Day 180 - Doors!

Remember my horror some weeks back when the thought-to-be stacker doors were installed and they were sliding doors.  My heart sunk and I was sure that my lovely new house would be ruined by the ugly doors.

My fears disappeared when Rawson graciously agreed to replace the doors with the stackers.

On Saturday when we returned from holidays guess what was waiting for us - new stacker doors

To make it an even better day, they were installed on Saturday when we were working on the block

Aren't they pretty.

The only problem that we have now is that they are missing the flyscreen track.  We have to have flyscreens on all doors and windows as we are in a bushfire area.  I met with our SS this morning and they were ordered with flyscreens, so they will either have to be pulled out again and replaced or an additional track made up for the flyscreens. 

This week we should have the carpenty fit out continuing, waterproofing Wednesday and kitchen at the end of the week.   Eeeek  - I have been waiting for the kitchen so can't wait for it to go in. 

Estimated handover is end of June, beginning of July. That is what we were expecting, so really happy with this date. 

Day 179 - LOCK-UP

We have been on holidays for the last week, so I was keen to get back yesterday to see what had happened at the house while we were away.

The gyprock was finally finished last Saturday after 12 days straight of plastering.

The stairs went in last Monday. We couldn't afford to upgrade the stairs, but I am happy with the way they look and they will only look better once they are painted.

Notice all the storage under the stairs. I thought just before our plans were finalised about having a door under the stairs, but that was as far as we got.  Seeing it now, we realise that it is a missed opportunity so will be adding a door after handover.

While we were away we have been locked up.   We don't have a garage door yet, that is still a couple of weeks away as the door is on backorder, but we have an internal garage door

We also have the laundry door.  

We don't have a front door, but the gap has been sufficiently boarded up. 

The carpentry fix out has started and there are some internal doors and architraves that have been installed.  I am excited to see what is going to happen this week. 

Day 172 - Trees

We have been trying to get 6 trees removed since the approval came through in January. Our go-to tree guy has injured his knee so we were forced to either wait until he was ok to proceed or go with someone else.

We went with the latter and Friday after a no show last weekend the trees were cut down.



We removed five Friday with one large one (the split tree next to the big one that has been removed) still to be removed at a later date.

Firewood anyone as I think we will have enough for life.

Day 168 - Clay

The plastering continues, but I thought I wouldn't bore you with more pictures of patched plasterboard.

Last week when we had the electricity cables put in, I knew as soon as we had a bit of rain the driveway would become a clay pit and un-usable.  I put in a call to the SS the day it was done asking for the driveway to be covered in gravel. Was it done?????  No.

Yesterday it rained. It did not rain for that long, but it was pretty hard.  Last night it rained again.  The driveway is as I predicted.  A clay pit.

What has made the driveway worse is someone decided last night that our build was very interesting and they would take a closer look.  They drove quite close to the site fencing and ended up getting themselves bogged and it has taken quite an effort and left quite a mess to get themselves out.   Their tyre tracks go all the way up the road. Too bad they don't go into a driveway as I could have stopped them and told them that we were missing clay from our driveway and I have found it on their tyres.

The problem that we have, is their tyres have gone right into the trench where the electricity cables are and have sunk down about 300mm.   I doubt that they have damaged anything, but now they are closer to the surface than they were before.

Luckily nothing was stolen from the house and nothing was damaged. This is the second time that we have known that people have been visiting the block after hours. The first time, a couple of weeks ago, I caught them there when I visited just before dark to put the chickens away and they were reversing out.

Keeping everything crossed that the house will be locked up next week.

Day 167 - Gyprock Days 4,5,6 and 7

Day four of gyprocking saw the completion of the sheeting work

As you can see there are a couple of missing pieces.  The bottom few sheets of gyprock were wet and rather than use them they threw them out. 

On Friday afternoon new gyprock was delivered and we were advised by the supervisor that dropped them off that the finishers would be starting the following morning. 

On Saturday morning, I went to the block at 7:00am and the new plasterers were hard at work.  One thing that did shock me was the car in the driveway was not the usual 'tradies' car/

They set all of the joins in the plasterboard

Yesterday (Sunday) the plasterers were back! Got to love tradies that work on Saturday, but those that work on Sunday are even better.  Rawson and Boral have pushed out all the stops on getting the gyrpock done. 

Today marks day number 7 for the plasterers.  They have started on the external and internal angles of the walls plus the square set openings.

Tomorrow I am assuming the cornices will start.  

The stairs didn''t go in today as expected, but seeing we have had tradies working on the house every day since last Tuesday I cannot complain.

Day 164 - Gyprock Day 3 and Electrical Works

Day three of gyprock.

Upstairs complete

Downstairs walls started. 

Much to our surprise, we had the external electrical work started.  Our driveway is 30m long and as our block is basically clay the only thing this could mean was mess.

We are now the proud owners of a shiny electricity pole

The only problem we have now, the clay has been exposed and when clay gets wet - it is a nightmare.

Two thirds of the driveway has clay exposed.  Thankfully the SS is going to tip some gravel so that it will be accessable for everyone.

Gyprock sheeting should be finished today.  Another team comes into finish it off next week. Stairs are booked to go in Monday.  Carpenters will also be back next week to start the fix out.

Day 163 - Gyprock Day 2

Second day of gyprocking yesterday.

5th bedroom ensuite

5th bedroom ensuite shower. The shower head has been fixed to a rain head

                                        

Kitchen with bulkhead

Alfresco

Downstairs hallway

Day 162 - Gyprock Day 1

I was really excited when I drove out to the house on Monday morning expecting to find gyprockers starting. Unfortunately the house was empty.  Mat is on nights this week and drove around later in the morning, but it was still empty.   A quick call to the SS to find out where the missing gyprockers were.   He expected they were there, but it turns out they had a case of Monday-itis and were going to start the following day.  Seems the story of our build really.

Drove out to the house yesterday morning and thankfully the gyprockers had decided that Tuesday is better than Monday and they had arrived.

It was dark yesterday when I got back to the house, but here are some progress shots.

5th bedroom ensuite shower

5th bedroom ensuite vanity alcove

Downstairs powder room

Part of the laundry

Looking into 5th bedroom ensuite

Hallway

The gyprockers are back this morning.  They have said it will take about 3-4 days to complete. Thankfully we don't have to worry about the rain anymore, so with a bit of luck gyprocking will be completed Friday.