Bricks, gyprock and cornices!

I survived our 3 week Cape York trip and had a great time (away from the winter - 32*C up the top! mmmm), so now it's time to update you on all the house progress :)

The bricks were finished around the 5th of July. As we had a lot of wet weather there was little progress until the following week when we had the gyprock installed on 14th-16th. Since then we have had more rain with minor flooding in local creeks so progress has slowed again. The cornices are all installed as well as the lining of the garage and framing (?) around the front door way. We are yet to get skirting boards installed.

The water points/pipes are all in place in the bathroom (with a possible wrong fitting for one - we are having a mixer in the shower but there are two pipes sticking way out of the wall, not sure if this is just hot and cold or if it needs to be changed to one pipe. We will need to look into it) The reverse cycle aircon wiring is also installed in the wall in the living area.

Current things to discuss with builder/SS are: mixer in bathroom, relocation of tank as it looks like they are planning to put it where the shed is going to be, finding out if the verandah will be cemented - i hope so but not sure! and whether we are having flyscreens (windows currently do not have them, we think they will put them in before handover as we are pretty sure they are meant to be included)

Photos care of dear husband who kept me updated while i was away :)

above: pink batts in our bedroom to reduce noise & insulate as hubby is a shift worker. Below: kitchen/living wall with wiring. Thick wiring with orange cord is for reverse cycle aircon unit

above: plaster people hard at work. Looking down hallway from front door. Below: My beautiful corner niche which is visible from lounge room and front door/hallway (see above pic) soooo glad we added this :)

above: kitchen and sunlight :) on left is pantry and linen then hallway to front door. Notice aircon cord poking out! Below: same room from opposite direction, this will all be open tiled area. The doorway to  the right leads to bed1, bathroom, toilet and bed 2

Below: Shower pipes that may need to be changed.

above: gas tap for bbq and external powerpoint for future outdoor area. Below: water pipe and power for pump (we are on all tank water except kitchen tap and two outdoor taps). I think other cords coming from ground may be the power for the shed.

North side of the house in late afternoon. The sun makes the bricks glow a lovely golden colour :)

Bricks :)

The brick layers started on Thursdy as planned. I went around to the house thurs afternoon to find one row of bricks right around the base of the house. On Friday I went back at around 11am and this is what i found:

Framed AND Trussed!!!

After our slab party on Sunday, We didn't visit the slab again until friday (11th) as we thought there was a hold up on the frames. When i was in town on friday i thought i'd drive along the main road and if i could see frames on the ground i'd go into our street and have a look. I was VERY  suprised to see the shell of our house :D It has only been ONE WEEK since the slab was poured!!

When I went into the street they were there putting up our trusses. The builder said the frames went up on thursday (10th) and they'd finish off the trusses by friday afternoon :D They will be working on the roof this week and we might even have the colourbond by this friday (18th)! He said the bricks would be starting in about two weeks :D Soooo happy yay.

Welcome to our house :)  Notice the frame for the verandah on the front

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'.

 

Exterior Colours

So here are the (unconfirmed) choices for the exterior:

 Roof: Colourbond 'Pale Eucalypt

Gutters: Colourbond 'Wilderness'

Facia: Colourbond 'Paperbark'

Eaves, front door & garage door etc: (paint colour to match 'Paperbark') perhaps Haymes Paint 'Thistle Flower'??

Brick: PGH townhouse range 'Colonial'

Bricks

I also went to look at bricks yesterday. Stupidly i went in the afternoon on a near 40* day!! The walls were all outside with no shade so by the end i was sweltering : (

We have to choose from the PGH range. I really liked the sandstone range, then realised that they will be an extra $2k --> $3k :(

There weren't that many i liked in the standard range, and the ones that are ok are blends so we would still have to pay a bit extra. I went by the block to have a bit of a look-see - and the builder was actually still there working on our neighbours place (which is rare as he actually lives in a town 2hrs away)

I talked to him for a while and he said the brick ranges are all changing so there might be some new ones we like. He also said that as we are half way between Sydney and Brisbane he sources from both states (which have different ranges at no extra cost to us) So i'm going to check out QLD's PGH range and hopefully find something i like!