The suspense is killing me..

Hi all - hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are gearing up for a lovely New Years Eve.

The weather here in Sydney is absolutely stunning. After a very hot and sunny Christmas Day we had a rainy old Boxing Day (which I think is kinda nice anyway) which eventually cleared up then after that we had a few grey days however yesterday and today have been sensational and tomorrow is shaping up to follow suit.

Which means heading out into the yard for a swim very soon! I will really miss having a pool when our house is finally ready, and I know our 2 year old will too!

So onto the house..

I went over to stickybeak around on Boxing Day (I wanted to stand there and think about how great next Xmas will be!) and despite our SS being told otherwise there was NO gyprock to be seen, only one out of the 3 small remaining sections of roof had been completed (we were told they would be done this year so they still have time), and I discovered the Tasmanian Oak lining that had been so beautifully installed on the ceiling of our Outdoor Room had been removed to install a noggin for our ceiling fan (which we paid for and is on our variations list but somehow was left off the final plans I believe).

This is great to see, however I am concerned they will just re-use those Oak boards that have now been forcibly removed and are more than likely now sporting some damage from the removal process..

Time will tell I guess.

According to our SS the elusive insulation is being installed today, and the gyprockers will start tomorrow, but like everything else with the house of late I will believe it when I see it.

Tomorrow marks 4 months since site start, I had initially hoped, when things were moving so fast that we would be up to painting or tiling over the break but clearly thats not to be..

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe New Years Eve - bring on 2011 and the completion of all our homes!!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Just a quick one in update to last nights post..

The roof was completed today (YAY!) but our SS told us late yesterday we are STILL waiting on insulation (yes, it will be have been over two weeks wait for that by the time it arrives!) - and that is scheduled for Dec 30th, then the gyprockers are apparently very keen to get started the day after that - which will be New Years Eve!

Could we have some walls this year??

I hope so..

Merry Christmas to you all, may you and your families have a wonderful holiday season, stay safe and take care!

Image borrowed from Jazz & Bretts blog! 

Happenings at the house over Xmas..

I spoke to our SS today who ran me through what has been and will be going on at our place in the next few weeks..

He said:

   -  the gutter and fascia for the remaining small sections of roof should have gone on yesterday (he hadn't been there to confirm that as yet)

 -  the roof tiles for those sections would go on before the end of the year

 - Gyprock would be delivered today, and the gyprockers were working through the Xmas-NY period to get it all installed

 - On Jan 12th our doors should arrive and also on that day a fixing carpenter would be onsite

 - Stairs soon to follow..

 - Kitchen is booked in for late Jan (cannot WAIT to see that!)

He said he was heading out to our place this afternoon to check on things and was also waiting for the go ahead from the certifier for the all clear for the gyprock to start. Our SS will be back from leave on Jan 10th.

So hopefully we will see some big changes over the holiday period with bigger things to come once most trades get back into the swing of things in the new year.

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year!!

I will be checking in as usual over the holidays and will be posting as the action unfolds - if indeed it does!!

Nothing to report..

Well as expected last week was pretty much a write off - not what you want so close to Xmas..

I wonder if tomorrow will bring the elusive insulation??

Dare I even bother driving past?

Time will tell my friends, time will tell..

Quick update

After an unanswered text from me on Monday and two unanswered calls from Jason today and yesterday we heard back from our SS today and got an update on why the site is deserted after so much was scheduled to happen this week..

Apparently they can't get any insulation until next week so everything has ground to a halt waiting for it.. Oversight in  ordering it perhaps??

So the new plan is - insulation next week, gyprockers will work over the Xmas-New Year period and architraves etc *may* happen around Jan 7th but thats not a certainty yet - but in this building game - what is certain?

The bits of roof still to be done were scheduled for tomorrow  but I'm not sure if that is still going ahead or not..

I will update as I have something to report..

Whats happening at the house?

I drove by the house quickly at 9am yesterday and the scaffolding had already been picked up and taken away but there was nothing else happening at that point so I am very curious to know what's been going on since then!

Before the gyprock can go up the insulation must be installed ( R4.0 to the ceiling, R2.0 to external walls and party wall between house and garage, and we have upgraded to soundscreen  R1.6 insulation in the internal walls around Beds 2,3 & 4), and of course the gyprock must be delivered.

Something I pointed out to our SS when I met him there a few weeks back is that we paid extra to have a noggin for ceiling fans put in the ceilings of both the Outdoor Room and the Grand Balcony ($70 total) and to have Plywood for extra support for TV's mounted on the wall of the downstairs Family room and the upstairs leisure room ($320 total). These weren't marked on the plan as they were added at the electrical appointment and at that stage hadn't been done. Of course it is vital these are done before gyprock!

I sent our SS a message yesterday to confirm the supports had been done but haven't heard back. The Tasmanian Oak lining has been installed on the outdoor ceilings so if the noggins weren't done that will be troublesome for them to fix now! I haven't heard back from him as yet.

I suspect Metricon will be very keen to get the walls up before Xmas so they can send us the very hefty Fixing invoice which is 20% of the contract price. I think we may receive our Lockup invoice any day now too - thats 25% and will be the biggest one of all - ouch.

Just for clarification too, as I keep having to look it up - Lockup doesn't actually mean the property is 'Locked Up' - as according to our paperwork it is :

" The stage when a house external wall cladding is installed, eaves lining and roof covering is fixed (roof pointing not necessarily complete and front and rear doors not installed)"

Maybe it should be renamed? It is actually at the completion of the fixing stage that the doors need to be installed..so maybe we won;t get that invoice before Xmas afterall??

Ok enough rambling from me for today!

I will leave you with a quick shot from yesterdays drive-by :) It's going to look great without the ever growing pile of rubble and the loo out the front!

Saturday Surprise!

We drove past the house at about 1pm today on our way home from Yum Cha (yum!) and were pretty surprised to see the house naked!!

The scaffolding was GONE.

As we got closer we saw the guys were actually still there just finishing up, stacking all the components of the scaffolding in the driveway ready to be collected and taken away.

So of course I took a stack of pics in my excitement.

Looking from the driveway side of the house (out on the nature strip). Section of roof over garage still to be completed.

Garage and bedroom, and toilet and bathroom windows.

View from rear. This is the first time I have been up here since the painters finished. I hadn't yet seen the cladding around the Grand Balcony painted, nor had I noticed the timber windows in our bedroom appear to have been stained. They look great (from a distance anyway!)

Master bedroom windows

Grand Balcony

Grand Balcony and Outdoor Room

Looking up at the Grand Balcony - timber still to be stained

Happy HAPPY Friday!!!

On the way home from our son's daycare Xmas concert (awww..) Jason received a call from our SS who was the bearer of FANTASTIC news!

He said the scaffolding comes down Monday, and gyprock will start the same day and will take about 4 days. He also said those two small section of roof will be done on Thursday.

I am SUPER excited about this news as I was seriously doubting that we would see walls before Xmas but it seems someone cracked the whip and things are moving along.

SO happy!

Oh, and btw - our SS often calls at or just after 6pm on Friday evenings - hard working or what?

Now please excuse me while I do a happy dance..

Conversation with SS today, and HAPPY 100 DAYS!

Today is 100 days since out site started!!

I received a message from Jason to call our SS as he had to talk to me about a drainpipe that needs to go on the house, so I called him and we spoke about a few things.

So the balcony at the front of the house has two floorwastes but it seems no drainpipe was actually on the plans for these wastes to drain into so the plumber spoke to our SS about it and wasn't willing to go ahead and just install the thing without our permission.

Which I kind of get. These volume builders are so strict about us making changes etc and all the I's are dotted and T's crossed so I guess he was just covering himself incase I for some reason refused it and he had to come back and take it down.

Anyway - its necessary so what can I do? Its on the less prominent side of the front of the house and should be tucked away neatly, and will be painted to match so all is good.

We also discussed what's going to happen in the few short weeks leading up to Xmas.

Unfortunately the roofers have been called back in as our SS isn't 100% happy with some of their work, which of course has implications to the timeline.

The scaffolding was due to come down tomorrow but as the roofers need it that has been delayed until next Wednesday. Which in turn delays the all important gyprock, which a few weeks ago was almost a certainty to be in by Xmas now it seems we *may* just scrape it in.

Painters also need to come back now to paint that drainpipe which also requires scaffolding.

And once the scaffold comes down those two little sections of roof I keep banging on about need to be done.

Our SS said he is doing his very best to get that gyprock up before Xmas. At one point he was hoping to have that and waterproofing done - if we were really lucky tiles on site and maybe even laid, but I would say that a distant dream now!

If we see that gyprock before Xmas shutdown I will be ecstatic.

Oh, I noticed way back when I was onsite the Tasmanian Oak timber lining for the ceilings of both Outdoor Rooms was no longer in the driveway where it was placed when delivered so I think the carpenters must have installed it - cannot wait to see it! Now I am kicking myself that we didn't have the ceiling of the portico done too - due to the height of the building and the view of it from the street it would have been highly visible and a lovely feature.. Oh well..

You can see it here in these pics:

Cannot. Wait.

Movement at the station..

Jason drove by the house today around lunchtime and he said there was a guy working on something upstairs (and whatever he was doing was really noisy) and that there were "plumbing type bits, like drains" out front downstairs. (Jasons words, not mine!).

So good to hear there was movement at the station today - not sure what or who the guy was but I don't care, the main thing is there was someone working away!

QA inspection was booked for today so hopefully that happened so they can get on with any fixes and the gyprock can finally get underway.

I made a decision on our flooring this week too, which is a huge weight off my mind!
Upstairs we have always been going to have carpet, and most of downstairs will be Bamboo flooring.
We had it in our old home, had it installed in 2008 and it held up to a baby and two dogs really well. One of those dogs is a 50kg Rottweiler so he put it to the test!

Here are the points that made Bamboo the winner in my eyes:

 - it has the highest hardness rating acheivable in terms of timber floors,

 - the planks are now wider than was available when we first purchased it

 - the range of colours is now much more vast than the original 2 colours available

 - it is grown speifically to be harvested for flooring and crops regrow at a really fast rate making it a much more sustainable option than traditional timber floors

 - its about $50 per square metre cheaper than the cheapest timber floor

The colour I am 99% sure I am going to go with is called Brown Sugar:

Now for the forecast:

Forecast for Thursday

Partly cloudy. Isolated showers and thunderstorms. Winds north to northeasterly averaging up to 30 km/h tending north to northwesterly around midday.

City Centre

Storms. Rain.

Min

22

Max

29

Chance of any rainfall:

40%

Chance of no rainfall:

60%

Rainfall:

0 to 4 mm

Penrith

Storms. A little rain.

Min

22

Max

32

Chance of any rainfall:

40%

Chance of no rainfall:

60%

Rainfall:

0 to 2 mm

Around Sydney

Liverpool

Min

21

Max

31

Parramatta

Min

21

Max

31

Terrey Hills

Min

20

Max

29

Campbelltown

Min

20

Max

30

Richmond

Min

22

Max

31

Bondi

Min

22

Max

27

Fire Danger: Low to Moderate

UV Alert from 8:30 am to 5:10 pm, UV Index predicted to reach 13 [Extreme]

40% chance of rain but not much rain in it if it happens by the sound of it..

Thats all for tonight folks!

Updated weather forecast for Wednesday!

Yay!

For those building in Sydney you will be pleased to learn the Bureau has updated its forecast for tomorrow -

Forecast for Wednesday

Partly cloudy. Winds northeasterly averaging up to 30 km/h increasing to up to 40 km/h during the morning.

City Centre

Becoming windy.

Min

20

Max

26

Chance of any rainfall:

5%

Chance of no rainfall:

95%

Rainfall:

0 mm

Penrith

Partly cloudy.

Min

19

Max

31

Chance of any rainfall:

10%

Chance of no rainfall:

90%

Rainfall:

0 mm

Around Sydney

Liverpool

Min

19

Max

30

Parramatta

Min

19

Max

29

Terrey Hills

Min

19

Max

26

Campbelltown

Min

19

Max

29

Richmond

Min

19

Max

31

Bondi

Min

21

Max

25

Excellent!!

Not sure if this will help up at all but no rain is a good thing if you ask me!

Sun sunshiney day!

Well after a false start yesterday I am thrilled with todays progress :)

Our SS confirmed painters would be there yesterday but upon driving by the place was empty. After a quick text he let us know the painters had been there and decided the cladding was too wet from the recent rain so they had to let it dry out some more.

It was seriously humid and very warm yesterday so thankfully it looks like it was dry enough to work on today!!

After a morning out the 2 year old and I drove by and as I drove up the street I had a sinking feeling as there were no cars out front and the gate was shut..until I actually looked at the house..

Cladding and downpipes painted in Dulux Dreyfus (very similar to Colorbond Dune).

Eaves painted Dulux Surfmist.

Love. It.

In this pic you can see the two small sections of roof still to be completed and will need to be done before gyprocking can start (well downstairs at least) as the rain comes straight through into the study and kitchen as is..

So - hooray! Thank goodness the rain has given us enough of a reprieve for the painters to come and work their magic.

I am SO thrilled with the colour - in fact all the colours so far!

The colour looks much better in person and of course the scaffolding obscures it so once that is gone it will look great.

So QA is booked for tomorrow apparently - after that I'm none the wiser..

Forecast for tomorrow at this stage is for a shower or two but hopefully that wont eventuate.

Dare we dream?

Today in Sydney ended up being quite a nice (albeit very humid) day - quite warm and the sun decided to show up for the most part!

Dare we dream tomorrow will be the same???

Fingers crossed tight those painters can get up there and paint away!!!

Friday update - progress not found. Small vent ahead.

So the story for this week was meant to be this:

Cladding painted and QA inspection, then carpenters back to fix whatever came up in the QA report.

What really happened:

Carpenters were onsite Monday (no idea what they did, I havent been onsite at all).

Silence and rain for Tue, Wed, Thu.

Friday - NO rain. No work.

Gyprock was supposed to start this coming week - looks like now it will be the following. This is after originally we were told it was going to start about 2 weeks ago.

At this rate we will be lucky to see it by Xmas let alone anything else before they shut down for who knows how long?

My SS told me shut down is FOUR weeks. Metricon's official answer on their Facebook page (yeah they have one) - is this:

 The NSW Building team are on Christmas New Year break from 22 December- 4 January.


Thats a direct quote.


Our original SS told me it depends what stage they are up to and which trades need to be onsite - and that some take a long break, others only public holidays.


SO many conflicting stories!


So I really hope we see something happen over the Dec-Jan period, all this stop start is driving me crazy.


I get that they cant work in the rain - but I would have thought the QA guy could go there at some point this week - does the painting need to be done for him to inspect?? Who knows!


So next weeks timetable is this: Painting Monday & Tuesday, QA Wednesday then ?

Chances are the rain will mess that schedule up too.


Oh - and we still have two small sections of roof, over the study and kitchen projections, that hadn't been done when I was there last so water is still getting in there so I presume they have to be done before gyprock can start..


Bah Humbug.

Off topic :)

This is off topic - but as the build progresses I will post more about furnishings and decorating, which is a love of mine too!

At the moment I am coveting this:

Source : Lazybones.com.au

Its HIGH on my wish list for the new house..

12 months since we signed on the dotted line!

Today marks the first day of Summer (a sore dissapointment with all this rain..) - and its now been ONE YEAR since we paid our initial deposit with Metricon and started this crazy ball rolling.

I have to laugh when I think back to our sales consultant telling us with great confidence that we would be in our new house by this Christmas. Ha!!

Thankfully the actual build isn't dragging anywhere as much as the planning/paperwork part of the experience did..

And we can only look forward to NEXT Xmas when we will be well and truly in, settled and enjoying a relaxed holiday season in our gorgeous house.

Image courtesy Craftily Ever After blog

Now if this rain would kindly move on we can all get on with the important business of building our houses!!!

Three months since site start!

Tomorrow will be was exactly THREE months since we had a real site start - when excavation took place.

How far we've come!

Can't wait to see where we are in another 3 months time..

Sunday & Monday drive-by..

I was keen to see the cladding with my own eyes so yesterday on the way to visit friends on the Central Coast we drove by the house, and was happy to see the little spot where I thought they had run out of cladding was actually finished!

I walked up the hill to have a look at the house from the back and the cladding had also been started around the master bedroom balcony (where there was just green plastic in Fridays photo), so it looks like the carpenters are making good progress.

Really starting to look like a real house!

I cannot wait to see the house 'naked', without scaffolding

Here you can see the infill they have installed above the master bedroom windows to the far left, right at the back of the house. They will be painted

Here you can see two sections of roof that need to be done - I assume this week sometime before gyprocking can start?

That little old fence looks a bit sad next to the house!

Today I drove by after picking our son up from daycare and the carpenters were there working away, good to see - I was worried about the weather. Hopefully it holds out for the majority of the week so the house can stay on track - the Christmas shutdown is FAST approaching..

I asked our SS about that last week - he told me shutdown was four weeks. I've read elsewhere the office shuts for 2 weeks, our former SS told me work depends on who/what is scheduled to happen at the house over the holidays - time will tell I guess!

I understand things slow over Xmas/New Year but FOUR weeks! EEK! The anxiety may kill me..haha

Friday update

Driving past the site today Jason reported that the cladding was very close to being finished and sent me a few photos.

That green wrap will be covered with a different type of cladding to the other clad areas as will the back wall of the balcony you can see there to the right. Not sure when that will be done.

See that tiny bit in between two of the windows on the right not clad? I think thats where they have run out of cladding..

I spoke to our SS at 6pm tonight (apparently they were going on their Xmas cruise tonight - great weather for it!!) as I had to tell him which flooring I have chosen for downstairs and the height of it so he could tell the stair manufacturer. I will do a post about flooring soon.

Jason had spoken to him a little earlier and he told him that next week the cladding will be finished 100% (when they get a little more cladding delivered), the cladding will be painted (I think, Jason wasn't 100% sure) and QA would go through and inspect, then whatever needs to be rectified will be done so before Gyprock starts the week after.

He initially told us gyprock would be next week but obviously things have taken a little longer than anticipated this week.

I assume if it hasn't already been done the insulation will go in next week too.

The carpenters have also been going through checking everything is straight and even and fixing bits and pieces that need fixing.

Stairs are also scheduled to be installed in the next two weeks.

Have a great weekend and happy building to those in the midst of construction chaos with us!

We're being clad!

Just a quick update today, Jason drove by and since he was there yesterday this is what has been acheived :)

So I'm pretty sure they won't be finished today despite what they may have thought yesterday (although apparently there was a big crew onsite) - as there is still the entire upstairs of the front elevation, the front section of the above pictured elevation and the front section of the North elevation to be clad yet.

Will update when I have more news - although after the last few weeks I am pretty jazzed about this progress!!

Oh how I love the sunshine - and progress that comes along with it!!

What gorgeous weather we are having here in Sydney this week so far!! Nothing pleases me more than to see the sun and progress on site.

Jason just did a drive by and its all happening this week - brick cleaning appears to be finished from what I can see, the areas to be clad have been wrapped (and maybe insulation has gone in?? Not sure about that though), and the chippies have been busy putting up the framework for the cladding.

Cladding is on site ready to go and according to someone on site Jason spoke to it should be done by tomorrow.

Great week!!

Is there anything better than seeing a tradies vehicle on site??

Thats the cladding for upstairs behind the ute

Wrapped and ready to go!

This elevation is quite visible as you walk or drive down our street so the cladding will add a bit of interest and break up the brick nicely, I think

The stairwell window

From the front corner of the house (in next door neighbours driveway) - study and front portico

With any luck the scaffolding will be down by the weekend or Monday and we will be able to see the 'almost' finished outside product.

Monday morning site visit

Yesterday morning, bleary eyed after little sleep (thanks to our 2 year old who was punishing us for going away without him!) I dropped our son at daycare and went to site for a 9am meeting with our SS.
Jason was already there, we have organised to have solar panels installed on the roof of the house after handover (got in at the 11th hour right before the government slashed the rate of electricity buy back!!), and the solar guy wanted to have a quick look at the house (from outside, of course).

Turns out after a quick phone call our SS had forgotten about the meeting but said he could be there in 20 minutes, so Jason went to work and I waited.

I wasn't fussed as I was super happy to see the elusive carpenters onsite starting the eaves!!
We had previously been told the cladding was onsite but like I thought late last week - it hasn't been delivered so they couldn't start it. Wednesday it will apparently be delivered and they will get on to it Thursday I hope.

So when our SS arrived I had a quick look through, asked him a few questions and took some photos - most not so exciting to anyone but me!

Turns out that letter is legit - its from an independent inspection company that is hired by Metricon but effectively work for us. So they arrange the inspections, not me. Lucky that!

I asked about getting copies of the reports and was told we do get them all at handover but if we want copies beforehand to ask. Think I will do that.

Now onto the good part - some pics!

Wiring ready for the huge AC unit. Note the contrast between the cleaned bricks and the yet to be cleaned bricks

So excited to see the real colour of the bricks!! Very happy with them

More nice clean bricks. They are called Orpheus and are from the Austral Whitsunday range

Pieces of the colour puzzle coming together. Surfmist fascia and Dune guttering

I'm thrilled with my colour selections coming together so nicely

Adding the roof to the colour puzzle

What a dump!

From the driveway

Study

Looking into stair void from study. We have opted to put a door in so we can access all that space for storage

I think this door is the only one on the house I didn't upgrade to be higher - access to yard from garage- it looks tiny as the garage ceiling height is almost 3 metres

Looking from garage down the side of the house toward the Outdoor Room

I went back this afternoon and there were eaves! Oh happy day!!

The eaves will be painted Surfmist to match the fascia

So - where to from here?

Hopefully onward and upward in leaps and bounds ;)

As I mentioned, cladding should be delivered Wednesday, and will be fitted by the end of the week. I *think* bricks will continue to be cleaned sometime this week. Our SS said the guys that do it aren't the fastest but they do a really good careful job and don't just blast the mortar out etc, so slow and steady wins the race!

Scaffolding should be down by the weekend or early next week, insulation will go in and gyprock will start next week.

Cant wait.