Week 8

Well, we have one wall of bricks, which looks great, we are really happy with how all our colour choices are coming together. There is not as much done as i was hoping for, but at least its started. I had a good chat with the SS yesterday. He explained the reason the bricks have been delayed, and was very informative with regards to whats happening now and in the near future.

 

Although there are not as many bricks done as i was hoping for, the guys were at least hard at work when I visited the site this morning, so lets hope we see some real progress this week.

 

The interior seems to be coming on well though. we now have coving, skirting, and door frames! which all look great! (below is a picture of my daughters new wardrobe coming together!)

 
It would appear the bathroom cabinets have been delivered ready for installation, they look lovely just lying on the floor, so im sure they will look great once they are fixed in place :-)

Although I had been told the kitchen was meant to be started 2 days ago, it was nice to see that going in to place. I believe this should only take a couple of days to complete, so i cant wait to see the finished result next week!

Fingers crossed this week we will see the 'lock up' and 'Fixing' stages complete!

Week 8 Tuesday

Quick update, we have had some more gorgeous weather so far this week. i went up to the house to finally see the bricks in place. Although the bricks had moved in to various new piles aroung the house. There are still no bricks in place, arghh, im getting impatient now. i really want to see how the bricks are going to look! Fingers crossed for more good weather, or i am going to get really fustrated at urbanedge for wasting the last week and a half of sunny weather!

End of week 7

 

So, hopefully, we are over a third of our way through the build, and internally its looking great. unfortunatly despite being told the bricklayer was on site all week, and some gorgeous weather the bricks still have not moved. To make it worse, other houses on the street that started after ours are now almost fully bricked. Still i have been assured everything will get going in week 8 (i assume we will not be getting the invoice for 'lock up stage' in the post in week 8 as predicted.)

 

 

On a more positve note, as i mentioned the interior is coming on really well, its great to see all the plaster board up. its definately feeling like a real house now. The picture above shows what will be the kitchen, the pipes in the floor indicate where the sink will eventually be. The picture below is the windows in the master bedroom.

 

 

And finally for today, the laundry room.

 

End of week 6.

Well, in just 2 days the house is looking quite different, it has been wrapped for bricking! I didnt go to the site today, but my husband went down with his dad. I was quite jealous as they actually got to see it 'encased' (even if it wasnt bricked).

Below is the view looking through the open plan living area to the front door.

The next picture is looking the oppsite direction (towarss the bathroom). Also, note the bath has been installed. It does seem odd to install the bath at such an early stage, and without the rest of the bathroom fittings - but I am sure they have their reasons!

Looking forward to next week, the forecast looks pretty dry, so hopefully we will see some real progress with the bricks, and maybe even some more internal developments. At this rate we may be at lock up stage in the not to distant future, fingers crossed! (although I dont want to tempt fate)

Week 6 - Thursday

I went up to the house and Thursday and was very pleased to see the smart new roof tiles in place.

I was also able to see the men installing our aircon and heating within the ceiling area. i guess its much easier and nicer for them to do that BEFORE the attic gets enclosed! althought hey did say they wont be delivering the actual heating and cooling units until right before handover as they dont want them being stolen!

And although i didnt notice it initially, the pipes were all installed. The bath had also been delivered, presumably its going to get installed pretty soon. I believe its not uncommon for things like that to go missing before the house gets to lock up stage! It would seem anything as at risk of being stolen until the house is at lock up I have even heard of  whole windows being stolen!!!

End of Week 5

Well, its the end of week 5, we were hoping to find the roof all finished but due to the weather all we have is some guttering and scaffolding. Still at least they are ready to go, in week 6. I hadn't thought the weather had been that bad, admittedly wednesday would have been a write off, but Thrusday and Friday, were ok apart from the odd shower. I guess they have to be quite careful when they are working on the roofing though!

Also the bricks were delivered. They are exactly as we hoped. I am so glad we didn't upgrade our brick selection. I think these are pretty smart for a category 1 brick.

We had a good change to see the windows in place, and check out the colour. Although i am sure they will look very different once they have the rest of the house to frame them, we were very happy with the colour. they should look smart from the outside, but also tone in well with our decor from the inside.

I'm writting this on the Tuesday of week 6, and i am very glad to say there has been no rain so far this week. hopefully this is allowing them to steam ahead with both our brickwork and our roof tiles! Needless to say, we are lookin forward to seeing the house at the end of this week! Fingers crossed, for a proper house (externally) by Saturday!!!

Week 5 - Wednesday

Well, we got the ammended frame invoice yesterday, so i went down to checkhow things were going. As you can see, this time it was complete! We have a 'skeleton house'. It was very exciting to be able to 'walk through' our future home. as Urbanedge do not have the 'Jell' on display anywhere, walking through it today, was literally like bringing, what had been lines on a page, to life. Was it how i expected? Yes, i think so, although, it actually felt slightly larger than i had expected - i hope i am still saying that once the plasterboard goes up.

I think today was the first time that the children truly believed we were actually building a house (and not just taking them up to see a patch of dirt on a weekly basis, lol) i think it was also actually the first time i truly got the feeling that we were actually building our own home - its so exciting

The large pile of tiles out the front suggests that we should have a proper roof very soon. i hope that todays heavy rain clears away soon so that they can work on it. I really dont want any more days wasted because of rain! I will be keeping my fingers firmly crossed that we will see some roof tiles in place when we next visit this weekend!

Week 5 - Tuesday

Well, nothing to report on the house building front so far. However, on a slightly related topic. I signed up with the productreview.com.au website the other week, to review Urbanedge Homes, mainly because i was suprised how many negative reviews had been left, when i have had such a good experience. Anyway, whilst I was doing my review i entered their competion to win a new Sauber vacuum (courtesy of 'Godfreys'), and I just got the notification that i actually won - what a perfect housewarming present!

Week 4

Well, we went up midweek expecting to find the frame started, it wasn't, but is was at least exciting to see the slab complete. Turns out, that whilst I had been at home thinking how lucky we had been with the weather, the builders had decided it was too wet to work - how disappointing. There was however a pile of timber for the frame, a pile of roof trusses, and a pile of windows, which looked promising.

I'd had an email from the builder on Tuesday, requesting the 'base' payment, and i had been told that by the end of the week the frame would be complete. I recieved the invoice for the frame on Friday, and was told that by Saturday it would be complete - fantastic news.

We eagerly trekked up to the site late afternoon and found a little bit of framing, but it was nowhere near finished (and the weather was stunning!)

We all walked around and worked out what everything was going to be, and sussed out the garden. I was impressed with the builders on the neighboring site who stayed working away until 4pm. I loved seeing how the house was going to work, although i was very disappointing at the lack of framing. I have checked next weeks forecast and it looks like the first half of the week is going to be mainly dry, so hopefully we will have the frame up by Tuesday. So i know where i will be on Tuesday afternoon........

So in conclusion we seem to have fallen a few days behind schedule this week, fingers crossed we can make it up next week!