What's a picture without a frame?

Shayne, the construction manager, left us a message yesterday that the frame is going up this week, and should be completed by Saturday. Everyone who's built says, 'you'll be amazed at how quickly the frame goes up' and also, that we should get a much better 'feel' for the size of the rooms once the frame is in place. Can't wait!

We have slab!

God is good! All the time!
We finally have a slab, and a beautiful one at that. (Well, I think so.)
Bizarrely, the house seems much smaller than what we anticipated, however friends have commented that this is quite common- because your eye has no stopping point or something?!
However, I got out my measuring tape and measured, and it seems pretty accurate vs. the plan. Well, maybe 10mm out, but then I doubt my measuring is that accurate.
The back and side yards are much smaller than we thought, or at least it seems so... thanks to our oh so lovely tree at the front, which pushed the building envelope back. Oh well.
And, the depth of the slab at the back is 850mm, which means the house as a whole is quite elevated. Which is not a bad thing- should look good, and also give a good view of the forest at the back.
Here's Luka, running across the slab, in what will be the front bedroom.

And here's Abi, writing her name on the slab! For the archaeologists to find in 1000 years...

Let's play spot the difference...

18/03/2010
View from the rear (north east) aspect of the block.




























And here's the same view from the 4th of April, 2010. Hmmm... it's cloudier?

Maple syrup with those waffles?

We have the waffles (big styrofoam blocks) which form the basis of the waffle slab, and the wire meshing that stabilises the concrete. We were promised that the slab would actually be poured before Easter... and as we've come to start expecting, this did not materialize! So we are assuming (in the absence of anyone from the builder actually updating us) that the slab will be poured this week... maybe even tomorrow?
This is the view from outside our ensuite, looking into the bathroom. Our bedroom is in front of that (going away from you). To the left you see some of the pipes for the kitchen.

Abi, standing outside what would be the living room. (North side of the house.) The pipes in the background are the main bathroom and laundry.

The view from the back verandah (alfresco area) into the living room. Picture timber sliding doors at the back of the deck.

We have pipes!

The pipes have been laid in for water in the house. It's interesting to walk amongst them and imagine where the rooms are. We're hoping this means the slab will be laid soon. Pipes are in on Tuesday 16 March, supervisor estimates the slab should be in Friday.

This is Abi, standing in the main bathroom.

Not only do we have pipes, but we have rock! We spoke to a couple of guys who were digging out a block a few houses down (which had many large piles of large rocks). They said that it looked like we had just about 1 cubic metre of rock, which is the 'tipping point' for getting charged for excessive rock. No word from the builder yet as to their opinion! We put a $10K allowance in the contract just in case, however we don't want to use too much of that, as there have been a number of 'necessary' variations (most of which, unforeseen by us, but foreseeable by the builder) which we'll need that stash for. (These include steps from the garage to account for a 600mm fall towards the back of the block, and having to move the sewer point because it was under the garage site.)

The most exciting phone call of the year

Well, so far, anyway! Martin, our site supervisor, called to introduce himself on Friday. He let us know that (all going according to plan, of course) that the house will be pegged out on Wed, then the plumbing and electrical pipes etc. laid down. At some point (before this?), a fence goes up, toilets get delivered, and the slab goes down. (We have no idea when all that other stuff will happen, or in what order- not too conversant with the fine details.) Anyway, Martin sounds competent and experienced (20 years in the industry, most recently with Simonds), and he has a sense of humour. Let's see what happens Wednesday - hopefully it will stop raining by then!

And here are the plans!

This is the bush at the back of our block, behind the laneway. We're hoping this will never be developed!

Kitchen specs refinalised!

Had an urgent call from the builder on Monday to supply our kitchen appliance specs as they were putting in the order with the kitchen cabinet maker and needed to know oven dimensions (to leave a space in the bench). (Funny how 'urgent' only applies to requests from the builder, not from the client!) 
So Tony (my husband) spent Tues am at Clive Peeters... we ended up with an Ilve 90cm Siena (T90CCMP) freestanding oven + X39 canopy rangehood, and a Bosch SMS63M08AU 14 place setting dishwasher. Very good choices on Tony's behalf! I will be very excited to use these, in about 8 months from now! Especially my fish burner and rotisserie! Woo hoo! And the great thing is that Clive Peeters will store them for us in their warehouse until we need them.
On Wed am, the builder called and said we had to finalise our splashback colour "today". (I thought we had chosen this back in September, but apparently no record of it!) 
So, final kitchen colours:

• cabinets - WilsonArt Slate Grey (P91) [at the time when we did our original specs, they didn't supply Laminex unfortunately]
• benchtops - Caeserstone Osprey (3141) - whitish with small grey-tinged and beige 'flecks'
• splashback - "Vapour" - a cool white with a slight hint of grey

At the moment, our paint colour for the walls will be Dulux Lexicon Quarter, which is also a cool white. (Tony is painting it.) Door frames, architraves, skirting etc. will be (I think) Lexicon Half. Ceiling will be 'ceiling white'!
We are organising our own timber floorboards, and at the moment think we will install 130mm wide Blackbutt boards, natural grade (with all of the streaks and knots). (Slightly wider than normal, which is about 85mm.) We are looking to stain these a matt grey colour.
Carpet (through the builder, via Carpet Court Melton) is Oyster Bay solution dyed nylon, 46 - Natural Canvas. (A cool toned beige-y off white-ish with a tinge of... you guessed it... grey!)
We also marked on the plan where we wanted some extra stud walls (also called noggins?) behind the plaster, in the bathrooms, toilet and laundry, to make affixing things to the wall (like towel rails and the dryer) easier. (Again, we had done this back in September when we signed our contract, but guess that got lost!)
I was told Monday that our site supervisor would have our file yesterday, and make contact with me once he's had a look through it. All of the orders for materials went out on Tuesday, apparently. So does this mean we are making some progress?! We can only hope!

Dramas and delays thus far!

Hopefully from here on in, the process to building our little oasis in Eynesbury will happen smoothly. We're really looking forward to living there! We have met our lovely neighbours, and (via a mutual friend) another family who's land is settling in Sept. Every time we drive out (yes, to admire our empty block!), we congratulate each other on our decision to move to Eynesbury. It's so peaceful and beautiful, we can't wait to live there! Look forward to posting more positive updates, but here's the (kind of disappointing) story so far...

24/08/09 Soil report received

21/09/09 Initial drawings presented by Acquire Designs (via Greybox)

29/09/09 Building contract signed with Greybox

Developer approval received mid-late November

02/12/09 "Final" working drawings presented by Acquire/Greybox, incl. kitchen, bathroom and wardrobe elevations

14/12/09 Building permit issued

21/12/09 Western Water notified Greybox that the sewer point was beneath the garage and had to be relocated

18/01/10 Greybox notified us in writing that the sewer point had to be relocated

04/02/10 Sewer point relocated (subcontracted by Greybox)

05/02/10 Greybox notifies us by phone that the surveying pegs are missing. We go to the block, find two. Greybox asks us to organise the re-establishment survey, which I do.

11/02/10 Block resurveyed by Peter Bennett (great guy, very quick!) Greybox notified in writing 12/02/10.

17/02/10 Western Water issues PIC number (after my phone call to chase them)

01/03/10 Greybox finally responds to our repeated phone calls and emails re: next steps. Says:

...waiting on Joe to confirm everything and get your plans ready to send out, at that point it is then passed onto me and I will then send them out to the suppliers and trades. Your file will be passed onto the supervisor on Wednesday... when I do find out I will pass on their details to you.

Unless the Lord builds the house...

Yes, it's a labour in vain! Still waiting for final contract to sign, still waiting for land loan approval, still waiting for construction pre-approval... who would have thought it would be this hard! Next time (if there is a next time), a volume builder like Metricon!