Boxing Day Sale Splurges...

As the festive period draws to an end, our sights have been set back toward house planning. We started doing some furniture shopping, not being sure if we have started a bit too early! It takes 10-15 weeks for most pieces to be made, so I'm not sure what stage our house will be at by the time the items we have purchased are ready for delivery. Hopefully we can arrange for the items to be held and delivered after we have the keys (or start hoarding in our garage!).

We were terribly spoilt this Christmas by our families and have a collection of gift vouchers to my favourite homewares store and also for bunnings (always useful). We also were given a new iMac which I am so excited to set up in our new study (instead of on the dining room table where it is currently living). 

                               

Facing the hoardes of buyers at the Boxing Day sales paid off this year and here are some of our purchases:

The Calibra bed frame and matching bedside tables were a fab buy from Domayne. We are looking forward to having a king size bed and also splurged on a good quality Sealy mattress.    

      

                                          

As we are completing a small amount of electrical after handover we started purchasing fans and bathroom lights. We saw this amazing Vento Uragano fan on Grand Designs and searched high and low before we finally found it. This clever fan has a reversible summer/winter switch which changes the spin direction to circulate cool air in summer and push warm air down in winter. Great way to reduce heating costs!  Ours will have clear blades so that the presence of the fan does not overwhelm the other feature lighting in the room.     

           

      

Builder installed 3 in 1 bathroom lights were over priced and from a very basic range of fixtures. We will have these circuits pre-wired and have purchased these modern Jantec heat/fan lights in silver and stainless steel for each bathroom.

                                 

                             

  

We are still undecided on a new lounge for our media room but are considering a purchase from Bay Leather Republic. We are waiting to get the dreaded plantation shutter quote before doing any more shopping.

Who else made exciting purchases in the sales and what has been your favourite purchase for your new home? 

Merry Christmas!

Today marked the last day of work before Christmas and the frame is looking great. It's exciting to see the shape of rooms and the facade emerging. Here are our last set of snapshots before we go away for the holidays.

 

   

Grande alfresco and the large window opening to the living room

  

Our soon to be kitchen and open plan living area

  

Framework continues

Today was a very productive day and when we got home from work we were surprised to see the tradies still working after 5.30! Tomorrow will be the day the roof framework goes on I think because pretty much all of the walls are complete. We were SO excited to see the framework for our fireplace! It's going to be amazing (if I don't say so myself!). 

One little thing we noticed is that the bathroom door is on back to front so it walks into the shower... We might casually mention that to the guys tomorrow before they get too far along! 

The photos I took today are a bit dull as it was getting dark when we went by the block.

Here is the fireplace and picture recess above it. (I'm literally bouncing and clapping my hands at this). This is shaping up to be my favourite room.

         

   Front entry and hall (not sure how I managed to shoot this on an angle)

                            

Main bath 

                            

From the front. 

       

The start of a home

Today we received a message saying that framework had begun and were very pleased to see half of our rooms framed out today. We are loving our big picture window that we upgraded and the high ceilings and doorways. They tower above when you are standing underneath the framework. 

Here is the picture window at the back of our house

        

   

Bedrooms and bathrooms 

       

Front corner

      

   

Frame Delivery

This morning a rather large truck arrived bearing our lovely blue frames. Delivery was due tomorrow but came a day ahead of schedule, which hopefully means the carpenters will get an extra day to work this week. I keep wishing my work days away so that I can get home and see what exciting things have happened on the block. 

       

     

Slabbed!

In a perfect ending to the week, we now have a completed slab. The weather was perfect today, albeit a bit hot for the poor guys working. We made a quick trip to the block early this morning to see the concreting action underway and to chat with our slab supervisor. It was surprising to see how quickly the slab went down and they were able to pull off the formwork. 

This afternoon our SS rang to fill us in our the plan for next week. Monday is termite barrier day and a fellow is coming to push some fill up against the slab to make life easier for the brickies after Chrismas. Frames are due for delivery on Tuesday and the carpenters will be around the same day to hopefully get started. Roof will also be delivered next week and they are hoping to install over the Christmas break.

The fascias and gutter arrived today and were sitting next to our block this afternoon. I LOVE the paperbark colourbond, it's not commonly used but there's something eye catching about it. 

Photo bomb time!

All of the action from a distance

      

Pouring the front entryway

                                

The glorious slab

       

 Master bedroom and alfresco. Did I mention how high the slab is, it's going to be one tall house!

       

Paperbark gutters and surfmist fascia

        

  

Oooh Waffles!

The last two days have been full steam ahead on our block as the formwork and waffle pods have been laid. The waffle pods look to be mostly finished and slab pour is still set for this Friday, pending good weather. So far the forecast is clear, so stay away rain! 

We have been having fun watching all of the neighbours and surrounding residents pulling up in front of our site to check out the work. Boy I can't wait to see their reactions when the moroka and stacked stone eventually go on!

Below is the work completed yesterday before a storm rolled in

       

       

    

And here is today's final product

       

Mini Break

On a topic totally unrelated to building for a moment - After 6 incredibly hectic months of house planning, working, taking students and studying, we decided a mini break was due. We spent this weekend in the Hunter Valley Wine Country at the stunning Deja Vu Estate. If anyone reading is planning a trip, do yourself a favour book at Deja Vu. Jillian and Brent have two villas which are beautifully fitted out private sanctuaries, amongst the grape vines and bushland. It was a fabulous weekend and we came home today having consumed and purchased more wine that I'd care to admit!

 

Here are a couple of snaps from Deja Vu Estate (plug!) Just look at that tub!

       

        

     

On the drive home we had a call from our building supervisor and spoke for the first time. Amazingly our piering was completed today (at some point I will calm down and get used to this cracking pace) and we did go a little over our allowance. We needed four extra piers on the advice of the engineer and the deepest have gone 1.8m down. It will be a bit more cost, but we had a feeling it would happen given our neighbors needed more piers when they built. 

Our slab is due to be poured on Friday, only 8 working days since starting on the site (mind blown!). I'll be watching the weather forecast compulsively for the next few days. Our frame will be delivered early next week along with the fascia and gutters AND some of the tradies are working over Christmas so there will still be a bit of site action. 

Yep I am absolutely flawed and so so excited! 

   

Below: Piers in and formwork showing where our gas bottles will go.

                                    

Formwork started and view from the front. Our side clearances are so narrow, we are thinking of putting a gate in at the back (which is reserve) for access. 

         

Formwork and piers looking from the back where our master bedroom will be. 

         

    

At the speed of light!

Wow the blog has now had 3000 hits! A warm hello to everyone who is reading from around the world! 

Today was another exciting day on the block. We left for work this morning and there were 4 tradies, three trucks and a whole lot of machinery at our site. Another drive by this afternoon revealed finished plumbing, a meter box and fences. I'm blown away by how fast things are moving and just thrilled with the work that has been done so far! 

We were also surprised to see another site up the road be cut today. There aren't very many houses being built but MDJ are doing ours and the one up the road, our neighborhood will be very busy for the next few months! 

Lots of new pipes today!

       

From the back of the block.

       

Funny to see the meter box just floating in empty space!

       

       

    

     

Plumbing begins

Today I arrived home to quite a surprise, the site cut only happened yesterday and today we have plumbing! It looks as though just over half of the plumbing has been completed despite having rain today. We haven't met our building supervisor yet but he obviously has the tradies working hard. Well done MDJ! 

Here are some photos

Site Cut

After the excitement of the portaloo arriving yesterday we expected to perhaps see pegs today. This morning the following message arrived:

                            

We spent the entire day eager to finish work so we could check out the block. After racing home we discovered that it has been cut! There wasn't a lot that needed to be cut and filled but we do have a little mountain of grass and clay at the back of the block.

Here is the block from the front

     

From the back

     

And our mountain of clay 

      

   

   

I am beyond excited! Can't wait for piering to happen. Our neighbors said they went over on their pier allowance because the clay is highly movable as water absorbs. We have a $4000 extra provision which we hope will cover the costs. 

   

The Throne

Today is the 11th day on the construction list and this afternoon we found this on our block

        

Finally signs of activity! We haven't been pegged yet (the pegs in place have been there since we purchased the block) but hopefully it's coming. 

A few other small developments this week, the best being that we got our saturn cooker switch and it is being installed by the builder - thanks MDJ! Today we also had a call from our CLO to say that the original surveyor measured our block incorrectly and it is actually 80mm smaller on one side. As a result we need to decrease the size of our media room pop out. The pop out was only there because of local building requirements so we weren't too worried. Fortunately we don't need to go back through council!

We are hopeful we will have a site cut to report soon.