Day 51 : Bricking Starts

photos taken on 14.03.12

Day 47 : Bricks Delivered

Our Austral Blackstone bricks have been delivered.

photos taken on 10.03.2012

Day 43 : Frames Erected; Windows Installed

Five days later... Wowsa! MCD wasted no time in installing our precious blue steel, it looks awesome! We secretly inspected the inside and noticed a dent on one small strip. They did not give us the chance to complain because on our next visit (which was probably the following day lols!) it was fixed. Truth is we couldn't complain yet because the visit wasn't official anyway hehe...

Day 38 : Frames Delivered

We've gone for a steel frame so we can get the colorbond roofing. Apparently if you choose a timber frame you can only go for tiled roofing. Below are the steel frames from MCD. We've heard of unfortunate situations where the frames were damaged upon delivery and we're glad it didn't happen to us. 

photos taken 01.03.2012

I'm Back :)

Been overseas since mid-Feb and came back 19th of March but didn't really had the chance to sit down and post some updates. During my absence hubby has been diligently visiting our site and updating me through Facebook. I can't believe how fast this is turning out to be - I was pleasantly surprised to come back to a fully erected frame! And today 5th May 2012, we were welcomed with contractors doing the internal painting (first coating) on overtime. How good is that?! At this point we are in the locked up stage    having completed the following stages - roofing, brickwork, windows, guttering, installation of internal linings and kitchen cupboards (excl bench top), ceramic tiling, installation of bathroom cupboards (excl bench top), start of painting. I intend to update my timeline in the next posts with pictures without the rubbish, i.e. my nonsense stories (teehee!).

I would also like to share that during this time we have met some of our nice neighbours and get to chat with them for quite a bit. Our neighbour on the right side is about to move in the next few weeks and they had consulted us about the fencing. We were also planning on the same EZY clip fencing so that was really easy breezy. Taking our cue from our neighbour, we have also started contacting our other neighbours (left side and behind) and proposed the same fencing. To our delight, the left-side neighbour quickly replied with a YES! Indeed love begets love hehe. We are just basically waiting for the neighbour at the back to reply, which is understandable because they haven't started the build yet.

I am happy to say that up until today there is no major hiccup with our construction and I hope and pray that it will be a smooth ride until the completion. We've just met with our SS Peter and we are comfortable that he is looking after our interest. He wouldn't give us a completion date but with the rate it's going, we are hoping it's end June latest :). Our flooring installation is scheduled on 20th May so if all goes well, I'm confident that we will be on target. 

Enjoy the timeline/pictures in the next few posts.... 

Day 28 - Progress Payment for Slab

Today, as expected we received the Invoice for our progress payment for the slab.  Not too exciting though because it means that our construction loan will start once our lender pays MJH meaning our mortgage repayment will increase a bit.

Haven't heard from my SS so I guess there are no major developments on our site.

That's all for now.

Day 25 - Checking out the Curing Process

Today, I dropped by our site to check the curing process of our slab.

Everything seems to be going okay and no major changes since the slab was poured.  As for the external plumbing, I didn't know how to check if this is done.

Anyway, the fence was open so I was able to go around the slab to have a general idea of how big... or i guess how small our house is. and also to inspect if there are big cracks on the slab.

Our driveway seem to be flat from the road going to the garage.

Enjoy the pics.

Day 22: Surprise Surprise... We have a SLAB....

We all know that the weather in Sydney has been absolutely wet for the past few weeks.  We were lucky that out piering went through last week even of the weather.  

Anyway, this week I wasn't expecting our slab will go through because I was regularly checking the weather online and all I can see was rain, rain, rain and even thunderstorm... so I wasn't really expecting our slab.  Also, I never got a phone call from my site supervisor the last few days.

So today, I dropped my SS a message to get some updates on when our slab will be poured. His reply was "It was rebooked for today".  What?  So, we were not informed about the schedule of our slab which they will normally do.  Anyway, I didn't even argue about not being informed of the schedule but was kinda excited because there is a slight chance of getting our slab poured today.  

So I waited.. waited.. and waited... then at around 4PM today, my site supervisor called and happily informed me that our slab went through.. what a SUPRISE for us...  so I rushed to our land after office to check out our freshly laid slab..  and WOW.. WE HAVE A SLAB!!! 

I guess this is the first major milestone in our build.. This also means that we will see an invoice for our first progress payment in the mail in a few days. 

The only thing that we need to do is to remove the excess soil around the house ($$$$ kaching!! kaching!!!) before they put up the frames which is approximately in 2 weeks time.  

Now we can tell, that our build is slowly getting there.

Day 16: Drainage Plumbing Done; Waffle Pods & Steel Mesh Delivered!

It's been kinda stressful week for us. MDJ discontinued our flooring of choice which means we'd have to go back again for reselection. Hmmm could it be that the profit margin with our brand of choice is not high enough for MDJ? They didn't elaborate on the reason, just said it's for our own interest. Not really buying that lols! Ooopsss i might get in touble here so I'll leave it at that:). We saw this opportunity to explore our options again and  much to our delight MDJ is open to cancellation of flooring without charges. We then set off last weekend to visit suppliers for laminates, floating timber, bamboo flooring, etc. and we found some really sweet deals. There is no doubt we would have saved around 4K or more if we source the flooring elsewhere, but after much thought and discussion we jumped the gun and just went ahead with MDJ. We didn't really liked any other laminates, so without batting an eyelid we went with the new craze that is bamboo flooring. It's said to have a very high janka rating for hardness (way harder than timber) and will definitely be hard on our pockets too (what with another 3.4k variation)! Right at the bottom is the picture of our new flooring - coffee color! It's the most popular bamboo color, we would have gone for something a little bit non-conventional but the other color we liked (brushed antique) might be too rustic for the theme that we have in mind (which is quite frankly as clear as muddy water right now hehe).

And since we are in the vicinity of our property, we decided to drop by and have a look at the drainage plumbing etc that was supposed to be done yesterday. And surprise surprise, waffle pods and the steel mesh have also been delivered! This is taking faster than expected. We should be getting the slab done next week depending on the weather. Woooooooot!!!

Day 14: Piering And Slab Framing

After 6 days and 3 cancellations between, piering was finally carried out today yeyyy!!! It's been raining almost everyday, what a crazy summer. We couldn't take time off work and so we had to rely on our Site Supervisor (SS) to look after our interest on piering measurement. And unfortunately, the inevitable has happened - we exceeded our allowance by 24.4 lineal meter which will cost us another 2K :(

Day 9: Fence and Portaloo Installed!

Day 1: Site Cutting

Just when we are pressed for time to meet the start of construction deadline, our mobile lender had to arrange for revision of our document due to a mistake they made on the mortgage fees. We were so close in getting that approval before 2011 ends but it's just wasn't meant to be. The heavens said we are too eager and we need to slow down lols! On 3rd Jan 2012, our mobile lender advised us that our loan have been approved-in-principle. At this point we thought we are ready to rumble, but apparently we still need to obtain the "Authority to Commence" letter from the bank before construction can commence. Ha! Too many steps, it's insane hehe!

And finally on my birthday 9th Jan, this much awaited letter was finally obtained and on the very same day our file was released for construction. Yey!!! This called for a double celebration so I and hubby went out for a seafood platter which was soooo good - lobster, oyster, scallops, prawn, squid. Double yum!!!

Sixteen days later, we received an SMS from MDJ saying that today, 25 Jan 2012 marks the start of work on the site! We couldn't wait for our respective day jobs to come to an end so we could drop by our land. We braved the rain yesterday and below is the pic of what we were welcomed with. I can't wait to see the whole process unfold in the coming days and months! I'll leave you with these before and after photos. Happy Australia Day!!!

A Piece of Land Down Under

Pegged 21 Jan 2012

Day 1, Site Cutting - 25 Jan 2012