It glows...

This is our house yesterday as the sun was setting... I really love how the bricks light up in the late afternoon sun!!

I wasn't too excited about the limited range of bricks that we had to choose from (limited in that we had decided not to upgrade on bricks). All of the bricks that I really liked were from category 5 and 6 and I didn't dare ask what it would cost to upgrade... In the end it came down to two choices, both were reddish, and we made an 'on-the-spot' decision to go with the Red-Gum (from Austral). I liked the choice well enough, but didn't expect them to look as good as they do.

I can't wait for the garden to grow a bit more to hide the great big windows though... (I have been wondering if getting them tinted might make them look better.)

Roof and bricks almost done!

The brickies were hard at work when we went to check on the house on Saturday afternoon. Apparently they would have finished on Friday but the rain foiled their plans. When we rocked up they only had the section above the main bedroom window (left front window) and the doorstep and window sills to go. They would have finished shortly after we left.

The roof tiles are mostly finished with only the ridge sections (capping?) to go and then a few tiles where the safety barrier is sitting.

Here are the last of the bricks going on.




We spied something else that was new.. the bath has been delivered

Buzzing with activity...

We dropped by our house yesterday and it was a hive of activity!!

The roof tiles (which were delivered on Wednesday) were going on and the brickies were powering along with less that 2 half walls to go.

Our SS says that he's booked the plaster for the end of next week so we should be at lock up about a week after Easter.





Main bedroom at the front of the house






The nifty escalator thingamy that they use to get the tiles up onto the roof...

Roof tiles have arrived...

On my visit yesterday evening I discovered that the roof tiles have been delivered and the roof safety barrier (I hope you can work out what I mean) has been installed!

The brickies have finished the garage and the left side of the house (looking from the front). They've done the bottom section of the right hand side of the house and the back, and they've started on the upper section of the back of the house. They've also made a start on the front and are up to the right side of the front porch. We're getting there!

We have a meeting with the site supervisor and building CSO this afternoon so that we can meet them. This meeting usually happens before construction starts, but as our house was started very quickly after settlement we are doing it now instead.

OK so what you really want is photos, so here they are (taken on my phone at 7pm so the light was not kind to me)...


Back wall (oops - a bit blurry)


Looking in through the laundry door


Looking down the righ hand wall from the back yard


This section (living room, kitchen, lounge and garage wall) is complete



This is the front of the house so far


And lastly... our tiles

According to our spies...

According to our spies (well alright, the spy is Bryan dropping into the site at 9.30pm last night on his way home from work) that the bricking is progressing...

He tells me that the rear wall of the garage is done and that the left wall (looking from the street) and back wall are done halfway up (up to the height where scaffolding is required) and the part of the right wall is also at this point.

And our tile selection appointment has been booked. They originally wanted to book us in for May (MAY! :o ) but thanks to some swift-talking from Bryan, he's managed to book it for the Friday before we go away (to get married!). He's promised them that we'll be quick and that we'll have our selections sorted before we get there... well it's not really a lie... we have been in and made some selections but it all comes down to the price. We're going to go in an look again before the appointment to make sure we still like what we chose last year.

This is what we had in mind...

Pictures from the weekend...

Here are the photos from our visit to the house on Saturday...

The fascias and gutters...




They've finished the side wall of the garage...


...and they've started on the back garage wall and the walls outside the lounge and kitchen...


Here I am giving Tyler (our Weimaraner) a walk through... "over there is the kitchen - you'll have to stay out of there..."


One of Bryan's 'arty' photos... looking through the front door and up through the roof trusses...


...and then there's this...




There are two 50 cent pieces that have been put into the brickwork of the garage wall (in the mortar). I'm not sure what this is about... If you could shed some light on this I'd really appreciate it!

Gutters, fascias and fridges....

Our gutters and fascias were put on today (yes Saturday!!). The colour looks good against our bricks too (lucky! it's a bit late to change if we didn't like it...).

The bricking is also continuing but there's still a long way to go yet... We might have to reduce our visits back down to once a week - that way we'll be impressed with the progress. This week we've managed to go almost everyday and it seems not much has been done (which is wrong because there has been progress - just not as fast as the slab and frame...)

We did get some pictures today but they're on my phone and I can't download them on this PC. Hopefully I'll remember to put them up on Monday.

Tomorrow (oops, it's past midnight, so I mean today) I'm heading into Melbourne to a warehouse sale looking for a fridge. That's if I can find a good bargain, that we can afford and it's fits into the fridge alcove in the new house. We didn't really think about this being a problem when we OK'd the plans - should be fine though. Failing that we're off to the second-hand fridge place in Geelong... it's time to replace the 2 fridges we have as together they are putting our electricity bills through the roof (one fridge is too cold and freezes everything (not good for beer in glass bottles let me tell you) and the other isn't sealing (neither fridge nor freezer) and the fridge man says that new seals just won't cut it...) so we think it's time...

Brickie has started!

I nearly didn't stop by the block last night (only a passing thought that I dismissed just as quickly!) because I really didn't expect to see any progress. Why?... it rained on and off for the morning and I felt sure that would have put a stop to the work.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that some work had been done however. Not a lot, but just enought to get a feel for how our bricks will look, and I am very happy so far.






I still can't help but feel a bit disappointed that I didn't get to see more progress, but I'm sure when Bryan gets home from work this afternoon he'll have photos showing that lots of work has been done today... I hope...

The fascias and gutters have now been delivered, and I also found this...


Bryan asked if I'd checked to see what had been thrown at it, but I had to admit that I didn't even think to check. It does look like someone's thrown a rock (or perhaps a brick - there are plenty!) at it.

Bricks and wrapping...

All wrapped in white...


Windows in place (bedroom on left - main bathroom on the right with th obscure glass)


Looking from the rear yard (window on left is a bedroom, door in the middle is the laundry door and to the right is the living room)


Looking in through the front door


The garage


Looking across the front of the house


Looking into the living area of the house - across the side yard






Our Red Gum bricks

Minor Update...

Bryan stopped by the build-site on his way to work and has called in with the following report (see how hungry I am for details!!)

1. The windows have been put in - and yes our front windows are correct (now... the SS tells me that the company that pre-fabs the timber framing did stuff up the window measurements but these sections were redone and all is fixed);
2. We've been wrapped - I'm waiting for the photos to see what colour we are now;
3. The bricks have arrived - Bryan was a bit concerned that they weren't the right colour but we have rung the SS and both he and the supplier have confirmed that they are right - we'll have to wait and see how it pans out when the brickie starts tomorrow.

Bryan has taken photos but we'll have to wait until tonight for those. In the meantime, here are our external colours. I don't have an image of how they'll all look together apart from what's in my head and so far I haven't worked out how to download that - the USB cable just isn't doing it...

This is our facade (flipped so that the garage is on the left)

Our bricks - Red Gum by Austral with natural (grey) rolled mortar joints. Not our favourite, but this is about the only one we liked from the standard range and I really couldn't see the point in paying extra $$ for bricks!! (plenty of other things we'd rather spend our money on...)

Roof tiles - Barramundi in the Tudor Style from Monier (CSR Roofing)

Garage door - sectional lift with remote - in this style but in a dark charcoal colour - called monument (below)Colorbond Monument will be used for garage doors, gutters and fascias)


Window Frames - black
(it's just black - you don't need a picture of that surely!! :) )

Front door - Paperbark