Pictures, but not much progress

Day 63 and I thought I would be showing you pictures of some bricks. Unfortunately the bricks are still wrapped up on their pallets. I think the only people on site today were the plumbers who installed the solar panels for the hot water.

I had a great time wandering around the house taking photos - there's still a long way to go but I really love our house. We took a bit of a gamble with the floor plan as there are no Denver 43s in Victoria available for inspection. We drove down to Traralgon to look through the Denver 31 and thought that it was OK, but we didn't love it. So we're lucky our gamble has paid off!

Our 4 star Bonaire ducted heater (above) some of the ductwork (below)

This photo is looking into our kitchen. At the moment you can see right through to our ensuite, but you can also see all the electrical cable hanging down, bits of conduit and some of the plumbers pipework.

I shouldn't even say it, but hopefully tomorrow the brickies will be on site. The insulation is going in on Monday so I'd really like at least a bit of the brickwork done. I know we've had the weather wrap done but I still worry that with all the rain we've had, and are forecast to have for the next week, that the insulation will get wet.

Latest happenings

Since my last post some progress has been made on a few of the problems we have identified.

Concrete boxing and reo has been set up in a couple of places where the house frame was overhanging the slab to support the brickwork. Our SS told us that the exposed reo will be fixed this week and the brickies are due to start tomorrow.

The plumbers have been and roughed in all the interior pipework. We were a bit surprised to find pipework that hadn't been properly clipped, but this is easily fixed before plastering begins. The duct work and heating unit have been installed - I'm really looking forward to having ducted heating next winter.

Our chippie has been on site to straighten walls and check that everything is OK.

The electricians were on site today running cables for the power points and lights. Due to the size and length of our house (and the associated electrical demands) a secondary power board is being installed in our linen cupboard. A bit disappointed with the locations of some power points, in many rooms we have two double power points on one wall. We thought that the outlets would be evenly spaced, both 600mm in from the adjoining walls, however one is right in the very corner and the other is about 600mm in. These aren't hard to fix before the plaster is done, but that's not how our electrical layout plan looks.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the progress the brickies make tomorrow and will definitely have photos. Our new camera has arrived but I ran out of daylight to get proper photos today.

Locked out

After my little whinge last night it was good to find out that a few things have happened today.

The roofers have been back and the roof is now complete - the whirly bird isn't there yet but that's not a big drama. The internal garage door has been put up complete with lock and the temporary front door now has a lock on it too. So while I'm glad that some progress has been made, I'm a bit sad that I can't wander the rooms of my new house anymore. There's no pleasing some people ;)

As soon as we replace our broken camera I'll post some pictures.

Waiting

So this week has been a total loss. Not one thing has been done on the house.

Our SS is still on sick leave so we sent an email to our Customer Service Coordinator (CSC) and the area manager with a list of all the major issues with the house as it stands at the moment. Received a reply letting me know they're looking into it. So now we're up to week five of exposed reo in our slab and the rust continues to get slowly get worse. They are very quick on one thing though - sending out their invoices for payment. We've now paid for 45% of our house.

Things that make you go Hmmm

First a progress picture.

Love the way the colorbond roof and the gutter and fascia look.

Really excited to get to the block and see that about a third of our roof has been installed. Not so thrilled to discover that there is no weather wrap under the colorbond. A quick phone call to our out-of-action SS (he has done his back) and he tells us that weather wrap under the roof is an optional extra. What the ...? We're planning a quick call to the Plumbing Industry Commission tomorrow. Wade and a bunch of his mates are all plumbers and they all agree that there should be sarking under the colorbond, however they can't be absolutely positive that it's a regulation and not just something that is strongly recommended (and just good practice/service).

Love the look of the half round guttering

The most frustrating part of this is that we were never given the option. At no time was this raised. I went back and looked right through all the information given to us prior to our selection appointment and it wasn't on the checklist or any information provided in the kit. It was also never raised during our selection appointment - although that is hardly surprising given our consultant rushed us through in just over 2 hours, was completely disinterested and didn't know how to navigate to, or around, the Studio M website.

So if it's a regulation, then the roof will come down and the sarking will be installed. If not, then we have been told the house is too far along for us to make any changes including installing a bigger hot water service, so I assume sarking will be out of the question!

It's a wrap

You guessed it, the weather wrap has been applied to the house. It doesn't feel like a lot has happened since my last post, but at least we're still moving along.

Excuse the pile of rubbish - not sure if this is normal but apparently it's too far to walk to the rubbish cage.

Our front door

Here's what has happened:
* All the roof trusses are up,
* Fascia and guttering have been installed,
* Safety railing for the roofing has been installed,
* Weather wrap has been applied,
* Plumbers have started,
* Bricks and sand have been delivered,
* We received our Frame Stage invoice (thanks to the Reserve Bank for not lifting interest rates this month, much appreciated!)

Brickies sand all ready to go

According to My Metricon, the roof was due to be completed yesterday. That hasn't happened, however the colorbond and whirly bird have been delivered.

Can you see the rusting steel and all the water just sitting around the house, rather than draining away from the house?

The brickwork is due to be finished on the 15th. Not sure if we'll hit that timeframe either. There are still some issues with the slab that need fixing before the bricking can be completed. Out Site Supervisor (SS) is aware of them, but there doesn't seem to be any degree of urgency in fixing them even though some of the problems seem quite significant to us i.e the exposed, and now beginning to rust, steel reinforcement in the slab.

Bricking will hopefully start tomorrow - fingers crossed.