Rain :(

I woke in the night to the sound of rain pouring down. Normally this would be a welcome sound, not so much when our house is at the crucial formwork stage :( I'm not sure if i'll bother making the trip today, i imagine the builders will be working on their other house in the street that has the luxury of a roof to work under. It's looking like we might not get the slab pour til next week if it doesn't clear today. Such is life :P

plumbing, formwork & waffles!

i did a 'drive by' tonight and snuck onto the site at 9:30pm hehe. We have: plumbing in, half of the formwork box for concrete, wire mesh waiting... and ... a wall of white styrofoam?!? I had NO idea what that was for lol. I thought it was our bricks until i had a closer look. I have since been informed that it is our 'waffles'. I thought waffles were little black cones, so there you go.

It was hard to see much in the moonlight and my phone camera doesn't have a flash so no piccies to share :(

It was great to see the size of our house taking shape - it is much easier to see exactly how it will fit on the block. I was surprised that there will be quite a bit more yard at the back of the house than i thought :) I was worried the house would sort of swamp the yard but it doesn't, and we will have plenty of room for gardening :D

Whilst i was on the block (and avoiding all sorts of objects scattered around the place) i heard our neighbours over the backfence enjoying some grass... yes cows, not humans :P

I am tempted to go into town tomorrow (35km roundtrip from our current home) just so i can take some photos and have another look at the block :)

And We Have Lift Off !!!!

We recieved an email from the builder on Friday 14th May informing us that work would commence the following Monday (17th) I decided to wait until i was in town on the Wednesday afternoon. I drove by at lunch time and found the builder hard at work on the bobcat. They were running behind and had only just started the site scrape. We went past the following day so i could show DH that they were actually doing something. The little 'worker ants' were all busy running around so we didn't stop :P It was good to see that things are happening :)

I haven't been back since as i didn't want to wear out my welcome so early in the build! When i was talking to the builder when he was doing the site scrape he said the slab pour was booked for tues coming but would be pushed back as they won't be ready in time. He guessed it  may be thurs or fri if everything goes to plan and no delays from weather etc. Yay, a slab for next weekend????? :D

I asked him about writing our names in the slab and he wasn't very keen on it. He said it annoys the tiler and it will all be covered up anyway. He was happy for us to put in coins for our birthyears (he was somewhat amused by the idea!) and said we can write on the frames instead haha.

Anyway, it has begun at long last!! It was May last year when we started looking seriously at builders and plans. Not much has happened in one year so let's hope this year is much more productive in terms of building.

Yay Yay Yay!  :D :D :D

estimated site start date

After much stuffing around (by the bank) We have FINALLY been given an estimated start date of the first week in May. YAY!!! Seeing as we signed contracts last September, it's hard to believe that there is actually going to be a house! Anyway, I'll keep you all updated when we finally start
Happy house building xxx

A site start date, could it be possible???

fingers and toes crossed!!!

Over the last few weeks (well months really) we have been chasing the bank trying to get them to sort everything out, find all our lost paperwork & give us the all clear to start building. It seems that we may have actually achieved something, as today we got not one but THREE calls from builder, bank and broker informing us that we have a letter in the post for us to sign & return. They assure us that once they have this form signed the builder will be given notice asap and we will be able to start.

Should we get this in writing? hmm. Maybe we should also trace this letter through the post, just to make sure it doesn't get lost like all of our other documents have : (

So far all the bank has actually provided us with is a headache and a pair of fluffy slippers (no joke!)
heres hoping we can start building sometime this century...

GRRRRR

We have been waiting for weeks to get the go ahead from the bank so that we can have a site start. We had previously been told that all we were waiting on was the final permission to start.

Today we found out that they have had everything for ages but somehow failed to ring us to let us know they were missing some forms. As far as the builder and we were concerned they had everything weeks ago. Grrr. So now we have to meet up with the builder AGAIN, go over everything and make sure there is NOTHING else that the bank could possibly need, as they have been hopeless at everything so far.

Luckily the builder has been good so far and has helped us sort through everything. As far as i can see they have gone out of their way to help so hopefully once the bank is sorted the rest of the build will go smoothly.

FINAL selections list (locked in !)

Well the ideas have changed a bit over the last few months but we have finally locked in our selections. Now we are just waiting... waiting.... waiting for the bank to give the official go ahead so that our builder can start. It is very frustrating at the moment but hopefully we will be starting soon :)

Selections:

Roof and gutter: Colourbond wilderness

Fascia: paperbark

Brick: PGH 'Bathurst'

Front Door: Hume Vaucluse XV5 either wood stained or painted a cream colour to match 'Paperbark' facia

Internal door: Hume standard oakfield

Carpet: Carpet choice nylon twist stainmaster carpet. Cream/pale brown in colour

Tiles:

Main living area floor: 333mm square light cream tile

Wet area floor: 250mm square light cream tile similar to main floor

Bathroom and kitchen wall tile: 250mm x 300mm (?) light cream gloss tile with a slightly darker 'vein' running through it.

Feature tile:

3 high horizontal strip across bath and shower
3x3 (as shown) square in diamond on kitchen wall

Bathroom:
Mixers to vanity and shower
full porcelain close-coupled toilet
standard bath.
vanity with water overflow and integrated semi-recessed bowl
Kitchen:

We added pot drawers and moved the dishwasher, includes basic mixer tap and 1 and 1/2 sink with basket waste.
Appliances are all Omega. Retractable exhaust hood, gas hotplates, elactric fanforced oven/grill and dishwasher, all in stainless.

1. Bench top diamond gloss 'Lunar Stone' with round edge, 2. Top cupboards and kick board 'Peruvian clay', 3. Bottom cupboards 'Pumice'.