Frame almost complete

We were out at the house again on saturday, and we were pleased to see some real progress on the frame. It seems as although it is about 80-90% complete, and it should be done either today or Tuesday (31st).

It was good to see the termite barrier (orange stuff) getting put down as well. While we were out there, we met our lovely neighbours behind us, and the neighbours next to them.

We had a great time chatting about our experiences building so far.

Today we had a bit of a turn of events. we shot off a quick text to our site supervisor, to tell him that the frame looks great, and ask when we can expect the bricks to arrive. A few seconds later I got a call from somebody else! Apparently, our site supervisor is no more at McDonald Jones. We never even got to meet him. Anyway, the guy taking over said he needs a few days to familiarise himself with where our old supervisor was at. I just hope this does not mean any delays.

We have already contacted our client liaison to discuss the situation, and to make sure we will not be forgotten about. Hopefully we can expect a brick delivery late this week/early next week. The bricking can then begin, although the weather outlook for later this week is not good. Anyway, here are some pictures of our frame progress.

Frame Arrived

Its good to see some progress happening after two weeks of inaction!

We got some pictures from our neighbour and a message to say our frame had arrived, which is good news (thanks guys!) We got an SMS from our builder last week Tuesday to say our frame had arrived, but that ended up being a mistake - not that the SMS's were ever reliable....

So hopefully we will see some action on the frame this week and have some visible results by the weekend :-)

Slab Complete

The first major construction milestone has been reached! On saturday we were onsite to witness the pouring of the slab. Many many concrete trucks came and went, and now we have a beautiful slab of smooth concrete, that would make even cadbury jealous.

We weren't around to watch all the wooden frame come off, but it looks like they did a good job. We nearly ran short of concrete on the last bit.

But the concreter managed to squeeze ever centimeter out of the pipes, and we also got a handy donation from another truck that was pouring just down the street. Which is good news, because left over concrete is bad for business (they leave it on your doorstep, as returns are not accepted).

I believe the next step is to let the slab cure, then build up the frame.

More progress - Waffles, fence and plumbing

Our neighbor just sent us some photo's of our block, and it seems that the pre-slab plumbing has been done. The waffle pods have arrived, and the fencing has been done!

The progress has been amazing, I hope they keep it up!

There has been a slight mix-up with our progress payments at the bank which I've sorted out today. The exact process is very confusing, especially since we have been trawling through the paperwork of our two first mortgages. Payment will happen within 48 hours, so hopefully that will not delay our progress.

Its all happening

We were contacted yesterday by our site supervisor and told to be onsite by 12pm to inspect the piering. We arrived at 10:30 to find that work had already begun and they were nearly ready to start pouring concrete. After a brief introduction with the concreter on site, we walked around inspecting the depth of the piers. This is because we had a standard allocation of 45m, and any additional piers would be charged at $70 per lineal metre.

Of course we went over double the allocated amount! we ended up with 90.2m of piers. After reading various other blogs I soon realised that extra piering would be inevitable anyway, so it wasnt much of a shock.

After the piering was done, the engineer arrived to inspect the work. He had a quick chat with the piering people, and called out somebody from sydney water to come and inspect the piering. This is because our site supervisor forgot to supply crucial information about the sewer line. Anyway, that was all good and the engineer wished us well and went on his way. Next, they began putting soil on the block, and then the concreter's arrived.

Three concrete trucks later and they were all done. Unfortunately the law required that they cannot take extra concrete back with them. So they proceeded to unload it all on our temporary driveway (making it a bit more permanent?) - which was a bit strange. It will be interesting to see whose responsibility it will be to remove the excess concrete and soil - stay tuned!

Once the concrete was all poured and flattened, they began building the framework for the slab. So we managed to see an outline of our house by the end of the day (which was exciting). Tomorrow the plumbers are scheduled to arrive and do the pre-slab work. And then between Friday and Monday, weather permitting, our slab will be poured.

We both enjoyed our time watching and talking to the builders, and meeting two of our neighbors. The concreter mentioned that there would be noway that the house will be finished by Christmas. But we are still hoping. Lots of pics below

Under Construction (actually)

After we were informed by our lovely neighbors that our land had been leveled, we got word today that our piering will begin tomorrow. Its all happening faster than expected!

So after a quick chat with our bosses, we have the been given the go-ahead to be onsite to oversee the process which is suggested by the builder.

We went out to visit the block on saturday, and it was still untouched (although there were red pegs).

Then after the ground got leveled yesterday:

Hopefully tomorrow we can put some pics of our newly laid piers!