Plasterers have been... Part III

Went to the house on Sunday & not much had happened in the last week & a ½. In fact nothing that I could physically see. Went passed again Tuesday night, not expecting too much to have happened since the w/end... Well I was wrong.

Plasterers have been through in the last couple of days & patched & filled the whole house. Not only that, the cabinet makers have been busy too. Most of the kitchen has been installed, minus benchtops, & appliances & 1 sink, which is in the corner of the pantry in the pic. Looks like the cleaners are doing some overtime in the 2nd pic. Only took a minute for the nicely swept up pile of rubbish to be spread all over the floor. This will be the only time when the kids make a mess on the floor that we won't have to clean it up. I quite like the retro patch work on the plaster too. Shame to paint over it. 3rd pic is of the powder room sink & bench top & the 4th is of the laundry cupbourds & top.

Plasterers have been... Part II

It took a few days between upstairs & down in putting the plaster up but all of the house has now been plastered. So too late now if we forgot anything like extra wiring or noggins etc.. Think we thought of everything... maybe.

More pics of downstairs with the plater in. The 1st looking through the rumpus / theatre room to our backyard & our view. Those trees are getting bigger along the nature strip & blocking a bit of the view... Maybe reqires some special meddy to help them sleep better if you know what I mean... Shhh. The 2nd is the kitchen, or at least where it will be (see following post), walk in pantry on the left, island bench in the middle, where the pipes are & byfold servery doors on the right going to the alfresco. The 3rd is looking from the back of the house through to the front door. Looking a lot smaller now with walls. & the 4th is the formal lounge. You can see the wall we knocked out to convert lounge / study into one big lounge room. The computer will be set up in the 4th bedroom so really no need for a dedicated study room.

Plasterers have been.

Well as I mentioned in the last post, the plasterers have been & done the upstairs ½ of the house. They definately don't mess around once they're in there. It's amazing the difference it makes to the place with plaster over the frame, being able to see all the rooms come together, taking shape.

Took these pics on the 20th of last month (been slack posting them, sorry) at 9:00 at night so it's a little dark up there, haven't come out too bad though.

The first is from the master b/r looking at the TV area & the 1st bedroom. The second is in the reverse, looking from the TV area back to the master b/r & where the stairs will go on the RH side. The spa bath has been installed in the bathroom in the 3rd pic. The 4th is the tiny window above the double shower recess in the ensuite. The 5th is the plaster delivered ready to be fitted in downstairs.

Been a while since the last post, & plenty has happened since.

Firstly all the brickwork (excluding garage) has been finished off, & that is one hell of a lot of bricks!! So all of the scaffolding has come down. Once the render goes up it will break up the overwhelming look of a “brick fortess”


Went passed on Tuesday night after work (& lucky I did) as the electrician had been & done all the wiring for the whole house! There was someone there at the time installing the alarm & vacuum. Told him who I was & he said that the electrician had been waiting for a call from me as to where to locate the telecom points before the plaster goes in. I said “When’s the plaster going in?” He said “Friday”… After a few seconds of silence & shock… & several phone calls, I got onto him & we worked it out. Went passed last night & sure enough, all points in the right spots.


We were told initially that a letter will be sent out by the builder with the details of the electrician & for us to contact him for the location of all the telephone points. That was fine, & we did receive the letter… the Friday before! That gave us basically the w/end to organise it. Thought that maybe a little longer than 4 days would have been nice. Might have got lost in the mail.
Also had to organise my guy to come out & do the wiring for the HT room… Speakers / Foxtel / extra aerial point etc… With a little persuasion of his favourite drop of bourbon, managed to get him out the following day to do it all… One less thing to take care of.


Other than the wiring, the evaporating cooling unit has been installed on the roof along with all the ducts for that & the heating. A big pile of insulation was delivered on the Tuesday & was all installed the following visit on the Wednesday. Still a pile of it for the upstairs area to be done. Should be in by now. Also the little windows that were in the previous post have been installed… Don’t they look cute! Piping for the ducted vacuum all in & alarm pre-wiring done as well. Brickies have been back & started on the garage (½ of one wall finished) & frame for the rear access door in.



As you can see, the temporary front doors have been put in, which means one thing… “Lock-up”… hence another payment installation from the builder required (10%).


Only spoken to our site supervisor once, over the phone, the whole time of the process… Today is his last day with Carlisle Homes, which might have something to do with the lack of comms with him. Hopefully we can get a little more out of the new supervisor. I have faith! One of the main reasons for contact in our circumstances is a Completion Date. I know they can’t give us an exact date, but just a rough time (maybe what month) is all we would like to know. We will be putting our existing house on the market ASAP, but without a handover date of the new house, it’s a little difficult to work out a settlement period.

Overall, very happy with their progress.. You never know, might be in earlier than expected. Fingers crossed!

More Bricks!!

Sick of seeing bricks yet?? Too bad... Here's some more!

The guys are making some real progress with the north wall all done, most of the south wall done & ½ of the front & back done. Not sure if they're waiting to complete it all before they start to put in the garage. Thought they might have had the frame up by now & get the bricking done at the same time as the house. I'm guessing they're leaving it until later so they can access the back of the house easier.

South wall all done!

Front entrance taking shape. The whole front will be rendered in 2 different colours (see the picture at the start of the blog)

These are the little port hole windows.....

.....that go in here. Also one on the first floor in the master bedroom.

Bricks!!

I have been past each day this week (nothing better to do obviously) & the brickies have been hard at it. They started the first level on Monday & probably got about 10 courses high all the way around. Tuesday: Done another 10 courses roughly & the scaffolding floors have moved up a notch. Wednesday: ¾'s of the way up the south wall & ½ way up the rest of the walls. Will have another look tonite & see how far they have got.




An update from the last post....

Had a call from our site supervisor on the Friday who left a msg on the mobile.. (a day after the post on here). Rang him back this week & organised a meeting. Coincidence, maybe, or not. Doesn't matter. All good now! Now I have someone to direct all my issues to... So far, Carlisle have done a fantastic job & can't fault them so none yet & hopefully none to follow.

There's just no stopping them...

Been a bit slack in the last couple of weeks, sorry guys, & haven't updated the blog regularly.

Unlike myself, the builders have been hard at it as you can see.

Since the last post the gutters & facias were the first things to be added, which was all done last week. Went to the site last weekend & all the roof tiles & battons had been delivered. Thought that might have kept the tilers busy all week but it was all finished by Tuesday night. Mustn't need to get up there any more as the scaffolding has been removed completely from the roof line. Think they seen the weather forecast for the rest of the week & knocked it up as quick as possible. Had to work on the golf handicap maybe.

Bricks & sand were also delivered at the start of the week. The house has been ¾ wrapped with insulation before they could start laying them.

A couple of other minor things have been done in this time as well... Glass has been added to the rear by-folds. Roof trusses over the alfresco finished.

It's amazing how much bigger the house looks now inside with it wrapped & nearly fully enclosed compared to just the frame. Each room is starting to take shape & you can picture how everything will be set up with it all finished.

One thing I am disappointed in is the lack of contact from Carlisle since the start of the site. I would have thought by now, at the stage we are at, that we would be introduced at least to the site supervisor, which hasn't happened. Luckily we only live 5 minutes away from the block, so I do go & check it constantly, but if this wasn't the case & I couldn't regularly pop in when I wanted to, I would have no idea on what is happening, or about to happen.... I dont think a phone call at least is too much to ask for, do you???

brickwork should hopefully start by the end of the week & it should start to look like a real house!!

Can you see the rainbow on the left hand side of the picture... Ahhh, isn't it pretty!!

It's grown over night!

Another visit to the house last night & as you can see by the pics it has doubled in size. The first floor went up on Wednesday & the windows & roof trusses went up yesterday (Thursday).

This is from the bottom corner of the block looking into our Rumpus/Theatre room on the ground floor & the 2 kids rooms & TV area on the first floor.

From our driveway this is our front door entrance & the balcony for the master bedroom. No garage yet, but I'm sure it won't be long.

This is taken from the 1st floor of the house being built behind us (shhh). They are roughly at the same stage as us but has taken 3 times as long...

It's starting to look like a house now...

Looks like the nails have turned up & they've started putting everything together. Not bad in a 24 hour period. I reckon if I drive past tonight, there will be another storey attached. No messing around for these guys..

This is a view from the top of the driveway looking at the front door & garage floor.

This is looking through the front door, down the hallway & meals area & out the back byfolds

This is down the side of the house with the formal lounge, family & rumpus / theatre room walls

View of the back of the house looking into the alfresco area.

We now have a frame in those red lines... (see previous post)

We have Wood!!!

The Mechano Set has arrived... Now all they have to do is put it together.







For those that don't know (or under the age of 30), a Mechano Set was a real toy on the shelves about 25 - 30 years ago. Like leggo, you could make things out of it but it was made of metal, not plastic. Hours & hours of fun for those that liked pulling things apart & putting them back together.


Anyway, the builders haven't let up again & doesn't look like they will in the next few weeks now all the materials are there, & some good weather ahead, there is no excuse.


Another thing that they are quick to get out of the way is the initial progress payment for the slab completion stage. I think the payment request was signed sealed & delivered as the cement trucks were leaving the site.


It's also good to see where all the walls will be going. Puts things into perspective....

Upgrade to 24 Cans!

Once again they (builders) have shocked us. Over the last couple of days since the last post it has been raining off & on, so didn't expect much to happen at the block. Was going past last night anyway so went & had a look by the off chance there's been activity....




.... & ahh yeah, there's been activity.

At this rate we'll be in by Xmas.. Wishful thinking?? Looking like March at this stage, everything going well, but we all know that isn't always the case. Touch wood.

12 cans...

...The equivilant to ½ a slab!!

As you can see the builders, once again have suprised us with more additions. In the last 2 days the framework for the slab has gone down & ready for the concrete to be poured. Going by todays weather they might hold off until tomorrow. Will have to check again tonight to make sure.

Now this is going to be tricky... The fall from the slab base to the fence is roughly 3 - 4 ft over a 4 meter distance. Might have to call in the experts for landscaping options. As it is a "thatched fence", we can't put in a retaining wall under it (that I know of). Maybe we can level it out with the retaining wall below the level of the slab?? (if at all possible). Will worry about it when I have to.

Any suggestions will be appreciated...

More pics...

Must have rained over the w/end... Strange white tree stump like objects coming up from no where... Yes, I know. It's just the plumbing. Still looks pretty cool. Temp fences gone up too. So unfortunately for the house being built behind us there is no access through our block. Shame (hahaha).

& We have the POWER!!! + a bit of the view of "Suburbia!!!

No complaints yet... Every time we have visited the block the builders have been & there have been changes. Looks like there might be a bit of rain this week so that will be the test..

Colour!

After many requests (& a quiet day at work) I've put together a pic of some of our colour choices... Shows our benchtops, cupbourds, wall, floor... you get the idea!

We have been very conservative in our choices, with warm cream tones. Will be doing a couple of feature walls after handover.. haven't decided on colours though.

Didn't have any pics of the carpet, guttering etc, but I'm sure in a few months time we will see them in a better perspective... actually on the house.