G.J Gardner build - Week 20 - Fitoff

By far the hardest decision we have had to make are the lights! We have sat down on MANY occasions to go through all different options and styles. With the kitchen lights, do we go with a bold style to highlight the kitchen area, or simple and plain to make it all blend.

The entrance - again, bold or simple. Allison wants this in the entrance....





Look, while I think it's awesome as a bit of a gag, maybe for a pool room/man cave, I honestly don't think ill ever grow to love it.

I know whatever we choose, it will look great.

Where are people buying their lights from?? Any suggestions? We've been looking on Aliexpress - that's seems to have some great designs.

Good luck, I am going through the same pain for the 3 pendant lights!
I was looking at this one https://www.electrolighting.com.au/prod ... dant-light
and 2x https://www.lightingillusions.com.au/sh ... 1931-25712

But I have been scouring the net to find something where I go yeap that's the one..

So did I catch our builder telling us a little lie????
Sent an email yesterday asking where we are at on a start date - the response was that the file has just been handed to the SS today who will call us in a little while. OK - so who was out at our block on Tuesday huh?? We don't know if that actually was the SS or someone else just doing a first inspection, so I'm not going to bring it up with the admin... just yet.

If we start before July 1 - i'll be happy.

You're still ahead
Some battles are worth fighting.. some you just got to let go..

Just received a call from our SS!!! It's not who we specifically asked for - but we'll give this guy a go and see.

I'll have to pop out to the block and do some weeding.... eerrrr - 60% of the 600sq block is waist high in weeds!!! Ugh, that's going to suck...

Progress is progress

I feel really sorry for the poor reindeer whose lives were sacrificed in the construction of that light fitting.

Finally purchased our kitchen pendant lights.

We both would have never picked these - but for some reason, when we were at Beacon lighting looking at different lights - I walked over to these and said "Huh, these look really nice, and the way they glow would look amazing." Allison quickly agreed. So we purchased them on the spot. Thing is, because Allison kinda doesn't have much experience with design, colours etc. she is very easily convinced on what I suggest. I was worried that we made a rash decision on the lights, but a few hours later - she was still saying that she is really happy with the lights we chose. So in the end, I think we made a great decision together.

It was a different person was a different SS to the one the paperwork was given to.

The meeting with our SS went really well. Very thorough. Made a few suggestions on tap and spout locations which made sense.
Start date - site scrape 9 July.
Plumbing rough-in 17 July
Electrical rough-in 28 August

So still over a week away, but looking forward to seeing progress on site.

He predicts that we should have a finished home in mid December. That's worst case scenario of course, so if the planets line up, and with some good luck, we may be in earlier.

So the plan now is to minimise what we have to actually move. Purge all the stuff we don't need anymore.

As Things slow down in The construction Industry
1. Building Times will shrink
2.Better trades become available...as the cowboys leave the industry..hopefully
3.Make sure you have the completed Engineering (Signed) Drawings & Construction Details (ie, Geotech, Retaining Walls, Footings, Slabs Frames, Wind loadings, Beams,etc,etc
4. Take photos at critical stages..if you aren't sure.. always ask an Engineer
5. Plan your visits with critical construction stages
No-one will look after your build, better than YOU
Cheers

It was comforting to hear that he has his own crew that he works with - Brick, chippies, plaster, electrical. He wont lend them out to other SS unless he has no work for them. All have about 10 - 20 experience working for him.

We are permitted onsite as long as we use common sense. So i'll be able to take photos of all the progress. Cheers for the info

That's the standard Building Company Line .. I hear it all the time on site, so please excuse me if I sound cynical
You should be allowed on site, the more eyes that are cast over your build the more the chances are that mistakes , error,etc will be sorted out before they become major issues latter on
Structural Engineer Inspections are critical make sure you have the right photos
Slab Inspection Rectification

Good news - some works are starting on our land. There is a shared brick fence that needs to be removed as our garage is being built on the boundary.

Some progress pics for the end of the week

This was just to remove the brick fence to make room for our garage - building to boundary.

Site scrape booked for today. Weather is perfect. Neighbour has already told me they have arrived to start work.
I'll drop by after work and take some pics.

Congrats!

Site cut done and dusted!
So far so good I think. There were paint marks on the ground, so pegging should be done next.
I have a meeting with the SS on Friday to go over house placement.

so jealous!

The wait has been excruciating!

Where are you up to with your build?