Thoughts so far..

Were you scared shitless the first time you flew in a plane?

I wasn't.. I was only 9.. but..

Imagine that having your first house built is the same thing.. I refrain from using the term 'building your own home', since there's pretty much STUFF ALL that I have to do with the actual building. It's like saying I flew myself to Australia when I was 9.

Anyway. 

When it comes to building a house.. your house.. you tend to be overly concerned about things, because it's your life that you're investing in it, unless you are one of those lucky ones that don't need a 30 year mortgage.. 

In both building and flying.. you need to be secure in the knowledge that the pilot and the engineers know what they're doing. There's no point being a nervous passenger.. 

And on that note.. I am starting to think that Wisdom homes are the Qantas of builders.

Insulated

Big difference in half a day.
Half of the insulation is in. They may have taken off for lunch before I arrived. There was a guy in the garage cutting and making the downpipes, and he didn't mind me taking a few pics.

 Unbelievable how much difference it makes! The insulation backs directly onto the brickwork.

 From kitchen through study to garage. Only the internal garage walls are done. All other internal walls are yet to be done.

 Family room through to laundry and Mack's room

 Gyploads of gyprock

 Gyploads of cornice

 Ceiling insulation. Quite thick

Scaffolding has been removed.
Notice the walkway of pallets?

Electric

Warren the site supervisor called yesterday to ask about blocking the frame for the TV's. Generally these are provided to the media room wall etc. Since the chippies were onsite, he wanted to know if we needed extra blocking in the master bedroom near the door.
When i inspected later, he'd put blocking on the walls you'd expect to see a TV in every bedroom too!
AWESOME!!


Sparkies were also onsite, and have all the wiring in.
Next step is insulation to walls and ceiling, then the gyprock, which is still slated for delivery this week.

The moved tree.
Most of the nature strip here seems very poorly drained. I doubt the turf will survive, but we did move clumps of it to where the tree used to be [right of the picture]
The tree also seems to have some sort of disease in its leaves.

 Blocking in the internal walls of the master bedroom. This is to allow a TV to be wallmounted.

 Cables in place for the up/down lighting on the porch. One of the wooden supports has been removed. Not sure why this one has been left..

Garage with supports removed and wiring installed for up/down light on far pillar.  

All digging in

So we were required to move one of the council trees, so that it wasn't so close to where the driveway will be. Took an hour or so, and will require another trip back in the morning with more tools to finish off.
We also moved all the excess bricks to the back corner of the yard and made a 'deck' from the spare pallets.

Starting to see more faults in the mortar, and in some of the levels of the doors and windows. The expansion joints haven't been finished yet so I imagine there'll be some touch ups to the mortar after cleaning.

On the whole though, the house is really coming along and it was good to spend a couple of hours out there with the in laws :)  Was quite a nice afternoon.

 Kitchen window and 'side garden'

 The brick store, some of which were dug out of the clay and rubbish! Also grabbed some replacement roof tiles if they're ever needed. To the right is the deck

Contrast of bricks and wood in the windows

Bricks cleaned

Big difference!

Gyprock is getting delivered next week and the sparkies will be out in force.

 The issue I had with the misalignment of the bricks on this wall doesn't both me as much as it first did. There's no real way to rectify without pulling it down and moving the laundry door back.

Tilers to finish pointing and capping on Monday.

Last tiles in style

Just so happened that the last lot of tiles were sent up the escalator about 5 minutes after I arrived for a sticky beak this morning. Drove around later and found most of the roof in place, just some cement and cleanup left to do.. Probably tomorrow! 

The last tiles. Immediately after these arrived, the motor was turned off.. All done.. all dusted

Shot from the garage through the outdoor leisure.

View from the South.

View from the rear retaining wall [West]

There was a trickle of sun through the rear windows at half 4. Shortly after, the back wall was in shadow from the trees on the ridge. 

First tiles in style

The sarking is being installed, and I managed to capture the first tiles being lifted to the roof via the escalator.

Still waiting on the bricks to be cleaned before we decide whether the cosmetic issue needs addressing.

This is the wall that I think needs a fix.
Am I the only one that can see it?

 Tilers out in force installing the sarking and battens.

 The first lot of tiles.. nearly there.

Just a little more..

And FLASHBACK. This is the house as it looked on 21st March 2012.

Bricked into a corner

The brickies had finished by the time we arrived for a lunchtime squizz.
Have some concerns about finish. These are cosmetic only, so not sure if I am feeding my OCD [which I do NOT have in abundance, I promise..]
We paid a premium to upgrade the bricks to the Austral Metallix too..

Final bricks going in

A couple of quick pics.
The brickies have completed the walls and the window sills are bricked in.
There's two sets of piers going up for the front porch and the outdoor leisure.

Feeding my OCD

After dropping off the birthday boy to school, scooted past the house and annoyed the brickies a bit more.

This may be the final course of bricks to the master bedroom and ensuite. I didn't ask.

 P's awesome looking wooden windows to the master.

Coming along nicely. There's a little bit of corbelling on the facade.

Mud bricks

The building site is sticky wet mud today.
The guys have pretty much completed the front half of the house to scaffold height.

More..

The day was wet and particularly cold, but I drove out to the house early this morning to see what was going on, expecting that the brickies weren't onsite. But they were. And I felt guilty turning up in my nicely warmed car to take a few photos. So I only took one photo from across the way, from inside the car...

Quarter bricks completed to scaffold height.
Meter box and gas hot water recess installed.

Started

Brickies were out in force today. And so far the job looks immaculate. Two brickies and a couple of labourers each.

 All neatly stacked around the entire house

 Couple of tons of sand and a pallet of cement.

 The wall to the media room! Wooshka

The entry way

Bricks delivered

A quick visit this morning saw the sand and bricks delivered. There was also a large truck carrying away all of the refuse from the site.

The yard has been chewed up a bit since the weekend rain. But it's nice and sunny out there now, perhaps the brickies will make a start after all? ! 

This is the brick, Austral "Metallix Bronze". There are slight variations in each brick, and it can appear different based on the ambient light. It's the same brick that's in the show home at Bunya

Room with a view

Quick driveby this morning before Mack's soccer match.
The windows have been tacked in [they're held in with only a couple of nails]
I imagine the chippies will be back at some point to make sure they're square and level.
Bricks will be delivered on Monday, and laying will start on the same day, Tuesday at the latest.

 Timber frames to the master bedroom. These smelt very fresh, the oil was hardly dry..

 Kitchen slit window, outdoor leisure to the left.
This window has two open ends [slide to centre]
Maybe able to pass through utensils and so on, even though it's not designed for it.. The designed pass through window was considerably more..

 Slit windows in the family leisure room. This room is quite large. Can only appreciate it once the internal frame is in place. Hopefully there'll be an opportunity to add some batons [or is it noggins?] to the central frame to aid in hanging a TV.

View from inside the master bedroom.
There's also one supplemental benefit. The double storey house on Supply Street has blocked the view of the water supply tower.

Water & Gas & Glass

This morning's driveby revealed the water and gas line fitters busy about their work.
The windows have been delivered as well. Apparently these need to be fitted before the weekend else they may get stolen.

 The leisure room door. This has comfort plus glazing. Expensive

These would be for the leisure room also

 The awesome wooden frames for the main bedroom

Rear and side sliding doors.