Bottom Storey Bricks- Check!

Well it has unfortately been more than 5 days to get the bottom level bricked. In fact it has taken 15 working days thanks to the rain! Well we think the rain is to blame. We have not received any communication from our SS or the company, except for the call to inspect the piering with the SS and the invoices that follow after something is completed. Is this standard practice? The Office and Accounts Administrator informed us in July that "Your supervisor will only make contact when something on site needs clarifying or for a scheduled site visit, he simply just keeps moving along with the works!" The SS has only contacted us the once  to do the piering!! No news is good new so they say.

We have never built a house before and really want to follow the progress and know what is going to happen next and learn from the experience. At this stage all we learn is what we observe on drive bys and from what other people put on their blogs. Then we get an invoice. The house behind us is a few weeks ahead of ours. So bascially whatever happens at theirs we know will soon be happening at ours. The houses either side of us are coming along too. Fences are in, land is cleared, slabs are in, frames are starting. Some of these are single storeys so they will probably be built before ours, which will be good to have extra people actually living in the neighbourhood.



The Bottom Storey almost finished on 17/8/11. Still the garage to do and the right side of house.




The back of the house on the 17/8/11 . Again still bits to go and the laundry door to the right has not been bricked yet nor the door installed??? The supports for the Alfresco are ready to go too. Lots of bricks there.


The house is looking great though...each visit is excting trying to find out what has been done.Dad goes past everyday just about. Mum goes every Wednesday after taking D3 to dancing at Kellyville Ridge with The Principal Dance Company, with the wonderful Miss Jess. D3 loves it. You can contact them on thepdc@hotmail.com  or www.facebook.com/thepdc if you want to do dancing locally. Hopefully they can move into The Ponds new community centre by the time our house is built so it is even closer to home??



This was exactly one week later. The scaffolding is up but there are still areas that have not been finished. Would love to know the technical reason for leaving certain areas. Anyone want to let us know from their build?



This is on the 24/8/11. The scaffold is up. The lintels under the windows finished, but the garage and laundry still have more to go. Think they are waiting on more bricks?

So the bottom storey was completed today. All of the bricking had been finished and the window sills bricked in.The scaffolding is up and today all of the bricks were put up onto the scaffold for easy access. Dad spoke to the brick layers again today who are pretty friendly. They told Dad that the top bricking should be finished in about a week. Now does that mean a week of 7 working days? A week of wet Saturdays or a week as in a working week??? Didn't dare ask. Look we are still happy, there have only been two extensions to the contract. The grand total is approximately 2 weeks so all should still be on target. The weather is meant to be beautiful for the next week so hopefully that week will be a week.

Mum is visiting Blacktown City Councils Free Plant Giveaway tomorrow at Stanhope Gardens. It is next to the Leisure Centre from 9am til 1pm or until the plants go. Residents of Blacktown Local Government area are entitled to 2 free plants at this event. BUT you are only entitled to two PER HOUSEHOLD. Still good to start your landscaping Pondsies!!
Check it out!
http://www.blacktown.nsw.gov.au/news-and-events/news-releases/free-plants-and-pet-microchipping-at-the-2011-travelling-plant-giveaways.cfm

So that is it for now. Hopefully next week we can do a blog showing our completed brickwork..then a roof andf gutters...well that is our guess and it is as good as any!

Might get mum to do some tile blogs, or dad to do some landscaping ones. Stay tuned.
Over and out!

Finally Framework Finished!! And other F words!!

Well it has been a while my Friends!! It feels like Forever!

Framework started weeks ago but unfortunately so did the rain! From memory it was Wednesday 13 July that the Framework started. We Flew to Melbourne the Following day For a 4 day bit of R & R without the kids and Mum also had a Body Shop conference to attend, which basically could have its own blog, it was great!!!

The first storey on our return from melbourne. The afternoon sun on it's way down gave the site a beautiful glow.

So on our return we were expecting  a Fabulous transformation. We were pretty content with the bottom storey having been installed. It had apparently rained in Sydney (we were enjoying the cold and windy yet very dry Melbourne weather) and had not realised. There was also weekend in there when the builders do not usually work as well!

So then the rain really came down. We had days of constant rain that totally Forbade the time of Framers at our site which was very bad news to us. Each day one of us would drive past .......just in case.... then Finally on 19 July the the Framing was Finalised! What a Feat to do it in only 6 days with so much water passing through. On that same day we also had our doors and windows installed.

We Freaked out a bit because they were there For  a Few days prior, waiting For the sun to show its Face. Whilst they were there we thought that they looked very dark and nearly black in colour which was not our intention as we had chosen Woodland Grey. Fortunately on closer inspection we agreed that they were in Fact the correct colour and that  there was no  worry needed.

During the window and door installation we did have one window, to the kitchen that was damaged. The glass is broken. Not sure how but am sure that it will be Fixed at a later date. A Film has since been put on the glass to help protect it. Hopefully there will be no need for protection from vandals with all of the security driving around the area??

So since the 19th, has been the waiting game. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Oh cue the rain here too. We think that just to torment us the rain came! There has been little outdoor activity at most homes.

On the 1st August our plumbing was installed, or the pipework for a better word. There is also some copper piping which Forms the hot water system connector (I hope that it is not stolen as in our Field of work copper is Favourable and quite often stolen). We love the word COPPER!!

Whilst we were on one visit to the house we saw a Fox in the neighbours house. It came out of their property and walked down to the riparian areas of the creek. The kids thought it was great.

So the pipework was Finally Finished on the 2 August and the latest inspection led to a very Funny realisation! WE have two port- a- loos. Now you  know how much we love them, but could it be possible that they multiply in the rain?? What could this mean??

The framework and roof are on. See the clouds inthe back ground waiting to rain on us again?



The rear view of the house. The window colour is definitely the grey we wanted. You may be able to notice the broken kitchen window inthe alfresco area too.

 We thought it meant that the brick layers were coming and that they would bring an army to make it happen Faster . We have not Found out yet. So stay tuned.

On Thursday 4 August the bricks were Finally delivered to the site. Dad happily spoke to the guy who dropped them off and he told Dad that they were a priority order straight From the kiln. All Mum could say was "did they deliver the brickies too?" The delivery guy tried to stack them in areas close to all sides of the house to make it easier for the brickies. Unfortunately, the sand was delivered a bit earlier and it blocked the driveway and access to the right side of the house. Therefore the brickies will have to cart these ones themselves. Forgot  to mention also, that the two houses on our right (Facing From the street) have started. The one next to us has a Fence and has been levelled, this is why the brick delivery dude could not get in any other way. The other house to the right of that already has a slab installed but doesn't have a Front boundary Fence. Not sure on whether you do legally need one. Not too Fussed , just noticed the Fact!.

Fabulous, Favourite, Fabbo Friday..... and the brickies started. Dad was in the area again and stopped to see the brickies starting the First course. They said that they would do the first course today to set the levels.  They will be back on Monday to start bricking upwards. They told Dad that they would probably take 5 days to Finish it all. Mum has written this in her diary.

The multiplying port- a loos. Hope it is not contagious!!.

Around the area the people behind have all but Finished their bricking which seemed to have gone really FAST. Well is seemed that the bricking was continuing whilst ours was going nowhere. Their bricks look great. I cannot wait to see them cleaned up.
Over and out!