Its just another brick in the wall

Brickwork continues on the mansion, slowly but surely.   Not much else to report except that our stolen loo window has been replaced - only problem is, that they have replaced it with a sliding window, not an awning like all the other windows in the house.   Oh well, good excuse for me to ring the SS first thing Monday morning to let him know, and find out where we are at.   

Weather permitting, the brickies should finish off this week.   Here's some progress pics:

Loving the contrast bricks in the front

Nearly done here

Half way there



Out the back of alfresco



Down the dead side of the house

Sadie has been around

It is a wet miserable day today, so what do you do?   You visit your house and start cleaning, thats what!

We swept out the entire house, and if I don't say so myself, it is now a very clean building site, I wonder what the trades will say when they come tomorrow.

On the house front, more progress.

A & L Windows have been back and finished putting the
Edwardian bars on the side-light windows!!!








They have also swapped over the window winders to lockable ones.



What a nice clean building site!

More brickwork has been done!!






All ready to go tomorrow



Near Map Update time

At long last all of us are on the map:  

As at 28 June 2011

Our house has the blues

More progress today, we have officially been wrapped  (blue insulation that is!).   Also our plumbing has been roughed in which is great.   Electrical should be next, then we will be ready for a pre-plaster inspection by New Home Inspections, which hopefully should be next week.

Photo time:-

Ensuite

Bathroom

Laundry

Back of House

Front

More front

             

Up on the roof

Well, to the uneducated eye it looks like our roof tiling is just about finished.   Since Thursday the capping tiles have been mortared into position.


They have also done a bit of a clean up at the front and gotten rid of all those bricks from the demolished garage which makes the front look a lot cleaner now.


Will be in touch with SS as to what happens next, but from what I can gather from other building buddies, it must be plumbing and electrical rough-in time.  


Megan at the back of the garage



Here's some pics:

Looking at the Alfresco

The Front

Reader's Lounge

For those of you who have known me for a long time or a short time, you may have picked up on the fact that I am obsessed with everything to do with books! 

Let's face it, I read a lot (hit the jackpot back in 2008 when I read 53 books that year (yes, that's one a week on average).   That includes unabridged audio books as well that I either download from Audible.com or borrow the cd's from the library and upload them onto my iPod and listen to them either in the car or when I am out walking or just doing the ironing.

I have to be careful though not to listen to two books in the one genre, one day I was driving along listening to a crime novel whilst at the same time reading a crime novel and got quite confused as to "who dunnit" and was forgetting which character was dead or alive and in what book - geez that was hard work!

Then I got my dream job in 2009 working in a Library, where I am surrounded by books every day I am there.   Of course by doing this job you see books all day, so when new books come in or people return books that you fancy your first reaction is - "I'll just pop that on hold for myself"

Then of course I have been known to frequent a place called Dirt Cheap Books, which sell brand new end of run and recent books for $5 or less.   The first time we went there David stayed near the door just twiddling his thumbs (he is so NOT a reader, and didn't have an iPhone then to occupy his time) while I browsed the piles of books for sale.   I filled the first basket in about 15 minutes and gave it to him, and he said, "So that's it then" - how adorable was that, NO there was a whole second story that I hadn't been to yet, so I had no trouble filling 2 more baskets!!!   We left around $100 poorer - but look how much I saved!!!!

Have I read all those books yet - of course not, I have made two subsequent visits and had to write down the titles of all the other books so I didn't double up - still managed to buy more that I have in a box and haven't even looked at yet.

Of course then the magical world of e-books has emerged and since I have my new best friend (iPad) there are so many out of copyright FREE e-books you can download as well as purchasing new e-books as well (how can you resist when Kobo ebookstore has Jodi Picoult e-books on special for $5 - you just have to have them!)

So, now you know me a bit better, I am contemplating getting one of these to put in our bay window in the master bedroom.   What do you think?   Of course it won't be red, but I can just see myself lounging in one of these with the morning sun coming in, cup of tea or coffee and my current book - pure bliss!!   The only problem is they are made in NSW and they don't know whether they can get it to Melbourne - Tonia, you may have to drive a truck down and deliver it for me - lol.

 Diana Chaise Lounge

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!!!!!

Wasn't planning on visiting the house today, but I received a text message from Neighbourhood Watch this morning to say that the roof tilers were present and starting to send tiles up the elevator.   Couldn't resist the chance to call by this afternoon and this is what I saw -

Looking good from the street loving those gables

Up close and personal

Round the side

Could not believe that they have put all the roof tiles on (apart from the ridge tiles and mortaring to be done) all in one day, at this rate we could even see the roof just about finished by next week.

Tile-ready!!

Checked out the house today with the lovely Deb in tow.   Roof tiles all delivered and waiting on their pallets, last bit of guttering seems to be ready and scaffolding put up around perimeter of roof, batton timber delivered and on nature-strip.

Looks like we are ready to rock and roll!! 

Let's hope there's some action this week, pray for no rain please!!!!

Guttering Up

Good news this week, despite the horrible winter weather the work that was promised has been done, even the guttering guys were working when we first called down today for a look.


Luckily we were having a cuppa with Deb & John, and then caught up briefly with Loz & Reinsey to see their beautiful house in the flesh - and it really is magnificent.   Here's where we are up to:

Down the side of the house with Alfresco behind the dining window.

Really happy with the Monument Gutters and Classic Cream facia which will blend in nicely with the mortar, window colours and contrast brick band.

 
 
 
 
 
And our bedroom bay window with the side-light windows now in (still need to have Edwardian bars put on).




 
 
 
With a bit of luck we may see some roof tiles next week (fingers crossed) !!

We're getting there

This week has definitely been the wettest week we have had so far this Winter, not good for us home builders without a roof yet.    Its holidays for Megan this week so we have been tag-teaming with days off to keep her occupied and busy.   We had fully intended to go down to the block today, but really didn't expect that anything would be done this week with the rain we have had, so we opted for quality time with our unemployed son.


Again the power of neighbourhood watch has prevailed with Reinsey looking out for us on her weekly visit to her almost ready house, she kindly sent these through:-

 Front bedroom windows have now been installed!!

Garage roof trusses in place.

Guttering has been delivered!!   So with a bit of luck, if the rain stops tomorrow, we may even see the start of the guttering in place!!   Stay tuned!!

Meeting with Site Supervisor

Today David met our SS for the first time. He had a 9.30 appointment, at 9.50 he rang the office to find out where he was. Apparently had been "held up" on another appointment with a client??? In these days of mobile technology there is no excuse for not making a phone call. He eventually turned up at 10.10.

Apparently our roof frame and the guttering will be done by the end of this week. David advised him that we intend to get a pre plaster inspection done and he didn't seem to be concerned about that at all, which is good.

When asked about ball-park completion he said between 3-4 months, so my initial prediction about being the last one of our building buddies to finish is true.

On the bright side, think of all the cups of coffee we will get calling in on all the neighbors before we move in!

Garage Completed



From Inside



We are pleased to announce that "Take 2" of the bricking has been completed and we now have a garage!!

From the rear

From the front

The chippies have also been back and have nearly finished our bedroom window frame and roof trusses!

David is meeting with our Site Supervisor tomorrow morning to get an update on the build, so we should know a little more then, fingers crossed for a good week's progress ahead.