From bricks to walls

The brickies were hard at it today and have already put up a fair bit. If they keep it up they should be finished by the end of the week.

Saturday Update

Since my last post the roof has been completed and the safety railing taken down. The bricks turned up last Monday, all the internal plumbing was done on Tuesday, the mortar turned up on Wednesday and the sand on Thursday. Nothing happened on Friday.

I had been away all week for work so am happy I didn't miss too much but I hope the brickwork starts on Monday.

I wish I had caught the plumber as I would have liked to have a tap fitted behind the fridge in case I decide to get one of those fancy water dispensing ice making fridges some time in the future. I think it would have been a lot easier to have it put in now rather than later.






It pays to take not of where all the pipes are since they are plastic as you can't find them easily once the gyprock goes up. I have heard of a guy who accidently cut through one of his pipes when hanging something up on the wall and it made quite a mess!

Roof! Roof!!

The frame was completed last week and then on Friday the guttering and fascia appeared. Was a guessing game as to what would come next, either the bricks or the tiles. The tiles turned up yesterday and they started laying them today. If the weather holds out they will probably be finished tomorrow. The green stuff they put down first is called sarking and is a waterproof barrier under the tiles. It is not a standard item but I had to have it since it is a requirement of building in a bushfire prone area.

The guttering is Colorbond Manor Red and the fascia is Colorbond Paperbark. The window frames are Trend Stone Beige which is fairly similar to the paperbark colour. You can only pick it if you hold them up next to each other.

The tiles are Monier Salsa colour in the Waverley profile. Allworth are currently offering completely flat tiles for free (normally cost big bickies) but I thought they might look too flat with the large expanse at the front and I prefer the wavy ones anyway. Everybody seems to be choosing black or grey tiles these days but I like the traditional red colouring and besides, the dark ones really show up the bird poo!!!

When the frame was first put up they installed all the windows but then the lounge room windows disappeared for a day or two and when they reappeared have sat in the garage. I don't know what is going on there but I hope to find out.

I've been framed!

The frames had been delivered last Wednesday and the windows turned up on Friday but nobody came to put the big meccano set together until today.

Once started though, they achieved a lot in one day.


This photo was taken around 8:00AM.




The rest of them were taken after dinner between 7:15PM and 7:30PM. It sure starts to get dark quickly now!

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)