No more progress this week

Despite beautiful weather, no-one was on site after Tuesday when the materials were dropped off.   I was really disappointed, especially after so much action the last couple of weeks. I know it's the way it is in building, c'est la vie!

Anyway, I have been assured that carpenters will be back on site tomorrow (Monday 19/8). Looking forward to my visit tomorrow afternoon. Beautiful Ekka weather here in Brisbane at the moment, long may it last!

It also looks like the western boundary work will commence this week (or maybe next), which is exciting. I've explained in another post, however our neighbour cut into the block along the boundary for their build, and have been planning to retain once into their house. They were going to do this independently.

However, our plans changed, and we asked if we could retain the height of the wall to the edge of the covenant line, so that we have a flat backyard. So our boundary wall is now a joint one. It will be concrete block wall starting at 2.4m at it's highest and settling not far down at 2.2m. Once the wall is in we will build the fence on top, probably sitting at about 1.2m high.

This is the area I'm referring to:

This photo shows the boundary to be retained. We won't see the retaining wall from our side, however it will make a huge difference to our site.  

The area to be retained runs up the to the RHS of this photo, along the line of our temporary fencing.  It will meet up with our existing retaining wall.  

From where I am standing to take this photo, the block will run flat out to the wall, once retained to the left. I think it will make a huge difference once the block is leveled out to that corner point. 

Looking down along the boundary to be retained. 

If you can see it, the wall will run along the yellow string to the left of the cut.

I hope I can post many more photos this week :) Fingers crossed for great weather! 

Have a wonderful week!

Bearers, joists and flooring have arrived

The bearers, joists and flooring arrived yesterday at about 9.30am. I ran out to the block after work to see if anything was happening, and the materials were all piled on the garage slab. Mark and team were termite proofing the block wall - our laundry wall will be hard against the block wall.

I assume nothing is happening today as it's the Ekka show holiday today. Hopefully tomorrow we see some bearers and joists go up and the flooring. Mark thought it would take a couple of days for the bearers and then a couple of days for the flooring. Then the garage frame and lower floor frame goes up next week. I REALLY can't wait to see our first framing go up. Bring on next week! 

Happy Ekka holiday everyone :) 

Piers / Stumps completed

DH and I were out on Saturday looking at a new rental (we have to move rentals before the build is complete - ouch!), when we saw a huge billow of smoke in the direction of our build. We're weren't intending to visit the block, however the smoke prompted a visit. Luckily the fire was still a fair distance, though our block afforded a decent view! The upside was that we were able to admire our lovely stumps! It's great to walk through and start to get a feel for how the house will end up.

Not much more to say, just lots of pictures to share. They say it all!:

The biggest pier on the block! This beast was impressive in real life! 

This one shows the bush fire over on the next ridge. The smoke was much more dense live.

These supports the lounge room, dining room and back verandah. Hard to get a sense of perspective yet. DH and I walked through the rooms to try to gauge the dimensions and height. 

These rest under our kitchen and laundry area. My clothesline will be erected on the rights, against the fence.

Our lower level will sit above the level of these piers. 

This week: floors and framing (I hope!). Mark said the timber should be onsite by Tuesday, fingers crossed. Look forward to sharing more soon. And long live the beautiful Ekka weather! (Brisbane Ekka is on this week for those who aren't in Qld, short for Exhibition. It's like the Sydney Royal Easter Show. Public holiday Wednesday as a result, so no work on Wednesday. However August brings winds and beautiful, warm sunny days with the Ekka - perfect for building!!). 

Have a wonderful week one and all!

We are out of the ground!

Our first stumps are in and so we are now officially out of the ground! I'm so excited!

I didn't go onto the site as the guys were just shutting up when I arrived, however I managed to take a few shots through the fence:

Our fantastic Site Supervisor Mark on the left

In this picture you can see the "H" stumps, which support the back deck. The remaining stumps support the house.

Tomorrow Mark and Craig and team will finish off the stumps and then next week we start on the flooring, then the first frames. Can't wait!

On another note, I am exceedingly grateful that DH and I have gone with Garth Chapman. The team has been exemplary in every respect, and I can't recommend them highly enough. They have been so thorough and work to achieve the best outcome for us. While our build has hit a few hurdles, the team has been courteous and informative, and the wonderful Steve has gone above and beyond the call of duty to get things done for us. And he has put up with me calling him often (very often - he really deserves a medal). I've heard so many terrible stories, and while I'm very grateful that's not our experience, I wanted to put a happy story out there. These guys are fantastic!

Happy weekend everyone!

Pier digging has started!

I popped out to the block this afternoon to show dad the block (he and mum are visiting for a couple of weeks from NSW) and the digger was still in action. We were able to watch our builders drill some holes, and I was able to have a chat to one of our lovely builders, Craig. He explained some of the surveyor markings for us - the ones I remember are that the blue crosses are for steel posts and the pink crosses for the timber posts.

Here are some photos from this afternoon:

Love seeing the dirt / rock as it is shaken off the drill 

The lovely Craig

Craig avec digger!

So to tomorrow - there will be more digging and hopefully the first posts going in. Early next week we should start to see some flooring and then (drumroll), the frame! You can't tell I'm a little bit excited.

One of my other house related jobs today is to pick up our sink, ordered about 6 weeks ago. We have bought the black Schock sink from Abey:

At first I wanted a butlers sink, however we ultimately preferred this one. It won out on size and functionality. What I particularly love is that it has anti bacterial properties and dirt can't adhere to it. I'm hoping it will prove easier to keep clean! 

Our beautiful retaining wall!

A retaining wall has never looked as good to me as the one on our block does now. It means progress and that our house build will be starting again this week. I'm very excited and can't quite believe it.

I went back to the block every day last week to check the progress of the wall. This is where we started:

And this is what happened last week (Wednesday 31 July to Friday 2nd):

These posts go 3 metres into the ground! 

And voila, we have a retaining wall at last! :

Not sure what has happened to that single missing sleeper in the middle, however I'm assuming it will be added in ... I will follow it up later this week if not.

Standing on the site, the height of of the wall is really quite deceptive. The wall looks much higher than it should be to level out the building platform. We think it will look very different once filled in and flattened.

We can't fill in the western corner of the wall (in the photo above) until the side retaining is completed. This is due to start in the next couple of weeks. Our neighbours have organised the side retaining wall as it was initially part of their plan in designing their house. They cut in approx 2.6 m into their block to build their house.

However, as our needs changed and we were required to build this back retaining wall, we have subsequently asked if we can retain the height of their wall to the corner of our boundary to give us a flat space. Our neighbours have been great about it, and very happy to accommodate our changes.We will pay for our component but have the one person complete the wall at the one time. A win win! I'm looking forward to seeing it done mostly to visualise the space we will end up with. We can't put up the fence on that side either until the wall is completed!

So today out excess soil should have been removed and tomorrow the surveyor needs to re-peg the site. Then Wednesday, the piers should be dug and some real action starts!

I hope to share some more pictures soon. Have a great week!