Friday, October 24, 2008

We have a slab

Yay! The plumbing etc was done early this week, it was definitely in by Wednesday afternoon. We were hoping to get out to the block before the cement was poured, but alas when we went Thursday morning...it was already done. So no photos of the pipes etc. just some of the slab...as we were leaving the windows turned up too, so we got a couple of photos of those. It has also left me doubting whether I we picked the right colour. Our mortar will be darker than what the windows appear to be, and what about the render, will it match?? Maybe I should have gone with the 'magnolia gloss' ones instead, it is darker than the 'white birch' we have got.... or maybe even 'silver lustre' might have been nice. Its so hard to choose when the only samples you have are 10cm lengths of pipe, 4 bricks with mortar, and no render colour to compare with! Its too late to change now anyways, so I guess I shouldn't stress myself out about window colouring!! Also found out while checking the contract that not only do we have flyscreens for the windows, but for sliding doors as well. I didnt even see that until today *blushes*

So now the photos....


This was on Sunday, before pipes etc had been laid.
Our slab... it takes up most of the block, I dont think we will be having any backyard at all. Not happy about that, but what can you do when block sizes these days are sooo small!
Looking from rear of house to front. The pipes sticking up are toilet, laundry and bathroom pipes..the ensuite ones up the front.
This is the way they do garages here. The rest will be laid later on, towards the end of the build.
Our new windows. I hope they dont go "walk-about" while they are sitting there waiting to be installed.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

It has all started!

Well as the title says, things have started on the block! We got an email from our Construction Liason Lady...'S'...to let us know that now that everything has gone to construction, she will take over from 'C'. We have to go through her if we have questions etc, and she says she will keep us updated fortnightly on progress. She also told us who our Site Supervisor is, we'll call him 'W' from now on, and that site works are starting and slab will be down within the next fornight. We also can meet W if we like, we have to go through her though to make an appointment. I think we will take her up on the offer, mainly to put a face to the name, find out how long building should take etc, and hopefully get a 'feel' for him... (see if he knows his stuff or if he's a dodgy SS!)... I will also have some Q's I will want answered too.
Luckily Mr G knows someone who has built and is living in the estate and kindly said she will go past and update us. We will be making weekly visits out there now that everything has finally started. Hopefully we can get pictures before the slab goes down, which should be sometime next week. I guess the next step after slab is the handing over of money.... eeekkk!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

We have a sign...

Well the bank finally come through, about a week after my last post. After getting confirmation, we paid the deposit (out of our pown pocket :( ) and rang our CA, who was away. The replacement girl, thanked us and had everything sent to construction.... Yipee no price-rise!!

We also got a plan for the storm water disposal...theres a soak well on the plan-not sure if this is a good or bad thing yet. The council had deleted one soakwell from the back, (not sure where the water from the d/pipes goes for them though) and it looks like from the scribble on the plan the front one was moved from near the house to the near the footpath??? A bit later down the track we will go to the council and work it out between ourselves, we arent quite sure what it all means!

A call to Ultimate last week, had us excited as we were told that everything should start in the next couple of weeks. Our original CA 'C' is also back from holidays.

A trip to the block on Sunday had us (Mr G and I) cheering as we had our builders sign erected.....the kids weren't impressed, all they still see is dirt, once building actually starts I think they will be able to muster up a little bit of enthusiasm.... quite possibly it will dimish quickly though, when we drag them out there week after week!

The houses are going up all around in our section of the estate, so its quite nice to see it develop.


Kids sitting in front of the builders sign..(note the beanie miss7 is wearing :) )
Looking towards the main entrance..our block is the 2nd one in on the left, not visible in picture.
Looking down the street, directly in front of our block.

Looking towards our block from street in above picture.
Part of the creek area that cuts through the estate. This area is on the other side of the main entrance/our block. Our side of the creek hasn't been started yet.


You can see the main entrance from this picture, and the rest of the 'undeveloped estate.

While driving back home, I managed to get the kids excited when I seen 'Herbie' driving towards us....okay maybe I got a little excited too (I loved Herbie!!) Mr13 insisted it was the same car from the movies...after all there cant be 2 'herbies' ... I am sure he got miss7 and mr10 believing him! So all in all it was excitement all around!!

"Beep beep"