Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Piering is done

It was not looking good for the piering to go ahead this Wednesday. On Tuesday, we had some rain during the day and then a lot more heavy rain in the evening.

Although I thought it would not go ahead, I couldn't help but drive past the site on Wednesday morning on my way to work. Much to my pleasant surprise the guys were there with the digging equipment!

The weather was nice to us and the rain held off all morning! This allowed all the bore holes to be dug. I then met with our SS (a nice guy) on site at lunchtime and inspected the holes and signed off on the piering sheet (this shows the depth of each hole which will then be billed).

Shortly after the concrete truck arrived and commenced filling the holes. Yay, foundations are partially laid. Next step is the plumbing and then the slab.

My camera was playing up today so no pics of the many holes. Will have some more after the plumbing, of which is booked for tomorrow (weather permitting again).

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Excavation Done, Retaining Walls needed

On the weekend we went out to see the excavation. There wasn't a lot of ground work needed as our slope from from to back is only a 40cm fall.



The only problem we have now found is that with the cut/fill to level the land they have cut into the land at the back (as opposed to filling the front) so we will need to put in a retaining wall along the side and across the back.


We think that this will be okay though as in our landscaping plan we have a row across the entire rear fenceline of shurbs trees so we can put the retaining wall in front of that and will just look like a raised planter bed.

Bore holes and Concrete piering is booked in for Wednesday. Am hoping this will go ahead as rain is forecast from Tuesday, fingers crossed the rain holds off.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Excavation finally started

After 8 sunny days of no action on site the excatator is there today completing the cut and fill. I thought I would be so excited (as I have been for each step so far) but what I have actually found myself feeling this time is frustrated. Why frustrated??

1) Because if this had been done more timely, it could have been the piering being done today instead of the initial cut/fill; and
2) because after getting excited about the peg out being done 8 days ago, I have then waited this long for the excavation and I can't help but wonder how long it will really take to get to the next step?

I have to find a happy medium with my feelings.

Okay back to the plus side - the excavation has started!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

No action yet

I have been so happy, there has been no rain since Wednesday and sunny since Thursday. I was hoping to see the site a buzz wit activity today. Unfortunately no. I contacted my CSR and she said the ground needs to dry out some more first. Will have too keep fingers crossed for more sun!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Site Peg-out

The rain has finally stopped (for now at least) and to my pleasant surprise the site peg out was completed the very next day. This needed to be done so they can start work on site. I haven't heard from my SS so not sure when the cut/fill will be done but fingers crossed maybe today or early next week.

Rain Please hold off for a while!

Front and Rear pegs for cut/fill:


Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Tile selections completed

Yesterday I had the tile appointment.

Even though we had been out and done a pre-selection we had decided most likely not to go with what we had seen during pre-selection because of this I decided to go out early to have a good look before the appointment started. This was a good idea.

I ended up ruling out all our preselection tiles apart from gloss white on the bathroom walls. I had quite a helpful sales person so it made it easier.

Bathrooms:
I upgraded the main bathroom and ensuite to floor-ceiling tiling which I am very happy about and in the W/C and powder room upgraded to 1.2m wall tiles. I also put in a feature tile over the bath in the main bathroom and on the shower wall in the ensuite.

The colours are:
Floor - Drift Sand 300mm x 300mm
Wall - Sequenza White Gloss 300mm x 400mm
Feature - Drift Sand Gloss 300mm x 400mm



Laundry:
Laundry is standard.

The colours are:
Floor - Select Taupe 300mm x 300mm
Wall - Sector Gloss White 200mm x 400mm

Living Areas Downstairs:
We weren't really happy with any of the ceramic tiles choices in our range, they would have been a real unhappy compromise. I decided to look at large 600mm x 600mm porcelain tiles. Unfortunately with the increased cost of tile AND the increased cost of laying they were way out of our range. I then discovered the same tile in a 300mm x 600mm in our range - YAY but we still had to pay for additional labour. Luckily it wasn't as expensive as the larger tiles so I was able to go with it.

Colour - Alto Beige DC-Porc Sealed Pol Rect 300mm x 600mm

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Just waiting

All is great for the house start, we have our Authority to Commence Construction (ACC), signed off the Work Order (plans), and have been allocated our site supervisor.

Also we have the road base, port-a-loo, and temp fencing on site. Next steps are for the peg out and then work can commence. It's frustrating ans SO keen to start and nothing was done last week while it was sunny all week and guess what... rain is forecast for for at least the next week (and long range forecast is for even more rain)!

Monday, June 6, 2011

Rain Days already

Yesterday we have received a letter from our builder claiming rain days extension for our contract period.

This is totally acceptable under our contract and it was raining on those days.

However I am shocked as we hadn't been notified of the official contract commencement date and work hasn't even started on the site.

I have emailed our builder and hopefully they can provide me with the commencement date and also let me know when they will start on site (esp since the last 4 working days have been sunny).