Wednesday update

Monday saw the laying of the pipe work for the water tank and sewerage. The green pipe is for the charged water system. All the downpipes drain into this green pipe and then flow back up into the water tank. The idea is all the stormwater run off from the roof ends up in your water tank rather than from just a couple of downpipes near the tank. The tank water has to be plumbed into the toilets and washing machine. If the water in the tank falls below a certain level then it gets topped up automatically from town water so you can still flush the toilets and wash.

Tuesday saw the completion of the pipe work and today the frames and trusses were delivered.

Shouldn't be too long before it starts to look like a house!

Tiles galore

On Monday the 16/02/09 I had to decide on the tiles that will be used in the bathrooms, laundry, front porch and kitchen splashback.

I had made a preliminary visit to Beaumont Tiles last October and picked the tiles I wanted from the allowable range only to discover last week that most of them had been removed from the range so I had to pick all over again. What a nightmare!!!


These are the tiles I chose for the bathroom and ensuite. I liked neutral colours but not too beige and these have a greyish tinge to them. The look better in real life.



This is the Listello I chose. It wasn't in the range at all so I had to pay extra for it though for the two bathrooms the extra was only $140. I really didn't like anything in the standard range and I saw something similar in a display home and thought it looked good. It will run in a straight line up the wall of the shower recesses rather than around the top of the tiles.




These are the laminate colours for the laundry broom cupboard and bench. The sample on the right is the bathroom vanity colour.




These are the tiles for the laundry floor and splashback tiles for around the laundry tub.




These are the tiles for the front porch




This is the kitchen splashback, kitchen benchtop and cupboard style. I like timber and since I had a free choice of Tasmanian Oak cupboards I took it as it is normally a $3000 upgrade. The splashback colour is Gloss Donkey Grey, where do they get these names from???



The kitchen benchtop is Caesar Stone Ice snow. This image is from their web site. It is white and has flecks of grey in it which should match the stainless steel appliances. It also picks up the colour of the splash back tile nicely, or so the tile selection lady informed me :-)



This is a similar profile to what I chose for the cupboards. They will be fitted with brushed stainless steel handles.



So that concludes our colours tour. All I can say is picking all the colours for a house that hasn't been built yet is quite a stressful experience!

The big pour!

I had Monday off as I had to do tile selection at Beaumont Tiles and had hoped to see the concrete being poured afterwards. Unfortunately there had been quite a bit of rain over the weekend and during the week which I assume has caused delays as nothing happened onsite.

Tuesday morning I found the concreter guys putting up the last bits of the formwork around the garage. Nothing happened on Wednesday that I could tell (perhaps this was the day the engineer certified everything).

It all happened today (Thursday). It was nice to drive by this morning to find them hard at work pouring the concrete. It's amazing how quickly it happens once they start. Took plenty of photos, some of them are below.

What amazed me even more was that when I went back after work they had even removed all the formwork.

Will post photos of the tiles I selected on the weekend.










Twelve months ago I had never heard of a drop edge or deep edge beam, now I got one!!! (see below)

What a difference a day makes!

A lot can happen in one day as I discovered today. Early this morning the plumbers were busy putting in the drain pipes for the laundry, kitchen and bathrooms whilst the dirt was being spread.

By the end of the day the waffle pods and reo were down. The concreter called me this afternoon to advise that everything was ready for an engineer to inspect tomorrow and then weather permitting, the slab will be poured on Monday. He also advised of the amount of piering used, it came in at 39.9 lineal metres which is less than the tender allowance of 60 lineal metres so that's a bonus.

I went by again after work and it looked like there was still a little more to do on the deep edge beam at the front, none of the little hats were under the reo and there were no waffle pods in the laundry and a couple of other places but I imagine that will all be completed tomorrow if an engineer is to certify everything.

Stay tuned.....

Wednesday update

Despite fine weather the last two days nothing happened Monday and only a portion of the safety fence was erected yesterday so I was surprised to find that even though it rained until after lunch today some progress had been made.

More work has been done on the slab frame as well as a load of dirt, steel reinforcing and waffle pods have been delivered.

It's looking very boggy so will have to ensure I put in adequate drainage!

Slab peg out started

Went by the block on Saturday and noticed they had started the slab peg out on Friday. Once they start it usually doesn't take long to complete the slab so hopefully will have a slab by next weekend.

Also got a call from Beaumont Tiles last week wanting to make an appointnment for the tile selections so that's set for the 16th February.

Piers, loo and water too!

Progress this week has been slower than last week with nothing noticeable happening on Tuesday or Wednesday. The siltation control fence has gone in, a portaloo delivered, the water connected and finally today the start of the piering.

The neighbour's house is also making cracking progress after a slow start. They are building with McDonald Jones and there are several of them going up in the area at the moment as well as a couple of Allworths. It's fun watching the progress of all my new neighbours houses.