We Have a SLAB

The Slab Team In Action

Concrete Pumping

Make it Smooth

Sandy went down to the block around 8am yesterday just to see if anything was going on to find concreters, concrete trucks and a half finished slab! Seeing as we were told this would happen today (Friday) it was an excellent surprise on what turned out to be the coldest day I can remember since moving to Qld; we topped out at 11 deg C (warm for Melbourne but absolutely sub zero for Brisbane!)

We popped down after work  to see the finished product and as anticipated we immediately did the "oh it doesn't look as big as I thought it would" thing that everyone does when they see an expanse of grey featureless concrete. It will look bigger once the frame starts going up - it's a very strange optical illusion which I call "can't see the space without the rooms syndrome". After picking up several empty cans of coke and red bull which evaded making their way to the site bin we took a few photos, appreciated how much garden we have and rushed back into the warmth of the car.

The Finished Slab

Planning to go back later today to take a longer look and get more piccies.
Steel frame should start after the long weekend on Tuesday.

Pipes, Electricity Box and Form Work

Trench for storm water and electricity pipes

Pipes and Electricity Box

It's been all go on site with more diggers and tradies working from dawn to dusk on Tuesday digging trenches, laying pipes connecting water meters, sewerage, drainage and electricity box.

Yesterday it was the turn of the concreters who have put in all the form work and under slab insulation ready for the slab pour which could either be today or tomorrow. The weather forecast is for rain showers so I hope it stays dry enough for everything to go ahead.

Form Work pre-slab

I can't believe how much progress there has been this week its all very exciting as now we get to see the size of the house and how it sits on the block. It looks like we'll have a little less garden than anticipated at the rear of the house but as we have plenty either side I don't think this will be a problem.

Bin Part 2

 This time with piccies. That's our rubbish bin and we got big gravel on top of the dust that was pretending to be the base for the drive. 

The Bin



New Gravel Drive

Bin

More action on site we have a cage bin!!!! Looks like we are ready for some serious action - I will have to post a photo later as Sandy broke the first rule of Site Club - never go to the site without the camera - there will be serious consequences tut tut tut.

Diggers and Dunnies

Or Site Scrape and Porta-Loo

Much excitement this morning as the digger was on site and the scrape well underway when we arrived with camera at the ready. Looks like we've got some nice soil, shame he's piled it up on the spot where the pool is supposed to go! The idea was to leave us some top soil so we could use it for levelling out and garden beds once the build was finished, however I think we should have been more specific about where we wanted the pile to be. Will have to speak to SS about that as it may cause a potential problem. Just having the scrape done starts to give us an idea of what a big, no massive house we have chosen as we can make out the different levels for the triple garage and that alone is ginormous!

Decided to pop by on the way home after lunch and yeeee haaa we already have a porta-loo. Awesome its red my son's favourite colour. He was less impressed with it once he'd opened the door to check it out. Peeouuoow what a smell and that's a clean one!!!

It feels official now we have porta-loo and soil retainer, erosion barrier thingo (what are those things called? Hang on I will google it and find out......It looks like they are called soil erosion and sediment barriers).

It'll be pipes, electricity box and slab pour next week.

Digger in Action

Site Scrape from left front of block

Site Scrape and Porta-Loo from rear of block

Porta-Loo and Sediment Barrier

Slow Start

Good meeting with the SS he seems to be a nice man and he only deals with the premium builds. He just went through some basic information, answered our questions and suggested that the build will take around 25 weeks, weather permitting. That will bring the build in around Christmas which is a bit of a downer if there are any delays as I know they all shut down for the holidays so it could mean more like February. No point getting pessimistic yet.

Any how nothing happened on site today (boo) but the diggers are coming tomorrow (yes!).
A loose timeline is slab next Friday and 10 weeks until the roof is on, then the pool builder can start at that stage.Diggers on a Friday works well as it is my day off so guess where I'll be tomorrow?!

Have found out the other build that has started is with Plantation homes and is most likely a single story.

One More Sleep

Can't believe the build starts tomorrow 208 days or almost 7 months after buying the land at auction. I will need to change my widget to start counting how long from build start to handover and make a build label for future posts.
Optimistically would like to be in by the end of this year but realistically think it will be more likely early next year. We haven't received an estimated time frame yet, perhaps when we meet with the SS tomorrow he will give us some indication of how long the build is expected to take.
Building has started on the block one over from ours (not next door), they have had site scrape, pipes and electrical box installed. Not sure who they are building with or if it is single or double storey. It will be interesting keeping an eye on progress and watching all the other builds start and take shape. I hope to be able to pop by at lunch time tomorrow and then again after work to see what has happened and of course take loads of photographs.