It's starting to look awesome

The front of the house. Not yet painted, but the garage door has been installed and they've done some tidying up.
This is the dining and famly room. The door in the top right of the picture leads to the back patio. To the bottom right of the picture is the kitchen, and out the windows on the far left of the picture is the garden.

How good does the patio look with the tiles! The rendered pillars and walls have yet to be painted - so they will still change. But am totally loving the tiles.

The ensuite.

The front door and porch. Think it looks stunning. Glad Sharon was insistent on the fancy door rather than the standard one.

Plastering finished

The patio with plaster in the ceiling.

Ensuite

Kitchen / dining. Am loving the windows.

How messy are the builders?

Render is complete

Ater some 3-4 weeks of zero progress we again have some action to share.

The render is complete (not yet painted so colour will change) and the plasterers have been in (they were working on Saturday this week).

Finally the bricks are finished

They've taken their time, but finally the bricks are finished. Funny how 90% went up in 3 days and then the remaining 10% took 2 weeks.

The rough wiring and plumbing has also been completed.

We are now up to site supervisor #5 in 4 months. No wonder nothing really gets done - though there's a lot of empty alcohol bottles / cans on site. Didn't mind while there was work being done, but not happy that we're paying for people to socialise without working.

Oh well ... one day the house will be finished and we can move in and make it home.

Bricks are coming along

Wow - what a difference a week makes. The bricks are almost finished and the glass is all in.

Roof is on

The roof is on. That's called progress.

Windows are in

The windows have been installed. Starting to look really good.

Windows delivered

The roof trusses are pretty much finished. We can see our roof-line and how high the ceilings will be. It's really exciting.

And the windows have been delivered, so no doubt they will go in shortly.

More framing action

There's been some more framing action this week. And the roof trusses have been started, and you can really start to see how the house is going to look. The bathtubs have also been delivered.

These pics show the start of the entryway being constructed and the gutters that have been delivered. The middle picture is a view towards the backyard from the patio. Our backyard extends into the trees.

The picture on the left and in the middle were taken from the same spot at the bottom corner of our block. The white posts that you can just make out on the left of the pictures are our boundary markers. The picture on the right was taken from the top of our block down towards the bottom corner. The white posts you can just make out in the left and middle pictures run up to the post with green paint in the right picture.

Frames are up

The frames are up.

View from the entry

Looking up the hallway towards the entry

Me being silly pretending to cook in the kitchen.

Having a cold drink on the patio for the first time.

First cheque

I've just written a cheque for the first progress payment. Kinda scary. But also exciting because it means everything has really begun (even more so than the dunny being delivered).

Preparing for slab

Things are getting serious - the dunny has been delivered to site.

The foam blocks are being installed and covered with the reinforcing mesh.

The digger has been working hard. Maybe Mum can convince them tomorrow to move a bit more dirt (the area it's sitting on because that wall is right in front of our front door).

The back retaining wall area is suffering with the rain. I hope to speak with the site supervisor on Thursday afternoon to see whether he will allow me to engage retaining wall people to work on it after lock-up. Don't think I want to wait until after summer's downpours. There's been a lot of run-off from the last rain.

Apparently they hope to pour the slab tomorrow (Tuesday). Yay.

No work last week

There's been no progress this past week.

The concretor got held up on another job, so we have to wait our turn in the queue.

Meanwhile - it's decided to start raining again. That will make the wait longer.

No estimate on how long the concretor will be delayed.

Frames have arrived

The frames have arrived at our block. Things must be getting ready to progress out there despite the rain.

The meter-box has been installed so we know we'll have electricity.

And the drains have also been installed. In the background you can see the porta-loo. Guess that means they expect to be working hard enough to need toilet access. Another good sign.

Here are two views of the garden.

<- Looking up through the trees from where the native food forest will be

A view of the rear of the house where we will be creating terraces for the vegetable gardens ->

Waiting for it to stop raining

No updates on progress of the block because it's been raining the past 2 weeks.

Apparently the slab should be going down during the week, but it's soooo wet out there that it's anyone's guess whether it will be possible to get it in there.

Still raining

It's still raining. While nothing's been confirmed (because that can apparently only be done once a week - grrr), we expect the rain will cause significant delays to the slab going down.

There are unlikely to be pictures uploaded this weekend unless the rain suddenly stops and a very strong sun comes out to dry everything. Hopefully I can work out a way to upload some drawings I have done of plans for the back retaining wall and vegie garden.

We braved the pouring rain this morning so that we could check progress on our new house.

The piering has been done; that's all the concrete splodges all over the place.

As you can see, a lot of rain fell this morning. We expect that this will cause some delay to the slab going down.

My parents came to have a look today and gave us some excellent ideas about the landscaping. They are difficult to explain, but stay tuned for more information and pictures.