It Looks Like a House

Lots more activity on site finishing the framing and attaching scaffolding so that roofing can commence. Also some guys were out with a digger making a trench to connect us up to the electricity supply. They did a very respectful job and left the area looking as good as new. Shame all tradies can't be that neat, we could start a recycling business with the amount of cans and wrappers those boys leave behind. Is it too much effort to put things in the bin?!!
The gutters have been delivered, they are colourbond monument and we picked a standard profile so as not to have to pay an upgrade price but we are happy with how they look.
The couple of areas of frame that were damaged and twisted have been replaced without us even having to mention them so that's very promising. We are umming and arring about getting and independent inspection done for the frame. Any suggestions?

Roof Scaffolding

Looks Sturdy

From Family Room Into Kitchen and Dining Area

View From Front Door - Like Our Staircase?

Gutters - They Seem A Bit Low Wouldn't On The Roof Be Better?

Not sure what happens next but I guess we might get some windows and roof tiles.

Apparently the house behind us will be a Soho and looking at their site scrape the house will not be directly behind ours so we will have no issues with privacy or loss of natural light coming through, brilliant.

The House Has Got It's Hat On

Yesterday saw rain showers and grey skys but that didn't stop the roof trusses and  the rest of the frame going on.

With Roof - From Front

With Roof - From Back

There was a flurry of activity on four other blocks yesterday including the one directly behind us which will be another Metricon home. It looks like Wednesday was site scrape day! Good to see other builds starting, didn't want to be moving in all by ourselves.

We Got Frame

More framework was delivered yesterday for the first floor plus they finished constructing the portico and outdoor room frames and the trusses have been put on the garage roof. The boards are in position between the ground and first floor with some "scaffolding" so they can start up stairs.

Garage Trusses and Scaffold

Garage Framed

Outdoor Room

Down on site this morning they have made extraordinary progress on the first floor framing - boy these tradies are moving fast. The house looks AaaaMazing!!!

Front and Left - That's My Master Suite Up There!

Front

Rear and Right - Look At That For An Outdoor Space I'll Need A New BBQ

The Rear

Left Side Looking Into Kitchen and Laundry

In the pile of framework on the site I can see more roof trusses for the outdoor room which looks huge by the way and some other bits and pieces which I guess go on before the trusses for the roof proper which will be arriving in a day or so.

Frame Photos

Here are the pictures of our lovely shiny, silver stainless steel termite proof frame.

And They're Off - Frame Start - This Will Be The Formal Living Room

Frame Ground Floor - Garage and Front - Taken From Driveway

View of Front From Street - Front Door Will Be In Central Opening

View From Rear Looking Through Into Dining and Kitchen From Outside Outdoor Room -
That Big Opening Is For One Of The Two Bi-Fold Doors

We love it. The area where our land is is semi-rural so a steel frame is a sensible choice given the high risk of potential termite activity plus it was only a $3000 upgrade as part of the promo package. Shame it took two weeks longer to arrive than expected.
The pieces of frame in the foreground of the last shot are the trusses that go between the ground and first floor and add strength to the house. Its amazing to think they had done all this in 5 hours; can't wait to see what they will achieve next week!

Progress on the Plantation Homes build two blocks over: They are a double story and have had all timber work for frame completed, ground floor windows in and roof on. The roof tiles were delivered and roof tiled in less than a day! That was impressive. Its looking nice and should complement our Nolan nicely.
No work has commenced on any of the other blocks, plenty of builders boards are up but other than a single site scrape there has been no activity of note.

Hopefully for us next week should see the first floor frame delivered and installed.

Frame (Day 2)

Friday saw more framing action, with the trusses for the first floor being installed and the portico/balcony bracing erected. Looks like there is still a fair bit to do downstairs but we are pleased with the quality of the job so far. There are a couple of twisted and dinged parts of the frame that we have spotted so will be sure to point these out to the SS.

It was great to be able to walk through the house this morning, the room sizes are excellent, couldn't be happier with the layout and the amount of windows we will have. It was awesome imagining where everything was going to go and what the kitchen would look like once it has cabinetry and an island bench.
We had hours of fun picking up all the dropped screws and playing "house" with our boy. Really funny until I fell in the imaginary swimming pool. We have decided to keep the pool shape and dimensions as we originally planned but push it further down the left side of the house and about 500mm closer to the boundary to give the amount of clearance needed for the sewer. This means instead of the end of the pool being flush to the end of the outdoor room it will be flush with the end of the house. Yes, it will be costing us more for shoring up around the sewer but we have decided that is one expense we will simply have to swallow so as not to compromise the outside space  as after all having a decent sized garden to run around in was the main reason we decided to build rather than buy.

Frame (Day 1)

"Frame thy mind to mirth and merriment, which bars a thousand harms, and lengthens life" William Shakespeare. Thought it might be nice to add a little culture!

The frame was delivered bright and early and work had already started before 8am. By lunch time we had a fully framed first floor. Wow and wow again it looks great! For the first time we can appreciate the size, shape and layout of our home. The windows in the family, dining kitchen area are huge and when you factor in the two sets of massive bi-folds we are going to have so much natural light in this space that it will be incredible. It also means that no matter which part of our outdoor areas our son is playing in we will be able to keep an eye on him with no trouble. Perfect.
I can see a few roof trusses in the delivery and guess these must be for the garage and outdoor room roofs as there doesn't seem to be enough to do the whole house. Our theory is that they will complete the ground floor then deliver the frame for upstairs.
I haven't had a chance to walk through yet but Sandy reassures me that all the rooms are big enough and that I won't be disappointed.

The digger and truck also arrived before 8am to move the soil and deliver it to our soil swapper as arranged however the guy who was supposed to take it off our hands was an incompetent tosser and hadn't got his site organised to take delivery. Rather that have the truck driver sitting around for several hours whilst said tosser got his act together we made the decision - a costly one - for him to take the first load to the tip, putting an additional $550 on the price!! Aaargh - lesson - buyer beware when dealing with people on the internet as not everyone is as organised, honest and reliable as you are.
Luckily the frame looks so good nothing can spoil my day!

Now for some pictures............. ahhhh you'll have to wait until later.

Something's Coming

Something's coming, something good, it's made of steel not of wood, it's called a frame! (sung to the tune of Something's Coming from West Side Story).

The steel frame is being delivered tomorrow along with a team to start putting it up - at last we are about to get vertical.

Frameless

No action on site yet this week apart from a couple of bobcats spreading some of the large mound of soil around, looks like they've hardly made a dent in it so we have advertised it on a soil swap site in case someone wants to take it off our hands. We will also do the same when the pool is excavated.
We were hoping the steel frame would have arrived by now so we remain frameless - the frame was an upgrade as part of the Neo Dusk promotion and only cost us an additional $3K which I thought was a fair price.
I see Metricon are now including solar - would have liked that as well but can look at getting it installed once the house is completed (assuming we have any money left!).
Get the feeling there will be no progress now until next week.