Day 149 - Clean Site

Yesterday the alfresco roof was finished. 

It is nice to now have the house basically water tight.  We just have the carpenters to come back and finish off the eaves for the alfresco and then our external works will be complete.

The site was also cleaned yesterday.  With the scaffolding gone and the site cleaned it is starting to look like we have a lot of room



The grass in front of the house.  The two large trees are to be removed shortly

The scaffolding had not been picked up by the time the site clean was done, so the bobcat had to make an alterate route to get to the skip bin. 

Harry's favourite hill has gone, but there is a ramp into the garage.

Airconditioning rough in should be completed today.  Not sure if anything else is scheduled.  Carpenters will be back tomorrow.

Day 148 - Progress

Yesterday the alfresco roof was started. I was hoping it would be finished, but it obviously takes longer than a day.

Mat is working nights this week, so he has visited the house today and he has reported that the alfresco roof has been finished.

The electricians started the rough-in yesterday as well.  I have a lot of very dark pictures that are pretty boring of electrical wires, but I will save you from those.  

Something that was installed yesterday that is a bit more photo worthy

A meter box!!!  The electricity to the house has not been connected yet, but it is progress.

Electrical rough in should have been completed today.  Airconditioning rough in started and should be completed tomorrow. 

Site clean also today.  Luckily Mat was at the block today, as the guy doing the site clean would have thrown out the two full pallets (760 bricks) of bricks and the spare roof tiles (44 tiles) that we wanted to save.

Day 147 - Roof's

On Friday when I was leaving the block the roof rail people showed up to attach the roof rail for the garage and alfresco roof.

My parents made a surprise visit from Sydney as they have not seen the house since it was just the frames. When we arrived at the house, the roofers had made an earlier than scheduled visit and had completed the garage roof.

Excuse the bad photo

The roof rail was in place on the alfresco for it to be completed

Saturday morning the brick cleaner arrived for his third day of cleaning bricks.  I am happy to say that I think he is nearly done and there only looks like there are a couple of bits that need re-doing. 

This morning I arrived at the block and there was a ute in the driveway. I thought it must have been the electrician, but it turns out it was Rawson's quality control person.  He was going around with a spirit level checking everything.  I was quite impressed and wished I could have hung around to find out the verdict.  The roofers also showed up, so the alfresco will get its roof today and then thankfully we will have all of the roofing finished. 

Day 144 - Solutions

It has been a stressful couple of days.  On Wednesday I spoke to our SS regarding the doors. As the doors were installed as per the plans there was nothing he could do and I would need to speak to the manager.

I rung and left a message and thought that I would send an email as well and explain our side of the story, hoping that they would be sympathetic.

No phone call on Wednesday and yesterday I phoned again and left another message. Thankfully yesterday I was put out of my misery when I had my phone call returned.

Rawson has been AMAZING!!!  We have agreed to leave the master bedroom door as it is. Rawson will pay for the cost of the doors, plus the cost of pulling the old ones out and putting the new ones in.   The only thing that we are being charged for is what the doors would have cost should they have been upgraded to the stacker doors in the first place. So total cost to us is $350.00 each door.

To say I am relieved is an understatement.  Rawson has been so understanding and I appreciate everything they have done, where they could have easily charged us the full cost of the new doors including the installation.

 

New doors have been ordered, and thankfully they will not hold up the gyprock being installed. 

Yesterday afternoon I did my usual drive past the block to find the roof for the garage being delivered.

I didn't think that anything had been done apart from the internal stair scaffolding being installed, so it was a pleasant surprise when we saw that the fascia and gutter for the alfresco and garage had been installed.

I met with the SS this morning.  We have had the roof rail installed this morning (they arrived as we were leaving the block) the garage and alfresco roof is going to be installed Monday.  Electrician rough in Monday and Tuesday.  Air Conditioning rough in Tuesday and Wednesday.  Gyprock delivery Thursday.  There is no one that wants to work over the easter weekend, so we will have gyprock start the Tuesday 2nd April 2013

Day 141 - Scaffolding Down

The majority of the scaffolding came down yesterday.

I was very excited at work and couldn't wait to get to the block and see what the house looked like without the scaffolding.   Unfortunately some was still up, but I am sure that will be removed in the next day or so.

The house looks so different without the scaffolding

Another positive of the scaffolding coming down, I can now see the cladding paint properly, and I am glad to say that I am happy with it. 

One thing I am not happy with. You might have noticed in the picture of the back of the house above the sliding doors have been installed.  Mat was very excited when he got to the house yesterday and saw that they had been installed.  Not too happy when he opened them.

They are not the stacker doors that we thought they were going to be. They have two fixed panels and only one opening glass door.  Totally stupid and not what we wanted. 

When we went to our sales meeting to discuss what we wanted we said we wanted two sets of stacker doors. It was the poor mans bifolds. We could not afford bi-folds so this was the compromise.   When we got our check plans back, there was (what we thought) was one set of stacker doors at the back and a normal window on the kitchen side of the back of the house.  We got the sales person to delete this window and draw in (what we thought) was another stacker.   We made sure that both of the doors opened to the outside of the house.   We got the plans back and the arrows of the doors were pointing the right way, never did we think that the doors had two fixed panels and only slid in the middle.

To say I am gutted is an understatement.  It looks crap!  I have asked the SS to give me a call when he has a chance today to discuss them.  A little dramatic I know, but I feel like the house will be ruined with three sets (the master bedroom doors are the same) of these doors.  Hoping we can find a solution to fixing these, as I know that they cannot just replace the doors, the frames need replacing as well.

Day 140 - Paint

The eaves, downpipes and front cladding were completed yesterday.

I love the woodland grey downpipes against the brick colour.  I am not sure about the colour of the cladding.
Firstly I thought it would be darker, quite a bit darker.

It is hard to take a good photo of it, but it is more of a brown toned colour than grey. 

I think it does blend in quite well with the bricks, but not sure if I am 100% sold on it yet.

Day 139 - Painters

The painters started as promised on Friday.  I was hoping that they would start with the cladding first so I could see the colour, but they started on the eaves first.

Around lunchtime a person came to measure up for the lower roof's and the fascia and gutter. 

I am just excited to see two different trades working on my house!

I have spoken to our SS today. He said the painters are on site and will finish off the external painting today. The scaffolding will come down tomorrow. The lower roof's will be completed this week.  

Fingers crossed we might be starting the gyprock by the middle of next week!!!!

Day 136 - Waterproofing

The waterproofer was not due until tomorrow, but it is always a nice surprise for someone to arrive earlier than expected.

The waterproofer was at the house for the majority of the day, and boy can you smell that he has been there.

Downstairs powder room

Downstairs ensuite

Shower in the ensuite

Laundry

That is the first coat of waterproofing, there is another coat to go.  

Tomorrow the painters start. 

Day 135 - Eaves Eaves Eaves

I just want to start off by saying I love our carpenters!!! Rawson you have a couple of awesome tradies!!.

I was impressed how quickly the guys worked on Saturday, but that is nothing compared to the effort that they pulled out on Monday.

I went to the block at 6:45am to let the chickens out and they were already working. I drove past on my way home from work at 5:30pm and they were still working.  They worked 11 hours!!!!

Cladding on the back of the house completed - not that you can see it that well through the scaffolding

Eaves on the side of the house

On Monday the carpenters left the front of the house unfinished.  I thought they would be back yesterday afternoon to finish it off. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't come back yesterday, but they snuck back some time this morning and finished it off.

The difference that the eaves and cladding have made to the house is unbelievable. It is starting to look like a house now.

Today I have had our weekly update from our SS.  Painters should start tomorrow and they will take two days to paint the eaves and the cladding. Waterproofing starts on Friday.  We are hoping that the gyprock should be delivered before Easter as the plasterers may want to work over the Easter break.  Keep your fingers crossed for good weather.

Chicken Run

Two Christmas's ago we bought our daughter some chickens.  We thought it was a good present and would save the house being filled up with plastic toys that I would eventually stand on.

We started with four and have lost a couple and have bought a few more.  Our surviving chicken from our first batch is Buffy. She is a black Pekin Bantam who may be small, but rules the chicken coop with an iron claw.

Buffy has a tendency to go clucky. She will sit in the nesting box all day sitting on the other chickens eggs. One of the solutions was to give her some day old chicks to look after.  So we went and got five.  Two of them were large Buff Orpingtons and three Pekins.  Buffy was happy with the chicks when they were sitting under her, but as soon as she saw them she started attacking them.  We had to raise them.

About two months ago I realised that one of our chicks Ben - was a boy and not a girl and it was more evident when he started to crow.  Boy he may be small, but he must have little man syndrome as he is loud.  Each morning I cringe when he starts crowing. Every morning he is getting louder and earlier.  When he was crowing there was another crow after it. Firstly I could not work out what it was until one morning I let the chickens out and Fred one of the Buff Orpingtons let out an awkward crow, not to dis-similar from a boy whose voice is breaking.  So not only did we have one rooster, we now had two.

At the moment we are living on a residential block while the house is being built. To say the backyard is small is an understatement and to say the neighbours wouldn't appreciate our early noisy risers is another understatement.  The only answers was to re-home the roosters, which is not easy to do and to move the chickens from the rental house to the block.

Three weekends ago we started, but the weather was not on our side.  There were two of the wettest weekends that we have had, but we got a small amount done and then last weekend we managed to finish it off enough for the new residents to move in.

We  started with 100mm x 100mm treated pine posts. They are 2.4m tall.  The wire is square 25mm mesh that is 1.2mm thick and 1.8m tall.  The posts have been dug into the ground 600mm and concreted in to stop them going anywhere.

The posts took a whole weekend to set, so the following weekend after another massive downpour we were able to put the mesh on.   The posts have been painted with a 'legal' non-toxic Creosote, which gives them the nice black colour. It will also preserve them for longer.

Another week later and thankfully we had a dry weekend so we were able to get the majority completed.  Wood top middle and bottom to make it stronger.  They are recycled treated pine 90mm decking boards from our old house.  They are stained at the moment, but they will be painted black to match the posts.

We managed to finish in one day ready to the chicken coop to be delivered so we could put the last of the wire on and bring over the new residents.

Our chicken coop is the kids old cubby house. They didn't play with it, so the chickens took it.  A fresh coat of paint yesterday and it is looking better than new.

There is still quite a bit more work to do to make it totally secure and fox proof and looking pretty, but at least it is secure enough for the new residents to move in. They seem to be enjoying it.

I think our neighbours must also be enjoying the rooster-free peace.

Day 132 - Brick Clean

We were at the block early this morning to work on the chicken pen and someone walked down and asked us to move the car out of the driveway.  We didn't have a clue who he was until he said he was there to clean the bricks.

Now we are usually not used to having tradies working at the block on a Saturday, so to have someone there on a Sunday was a real shock.

He was there from 10am until well after 4:00pm and did not finish cleaning all of the bricks.   What he has completed look great.

Such a difference between before and after

I am loving the colour of the bricks.  The love contrast been the off-white cement and the woodland grey of the roof. Now we just need the scaffold down so we can see the what the house looks like. 

Day 131 - Carpenters At Last

This morning while Mat was sleeping I took a quick trip past the block. Thank goodness there was a carpenter and his apprentice working on site.

We had a chat to them later in the morning when we returned and they explained that they have been framing another house and they have been working over 10 hours each day in order to get it completed so they could start on our house.

Today they completed the cladding on the front of the house and started on the cladding at the back of the house

Hopefully they will be back on Monday so we can get the roofers to finish off the garage and alfresco roof.

Day 130 - Do You See What I See?

Have a look at the photo can you see what has been completed on the house in the last two days????

Don't worry about looking too hard, nothing has been done despite being assured that the carpenters would be back yesterday.

No one on site yesterday and no one on site today. The story of our build.

Day 128 - Gutter Guard

The gutter guard was finally installed yesterday on the upper roof.

No carpenters.

The carpenter told me on Saturday that he had another job to go to and he would not be back for a week and when he was there on Monday I was glad that he was incorrect. With no show yesterday and I have driven past the block this morning and it is empty again, I can only assume that he was correct and we just have to wait.

Today marks the beginning of week 19. I am trying to be positive. I know I have a 40 week contract and Rawson is well within their contract period, but it gets you frustrated when time frames of things being done keep blowing out.

We were told at the beginning of last week that we would be finished external works and be starting inside in two weeks.  That two weeks is up at the end of this week and really we are no closer.  In order to move inside all the external carpentry needs to be finished, the painters need to come, they need to install the lower roof including gutter and fascia, to the alfresco area and install the garage roof.  Do you really think that will happen in 3 days????

Edit: I have spoken with our SS earlier.  The reason the carpenters were not on site is they cannot put the eaves up when the scaffolding is so high. Scaffolding could not come down until the gutter guard had been installed.  Gutter guard yesterday, scaffolding today and the carpenters will be back tomorrow.  

My SS is predicting if all the trades play nice and they show up when they are supposed to and don't let him down we should be plastering in three weeks.  

All is right again with the world.

Day 125 - Carpentry!

Last week ended up being a slow week.

The gutter guard was supposed to be installed Wednesday, that didn't happen. It was then changed to Thursday and that didnt happen either.

The roof rail was taken down Wednesday. The plumbers installed the roof vents for the exhaust fans as well on Wednesday.

Thursday our last day of sunshine the site was vacant.

Friday the forecast was for 20-40mm of rain. The weather bureau got that slightly wrong as we had about 100mm of rain.  Just down the road from the block, the road was underwater.

If you drive about 15 minutes from us the river was flooding as well.

The river should finish before the yellow sign on the left hand side of the photo. That sign is usually quite high out of the ground. 

So it is quite obvious that nothing would have happened Friday on the house. We did however receive a delivery of carpentry items.

On Saturday morning we did our usual drive past the block to check everything was still standing. I was shocked to say the least when I saw that there was a ute in the driveway

It was still pouring with rain at the time, so 10 points goes to the dedicated carpenter for being there in that weather.  We went back in the afternoon and he had gone and nothing much looked like it was done, but still top points for even showing up.

Yesterday, I didn't think there would be anyone on the block as the carpenter had said he had another job to go to. Thankfully the carpenter was back and we had some action.

Internal cavity sliding doors were installed.

The wall ties for the bricks were nailed into the studs

The plumbers must have made an appearance during the day as well as we also have downpipes

Still no gutter guard though. I wonder when that will be installed.