Update - Gyprock

Today, I left work and decided to race the sunset to our house. According to the plumber, the ceilings are up and I just had to have a look at them. They are nowhere near finished but we can now see and feel the different ceiling heights.

It is interesting to see the boundaries between the kitchen and dining area ceilings. I think it makes an interesting space. I never noticed it in the display home, then again, how often do you look at the ceilings in display homes?

Kitchen drop ceiling

One of our favourite features in the display home was the theatre with its bifold windows and feature bulkheads. You can have a field day designing lighting for this room. The display home had starlights installed in these bulkheads. I do not think we will do anything that fancy, but choosing a feature wall colour and deciding whether to paint the bulkhead will be a headache in itself.

Feature bulkheads in the theatre

Another ‘wow’ feature of this home is the entry hall recess. I am looking forward to installing two rows of starlights. Looking at that photo, I wonder how hard it would be to install LED strip lighting, keeping in mind that there will be cornicing installed in the recess :/

Entry hall recess

Speaking of cornicing, look what is waiting in the garage to be installed next week!

The cornice has arrived!

Whilst walking around, I have noticed one oddity. The built in robe that has a standard internal door attached has a lower ceiling level than those that will have sliding doors installed. It is not a big thing, but it just seems weird to me.

Bedroom 4 built in robe (left) has a lower ceiling than bedroom 3 (right).

According to the office, we will reach lockup in two weeks. I will miss being able to visit the site whenever we want. Next visit will be on the weekend. It will be interesting to see what else has been done.

Update - Colorbond Moment

Just a quick post for today: the roof is on! It is all coming along. Most of the internal render is complete as well as the plumbing. Next steps will be the windows, doors, ceiling and plaster. It looks like we might be locked out soon!

Front View: Our Colorbond Moment

Side/Rear View: Our Colorbond Moment

The underside of the roof. Its a pretty big space!

My kitchen & I

The plumbing supervisor Ella

Update - Covering The Brickwork

I was hoping to see a roof today, but alas, it was not to be. It must be happening soon because there is scaffolding and metal supports for the roof sheeting in place. We will be visiting the site next weekend. Hopefully, I will have some roof photos to share

Scaffolding

Metal supports for the roof sheeting

On the inside, however, things are ticking along nicely. Workers have been busy applying a concrete layer to the internal bricks and the plumber has been installing the in wall tap ware along with the copper piping for the gas cook top and our external water taps.   

Internal wall rendering

External tap

Lastly, here are a couple of photos showing the front and rear render. I am going to need to find a new vantage point for taking photos of the front of our house, because building has started across the road. I wonder what type of house they are building.

Updated front of house

Updated rear of house

Update - Shower-ware Shopping

The last thing I expected to do this weekend was go buy tap ware. I must admit, I probably should have guessed that any wall mounted tap ware would be needed before anything that is installed on top of a cabinet. When I originally queried the date for when I would need to start supplying tap ware, I was told 12+ weeks from the start of the build. It turns out; I need to start supplying items on Monday!

Thankfully, the majority of items we have chosen are stocked locally (I checked a few weeks ago), so picking bits and pieces up did not prove to be great a problem. Except for the floor mounted bath filler, this was a special order item and should arrive late next week.

I am ashamed to admit, this is some expensive tap ware. We could have saved thousands by buying almost identical tap ware from China, but after looking at some examples that had been on display for a long time; I could see some corrosion around some of the joints and started to feel a bit loose.

After dragging my other half around half a dozen bathroom stores, he decided on the Kubus range by Phoenix Tapware from Reece, whom unfortunately do not offer discounts to the public. If I had my time again, I would look at typically more expensive brands, for example Gessi, which are offered by chains such as Tradelink whom are generally more than happy to strike a deal. Lesson learned.

I must admit, I was very pleased with the quality of the phoenix tap ware, especially the shower rail which is completely made of metal, unlike the crappy one in our apartment that needs to be replaced :/ Anyway, here are a couple of photos:

Shower mixer

Rail shower and mixer

The hand shower comes in a protective bag!

Update - Electrical Cabling

It amazes me how many little things go into building a house. I never knew that there was metal mesh placed on the corners of walls and picture recesses. It makes perfect sense, but is still news to me. Who would be responsible for that? Would it be the plasterer?

It is also interesting to see all of the cables in the roof, and little white boxes everywhere. Are these the junction boxes for the lights? It is good to see that the cables are nice and neat. There will be twice as many up there once the home network is installed!

Cabling

Theatre feature bulkheads and cabling

Wall and picture recess edging

Update - A Special Meeting With The Site Supervisor

Sorry for the wonky photo, but here is my cavity sliding door. If there was one part of this build that was going to cause problems, this was it. Cavity sliding doors are not new to my builder, however custom cavity sliding doors from Italy are.

Unlike other systems, which find themselves sandwiched between brickwork, this system goes in-line with the brickwork and form part of the wall. Another feature seemingly unique to this system is the full frame on the left hand side. Unfortunately, this meant that it was not modelled correctly on the plans and subsequently has left us with the situation where bricks occupying the space that should have been left for the frame!

Thankfully, after a quick meeting with the site supervisor to discuss this problem, we concluded that a hammer and chisel is all that is required to rectify this issue *wipes brow*

Update - Roof Timbers

Today, I popped to the site after taking mum a mother's day lunch of potato and leek soup, fresh German rye grain bread and a gluten free chocolate mud cake. To my surprise the roof timbers, under eves and fascias are up. This build is trucking along. The color bond roof is due sometime in the next two weeks and the electricians should be coming in next week.

As usual, here are a couple of photos. The rooms are starting to look smaller now that there is a sense of where the ceiling will go :/

Kitchen drop ceiling

Bathroom

Master bedroom and ensuite

His room

Hallway

Rear of the house, showing the back of the dining area and kitchen

My little car visiting it's soon to be new home!

Update - Roofing Timbers & Site Meeting

Today we finally met our site supervisor. This was a very quick meet and great aimed at checking that the correct bricks; mortar colour and style; and window frame colours had been used. The whole meeting was over in ten minutes.

While we were there, we noticed that there are men on the roof! The first of the roofing timbers are going up. I am not sure where we are with the schedule. Apparently, build times are averaging twenty-six. Hopefully, the showers hold off so that the colorbond can go on soon and the brickwork dries out.

Update - The Rest Of The Brickwork

A couple of photos of the house, it is really starting to come together. There is so much space, I think the few pieces of furniture we have in our apartment will get lost in there!

Entrance hall picture recess

Hallway showing the picture recess and bathroom door

Powder room

Ensuite WC

Theatre

Update - I See Roof Timbers

Our roof timbers have been delivered! Surprisingly, we have not met our site supervisor yet. I would have though by now we would have. I should have asked the office for his contact details instead of accepting 'we will pass that along.'

Progress on the build has stalled while we wait for our cavity sliding door to be installed. I always knew this door was going to be a problem. It is one of the 'grand design' features of our house. If there is anything I have learned from that show, it is that anything 'bespoke' will always manage to cause problems somewhere along the line, especially when there are rough estimates for delivery time and poor communication.

We are due to meet our site supervisor on Wednesday. I still need to book our private building inspection. I need to give the building inspector 3-4 days notice. The office said to organise it after meeting the supervisor, but I wonder whether that will be leaving things too late.