Baby you can drive my car....

...AND I'll even let you park it in the Garage!!
Woo hoo! So excited about having a Garage....never had one before. This for me is up there with a Dishwasher and the Butler's Pantry. Could it be a first in new home building where the female in the equation is more excited about having a Garage than the male???
And complete with an internal access door...I'm in heaven.
No more hot / cold cars.
No more chiseling ice off the windows in Winter.
No more running through the pouring rain to get into the house.
No more struggling with bags and bags of groceries from out on the Street ( yep, currently don't even have a Driveway! )
So, what may seem to be an inconsequential post is actually a really big deal for me! :-)


Hello my lovely not-so-little Garage! I hear you will also come complete with a remote control activated door. Where have you been all my life??





Window to the right is in the Garage, Left is Bedroom 5/Study.



The rear of the house. Aluminium windows have now also been installed, in "Stone Beige", which I hope will look nice with the "Chalk Beige" walls. This is the Master Bedroom - we went for the 3 narrow windows ILO one big window as standard...a'la the old Mernda display ( below ). The 3 bigger windows are in the Bedroom, the smaller one is in the WIR, which we got to keep as we didn't know of the " Spa to ensuite" option. :-(

WIR on the left, 2 of the 3 Bedroom windows to the right.

The sideway... L -R : Laundry door frame, Bedroom 4 ( wish I had of made this window bigger to match the others ), Games Room, Bedroom 3.

Ensuite window, inside and out( protective tape is still in place ), with it's ugly bubbled glass. Purely for the benefit of the neighbours, not aesthetics! ;-)

Bi fold door frame - doors yet to arrive.

The missing Dining Room window now in it's correct place.

A wider shot of the Dining Room.

Framing is almost complete, although the invoice has already arrived.

Thanks to some very helpful blogger advice, I shall be meeting my newly hired Independent Inspector on-site tomorrow to check that all is in order.

There will then most probably be a lull in proceedings as roof works are not due to commence for another week. :-(

Bye for now,

K :-)

' W ' is for ..WINDOWS!!!

Checked out our 24/7 site on Friday night, and apparently the Frame was completed that day. What the? Gees, that was quick, we were only there on Thursday and there was still a bit to do.
So, eager beavers we were and headed out yesterday to see our completed Frame....only to find that there was in fact still a lot to do. Pretty sure that the trusses should extend the length of the house...and something should stop them flapping around in the wind!
We were very happy however to see that most of the Timber Windows have been installed.
LOVE THEM!!! And they smell good too!
On the subject of completed stages...do I need to get an independent inspector out at this stage?
Or would I be better to perhaps save that for Lockup, or pre -Plaster, or Plaster.....seeing as I don't think I'll be able to afford one at every stage. Or maybe I should make sure that I can afford one at every stage......Aaargghh! What's a girl to do? Strewth! At just under $1,000 ( and that is just to inspect the frame ), there goes my future furniture fund...
Slightly p*sses me off that despite the $$$$ already being forked out, I can't be expected to believe that the Builder will do a decent job.
OK, rant over....here are my windows....



Rumpus / Home Theatre

Looking into Alfresco area. Dining room wall yet to be completed, window on the ground.

The other Dining Room window, where it is meant to be.

Lounge Room

" The Hotham Facade "

Not too happy about the damaged Front Door Frame....

Looking down the Hallway towards the bodgie frame. Clear glass to sidelights, "Hi-Lite" above.

What the??? Is that normal??? I would have thought the bath would be installed after lockup!

Aluminium windows still waiting in front of the would-be Garage. Protective tape still in place, but the colour is "Stone Beige". These will be going down the dead side.

Did I mention that I love my windows??? Hehe *clapping hands *

Bring on the Roof Tiles!

FRAMING BEGINS

Sorry...long time between updates.

Partly because the slab sat there for 12 days, with no sign of a frame.

And partly because I have been away - in Queensland..then got stranded in Queensland for an extra 36 hours due to Hamish rolling in, cancelling flights and shutting the airport. Perhaps an extra day and a half up North would not have been so bad if we hadn't already checked out of our lovely accommodation, returned the hired convertible and had better weather. So it was into an ever reliable Commodore for the slow crawl down The Bruce Highway to try our luck in getting a flight out of Brisbane. We booked new flights out for the next day and found a Budget Motel ( aka Bates ) for the extra night. Continental Breakfast @ $15 per person, cockroaches and bullants...free. 8- 0 Long live Melbourne!!!!

Anyway, back to the house!

Timber was delivered at the end of last week, along with the aluminium windows. Framing finally began on Tuesday of this week and they have made great progress. To the untrained eye, all seems to be in order and very neat. No missing bits of slab / frame hanging off the slab a'la M&J.

Roof trusses turned up at midday on Thursday and were half installed by 6.30 that night. Full credit to the nice friendly man doing our frame who was still working at this time....and who was going to sleep in his truck on the vacant block next door to a) get an early start the next day and b) guard our timber windows which had been delivered and left sitting in the would be alfresco. Above and beyond the call of duty...thank goodness for decent tradies!








The beginning of the frame.....with the front door frame laying on it's side in the Study/Bedroom 5.





From the rear...Rumpus to the left, Master ( waiting for it's rear wall, to the right. )







Here comes the roof.






Timber windows waiting to be installed.



Roof trusses up ( on? )

Half way there.

Garage area, yet to be framed, with aluminium windows.

It all looks so small now, but I have been reassured by a number of people that the rooms should look bigger again once the plaster goes up. Here's hoping that is true, and we haven't been given the 30 sq version by mistake.

Oh, and a special hello to T/H2B, who I was lucky enough to meet at her new Cremorne on Wednesday. Just lovely. And the house is wonderful too! :-) That was my first time in a Cremorne and it is a gorgeous house....not to mention all the gorgeous fixtures and colours they have selected. Well done T, it looks sooooo good, you should be proud.

Hope ours turns out so well!

Take care everyone. Tiles soon?? Here's hoping!

FAN-SLAB-STIC!

One step closer to having a new roof over our heads, we now have a slab under foot!
Woo Hoo!
Popped out at about 11am yesterday, just in time to see them putting the finishing touches on Bedroom 5/Study! Boy they work quick! Apparently, they started at 6am, the cement arrived at 7am and they were starting to pack up/clean up while I was still there.
Full credit to the boys who worked on happily despite the cold wind....and the Lady with the Baby on her hip, camera in hand, grinning wildly and taking photos of them while they worked!!! They didn't seen the least bit fazed......perhaps they've seen the likes of "my kind" before!

From the Back.

The finishing touches.

Standing on the block next door to get the whole thing in one shot.

Frame next.... how exciting!!!

WAFFLING ON

A quick little update to say that things are moving right along at our place! :-)
All of the Plumbing pipes were installed by last weekend.
Some are pretty in pink, some are a garrish green.
Others are the regular white variety.
The pipes were exciting, but were quickly overshadowed by the Waffle Pod!
LOL, it looks so big!!! Whoops, were did the Backyard go??
I can't believe how much work they can achieve in 1 day.
Not sure if the Slab pour will happen tomorrow or not given the weather forecast, but I'm sure I can fit in a drive at some stage to check.

Coming up next....Slab Party :-) and Invoice Number 1 :-(




Green ones....perhaps downpipes?

One with a flying saucer ( aka Ensuite loo )

Slab Preparation......and one bloody great hole.

Looking from the back.

From near the Master Ensuite across towards the Alfresco.

From the back at the Rumpus Room corner.

Looking towards the Kitchen.....hard to fit the whole thing in one shot!