Moving on Up!

Now it really looks like we are building a mansion!

Front right hand side

Left Front Side (showing entry)

Back View

They should finish all the carpentry work early next week :-)

We already have bricks delivered too!

DownTime

No work has happened on site for the past two days as the carpenters have been working on a site down south. At least someone else will be happy with the progress they are seeing. On a positive note, I met a neighbour who is building diagonally across the road - Sue. She seems really nice, which is a good thing as she will be a neighbour for many years to come. We have now met - Sue (who has a husband and a 20 month old child), Betty and Peter (an older couple), Raelene and Don (an older couple), and a name yet to be known neighbour, who D scared off with his 'toilet' antics.

The Second Story is on its way!

YAY! YAY! YAY!

Framework Begun

What a busy week it has been since the slab was laid. I'll try to be as brief as possible, but cover the main points.

• The day after the slab was laid, I noticed Max and Molly's paw prints had been swiped over. Disappointment Plus. We now need to think of a new place to imprint.
• The timber for the framework was delivered on the 16th of Oct.
• On the 17th, we put down a deposit for our carpet and floorboards at Carpet Choice. What a great deal we got too.

This style

In this colour
• On the 18th, we had a slab party.

• D. met our back neighbour when going for a toilet stop in the back corner of our block. A friend (W.) decided to kick a footy at D. as a joke and the footy went over the fence. Friendly neighbour went to give it to D. but D. had to explain his predicament of his 'hands being full'. We never found out anything more about this neighbour as I think both parties walked away a little embarrassed, but with grins on their faces.
• The slab party began at 1pm and finished at 7:30pm after a couple slabs (of beer) were polished off and a couple people a little under the weather. By gee what beautiful weather we had for it though.
• On Monday 19th of Oct the framework began. How quickly things seem to moving now. Yay for all this nice weather  !!!!

Front view

Back view

The guy in the picture was cementing where the setdown from the kitchen to the garage was too short and where the framework needed to be placed.

• On the 20th, we received our 1st invoice for the base stage completion. It's the most exciting bill we have ever received.
• As of today,

Magpies keeping a check on things

Floor of second storey

Side view looking towards entry

HAPPY SLAB DAY

After massive downpours of rain overnight, the last thing I was expecting to see today was the concrete mixer blocking our road and concrete going into the trenches. But that is exactly what I saw!

7am

I spoke to the contractors, querying the weather, asking if they will stop during the day given the forecasted showers and thunder, but no, they will just add accelerator to the mix. They said to go back about midday for the printing of the paw prints in the garage.

I'm that excited I'm sure I'll be back for more pics before that and then again later in the day.

I was lucky to have pre-warned work that I may be off today and thank their understanding of the importance of this day to me - given it is not officially a sick day.

Will update with more pics later. YAY! YAY! YAY!

1O:45am

We thought blocking the street to all traffic was pretty cool too!

12:45pm Preparing to Paw-Print

1:15pm Paw Prints

(Not quite as good as planned, due to: M and M squirming, flapping plastic that kept going over the slab, and being on my own, but we happy with it just the same. D thinks blobs makes it even cuter anyhow)

1:15pm Slab Progress from back view

(Paw prints on garage slab on right hand side of this picture, near orange plastic)

1:15pm Slab Progress from front view

Post paw-print paw clean

Will go back to block at 5:30 this evening to see it completed.

What a great day!!!!

5:45 All done and dusted (so to speak)

Steelwork

A lot of steel was used for our footings. We now understand why the contractors weren't looking forward to the job. We noticed an inspection has taken place and there is a note on one of the pegs of things to fix up. We had a pre-slab drink too while we had a look around.

The concrete has been scheduled to be poured on Tuesday, but given the forecast rain until at least Wednesday, we won't be getting our hopes up. At least it saves the predicament of having the first day off of school for paw printing. I can organise that for later in the week. Will probably have to get the contractors to call as soon as they decide they are going ahead with the job so I can organise a reliever. Maybe next weekend for the slab party? We'll wait and see.

Plumbing laid out

The plumbing has been laid out today. I spoke to one of the contractors who said they will finish that today and then will move on to the steel tomorrow. Apparently it is a big job and they are not looking forward to it. 

He also mentioned the slab may be poured on Monday and was more than happy for me to bring the dogs to paw print. Only catch is, I have to be there about 9am. They will begin pouring about 7am, ready for imprinting at about 9am and then it should set reasonably well by about 2pm. The difficulty is I'll be back at work. After work the concrete will be too hard. I could have a day off - 'it's not like you get a slab laid everyday', but the difficulty is having confirmation it will definitely be poured Monday. The weather forecast is for rain. It's also the first day back at school for Term 4. Oh, what to do.

P.S. After looking at our Footings Construction report for a query from Aqua about our Footings Type, I realised I've placed the money under the front porch, rather than the actual front door (1 trench back). Hope wealth and prosperity are still welcomed into our home hehe...

Trenching Complete

By the looks of it the trenching is now complete. They seem to be placing lovely bright orange plastic everywhere, and are beginning to lay out the steel reinforcement rods.

I placed the money under where the entrance will be. As it is now covered with plastic, I had to actually jump into one of the trenches to put it underneath. Won't tell the builder about that one or they would jump up and down about safety. It was fun trying to get out. I needed to push off the side of the trench as they are about my shoulder height deep.

Fingers crossed the superstition about welcoming wealth and prosperity into your home is true.

Can you see what I see?

Finally some action is underway!

The contractors from O'Neills were on site before 8:30 this morning beginning the trenching. I will go by later this afternoon to take some more pics and put down some money under the position of where our front door will be to welcome wealth and prosperity into our home. We may now be on schedule for the slab to be laid this week while I'm on holidays, so I can get M and M to print their paw prints into history.

At the end of the day...

    (back view)

Still No News

So okay, there is still nothing new to report. Fingers crossed for action next week when the weather is clearing.

Not even the light fittings had progress. When we made it to Beacon Lighting, D decided another light (which I liked in the first place) may be more suitable. On top of that the supposed discount only came to about $50 and we figured if we wait and get all light fittings together, we may end up with a better deal.

In the meantime, here is a pic of the other light (which is longer and may suit the space better - being hung from the second story). Any opinions on which you prefer are kindly appreciated. We have some thinking to do!