Wherefore Art Thou Roof?

And still no progress since my last post! Officially the slowest month - even looking at other blogs from slab poured to having roof tiles completed, it looks like our build is about a month behind - how did that happen?

So...this month has been extremely frustrating in terms of our build - and no clue as to why. All we have had done is the roof, which started last month and still hasn't been completed.

Tomorrow we are supposed to be having the eaves done and fireplace box put in, but they haven't even started the roof tiling for the lower floor yet - which is such a small surface area in comparison to the main roof. We've been waiting weeks to see it finish.

We are really not happy about the bricking either. We've been taking closer looks and it's very uneven, holes in the mortar, chipped bricks, inconsistent spacing - you name it, we've got it. And that dislodged roof tile - who knows when they will fix that. If we try to talk to our SS about it, he makes us feel almost like we have no idea what we are talking about. I'm waiting for our next onsite meeting to go through these issues in person and point out specific areas where these problems are.

So we've been updated with the following schedule, lets see how that goes:

28th Apr: Electrical rough-in, incl. speaker wiring

1st May: Gyprock installation ETA 10 days

16th: Stairs and fit out (?)

23rd: Kitchen fit out

Meanwhile, our SS left us some spray paint and we decided to mark out all the places we want our frame 'blocked' so that we can hang heavy objects such as TVs. We decided to do the fireplace (so we don't drill into the flue by accident!), leisure room, upper lounge and main bedroom. Now that was a fun exercise!

Cx

PS I think they've sent out all their tradesmen to work on their new display homes in Gregory Hill, that's why I we've seen absolutely nobody on site each time we've been there during the day over the past few weeks!

Cavity units for theatre and en-suite have arrived

Wherefore art thou roof?

Fireplace

Leisure

Media alcove in upper lounge

Main bedroom

Upper Eaves and Downpipes

To end what has possibly been the slowest week, we finally have upper floor eaves and downpipes installed. 

They've also managed to do a clean of the upper floor bricks.

Some issues (pictures below): chipped roof tile, holes in mortar, and poor cleanup on bricks on some places.

This month is going to kill me. This is the current timeline our SS gave us on Friday:

Mon 7th - eaves painted

Wed 9th - upper scaff comes down

Fri 11th - lower gutter/fascia installed

Tue 22nd - lower eaves and fireplace installed

I honestly can't believe it is going to take a whole month to do all that! 

Cx

There's still mortar on bricks everywhere

Downpipe

Chipped roof tile (there's possibly more we can't see, and the displaced on we found last week still has not been fixed)

Gutter, fascia, eave 

Bad mortar job, or bad clean?

Holes in the mortar

Just looks like a mess right now!

Bricking Complete, Roof Tiling Begins

Last Friday we received an email from Wisdom Accounts with the invoice for Stage 4 - Bricking completed. We had a look yesterday when we got back, it doesn't look complete but we really don't know, and the FC Sheeting on part of the back of the house hasn't been installed, but I've been told that's not part of Stage 4.

Anyway, we were surprised that they hadn't started on the gutters and fascias until today - must have been some wet weather in Sydney whilst we were away!

I've got pictures from yesterday of the completed brickwork, roof tile delivery and the start of the guttering below.

They also fixed those weep holes above the garage. 

Everything seemed to be going up so fast, but now it's almost like its all slowing down again!

Cx

Gutters, fascia and roof tiles delivered

Completed brickwork of rear and fireplace

Main bedroom with feature wall in front of wardrobe

Second bedroom - No more missing windows yay

Second bedroom - completed bricking

Third bedroom - completed bricking (fourth bedroom as FC sheeting not yet completed)

Looking down into the leisure

And then the top floor gutter and fascia installation that began today on the first floor..

It's hard to distinguish between the scaffolding and gutter/fascia but if you squint...

Bricks and a Break

On Friday morning (yesterday) we met our site supervisor, Scott for the first time and he took us on a walk thru of the house. He was great, very personable and happy to give us a tour of our soon to be home. He seemed pretty relaxed, and is quite positive that handover is not too far from reach now, and we're really going through the slow phase at the moment!

So I took a few more photos of what has happened - they've finally completed the entire ground floor for bricking, and the rest of the fireplace has gone up too. We've also got that final window installed - Scott said that they had delivered one with the wrong window sill width. They've started a bit on the first floor too.

I also noticed some pretty fluro purple spray paint in the kitchen - Timpelle have been out to do an inspection and final measure for the kitchen and left some notes on the floor!

The Milburns are off to take a break for a week and a half HOLIDDDDAYYYYY!!! So when we get back we will have full bricks, fascia, guttering and eaves by the time we get back. He said he'd try to send us a picture of the house when the bricking has completed - which should be this Tuesday some time (first floor is easiest and fastest). Shame we will miss it, but we are in dire need of a getaway right about now!

Enjoy the pics and I will update the blog when we're back...or maybe I'll post some holiday envy photos ;)

Cx

Piers now completed to the balcony

Competed up to first floor window - these weird weep hole placements are killing my life right now!

On the porch

Fireplace

Mr Milburn in the leisure with the fireplace built up (weep holes done well here!)

Blind side (I hate the metal poles for the neighbours fence can be seen from our side)

Northern side

Alfresco

The bottom window sill will be removed to slot the stone bench underneath

Just a few more ground floor pics

Just a quick one to say we went on site yesterday afternoon, and nobody has been on-site since we saw them putting the scaffolding up on Saturday! I was a little disappointed to see the ground floor still hasn't been completed - well it's just that bit at the front, the piers and the rest of the fireplace.

Anyway, it was getting a little dark but I have a few more photos from inside and out the back.

Cx

Alfresco

Leisure and fireplace

Fireplace from inside

Structural beam between leisure and kitchen

Looking out to the porch

Up Up and Away!

We got up bright and early this morning and went past the house, as we haven't had a chance since last Wednesday. There has been a lot of progress on the bricks, and they've almost completed the ground floor bricking.

On Saturday morning they put the scaffolding up so they can continue the rest of the bricking this week. We are expecting to see the ground floor completed by tomorrow, and the top floor starting to go up on Wednesday. Yay!!

Meanwhile, our SS told us last week that he's had some problems with the quality of the bricks - he's seeing a lot of chipping and cracking. He had a talk to Boral about them (apparently has something to do about how they bake the clay in the kiln or something...), and has told the brickies to discard any that are cracked or chipped and they'll be replacing them. So you'll see, there's a huge pile of broken bricks on site at the moment..!

Cx

Can see the piers and blade wall for the steps now

Bricks, anyone?