Wall Tiles and Porch

Now that a friend's husband, who is an engineer, told me that builders have a 6 day working week and recommended to get inside to go out on Saturday's today was the second time and is still proving to be true.

Today the tiler was working on the wet area floors, which are the charcoal tiles in the bathroom, ensuite and laundry.

As I blogger on Thursday night the lip of the portico was done, but going out today the tiler had also finished it.


The ensuite photo show the feature tile, which is also in the shower of the main bathroom but the shower it tucked away and I couldn't get in to see it as the floor had been freshly laid. I'm happy that it is all coming together and the vanity and the floors pull out the colours in the glass feature strips.


Also as you can see the bath has been finished.


In the kitchen the splashback is finished too. It looks a little more alabaster in colour than I anticipated, but it works well with the benchtop.



Hopefully this means painting starts this week.

27-08-10 Roof and Bricks Finished

YAY! This is a long awaited day. A nice winter afternoon and when I went to check the house is ready for the independent inspection scheduled for this week coming, I was very happy to see it was. If you have been reading to date I'm sure you agree I had reason to be hesitant. So what you can see below is the portico, one of the garage door openings, and part of the front lounge window.


Below is looking out the front window. This room will hopefully be a nice place to spend time on a cold winter's day as it gets the sun from about 11am onwards.


Nothing special shown here except that the eaves are in and the beading to seal the join. This is looking out the laundry door so the next cavity towards the back is the rear bedroom, which will be the study.


T-R was a very funny site. She was running around like lady of the manor, although I think once the internal linings are up she will be in for a surprise, as she took great delight skirting through the wall cavities. Here she is peering in my bedroom window, which I think will be a regular morning occurrence once we have moved in. The plan is to hold off moving her in until the lawn has taken hold, about six weeks after it is laid, but since I have had a few holidays recently spending some time away from her, my Mum has said she gets very anxious and it might be more kind to keep her locked in the garage when no one is home, and take her for a morning and afternoon walk every day, as she spends her time inside when someone is home.


Also quite impressed with her flirting, as we stopped and got the business card of a landscaping company who we doing a property down the bottom. One of the workmen came and started petting her and baby talking to her - good job T-R, he was a bit of alright too.

Roof looks done, Bricks started!

The roof today looks almost complete except for te points where the scaffolding is attached, and maybe along the peaks the flashing looks like it is yet to be done. You can see the hole in the roof where the scaffolding is still attached.. The view is also from the front porch and because the neighbour in between won't stick out any further than my portico I am confident I'll keep this view to the south-west. The 4x4 is only temporary but a brick column will be built in it's place a little further towards the front of the property because the gutter juts forward over the portico. See the third picture down to get what I am talking about.


But what I am very happy to say is that the bricks have seen activity.


There is a nice big pile of bricking sand in the front yard.


Most of the way around there is two or three courses in place.


And the necessary mixed up piles of brick all the way around the house to ensure the batches are split up and colour variations are balanced all over.


I tried to call SS2 and leave a message to say I need to know when the bricking is expected to be finished because of bringing in an independent inspector, but the message bank was switched off, so that call will have to wait until this week.

Underground Plumbing Connections 08-07-10

Despite some mid-morning drizzle the plumbing connections appear to have gone ahead on schedule.

There has also been the appearance of the some formwork, the security fence and the beloved trademen's friend, the port-a-loo! The middle picture below is looking across the front window of the main lounge towards the portico. In the third picture can you see the pile of dirt? I can't believe we had one like that hauled away already and now there is the same again. A friend of a friend building nearby said that because the dirt wasn't carted away immediately neighbouring lots dumped their excess on his pile, and then he was quoted $17,000 to cart it away. He argued with the builder and the developer and not sure of the details of the arrangement reached but it was agreed that as it was the result of dumping he wouldn't be charged above the excess. Apparently the lesson to observe from this is if the builder hasn't agreed to remove it immediately go and take some pictures of the size and shape, or if it is not covered in the contract arrange to have it taken away ASAP and again take pictures.

I start a new job on the 19th so my random late afternoon trips will stop but hopefully by then the frame will be going up, then the guttering, and the bricking or roofing commenced thereafter, so the new visual changes will be less frequent and weekend trips should suffice. The slab will be laid on Monday/Tuesday coming, then some more plumbing and then usually the frame goes up about the end of the following week.

The picture below and left is of the garage looking towards the main lounge and back. Once it is done the builder provides 3 steps from the garage into the house. I still have no real sense of what the final height will be, but it makes me confident that at least the same will be needed in the front yard up to the portico.

The second picture is looking from the right hand side across the backyard. It is 4m deep to the back fence, but that narrowing is caused by the rainwater tank. The shed will also be positioned on the rear wall as it has no windows looking out, ad otherwise Camden Council guidelines are that sheds must be positioned 900m off the boundary, so really encroaching too much. It's only going to be a narrow under eaves version with a sliding door just big enough to make sure the mower and the like don't have to be stored in the garage. But as you can see they have excavated so much at what appears to be about 1m from the rear fenceline so I am inclined to retain it at this point and garden behind it. The entertainment area is around the corner to the left, and because the house is set 2m from the Peach Palace I am guessing that the dog will have a grass patch to do her business around there somewhere near the garage, adjacent to the car washing bay Camden Council requires you to have in the front yard.