nor a brightly lit abode in which sunglasses will be mandatory.

 

We now also have all of the insulation installed. In addition to the sarcing that was installed prior to the roof tiles we have R4 Pink batts in the ceiling. We then have R2.5 in all external wall cavities with R1.5 for internal walls except for around the gym, laundry and master bedroom where we installed a specialised sound proof insulation batt to suppress sound penetrating these walls

Today the gyprock started to be installed with the master bedroom, ensuite, laundry, bedroom 3, master bathroom and gym mostly skinned . At this rate I would expect that they will be finished the gyprocking by the end of the week, fingers crossed.

I have also finalised the airconditioning and will be installing a Breezair evaporative unit ducted throughout the house. I am trying to decide on a bbq and range hood for the alfresco but have been quite surprised at the cost of these items, the search continues but I do like the beefeater bbq and schweigen range hoods but I dont know that our budget will stetch that far.

Custom Keystone

The stone mason has done an awesome job of our feature fascade of Western Australian Tamala limestone blocks with each feature block manually cut to fit. We specifically asked him to use his artistic licence after seeing many of his other masterpieces around town. The end result is even better than we could have hoped for.

We decided to contrast the window frames rather than trying to match a beige

Front door will be monument grey and all windows will have grey tint

The Arches and keystone, each element cut to fit

The roof tiles are 75% complete including sarking

We think it will fit in with the neighbourhood

We have a reasonable width eves to protect the stone

Stoned

Been a while since my last post but we had some weather interruptions, my casement windows for the AlFresco took 5 weeks to make and there was some delay in getting the steel for the Alfresco brick bulkheads and garage.

90% of the brickwork has been completed which has been delayed now by a realisation that we were having bulkhead of bricks spanning the 5.4 metre sliding doors and the builder had not ordered a steel beam to support this brickwork. There was also a miscalculation in the ensuite and powder rooms that saw the vanity measurement being 100mm narrower than it should have been so we needed to move a couple of wall frames. In another small miscommunication our portico was built with a provision for a brick entrance however we are having limestone blocks so another 50mm needs to be added to the foundation and a refitting of the termimesh (its all about the plinth)

Alfresco with casement windows, bricks to go over sliding door when beam installed

Although these above elements should not have been missed we are happy tat our site Supervisor is putting in a great effort in minimising the delay and focussing on getting the best finish result with full disclosure of these oversights.

The good news is that the Limestone blocks that span the front of the house and are returned down the side a further 7 metres have were started this week. The Stone mason started laying the plinth which is comprised of a couple of courses and by Friday they had completed the plinth, 5 courses and half of the window frame features. Its looking great so far and we expect that once completed, cleaned and sealed it will look amazing.

Front Window Bedroom 2

The Stonemason cuts all plinth, window frame and corner detail

Master bedroom on street corner

Stone to brick

Portico

View from the sidestreet

View from the Corner

This coming week should see the stone and brickwork completed and the roof started

Thick as a brick

Bricking underway

The Skeleton

A picture says a thousand words, in other words lazy Jase doesnt feel like being his normal verbose self. 

• Frame 99% complete
• Most windows installed (monument grey for front in limestone and ultra silver for licorice brick remainder)
• Created variation for couple of casement windows in alfresco
• front door frame arrived/installed and was 820mm instead of 920mm, sent back
• stacker door track arrived/installed had screen tracks, we asked for none, sent back  
• met with the landscaper and I am a bit worried about the cost of a "few" plants and pavers, we shall see.

The side

The Front

 

 Family room view of backyard

Kitchen/Dining/Alfresco

Master Bedroom

Hallway

Bricks are said to be turning up this week but looking at the weather forecast I am feeling a little pessimistic

Taking Shape

The frame is almost complete with the guys expecting to finish this Friday. Louise and I have been minding a house just around the corner from the site and have been able to watch our house grow daily. It has been enjoyable to watch a pile of timber morph into our new home, we know there is a ways to go but prefer to face the construction challenges and overall timeframe with optimism.

A few hurdles including a mismeasured front door frame, an minor issue meaning that the stacker door tracks need replacing, a change of a couple of door sizes to better suit the bathroom space are all being handled and a last minute request to reposition a highlight window were all handled by our builder with a minimum of fuss.

Louise checking out the Ultra Silver Powdercoat

The windows are all in place and we are happy with the choice of monument grey for the front with the limestone and ultra silver on the rear with the licorice brick. I belatedly decided that the alfresco would benefit from the morning sun and have asked for a variation which has been costed with casement and fixed window options and we are just weighing up the cost.

So far so good

Our creekside setting

Birthday Frames

Happy Birthday to Louise

Well after several weeks of slab curing and no action the timber has finally landed onsite and the framing has started. They started yesterday and expect to be finished the walls by tomorrow. The roof frame is expected to be put up next week.

 The busy framers getting it together in the wind before the rain arrives

Now if only the weather would let up a bit as it has been pouring with rain for a couple of hours with more rain expected over the next several days. The builder has surrounded the slab with gravel so that the brickies dont have to ramble over the rubble surrounding the house and will hopefully keep the mud down if this rain persists.

Louise braving the elements to check progress

Louise standing in the lounge and the rain

Stellar also arranged for the trimming of 50mm around the slab perimeter as this provision for the Limestone blocks over that required by bricks was forgotten when the slab was poured.

Stellar also replaced the small chunk out of the slab and could not find any visible damage caused by the demolition clowns bobcat driven over our green slab.

We also had a discussion regarding architraves which Stellar had intended on placing around all windows. Once Louise and I understood the intention of putting up Colonial architraves in our modern home we explained again the look we were after and requested that the windows have no architraves and gyprock reveals instead (bathrooms to have jolly cut tiles). Stellar Homes were most accommodating and have agreed to this as a no cost variation. We are confident that Stellar can produce a quality finish on the reveals and the look we were after.

Nice to see some action onsite and Louise gave the contractors some cake to celebrate her birthday.

The Disappointment

18 months into the project finally the slab goes down and you feel the dream might actually become a reality then you wake up and realise that you are up against some unprofessional individuals and that the project will be a real test of patience and nerves.

The demo crew who removed my old home but neglected to take out 2 trees that were clearly in the contract came back and took them out. Only one problem, they drove a bobcat across the garage, bedroom2, laundry, ensuite and master bedroom with the final insult taking off a chunk of the 36 hour old slab when they drove off.

It seems that my garage floor comes with prelaid rubber

and apparently this is following my instructions to not go near the slab, which we have in multiple emails from us and their replies assuring us they would fall them away from the foundations.

We've been Slabbed

Saturday morning and heading up to the shack but had to stop by and see the lads pouring the slab. We got there at about 10:30am and pouring was well under way and happy to report that the concreting team seemed well organised and efficient. Happy that all was under control we headed for the shack.

A beautiful cloudless, starry but bone-chillingly cold night up on the Murray River and we returned via the Rostrevor to check on the progress. The slab looked great with all boards removed drying under another sunny Autumn afternoon.

Lets get Meshed

Today saw the installation of  my plastic wrap  and mesh sheets. The oversight which saw me missing a stormwater pipe under the proposed garage was remedied and the termimesh prepping started.

As long as we aren’t hit by a sudden rainstorm, which doesn’t seem likely, the slab should be poured Saturday.

Earthworks - Done and Dusted

There were a few sagas in getting out of the old abode and disposing of it but I dont want to bore you so will start at Stellar Home's involvement once the block was cleared and pegged.

The first of Stellar's crew embarked upon the task of levelling the block. This was executed quickly with the removal of about 70 tonnes of dirt and round creek boulders. The only gotcha was that about a dozen years ago a massive gum tree was removed by others from the centre of the back yard and unfortunately the several tonnes of stump had been hiding under the back lawn all these years. Started earthworks on 18 April finished the next day. Cost was $25 a tonne + a couple of hundred to extract and remove the redgum stump.

I received a brief call on Friday from Stellar Homes informing me that work would be starting on the  foundations on Saturday 20th April. I headed over on Sunday which was a bit showery  as was Saturday but they had completed 2/3 of the footings. By the Anzac Day Wednesday the trenches for footings were in.

I called the contractors that would be responsible for the slab and they said despite the inclement weather they were on target for a Saturday pour assuming the weather stayed away. I zipped over Thursday night with my torch and the reo was sitting on the verge and my PVC plumbing was already in place so all is looking good so far.