Scaffolding down. Place looks great. Just need render done on downstairs. Independent inspection came up with hardly any problems which I'm pleased about. Just a few minor things which should be fixed.

In theory doors should go on today and we are at lockup?!

Plaster has been pushed out to Wednesday I think as electricians didn't start until yesterday so we will see how it goes.

Hebel done, top floor painted

Alot is happening as usual. Place is flying along.

Hebel was all finished and concrete render went on. The house looked so much better once it was rendered, just found some shape and style. Top floor has been painted and we are very happy with the colour.

Some doors have been hung and others delivered. Electrician should be pre wiring this afternoon. Independent inspection on Thursday. Our AV guy is coming in for his pre wiring on Friday and My wife and I are going to spend all weekend jamming acoustic insulation in the internal walls and ceiling. Fun times!

Plaster is scheduled for monday! Let's hope that independent inspection doesn't find too many issues!

Update

wow, time flies!

Long time since an update, my camera broke on my phone and have just been crazily busy so haven't quite kept this updated but will try and get the ball rolling again.

The pictures will tell the story as to where it is up to.

Inspection highlighted 14 problems. I am satisfied that they are either all fixed or will be fixed. Certainly the problems I was most concerned about seem to have been rectified which is good.

Hebel should be finished this coming week in theor, so it will be nice to see the house have the walls and the shape to it finally. I'm a bit over seeing the frame.

Independant Inspection

Off the advice of other blogs we have paid for independent inspections at 3 stages of the build with the first one being frame stage.

We used New home inspections and just received the report.

A couple of comments.

The report is very detailed with both notes and photos. It refers to the exact Aus standards where appropriate and generally explains the problems very clearly.

Carter grange are from every thing I have read and experienced very good builders. They also know that we are onsite virtually daily and we are keeping on eye on things. Yet there still is quite alot of problems. There are 14 'issues' brought up on the report. I get the feeling that some will be very easy to fix but I get the feeling on others it wont be as easy. There are comments to the effect that if it cant be fixed building permits may need to be altered and approved.  God know how many problems would be happening on other places that didn't have any independent checking.

We have asked for a meeting with CG to discuss a resolution to these issues, it will be interesting to see how that meeting goes.

On a side note the Hebel is schedules to go in next Monday

Roof is on

We ran out of money by the time it came to choosing roof options so we just went with the standard option. I'm glad we did as it looks absolutely fine. The other thing is unless you are about 30 metres away from the house you cant even see it

here it is

Communication breakdown

We haven't been happy with the communication of our site supervisor. Seems really nice when we speak to him but only ever seems to call if returning our calls and a few times we have been told by CG that he will call us for one reason or another and it never happens. So we had a meeting with our SS manager to chat about this and he was really good about it. Seemed to listen to my concerns and assured us that things will improve.

The silly part is a 5 minute phone call once a week( which we have been told they are supposed to do anyway) to tell us what has been going on or what is going to be happening would probably eliminate 99% of our concerns. Where as at the moment we find everything out ourselves.

Here is another issue I noticed on one of the new windows. The bottom has been dented/pushed in. I have been told it will be no problem to fix.

Windows starting to go in

Windows and doors on the ground floor are starting to go in

Update

I have been busy with work and away overseas so updates have been non existent. So I will try and cover off some things that have happened. There have been some issues or minor problems. They have either been sorted out or will be soon but explaining them might help others.

So just before Christmas we received the frame invoice. I dropped by and had a look around and noticed a few things that didn't seem right.

On all the door frames they use a ply wood that is much stronger than normal wood. I kinda thought everyone knew this but speaking to a few male friends they had no idea what I was talking about so I will explain it just in case.

Normal wood is strong against the grain and weak down the grain. which is why you can split fire wood only one way. With ply wood they slice up the wood in thin strips and glue them all together crossing the grain of the wood over back and forth, which makes the wood strong in all directions and much stronger than a natural piece of wood the same thickness.  here is a picture

The two pieces on the left are normal wood and the piece on the right is ply wood, which you attach the door to. 

I noticed that this ply wood was on all door frames except one bedroom. 

The second thing I noticed was that half the garage frame wasn't done and a few other areas didn't seem finished either. 

I rang the SS and asked about the ply wood missing and he gave me alot of engineering jargon before he realised I knew what I was talking about and then informed me the frame wasn't actually finished after all and would be finished in the next few days. 

He also said that the way that garage connects to the house the rest of the frame needs to be done , hebel put on and then  the rest of the frame of the garage will be completed. That all made sense to me and wasn't an issue (except for the fact that I turned up yesterday and that part of the frame is now complete without any hebel going on, so not sure that was true either)

We got an email asking why we hadn't paid and i informed them that the frame wasn't finished and i wasn't paying until it was actually finished. its seems as if the frame is now finished (we were told it was finished on the 8th January)  and the ply wood issue has been fixed on that door. All the bits that looked unfinished seems to be finished now. 

Roof frame up

Looks so much better with the roof frame on. Reduces the box shape a little bit

Wow! The house looks enormous!! We definitely wanted to have a big house but I am astounded by the size of it. Too think we were concerned when we had to reduce the house length by a metre because the council knocked back our 6 meter setback request.

The builders left their ladder their so i took the opportunity to walk around the top floor, which of course I'm not supposed to but it was was too tempting.

As usual the fence was left unlocked (although shut over) but considering the builders drill was lying around amongst other things I'm really surprised its not locked up.

Frame going well

The first floor is pretty much complete and looks amazing! Wrapped with the high ceilings in the living areas and the 3 steps down which was forced upon us because of the slope of the block is actually something that we would have chosen even without the slope, Separates the living/kitchen area really nicely.

Hopefully 2nd story will start today

Ground Floor frame almost done

Frame is going up quickly and is looking good. No way the roof will be on before Christmas but hopefully if the weather is good the frame will get finished.

There seems to be a water pipe where our island bench should be and we are definitely not having a sink or any running water so not quite sure what thats all about but will wait and see. Everyone has told me the rooms look small when it is just the frame. They look pretty big too me so with any luck they might look even bigger once the plaster is done.

The steel and the amount of posi struts being used looks really solid, which is good.

Frame going up

Well by the looks of the site there is not much pre made off site so far. Not sure if that will change with the second story. One thing that we mentioned to the SS was the gates to the site being not only unlocked but left open often.  Once again last night one of the gates was wide open, so I shut it over, so at least it looked like it was locked up. Not sure if people would bother stealing wood or steel but surely you don't wont to risk it

Rain :(

Well the wood and steel got delivered nice and early on Monday but alas it rained consistently all day, so nothing got done. So much for summer. I was under the impression that the frames were all constructed off site and that's why they are so quick to put them up. Nothing that was delivered is pre-made however, so I presume that a lot of the work is being done onsite after all. I was also surprised at how much steel was delivered. Not that I am a building expert but it just makes you feel better about the strength of the house when you that much steel.

Nice weather today and supposedly for the rest of the week so hopefully we might see some progress soon

Helpful hint

I came across another blog that mentioned getting the slab cut out where the sliding doors sit so the tracking that the door slides on, is sunken in and is completely level with the floor. We requested this and it is surprisingly inexpensive to have done (approx $300 from memory) and will make the overall finish of the room look way better. One of those things that you wouldn't really think of and once the slab is done its too late.

You can see in the second picture of the post below the lip has been cut out for the stacker doors

Slab Done!

Well the slab is done and literally before the concrete had time to dry we recieved the invoice! Wow, they must have sent it the second the builders walked off the site.

I haven't taken too much notice of slabs in the past but ours looks great. Looks very neat and perfectly smooth on top.

Framing is supposed to start Monday. Crazy pace at the moment.

The builders doing our slab told my wife that carter grange use far more steel in their slabs than most builders and that it would be super strong. Nice to hear that we are getting the quality build we expected.

Slab preparation almost complete

I know it won't always be like this but it's amazing that every time I drive past, which is daily there seems to be something new happening.

Slab is supposed to be poured tomorrow, so hopefully the weather enables that to go ahead

Slab Prepearation

Looks like the slab is on schedule for Friday as the preparation is well underway. If the house looked small with just the site cut, it looks enormous with the boards up for where the slab will go. Amazing how your perception of the same space can change so dramatically.

Plumbing

The plumbers don't muck around. 30+ degree day and a bunch of guys working away. Seemed to get a huge amount done in the time they were there.

Not quite plumbing

Of course those pipes on the truck weren't for plumbing! They were they piers, everyone knows that ;) Plumbing begins Monday.

One thing that has always surprised me on the plans was the size and the amount of 'voids'. I understand the need for voids but there just seems a ridiculous amount of them and a lot of them are not small. Well we have just been told that plumbing want yet another one. It is in the store room which is good, but I cant help thinking it's over the top. I can only presume they are making it very easy (read-cheaper) for themselves by putting in this many.


Here are a couple of the piers