Pre-plaster

Finally our brickie started. When I say brickie I mean just the one guy.  We first met him on wet Saturday afternoon working on the alfresco wall which was the only place undercover.  The bricks are all going along nicely and will hopefully be finished by mid-late next week.  I need to drop off a box of beer for my neighbour who allowed the brickie to use his water for a day or two while Ashford sorted out an issue with our meter tap.  Bit of a communication issue between the SS and the trades by the sound of it, once alerted it seems to have been corrected nice and quickly.

The insulation has now mostly been installed and the cabling is all complete ready for plastering.  We had New Home Inspections out again for a pre-plaster inspection.  Theo found a few minor issues again which should be all corrected by the time the bricks are complete.  Then it will be a week of tidying up and sorting out some loose ends, lock the doors and start plastering.  If all goes well we should be completed plastering by the end of the month.  We are still mostly looking on track.

The only major issue we've encountered so far is an oversight by Ashford in not contacting TTI about our granite  bench tops.  I had a call from TTI asking what was going on, have called Elisha at Ashford and hoping it will all be sorted.  It seems that most people now go for Caesar stone and so they don't really know what to do when confronted with natural stone.  Ashford seem to always come through for us with a bit of probing so hopefully this issue will be no different.  I've been reading a few blogs of people building with Metricon and we don't seem to be having any of the issues they are, I think its probably a combination of having a stable SS who is on the ball and also having the independent inspections.

Brickwork outside the dinning room

Plasterboard ready to go in the dinning room.  Wall and ceiling insulation all installed. 

A completed wall on the master bedroom.

External wall insulation and phone and power points.

Sound screen insulation between the retreat and bedrooms.

Cornices ready to go in once the plaster is up.

Bit of dodgy plumbing here that needs to be sorted out.

Has anyone seen a bricky?

Bricks arrived 2 weeks ago but there has been no sign of a bricky, the final framing issues have all been sorted out so we should be seeing some brick laying action.  Sounds like we are a lower priority to a couple of new display houses, next Monday is the day apparently.  Lets see if it happens.   To Ashford's credit they haven't just waited around,  the heating system ducts have been installed and the sparky has done a heap of the power, lighting and data cabling.  Damien tells me the internals and brickwork are all going to happen in parallel to catch up on some lost time.  May is getting close!

 Cut back the overhanging slab

Support the overhanging frame

Replaced base plate

Ducts

Theres going to be a lot of switches here

Power and data cabling

Temp front door

The roof is on...

I can't believe how fast they can get things done.  With the public holiday and an RDO on Friday they've only had three days this week in which the roof tiles have been laid and the windows and sliding doors are fitted as well as the door jams for the front and garage.   Some of the issues discovered last Friday have been fixed, the over hangs in the slab and entrance framing issue haven't been corrected yet.  Bit of a worry that the tiles are on but the framing requires some additional work.  Will be interesting to see how this will get sorted out.

Slab fix up

Extra nogen

                                             Cracked glass already

Extra stud added

Very glassy lounge\dinning room

Retreat doors

Entrance with door jam

Roof tiles, all done.

Frames Inspection

New Home Inspections came out today to check on the frames, was mostly ok with just a couple of fix ups to do, things I'd never have known to look for so it was well worth it.  There were a couple of places where the reo in the slab was exposed they just need to treat and cover it up, and some issues with the frames where some additional timber is required.

                                           Exposed reo

                                                     Need an extra stud here.

All of the behind plaster plumbing is completed and most of the insulation wrapping is done.  The tiles and windows should be done next week and the bricks the following.  The target of mid May is still looking achievable.

Frames

So...been a bit slack with the updates.  Went and had a look on Christmas day and got a good pressie with all of the framing work completed.  Had a bit of a wander around and all looks good.  The windows should be going in the first week back on the 9th.   Only problem has been that New Home Inspections have been on holidays and aren't back until the 16th, its a catch 22 as I want them to have a look before it gets too progressed but I also want them to keep making progress.  Anyway hopefully they can have a look next week and everything will be good.....

Started!

Finally Ashford have started.  Got a call from Damian to say they would go to site, within a week all the plumbing was in the ground.  The next week we have a slab, and they tell me frames are going up this week.  So fairly rapid progress so far.  Lets hope this keeps up after the Christmas break.

Waiting and more waiting

Contract is signed, house is demolished now waiting on Ashford to get started.  We have our tile appointment this week and then a whole full week more before colour selection, only then can they start building.  I'm still hoping to see them get to site on the 1st of September, its unlikely but we'll see.  They are apparently working on the building permits so I hope that is progressing.   It all seems crazy that we have to have the colour of tiles and paint selected before they start pouring the slab!

Here's some photos of levelled site :