Day 119 - Bricks Day 15

The bricklayers have left the building!! Happy dance!!!

A great sight when I pulled up to the block yesterday afternoon to find that the bricklayers cement mixer and associated paraphernalia had gone.

They finished off the alfresco columns

They have not finished the window sills at the front of the house, but my trusty SS tells me that they will be back after the scaffolding comes down so that they are not damaged.

They also did not finish off the columns.  They still need to put the header course on. Apparently they need to cut the bricks with a brick saw, and seeing they dont have electricity on site, they have taken them off site and will come back tomorrow to put them on.

Roofers also finished the top roof.  Roof rail was removed today.   Gutter guard was supposed to be installed today but that has not happened.

Day 118 - Bricks Day 14

We are still bricking, but I can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Yesterday they bricked the columns at the front of the house. I think they might only have the capping to finish.

They have also completed the second skin of bricks in the garage

I am really glad that the walls are not gyprocked in the garage. In our last house the walls in the garage were filthy.

They have also started on the columns in the alfresco area

With a bit of luck they will finish the bricks today. Famous last words.

The roofers were also back yesterday to do the pointing on the roof. By the looks of the photo, they have not finished either.

When I drove past the block this morning on my way to work both the brickies and the roofers were on site, so that is a positive.  The gutter guard is scheduled to be installed today, but seeing the roofers have not finished I am not sure if that is going to happen.  I will have to see when I do my drive by on the way home this afternoon.

Day 116 - We Have a Roof

Today I can enjoy the rain knowing that the house is somewhat protected.
On Wednesday the roofers were back tiled the majority of the roof




On Thursday they were back again. I drove past on my way to school and they were hard at work. Two minutes later when we arrived at school it started to rain and it was hard. I was sure that the roofers would have called it a day, but to my surprise they weren't scared of a bit of rain and were still working when I drove past again.




The roofers were supposed to finish yesterday, but as the forecast was for 40-80mm of rain they didn't show up.
The bricklayers they are another matter. They have not shown up since Tuesday. One month since the bricks started and during that time that have been AWOL for over 7 days. I wonder if the bricks will be completed next week? As I keep saying the only upside is it is another week that I am not making a progress payment, so a little bit of interest is saved.
The plan for next week. Scaffolding levels will be changed again and the roof rail will be removed. The gutter guard will also be installed and the carpenters will start on the eaves and the cladding ready for painting before the scaffolding comes down.
Keep your fingers crossed that the weather plays fair as we might have external works completed in two weeks and then we will be moving inside
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Day 112 - Bricks day 13 plus a roof

Day 13 for the bricks. When the bottom storey bricks were completed in 3 days I never thought we would still be bricking at 13 days. The bricks haven't been finished yet. However, this afternoon when Mat was at the block there was a new delivery of bricks. Upon further inspection Mat realised that the brickies had run out of bricks.





The front of the house is still waiting to have the columns finished. The second skin on one of the garage walls was completed and they have started on the sills.

I was surprised when I drove past the block this morning that there was roofers on site.

They seem to have completed the framing required for the tiles plus installed the sarking









If the forecasted rain stays away, hopefully we will have some tiles on the roof tomorrow


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Day 111 - Bricks day 12

A bit more progress on the bricks today but still not finished.





Front has a bit more to go above the windows. The columns also need to be finished.

They started the second skin of bricks in the garage





Alfresco columns are still to be started.

The good news from today was the roof rail was installed and the tiles were delivered











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Day 108 - Bricks day 11

The bricklayers have been MIA all week, so you can understand my shock when I drove past this morning and saw that they had shown up.

Unfortunately it was short lived and just after 10am it started to sprinkle and they abandoned site

Progress for today. They have bricked a bit more above the front door and the balcony is now joined into the main part of the house





Balcony and column.




No roof tiles have been delivered and no roof rail as promised, so I doubt the roof will be started on Monday


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Day 106 - Gutters and Plumbing

The bricklayers have been absent from site for the last three days. All their gear is still there and the weather has been good so maybe they took a really long weekend.

The scaffolding was raised Monday so the roof could be worked on. Gutter and fascia was supposed to be installed yesterday, but they didn't show up. Thankfully they installed it today.










Plumbing rough-in has been done.





















Now we just need the bricklayers to come back and some roof tiles to be delivered. I wonder when they will happen


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Day 103 - The Growing Plant Collection

We are still collecting plants. As we have an acre to plant out we need quite a lot.

Our nursery of choice - eBay or Gumtree - free is even better when you can get it.

If we were to buy all of our plants from nurseries we would be spending thousands and with the cost of the house, we can't afford even a fraction of that.

Recently we have won a few eBay auctions.

The Staghorn was $42.00. The people that we bought it off were lovely and we ended up leaving with quite a few Bromeliads and a Macadamia tree.

We also won a second Staghorn. This one was $100.00 and I was worried that we had overpaid for it seeing the first one was big and was less than half the price.  When we picked it up yesterday I realised the picture on eBay did not do it any justice and it was HUGE

In the wheelbarrow before we put it on the tree

Another auction we won was $20.00 for two large Dracaena plants (in the background of the picture below). In the foreground there is a Frangipani that we bought off the side of the road for $10.00.

When we went to pick up the Dracaena's we found out that the people had an indoor plant hire business and all their plants once they come off hire and don't look 100% they sell them on.  So we left with an additional four Bird of Paradise plants for $30.00. The good thing about 3 of the plants, they are doubles - so they can be split when planted, so we have 7 for the price of 4.

Remember the plants that we bought in QLD back in October?

We re-potted them and they are growing well

My motto with plants is to try and never pay retail. Sometimes it is unavoidable, but if you look you can pick up some bargains.

Day 101 - Bricks day 10

The bricklayers didn't finish today. I didn't think they would, but I did think that they would finish the front of the house. They did complete the front of the garage





They didn't finish the front of the house













They still have quite a bit to do on the front plus the columns for the alfresco and the window sills.

I spoke with the SS today. Scaffold is due to be heightened on Monday. The fascia and gutters have been delivered, these to be installed Tuesday, hopefully the roof straight after that.

Another thing I will have to look forward to next week - the bricking claim!



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Day 100 - Bricks day 9

I was hoping the second side of the house would be finished today, thankfully it was a beautiful day and it has been finished except for one row of bricks

They have also installed the steel beam for the master bedroom balcony.

I don't think they will finish tomorrow as they still have the front to do, finish off the garage, the window sills and the columns for the alfresco.
Tomorrow I will call my SS for the weekly update. Hoping we will have a roof next week

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Day 99 - Bricks day 8

We are getting close to the bricks being finished. I am hoping we will be finished by the end of the week.

Today they finished off the garage side of the house plus the back of the house and started on the other side

I am hoping tomorrow they will finish off the other side of the house so they can do the front Friday

Day 98 - Bricks day 7

More bricks today. The garage has been bricked up to its finished height on the back wall.

Hoping we only have a few more days of bricking before the roof can start

Day 97 - Bricks day 6

It doesn't look like there was too much progress today, but from what I was told it was drizzly on and off for most of the day.

Hopefully the weather will be kinder tomorrow so that the bricks can be finished by the end of the week