Drained

The plumber hopefully came yesterday (Friday) and installed the 4 additional land drains as recommended by Metricons building manager. We won't know for definite if its been done until we get home as we are away in Vietnam for our annual pilgrimage/family hoilday to one of our favorite places ever the beautiful town of Hoi An.

Metricon also supplied us with some spare roof tiles but they only had 6 so we have ordered 30 from a local tile supplier along with some ridge capping tiles so if any tiles need replacing over the lifespan of the house we will have some in stock. Boral are reducing their production in Qld hence why they have discontinued the linea tiles perfect timing Boral seeing as we only completed our house 4 months ago! Better we found out now while we could still get hold of some rather than in a few years time when stocks had been exhausted.

As for the solar we are waiting for Energex to do their bit now that all the paperwork has been completed which could take up to 40 days. My mom has had her 1.5Kw system for a year now and has accrued a nice amount of credit and it looks like her system will take around 2 years to pay for itself. Lets hope ours will have the same productivity.

Our next project will be to get the hard landscaping finished, get a shed and commence our vegetable garden - assuming the drainage issues have been sorted that is.....

I Must Be Psychic

As predicted in my last post the tilers turned up and commenced the mammoth task of tiling the floors downstairs. The areas to be covered included the kitchen, dining room, family room, laundry, butler's pantry, entry and hallway - quite a big expanse. It seems like it will take 2-3 days to lay the tiles and another 2 days to grout them. Sandy asked them if they'd do another 2 rows of tiles for the butler's pantry splashback if there are enough left over tiles otherwise one extra row would be fine...and as our tilers are great people they are more than happy to do that for us. Must make sure to remind them though.

It's one of those odd optical illusion during building moments as now the tiles are going down the place looks even bigger. May be it's the knock on effect of living in a once bed one room apartment, who knows?

At 3.45pm the roofers also put in appearance to fix up the remaining damage to the roof on the garage and outdoor room.

Granite Paving

We're off to look at pavers for around the pool and in the outdoor room area this morning. We are thinking of a light grey granite finish so it's not too hot to walk on but are a bit concerned it might create too much glare. The show home at Underwood has some lovely granite pavers and we are hoping to replicate what we saw there. Here's a snap we took when we were idea gathering.



The only photos I can get are through the windows so sorry for poor quality...

What The Tiles Look Like - Family Room Looking Into Kitchen (The House Isn't Really Leaning Over)

Tiling

Tiles - Family Room Into Hallway

Unveiled

The house now stands proud on our block in all its glory no longer hidden behind the scaffolding beams. How amazing it's like seeing the house for the first time, everything looks so different.

I have spotted a few discoloured areas on the bricks where the appear to have bled and created dark patches which have run into the mortar. I'm not sure if this will clean off or whether these bricks may need replacing? There are also a few broken roof tiles on the outdoor room and garage which will need changing. In a way I'm pleased about that as they will need to order more roof tiles and hopefully there will then be some spare ones left over should we need to fix up any cracked tiles in the future. (Originally we had about 15 left over but some kids had been on site and smashed them up.)
Oh by they way we have no temporary fencing even though in our site fees it states supply and install 130 lineal meters of temporary fencing. I will be seeing if we will be refunded for this as it has never been supplied or installed.

The painters have been busy applying more coats of stain to the front door and bifolds and other than that there is nothing else to report so here's some pictures for you.

Ta Da The House In All Its Glory

Look No Scaffolding - We LOVE It

View From Back Garden

 

View From Where The Pool Will Be

Discoloured Bricks and Mortar

Broken Tiles on Garage Roof

Ensuite Vanity and Shower

My Bath Surround Tiles

Looking In From Master Suite - There Are Cavity Sliders With Translucent Glass On Here

The Advertising Shot - Taken By Our Son Aged 4

Silver Tile Edgers an Upgrade But So Worth It Not To Have White Plastic

Family Bathroom

The Ensuite - Shower and WC

Double Doors We Had Added To Close Off Family Room From Hallway

Knock Knock...Who's There?

It's our Corinthian pivot front door that's who!
The front door turned up on site earlier than expected so to ensure it didn't get damaged or stolen the SS has had it installed. And I must say it looks fantastic. It was so much fun pushing the door open and stepping inside, gave me a real feel for how my home would be once completed.

So what's been happening:
Roof tiling for the main roof and pointing almost completed.
First fix for elecricals has started with all the power point and socket frames being screwed on and earth wired. Must check our plans to ensure everything is in the right place.
Oh yes and the front door.

What will be happening:
First fix for plumbing
Continuation of electric install
Air conditioning ducting to go in
More roofing

When we were down on site on Thursday the guys from Scope scaffolding turned up and let us go up the ladder (apparently the hatch only looks locked if you get my drift).....
Wow wow and another wow this is the first time we have been upstairs and it is better than I anticipated. The master suite is huge, Hollywood robe, big windows, massive en suite and we have amazing views out over the fields. Impressed with the sizes of the other 3 bedrooms which also have great vistas (might be different once a few more houses are built!) and the leisure area it is super spacious, I can just see us all kicking back watching movies in our PJ's. The house is going to be breath taking.

I'm also very impressed with the steel frame it is extremely sturdy plus it won't warp like wood or be a diner snack for those every hungry pesky white ants.

The house is progressing along at a nice pace, quick enough to allow us to see that things are happening but slowly enough for us to feel satisfied that it is being done properly.

Up Up and Away - There Go The Tiles

Roof

Boral Linea Tile in Charcoal

Hi Honey I'm Home! The Front Door Chilling In The Family Room

Socket Point and Earth

The View Partially Obscured By Roof Scaffolding

Yummy Tiles

The Plantation homes house a couple of lots over is half bricked already ( they started 3 days before us) but it looks like the house is being thrown up without much attention to detail, quality control and finish. I want a great job not a rush job so am absolutely content with the time frame so far.

Roof Tiles R Us and Building Grants

The roof tiles were delivered yesterday, boxes and boxes of them. In fact there are so many that they are all over our land and the blocks either side of us! That has to be an advantage of being one of the first to build, you get to put your stuff wherever there is space. So it would seem that the next stage is the roof going on.

Our next door neighbours on the right as you face the house will also be building with Metricon, their board is up, I wonder which home they have opted for? That makes 6 Metricon homes out of 36 blocks now they must be after World domination or something, or perhaps the quality of their displays and amazing choice of great designs makes them a popular choice.

Attention prospective new home builders or buyers in Queensland - the Qld government announced in the budget that they will be introducing the new build homes building boost grant which is valued at $10,000 for anyone signing a contract to build between the dates of 1st August 2011 and 31st January 2012. This also applies for anyone buying off the plan. The idea is to give a boost to the construction industry by encouraging people to go for a new build property over one that has already been occupied.
To qualify the cost of the house and land must be no more than $600,000. At this stage it is not clear how they are valuing the land but it may go on the rateable value, which is actually less than the market value or purchase price for land.
For further information go to the Queensland Government page Building Boost Grant Queensland

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.