Plastering is done

The plasterers have been in and done the plastering so that is another step along the way. Don't know what is next so hoping it is painting and papering.
I have chosen the one paper for the whole house as well as the one paint colour. Will write more later.
Diane

Kitchen is made

This is the new kitchen. It has been completed and now waiting for it to be put in the house. Here is Brent, from In 2 Kitchens who has designed and built the kitchen. This is the end of the kitchen with the little breakfast bar and the very cool feature laminate. I am hoping that it will look really cool once it is all in.

This is the space in the house where the kitchen will live. The sink will be under the window with the oven on the far wall and the refrigerator wall coming out from the left side of the photo.

This week (23 July) the plasterers have been in and done all the plastering so that is really neat.

I am hoping that in a couple of weeks perhaps the painting and papering will be on the way.

Slow Progress - March 2007

Getting nowhere fast - we are waiting for the roof iron to be delivered so the boys took out the back fence although the hedge would have been a preferable option. Now we have a temporary fence to keep jessie in. Murray managed to get posts the same as Bertie and Melanie's front fence and the palings are all painted ready for the day when they will be put up.
I still have to decide on my fence but momentously on Thursday 3rd July was talking to Murray and we will have a block base to the fence so the grass can be levelish and then some block pillars with palings in between. It will then drop down where the gate will go in and go along to the edge of the driveway. I have asked if I can have the pavers that grow grass for the turning circle, otherwise I feel like it will be a lot of concrete (and some of you know how i feel about concrete).
The letterbox will be built into the fence so vandalism hopefully will be a thing of the past as well.

Bricks are started

A concerned builder came and asked was I certain this was the colour of the brick. Yes was the definite reply as I had been drooling over them for a couple of days. Steel is the name of the brick, but it looks nothing like steel or even the colour in the brochure. It is a really pretty brown/grey colour, not quite smooth but not too bumpy either.
Mark the Brickie spent a while getting all his bricks sorted as to where he needed them so he then started on the back of the garage. Using a dark mortar so the magnolia windows look good. Alice helped me choose the colour of the windows.
I think that doing the bricks is a long job as Mark is painstakingly good. The house looks great and you can see a couple of progress shots.

The Lids on the Thing

The Roof trusses went on and it started to look like a house. I was most impressed with the way Murray had taken into consideration the various widths of the soffit so it had street appeal.

Finally the roof iron has arrived and its going on. I chose a colour called ‘greyfriars’ which looks okay with the brick and magnolia aluminium and also ties in with the old house colours.
The roof shout was held in May on a chilly Friday afternoon, but we managed to wet the whistle of the house and with windows and cladding on the house seemed cosy.

Today 9th July - they have finally put the guttering on and so now the rain can't drip down my neck when I rush to the car. I will put another picture of the finished guttering when I can download them from Marilyn's camera.

Easter Walls

The walls are up.

Murray put the walls up just prior to Easter so at least Ewan and Mj, who came to visit could see where all the rooms were going to be. The photo on the left is from the lounge looking down the very short hallway to the garage at the end. The short wall is the office/computer space that I decided I wanted rather than have the computer live in the lounge room - it is part of the room but not in the room.

This was also the start of the delays with the roof trusses not arriving until mid april and in fact the roof went on just before I went to melbourne for a few days break with mum and dad.

Here is the view from the street with the roof trusses on and it is starting to look like a house.

The move in date of July does not look like it will happen but wait and see.

Starting at the bottom - Foundations

My car had its last night parked in the old garage in February 2008. You can see the pink lines for the dividing wall which will be where the new garage comes to. My car will almost be parked in the same place except where the front of the car is in this photo is where the new laundry area will be.

Foundations were dug with a digger coming and removing over 12 inches of dirt. I didn’t realise how much of a slope there was to the section. Murray kindly left the old driveway so I could still park the car off the road.



The house shape was marked out and I did not realise it would be so big. The front corner was nearer the road than I thought but it’s too late now.





It was all hands on deck for the pouring of the footings as the first step in building this house. All the little ditches were filled with concrete and left to dry.




The layout of the house was more evident once the footings had been laid out. Tim then spent time laying the blocks to provide the walls for the concrete foundations which were poured next.




Pouring concrete day started at 6am on Tuesday 4th March. I had a phone call from Murray to ask me to make sure that my car was moved so the concrete truck could get in. it was exciting to be there for the first pour and to see the house starting to take a step along. Next the concrete had to dry and luckily it was beautiful weather so I had to water the concrete despite the water restrictions for a couple of days.
I put my and date in the corner of each garage.

Destruction Phase

By the end of 2007 I had managed to get rid of the Tunnel House which was great. Next to be cleared out was the garage and the woodshed as Murray the Builder let me know early November that they would hopefully be starting with the demolition prior to Christmas. That at least was the intention but the woodshed was demolished in January this year and the garage soon after.

Follow the photos and see the one where my car spent its last night in the old garage.
Also you can see the marks on the concrete where the new garage fits onto the property. It is close to the house but will still be okay for access.

In the Beginning

Late 2005 I finally decided to go ahead with the subdivision of the block and look into building my new home. I had this done and by October 2006 I was talking to builders and looking at how big a house I would be able to build on the back lawn.

By some judicious creative thinking we were able to get three bedrooms but no ensuite. I decided I did not need two bathrooms to clean when there was only me living in the house.

At the beginning of 2007 I had contacted builders and a draughtsman and got started with the drawing up of the plans. You know how things go. You think you are on target for a certain date but everything seemed to take much longer.
We did spend some of the year cleaning out the section and following are some photos of the various days that we spent clearing up gardens, fences etc. Terry decided about september time that the fence had to go and so it went. It really opened up the section and then I had my washing out for all to see. See Dad getting rid of the Flowering Cherry which I had hoped to keep but it was rotten so it was sacrificed.

I had hoped to have the final plans by the time we went to Perth for our family holiday in July but they were still a draft form.