So close...

Well, we are nearing the end of our build now! In fact in two hours we are having our ' final walk through' - can't wait! It seems strange that something that has affected our lives for so long now will soon be over and we will soon be living on our own again as a family and in our dream house!
We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our new house, everything has come together better than we could ever have expected!

Although we had a very rocky start with our SS due to some earlier building issues (all of which have been rectified and we are very happy with now) we have since been pleasantly surprised with the help and support he has offered us throughout the rest of our build. I must say, anyone who knows us as a couple knows that we are both pretty picky. When things have not been quite right and we have advised our SS of our concerns, he has immediately addressed them and got the tradies back to fix the problem. On Monday, we had the sealant company come to do the silicone sealing around our wet areas. Naturally, we had some concerns about the colour sealant they would use as the grout in our bathrooms is grey and not white. I called our SS to ask if we could set up a meeting, sure enough we were invited to meet with the person applying the sealant. He went through the various colours and applied two he thought would look best so we could pick :)

So, I have some pictures taken of the house at 7am on Monday after our meeting. It was still quite dark so we got to see the house with some of the lights on.

Main bathroom

Study Nook

Kitchen

Laundry

And finally a picture of the house with the fences down!

On another note we have booked in for our flooring and carpet to be done once we get the keys. We finally decided on spotted gum timber flooring. Our good friends got the same floor laid just two weeks ago and it looks awesome. Hope ours looks just as good!

All painted

Things are really rolling along now since the last update. All the painting inside and out side of the house is now totally complete, and we are very happy with the colours we chose more than a year ago. The front door and timber work to the entry of the house have been done and looks good, even though it seems to be darker than we expected.

Our bench tops have gone in. They are currently covered over for protection, but what we have been able to see of them looks fantastic, particularly in the Laundry. All the wardrobes and electrical fit out is complete. The plumber is meant to be on site today to install all the tap wear, toilets and bathtub etc. On last glance, on one of many drive bys, the Air con had also arrived and been connected and installed. All in all there is not a lot now to complete before the big day, apart from some mirrors, door handles, sealing to the wet areas and a good clean throughout.

On another note we have been busy sourcing floor coverings and have decided on our carpet and spotted gum timber flooring. Lighting is the next little thing to finalise as well as the window coverings to the front rooms of the house, if we have any $$$ left. Quotes for the fencing are in the making and we are gearing up for some earthworks around the house as soon as we get hold of the keys. There's a lot happening behind the scene's at the moment in readiness for action stations in hopefully two or three weeks when it is FINALLY OURS!!

All Locked Up



It's been two and a bit weeks since the last update with the build and things are still continuing at a slow but steady pace. However we are at lock stage. The last couple of weeks has seen a few changes on the house mainly to do with the wet areas and kitchen.

The main bathroom, ensuite and laundry have been completely tiled and look impressive. It is still difficult to see how the tiles will look, as they still need a good clean and without proper lighting its hard to imagine the final appearance. Can't wait!

The Kitchen has been installed and I think looks better than we expected. The bench tops have not arrived yet but we have been assured this will happen in the next week or so. We cannot fault the quality and installation of the whole unit although on closer inspection we did notice one of the highly polished cupboard trims above the range hood had been scratched and chipped. We were quick to make the site supervisor and our client liaison office aware and we were informed that they were onto it and it would be replaced. The tiling for the splash back is yet to go on, as this cannot happen until the bench top goes in.

The Laundry cupboards have also gone in and look great. At this stage we cannot be happier with how it looks and how it will ultimately function as a usable laundry unlike our old one.

The Study nook and bedroom desk have also been installed. The only other things that have changed since the last update is that the front pillars have been rendered as well as the front and garage doors being installed. Apart from the gyrock above the garage door been split during the garage door installation which we were quick to point out and have rectified, the finishes to the doors and pillars look great. We also had an issue with some gyrock to one of the internal walls. It had a slight wave in it which was noticeable on close inspection. To MDJ credit they were quick to pull the affected area of gyrock down and repair the problem to our satisfaction.

Over the next couple of days should see the rectification of the brick work that we were unhappy with over the Christmas break as well as hopefully a start been made on the painting and installation of our long awaited Kitchen bench. Lets wait and see.   

Gyp-rocking along!

Well into the new year now and things have been taking shape steadily on the house over the last two or so weeks since the tradies returned from the Christmas break. The remainder of the eves were installed and the replacement timber beam that we thought had gone walk about over the holidays had returned to site and been installed over the front entry.

All the gyprock has been installed with the exception of a small section of ceiling and cornice to be pulled out and replaced inside a cupboard in the garage as it was out of square. The wet areas have had there first stage in water proofing and we have been informed they will be back to finish off towards the end of the week.

We noticed the carpenter has been on site and installed all the architraves around the doors and windows. We are guessing skirting boards will be next. All the door jams and frames have been squared up and properly secured to the house frames to my relief. Humes doors have also been on site and attached all the doors and we have been told that the garage door will arrive and be install early next week to coincide with the arrival of the kitchen and bathroom vanities.

On another note, the issue we had concerning the bricks has been dealt with at this stage. We were able to meet with the area supervisor and site foreman at the house to outline our concerns on the particular area of the house and they were more than happy to do what ever it took to resolve the problem and put our minds at ease. We appreciate the time given to take our concerns into consideration and have high hopes that the end result will meet our expectations. We will keep you posted.

In all, things are progressing positively and in the right direction and we are more than happy with how things are looking. Small problems and mistakes will no doubt continue to arise, as would happen in any build, but I think the key is the keep on top of them and make those responsible aware of them before the build progresses to a stage where it becomes an even bigger issue to resolve. Hats off to McDonald Jones over the last couple of days, we really appreciated the time taken to meet on site and the odd phone call out of the blue goes a long way too, let me tell you. Thankyou.    

New Year, New House!

Happy New Year everyone! With the Christmas holidays nearly out of the way, I thought was about time to update our blog and let you know where our building progress stands a few weeks on. 

As promised we had the electrical roughed in before Christmas, however we are still waiting for the front eaves and the pillars to be finished. You can see from the images below that the hard wood timber posts were fitted, but fitted with a sizeable gauge in the back of the timber! How anyone in his or her right mind would find this acceptable enough to fit in the first place is beyond me… Having said this, once we notified our PCI of this, who then spoke to our SS we were assured that this bit of hardwood timber would be replaced. True to their word it was… but after a week of sitting in our garage this piece of hardwood timber disappeared along with an excavator bucket load of sand. We were however, able to track the missing sand back to our neighbour’s newly poured slab! From the tracks that were left we could see that their building company had driven the excavator in through the fence to within a 1ft of our house. Unbelievable!

Anyway, we are guessing another replacement will turn up next week so that the pillars and eaves to the front of the house can be finished off. As stated before, the gyprocking will start around the middle of this month. We are looking forward to seeing how the house will look inside, so far all of our attention have been to the outside of the house.

On another note - our bricks got cleaned before Christmas. On the whole we were disappointed with the efforts of the brick cleaners (if they made any effort at all). It is obvious that the cleaning job has been a rushed one and that the pressure with which it has been done, has resulted in us now having a few cracked bricks, numerous chipped bricks and a fair amount of mortar blowout as well. We are in two minds about what to do because we don’t want to have bricks cut out here there and everywhere. We fear there will be an obvious difference between the existing bricks and the replacement bricks, should that be considered a solution. At the same time we are not happy with the current results and that the time was not taken in the first place to ensure a quality finish. Our brickies did a fabulous job on the brickwork of our place and it is so disappointing to see their efforts have been sadly undone. After spending many hours walking through McDonald Jones display homes it is clear that the quality of our brickwork does not match that of the display homes. We will keep you posted on this…

Lids on!

Its been another productive week on block with our roof being completed. The wet weather again through a spanner in the works on a number of instances during the week but to our surprise the roofing guys worked over the weekend and finished like we were promised.

We absolutely love the finished product and how the Mild Steel bricks work with the Woodland Grey roof. We even managed to be onsite over the weekend when it was raining, and hearing the noise of the rain on the roof is something we are looking forward to.

Our Site Supervisor rang during the week to give us an update on current progress. He told us that all the eaves and front pillars would be complete before Christmas as well as the bricks being cleaned and electrical roughed in. He said he could have started the gyprock, but with only a few weeks till Christmas, it would be too risky to leave the house unlocked over that period. So Gyprocking is apparently locked in for early January.

On another note, we have started the ball rolling and are awaiting a number of extra quotes on lighting and wiring, while all the timber and fibre board has been delivered and work is commencing today on the eaves. Look forward to the continuing progress!

Bricked & Guttered!

Its only been a week since our last update and we are happy to report the following has been completed:

• Brickwork (check) 
• Power meter (check) 
• Fascia (check) 
• Gutter (check) 
• Anticon Blanket and Roofing delivered (check)!!!

The completed brickwork and front piers really give some perspective and size to both the exterior and interior of the house. I'm also pretty happy to report some of the unused bricks left over will go to good use during the landscaping stage!

After a night of pouring rain which continued through the next day we decided to drop by the site to check out our castle and moat. To our amazement there was a little yellow rain coated tradie, hard at work installing the Fascia and Gutter. Commitment plus! Top Bloke! By the end of the day it was all done and dusted (more like mud really).

With the Anticon Blanket and Colour Bond sitting at the ready, it looks promising that sometime next week the lid will go on and if this weeks weather is anything is to go by, the gutters will get a good test as well!

Wait and see what happens!