Unexciting progress

Again, I find myself a month after my last blog update with not a whole lot to really write about. Don't get me wrong, we've had pockets of progress but not exactly the stuff that makes good reading (not that I'm convinced any of my previous content does).

The tilers worked away for about 10 days on the upstairs bathrooms and balcony tiling and finished working up their around the 28th of June. From their, they tidied up, moved their stuff downstairs and then set about cleaning up the ground floor slab ready for pouring of a screed to all areas where the ground floor main tiling is occuring, as well as the laundry, guest ensuite and powder. 

On 1st of July they returned to pour the screed, taking two to three days to screen all the areas to be tiled. A necessary step toward completion but not exactly a shout from the rafters update. Perahps something a little more tangible in terms of progress came about 10 days later when they poured our garage floor grano and then another two days later again when they returned to pour the grano for the alfresco and my pool equipment room.

On Tuesday this week we saw the first load of our kitchen and laundry cabintry dropped off on site. Nothing was installed, they literally dropped it off and then left again. According to our fortnightly update, they should be back toward the end of the week to start installation. What the update didn't say is that the painters would be returning to apply the first two coats to the inside downstairs. On my usual cruise past the block on my way to work this morning, I found the painters on site cracking in. A pleasant surprise to be sure.

So that's it, this update is literally about watching concrete and paint dry. Unexciting, but progress.

Tiling

It's been nearly a month since my last update and that's because after the absolute flurry of activity in the lead up to lock up, things have come off the boil a little bit. The main activity going on at the block is tiling of our upstairs wet areas. The tilers have been a bit on and off, showing up one day, but not the next, for the last couple of weeks but they are getting through it.

Our ensuite is full height tiling with all mitred joins so that's taking a while but it's starting to come together and we're really happy with how it's looking thus far. The floor is done, as is the shower and the feature wall that will go behind the free standing bath. Work continues on the walls this week. The kids bathroom also has the floor tiling complete and the balcony tiling has also commenced. 

About a week ago we had a meeting with Paul, our site supervisor, just to talk through a few things and get a bit of a rough idea about timing. We need to start to organise our finishing trades, such as flooring, window treatments, wardrobe fitout, aggregate, etc. Paul said that he's hoping to be finished in September, which would be great, as it gives us Oct, Nov & early December to try and get everything else done before the industry stops for Christmas. We've started to get quotes for these items and will continue to meet people on site over the coming weeks to try and land preferred suppliers.

So if we're aiming for finish in September (let's call it end of September), then we're only a little over three months away now from getting our keys! Starting to feel real 😀

Lock Up!

We made it to lock up! 😀😀😀

Today we saw the installation of our beautiful big sliding stacker door to our kitchen area leading out to the alfresco. This was the final piece of the puzzle to officially deem the house locked up. Pretty sure the tradies were still on site finishing it off when the progress claim from Stannard came through too!

I've previously mentioned that the door itself is a commercial stacker which has its own in-built sump drain. This allows it to be installed at the same level as the flooring, giving a dead flat look rather than a step down/up/over between the inside and outside floor levels. This was something we always wanted and spent a bit (lot) of money to achieve. As a result, it wasn't simply a drop in job. Prior to the door arriving on site we had people attend to cut a channel into the slab (one was already partially there when the slab was poured but needed to be bigger), the plumber come and provision some pipework to sit under the sump drain and a labourer crew come to brick in the plumbing and form a base for the door to sit on. This all happened in the few days leading up to the door arriving.

We also had the tiling team back to make a start on our upstairs bathrooms, which was very exciting. As of today, they had tiled the floor to the kids bathroom and had laid out the first two rows of tiling to our master ensuite. We're expecting them back next week to continue. Here's hoping the run of trades we've had recently continues so that we can now push through to completion.

Approaching lock up

It's been a month since my last blog update and as usual, there have been periods of lull and periods of really good activity.

The first week or so since my last update not a whole lot happened at the build, although we did see the first of our stone benchtops installed into the master ensuite, kids bathroom and kids powder, along with some basins. You may recall we changed our mind on our benchtops quite a long time after our initial selections and we're really happy we made the switch. The new benchtops are lovely. There was also some framing down to the ground floor roof where we are having bulkheads, soffits and coffered ceilings.

We also made a post-build decision and have appointed Art of Timber as our preferred supplier for the suply and installation of our timber flooring that will go up the staircase, across the landing, down the upstairs hallways and insto the master bedroom and walk in robe. We've chosen a wide board blackbutt in a brushed matte finish. Can't wait to see it.

Early May saw the arrival of our bathroom tiles, which was a little earlier than expected but a pleasant surprise. The rendering team also arrived back to start the cement render inside and outside of the ground floor. They have been on site pretty much every working day for the last two weeks. They completed all the cement render and then started into the final plaster coat. In between the two coats, the glazier was out to install all the downstairs glass.

Two days ago we saw the installation of two temporary doors, one at the front and one between the garage and the mudroom. These were actually locked for the first time yesterday in the first real sign of lock up. Yesterday we also had an on-site meeting with the tiler who talked us through his plan to lay out the tiles for our upstairs bathrooms. He will get started in earnest in the next few weeks. Finally, today, the ceiling fixer team in on site to install all the gyprock sheeting to our ground floor areas. A labourer team was also on site cutting a channel into our slab for the sliding door to the alfresco. It's a commercial stacking door and has an in-built sump drain so that it can sit flush with the flooring. We also need a plumber to come out and plumb this drain and also some more brickwork to be done before that door can be installed. Once it's in, we'll officially be a lock up!

Ground Floor Works

There has been a spattering of activity over the last few week post the completion of our ground floor roof cover. 

Firstly the skylight appeared on Good Friday. I had visited site on Thursday March 28th and hadn't seen any progress since the roof cover had been finished. I then went to site late in the afternoon of Good Friday, March 29th and the first thing I noticed was the skylight was now installed! In fact, I didn't notice straight away, I was on site to water the fruit trees, had turned on the water and while walking through the kitchen realised it wasn't as dark as it had been the day before. Looked up and saw the skylight!

Wanting to get a photo of the skylight from the top as well as the bottom, I walked upstairs and that's when I got my second surprise of the day - cabinetry for our kitchenette was in place! I then looked around the coner into the master and sure enough, our ensuite had our vanity and shaving cabinets installed. Returning to the other side of the upper floor and cabinets were also installed for the kids powder and bathroom. A very unexpected, but pleasant, surprise indeed.

Another week passed with no works until the following Friday when two vehicles were parked out the front with a cement mixer. Turns out these guys were here to brick in the kids bath as well as install brick bases for under our bathroom vanity units. The bricked in and rendered over their work. Small steps but steps none-the-less.

We flew to Singapore on 8th April for our first overseas family trip so I'm unsure of the timeline for the next 7 days but I do know the plumbers were on site when we left. Upon our return we found that all the ground floor water lines had been installed, including to our outdoor kitchen area and outside taps and all the upstairs waste piping was complete. At some point the waterproofing team had also been back and waterproofed around the newly bricked in bath and vanity bases as well as giving the walls and floor another coating to the upstairs bathrooms. They also waterproofed the balcony.

This week saw the air-con team come out and extend the piping and ducting into the ground floor living area under the ground floor roof. The next step is for the rendering team to come but we've been told it's a bit of a wait for them (4-6) weeks. In the meantime we can expect a few other small bits done like measuring up our commercial sliding door and construction of the light tunnel for the skylight. It's a bit death by a thousand cuts but we are inching closer to the finish.

In other news we have purchased and received the lights we intend to put in our void and master bedroom and are awaiting delivery of the light that will go over the kitchen island. We have also asked Stannard for a variation to fit out our bar area as we are keen to get the same stone benchtop as the rest of the house before the engineered stone ban comes into effect.

Ground Floor Roof Cover

Monday afternoon I was doing one of my usual drive-by's of our build site on my way home from work and was surprised to see a truck parked out the front making a delivery. Naturally I stopped for a chat and it turned out he was asked to do a late delivery of our ground floor roofing colorbond materials as the roofies would be starting the job the next day.

We were therefore a little disappointed when Tuesday brought about no progress at our site, nor any Wednesday (although there was a brief appearance by the sparkies), nor any progress Thursday. Happily though, Friday saw a team of roofies appear on site and they quickly went to work installing all the ground floor roof cover, including the little bit of roof over one side of the garage. It was a pretty long day for them as they were still finishing off by school pick up time, despite the typically early tradesperson start time.

Another step closer to lock up. Still no sign of the plumbers as yet but hopefully we'll see them, the skylight people and the air-con guys show up. Alternatively, they could come and install the glass to all the lower floor windows and doors, install the front door, alfresco slider and the door between the house and the garage and we'd be at lock up! I'd be happy with either and any progress is good progress.

More Ground Roof + Electrical

After a flurry of activity in the first two days of ground floor roof construction, the roof chippies disappeared for a couple of weeks. However, progress continued on a different front - the ground floor electrical. Speaking with the electricians, it seems the main roof chippie got injured at some point (unsure if on our site or not) and Stannard was organising another team to finish it off. 

The electricians have spent many days on site over the last couple of weeks chasing cables through the spaghetti maze of pipework within the upper floor slab to provision wiring to all the ground floor light switches, power points, internet points, TV points and speaker points. They have then been fitting off the cables into the wall channels that were cut previously. A few channels were missed the first time so they were also marked out and a chasing company came in and did a few more cuts for the electricans to finish. 

The electricans also ran the cabling through the new ground floor roof and into the single storey part of the house. There is now a mass of cabling leading into our garage, where both the electrical load centre and internet hub will be located. Pleasingly, another roof team also showed up to finish off the ground floor roof framing works so that the colourbond could be measured up and ordered. We've already had the guttering and downpipes delivered. Imagine we'll see the roof chippies return once the colourbond material arrives ready for roof cover to go on. 

I also expect we'll see the plumbers come in now and chase the plumbing through the single storey portion of the house and complete the waste piping for the upper floor wet areas. They appeared briefly about two weeks ago to concrete in the bath tub in the kids bathroom, of all things! 

I got the drone out on the weekend so here's a quick whip around of where we're at :)