Construction Update - Week 16 - Fixing is Complete

I got a call from our site supervisor on Friday last week to let us know that the Fixing stage was complete.  It's nicer to get a phone call before the arrival of the invoice.

Anyway, we had a little poke around on the weekend.  It was pouring rain, so we did not stay long.

Updates include the installation of our bathroom, powder-room and kitchen bench-tops (except for the kitchen island bench for some reason)

• All doors are now hung
• All architraves are now fastened
• The garage roof has been completed
• Cornices installed above the kitchen cupboard bulkheads

According to our site supervisor, the painters will be starting next week.

Here are a couple of photos.  I didn't get a chance to take any from outside, due to the rain.

With the roof now on, I can get a better feel for the size of the garage, which we have extended to the property boundary.



Living room area (not a lot of change this week)

Kitchen area (again, not a lot of change, other than the finishing of the bench-tops and cornices around the cupboard bulkheads)

 

Woo-hoo!  Our bath has arrived

Construction Update - Week 15 - Doors and Architraves

Not a big update this week.

More work this week was done on the interior fittings, with a lot more doors now hung and architraves fastened around windows and doorframes - still a few to go, but I would say about 80% complete.

On the exterior, the fascia and guttering around the alfresco are now installed.

I'm still not sure about the final colour for the front rendering, but I have not had time to check the contract.

All the usual pics are below.  Videos as well this week, so you can marvel at the soft-closing kitchen drawers, as well as what must be the slowest-closing cupboard in history.  Enjoy.

From the Front

From the Front

From the Rear



From the Rear

Here is something I had forgotten about - during our contract meeting, our Porter Davis consultant had told suggested that we put extra storage in the island bench.  And here it is...

And here is a movie!  Slow-closing kitchen drawers!  oooohhh-ahhhhh

And here is another movie, this time showing the slowest closing cupboard door in history. Spoiler alert(!), if you can't sit through the whole video (and let's face it, who would have time), I'll let you know that it ends with the cupboard actually closing.



Upstairs Master bedroom, with doors, skirts and architraves

Construction Update - Week 14 - Kitchen, Cabinets and Rendering

Another busy week on site this week and it is evident that several trades have been at work at different times of the week.  Progress this week includes:

• Installation of the kitchen cabinets and kitchen island bench
• Installation of the laundry cabinet, bathroom and ensuite cabinets
• Several doors have been hung and architraves fastened
• The battens that will hold the ceiling for the garage and the alfresco have been hung
• Rendering of the front entrance

I got a call from our site supervisor on Friday, giving me a general update.  He believes that the kitchen fittings and doors will be installed before the end of the week, after which the painters will commence.  This all seems blindingly fast to me, but by his reckoning, the fitting is actually running slowly.  He said the tradie he uses is "old school" (whatever that means) and things take a little bit longer.  Anyway, by the brief look I had on the weekend, it seems to be a quality job.

The rendering is the only thing that is a worry - it is much lighter that what we were expecting, so I will be checking the contract to see what we asked for.  It has been eight months since our colour-selection appointment, so we have completely forgotten what we were thinking when we made the selections.

Anyway, here are the pics



From the Front, with Rendering.  I've no idea if this is the colour we chose...
 

From the Front

From the Rear

 

From the Rear


My wife was working on the weekend, so I had to take the sprogs with me when I was poking around on site.  Not something I would recommend as building sites are actually quite dangerous.  But when we pulled up at the front and they saw their new house, they were just too excited.  There was no way they were just going to sit in the car, while I had a look around.

Anyway, introductions are in order, so from left to right, here is "Chuggalugs", "What-wait-for-me!" and "Buggalugs".

Panorama Shot from Living Room with the Rumpus Room on Left and Kitchen and Dining Room to the Right
 

Panorama shot from Dining Room with Living Room and Rumpus Room on the left and Kitchen on the right
 

Panorama shot from Kitchen, with Dining Area on left and Living Area on the right
 

Panorama shot of Master Bedroom - We have doors!
 

Panorama shot of upstairs Living Area - More Doors



Ensuite Bathroom Cabinet - I have no recollection of choosing this.  Note the bench-top currently has a sheet of MDF to protect it



Bathroom vanity cupboard

Construction Update - Week 13 - Stairs, Bi-Folds and More

This has clearly been a busy week on site.  The first and most obvious development is that the scaffolding is gone, so now we can really see what the house is going to look like from the outside.

 

Also, the roof framing for the garage and the alfresco are complete.

 

The rear bi-fold doors have finally been installed - I presume it had to wait until the scaffolding was removed before the tradies could get proper access.

 

The internal doors, architraves and skirts have all been delivered, as have the cabinets for the laundry, bathrooms and kitchen.

 

But, for me, the most exciting development is the installation of the staircase.

 

Here are some pics!

 

From the Front

 

From the Front

From the Rear

From the Rear

The Bi-Fold Doors

The Staircase

The Staircase

 

The Staircase

Panorama shot from Kitchen with Dining Area (left) and Living Area (right)

Panorama shot from Rumpus Room with hall and staircase (left) and living area (right)

Panorama shot from Living Room with Rumpus Room on left and Kitchen / Dining Area on Right
 

Panorama shot from Dining Area with Living Area and Rumpus Room on left and Kitchen on Right

Upstairs Living Area