Roof trusses - and we start to look like the house that jack built

Roof trusses are up! And we are looking more and more like a house :)

Interesting as well - all of the windows are in and door frames, but the alfresco doors are still laying on their sides? Could it be? Could our new SS have gotten to them in time to ensure the concrete can be cut?

So that's what an SS sounds like

With the frame nearly finished, the roof trusses to go on and windows and doors to be installed we still have not seen the slab cut in for the alfresco doors. Perhaps this is normal practice, & that is fine I just want a conversation about it to confirm this hasn't been missed.

I finally heard from our new SS today!! He used to work for Clarendon when Peter Campbell was still at the helm. With the business about to be sold back to him our new SS has returned to join the company. He has told me I would hear from him every Thursday afternoon with updates as to where we are at which will be great. I also talked to him about the doors (glad I did coz he was unaware and was off to phone the slab supervisor) and a couple of other little things I wasn't sure about.

After what I felt was a great conversation his parting words were a concern:
"Have you heard anything about your bricks? Because I've just noticed a comment on the whiteboard in the office - bricks issue - and hadn't had a chance to investigate yet"

So now waiting for impending doom!

Tiling appointment

The tile meeting today was great, very organised and helpful. We made our selections back in April, before Doug went away thinking our tile selection would be much sooner then it has been, but luckily we haven't changed out minds between now and then.

The consultant that helped us was fantastic, she kept the meeting moving along nicely to keep within the very strict 2 hour limit along with offering quick alternative suggestions along the way whilst still keeping very much within the look we had in mind.

We have kept the black/grey/white theme continuing through the house and will liven this up with accessories and feature walls. Here is what we finished up with

Kitchen

Splash back - Gloss Ice Cream

shown with floor tile, cabinets and counter top

Bathrooms

Wall tile - Gloss White

Floor Tiles - Lifestyle Charcoal Textured

Feature (shower in ensuite and bath in main bathroom) - River Charcoal

Nook feature in ensuite - Mosaic Glass Pax White

shown with cabinet and counter top

Laundry (silly me, no photos)

Floor tile & Skirting - Connect White Textured

Wall tiles - Sector Satin White

Floor tiles

Main tile - Lifestyle Almond (this we are still deciding on but have gotten a great price)

Sill Tread (under front door and laundry door) - Sidewalk Bark FB-Porc Textured

We did upgrade a little bit along the way - little things like upgrading the trim that runs along the bath and edge of the nook to aluminium (we upgraded the shower doors to get rid of the horrible plastic, so it would look strange to keep the plastic here), but the major upgrade was lifting the height of the tiles in both the ensuite and bathroom to 1200mm throughout. Now we will have one consistent height that is the same height as the towel rail over the toilet, sink and bath. Full height would have been nice, but at over $1000 extra per room the budget just doesn't allow. Total extra cost spent in tiling (excluding main floor tile which we still haven't committed to) is $765

Frame built - and misses Doug by a day

Our frame has gone up! Today I received a much appreciated Facebook from my neighbour with a photo of the builders hard at work putting up the frame.

I was on an RDO so headed over in the afternoon to check it out. It is so cool starting to see the house appear and really get an idea of the size of the rooms and flow of the house etc. Whilst there is a similar house in Oran Park and a new Killara at Parklea neither of them are exactly like ours, even layouts are different so it is so nice to be able to see the spaces appear.

Doug did get to see the slab and the frame and windows in a pile on Saturday. It was such a shame that the frame didn't go up until Monday because now he will be able to see the house again until the end of January except just through the many many photos that I send.

Where o where has our SS gone?

With the frame due to go up any day now I have been getting anxious over the only real variation we made coming unstuck.

Before we signed the tender we negotiated an extra sliding door leading tithe alfresco to replace one of the windows. As one triple stacker already came part of our promotion, we negotiated for this additional stacker to be also included in the package and we were successful. Unfortunately at every step of the way we had to keep checking this and having it correct because it seems the builder was not terrible thrilled to be giving away an additional door. But I am a notorious hoarder of emails and so just kept the documentation of everything - and still do just in case.
At contract signing I requested to have these doors cut into the concrete so that the base would be flush with the flooring. This was officially off on in PCV1.
Now that the slab has been laid it is very clear that this cut has not been made. So perhaps it will be done after, however with the frame going up any day now I am getting more and more concerned that somehow this variation has slipped through the cracks.

I have never heard from our SS and have now tried to get in contact with him twice requesting him to call us. I have left emails with the office asking to ensure this information had been passed on. Nothing.

And now I receive an email saying our SS is finishing with Clarendon immediately and we would be assigned a new SS on Monday. I'm in two minds about this - success somebody new might be easier to contact and actually keep us part of the build - but will this slow us down being slow close to Christmas?

Frame Delivered

On Saturday we noticed that the external plumbing had been installed, a toilet (wonder how long it took the builders to complain before that was installed!) and that the fill that had been in piles around the block were smoothed out - so no more drop between the house and the rear fence that we would have to deal with!!

We were also thrilled to notice that electrical conduit had been installed outside the garage. Whilst there is still conduit next to our bedroom I am so glad that things are being fixed to get the electrical box in the right spot.

And even more surprises on my drive by today, Monday. I spent my drive up half hoping that the frame would be delivered, whilst my other side was trying to calm me down. After all the bank still hasn't paid for the slab! Nothing could be delivered just yet. And yet as I drive past the house two doors down that has had its frame finally put up today (after sitting on the slab all week going nowhere) my excitement builds as I see what has been delivered today - our frame!!! There it is, sitting neatly out the front of our block all ready to be built.
Doug is home on Saturday whilst he tranships from the Caribbean Princess to the Pacific Jewel - is it too much to ask for the storm that is looming over head to be kind so that the frame can be up by Saturday? Fingers and toes crossed!

So much can happen in a day!

After seeing everything on Thursday I was looking forward to taking Mum and Dad over to see on the weekend. I didn't go past on Friday night after leaving work late but Dad reported back that he had gone past and had seen the pods had been laid out. So I eagerly drove over on Saturday afternoon to see these laid out before the slab would be poured some time next week - after all what could they do over the weekend?

Well apparently a lot! Our entire slab has been poured! It had obviously been done that morning because it still looked a little wet. I was a bit annoyed that I hadn't been told because it being the weekend I would have been able to come and watch something I will never be able to see again - but we are there!!! We are finally able to see how our house will place on our land. Things are certainly moving a long very quickly! And you can imagine the shock Doug had when he opened his emails.

The slab looks great, very smooth and all of our plumbing has come through but there is a strange piece of electrical conduit and what looks like an earthing rod next to bedroom 1 and nothing at the garage. Please do not tell me we are back to square one with the location of the meter box!

So much can happen in a week!

After nothing much happening and no changes being made to our block I decided to give visiting our site a rest for a week, knowing that I would be advised when our slab was ready to be poured and also not expecting much to happen for another couple of weeks.
Today I finished work early and thought it would be a fantastic chance to drive by. Expecting nothing much to have changed I was met with such a shock.
In one small week not only have fences been erected but the site has been cut and filled, piering done, plumbing in,the frame for the slab erected and our pods delivered! I couldn't believe my eyes when I pulled up. Lucky I was alone because I was jumping around and had the biggest silliest grin on my face!!
So exciting and Doug was so shocked when I emailed across the photos to him to check out. He'll be back for a day while he tranships at the end of the month and I can't wait to be able to show him the slab by then!

Electrical appointment

What an expensive process the electrical appointment is! We are so lucky to have Dad as an electrician who will help in adding powerpoints and light points post hand over because the prices here quickly add up. I'll be honest I spent much of this meeting confused as Dad and the electrical quoter discussed circuits, GPO's, data points, NBN and everything else electrical. The night before Dad and I sat down to work out what was wanted as the end goal and from there we minimised down to the basics for Clarendon to do, with many points being placed in locations that Dad could wire behind later on.

Biggest tip here is to start drawing in your furniture this will mean that you will have thought about where you want your lamps placed, TV's located and even the phones making the electrical appointment run much smoother. But if you truly have no idea they will have a ready-to-go template for you.

Our variations were:
2x light points @ $53 each
1x one way switch @ $50
1x three way switch @ $90
1x extra power circuit and extra safety switch @ $250 (as soon as you add anything an extra circuit is automatically added, so a nice big chunk of money heading just to this!)
3x single power point @ $58 each
1x double power point @68

To be honest there is nothing there, it is all a little bit here and a little bit there. It was mainly about ensuring points were positioned in such a way that they could easily be converted later. We've also got a few points that we will change to double points later on. All the more positives of building a single story.

The other big conversation was all about NBN and the needs for this - something there just seems to be huge confusion over. We added the Hills Home Hub in our original tender so this provided additional data points and phone points - but the strange thing is we get more phone points than data points and in theory with NBN you won't need a phone point because telecommunication will go through the data point. Work that out!