Knockdown and building Henley's Talise Q2 - We have keys!

Hopefully your build will not take long GER to finish?

Speaking of your build, you never did send through a link to your blog? (So I don't know how we could have been copy CHATZ?)

Chatz

Mate i have tried and failed to put the blog link... can you give me instructions please ?

Ta
G

Select control panel from the box in the top right



then profile



then edit signature



Here is my signature, you can see I use the URL tags to put a hyperlink behind some text:



Chatz

Ger1322,

To answer your other question, we are not having any render done, its something we felt we could always do later if we wanted to change the house appearance.

Chatz

More photos coming on the weekend.

This week that have finish the electrical cabling, installed the batts and plaster on the ceilings and walls and filled the gaps. The cornices are waiting to be installed.

The brick layers have used all the bricks that were originally delivered, the garage is finished, portico and sides partly done.

The evaporative unit and solar cells for the hot water are on the roof and the scaffolding is down.

Lockup must be just around the corner...

Chatz

I drove past yesterday, Chatz, I can't believe how much they have done! It looks fantastic!!!

Great (and fast) progress!!

As promised, here are some pictures showing the family, dining and kitchen at frame stage and now with plaster:







More pictures on the blog.

Chatz

It was going to happen sometime, my first real whinge about H3nl3y.

I was concerned about some of the data cabling as the plans were not very clear. The electrical plan needed a couple of iterations and there were still some areas which I felt were still ambiguous.

I asked Henley if we could see the cabling before the plaster went on, but they claimed we were too late. However we know that it was two days later that the plaster went on the walls. From what I could see the data cables were run to the study, rather than the laundry cupboard where I plan to have the router & switch connected to the ADSL line. Right now I suspect I have all the data cables going to one room and the phone points to another and no easy was to connect the two.

The lack of updates from the admin, the lack of voice mail for the admin and lack of response to emails makes it very frustrating when trying to communicate about what is happening onsite. I called about 10 times last week and my call was only answered once.

I've asked the admin to confirm that the data cabling was as I had communicated on several previous occasions and I'm paying them a huge markup to get this right.

Time to escalate, we should expect better service than this.

Chatz

Hi Guys

we finally have a frame.

we were so excited driving to our place coz we knew that slab had been done, but we turned the corner of our street to find a fully framed house on our block! OMG I cannot explain in words the excitement we felt!
anyways, just thought i would post to say how happy we are

i was a bit surprised by how small the master bedroom was though i really expected it to be a little roomier. other than that, everything else seemed great... our backyard is very small... i think we didn't realise when we looked at the drawings of our house on the actual block size....anyway, too late now, i guess it just means we wont have to spend too long gardening!

Trudy

Trudy,

We are so happy for you! Interesting how similar your reactions are to ours, astonishment when you see the frame, surprise how small the master bedroom feels, and how little room is left on the block.

With the plaster walls in place the master still feels small, but with the study and living in the "parent zone" we aren't concerned.

Enjoy the next 6 weeks, it's been an amazing ride since the frame went up for us, hopefully yours goes as fast from here.

Chatz

Fantastic news Trudy! Chatz came rushing over to tell me you'd posted, we have been hoping for you. I agree with you about the backyard - less space = less work! I have also meant to ask - did you choose a specific facade or go with the default one? It's only since seeing the portico that I actually looked at the drawings of the other facades for the Talise.

Now, if I can just get Chatz to stop obsessing about his data cables.....

Kate

Hi guys

Aw its so sweet how you're thinking of us thanks for the support.

we originally wanted to go with the cremorne facade but we were told it wouldn't fit on our block. our backyard is so tiny... it's like a strip of land about 2m wide! anyway, cant stress about it now, its already done. And I guess this isnt our 'forever house' ... we will probably be in it for the next 7 - 8 yrs and then move on.

I hear you about the data cabling... i told my hubby about it and he was also not impressed!

Master bedroom -OMG its tiny. the one in our rented unit was bigger! we are just telling ourselves that coz theres so much room in the rest of the house we wont have to 'hang out' in the bedroom anyway. but seriously, i was thinking of putting a pretty sitting chair by the windows and now i just think we can only fit in the bed and bedside tables. i think i will be hard pressed to even fit in an ottoman to go and the foot of the bed!

Hi Trudy - snap, I've been planning a nice sitting chair for the main bedroom too. Chatz even placed a couple of down lights where my theoretical chair would go. But, I think I might be able to find it a home in the living room - it's much bigger than we expected! If I remember right, you changed that to a theatre? Does it seem like a big room? I think I'll do my hanging out in the living room, Chatz can be in "his" study, kids can have their rooms and "retreat". After living in such a small place for so long I think we will all just avoid each other for months once we have moved in.

I love that you're already thinking ahead to the next home! This is our final home, no way are we going through this again. We went through first home, which was a unit, next home was a bigger house, we extended that one, now here we are with "not going anywhere again!" so I do hope we have made all the right choices. Mind you, all three places have been in the same area so we aren't exactly adventurous!

Let's hope the rain holds off a bit so we can all get some progress!!

Awkward. Neighbour just called to say the builders have damaged his brick front fence.

The remaining bricks were delivered today, but with the rain and mud it would appear they had some problems unloading them. Many bricks are scattered and there are great big trenches from the truck tires.

Hey guys

yeh unfortunately no sitting chair in the master i am planning to put it in MY study hubby has already marked the theatre room as his own - which i am actually very happy about. the theater room is a great size! in there he will store a massive drum kit, 3 guitars, a bass, 3 amps, a small 2 seater couch and a desktop computer. as far as i am concerned, the further that stuff is from the open living area, the better.
I think your sitting chair sounds great in the living room!

Yes we were not planning on building our first home at all! we just new we wanted to live in the northern suburbs close to family members as we are going to be starting our own family in a couple of years and we really want the 3 brothers and sisters, 25 cousins, 18 aunts and uncles and 4 grandparents living close by we lived in a cramped old unit for the first 3 and a half yrs of marriage and just wanted a nice roomy comfortable house to live in. it turned out it was cheaper to build

do you guys have any idea how much colorbond fencing is? or whether it is heaps more expensive than just average fencing? we have a jack russell who is great at digging

cant believe h3nl3y has damaged your neighbour's fence! obviously they will be fixing it.

trudy

Trudy,

Our receipts from when we had a colourbond fence installed are in storage, it was a bit more but we thought it was worth it.

Chatz

Thanks chatz. i think we will be going colourbond fencing too. we only have one fence to do as we have a house on our right and behind us already.

Trudy

Another weekly update.

We are close to lock up with all the cornices done inside. In fact Henley said internal lock up is done and they will start putting the kitchen in next week, followed by the eaves Not sure why they have to be done in that order?

The front is all bricked:



and the sides and rear wall are mostly done:



We have one strange brick near the laundry door, everything is looking really good.



Trudy, looking forward to seeing pictures of your frame!

Chatz

I like the sounds of that room

We received the invoice for lockup today even though the bricks are still being finished.

That has not stop the delivery today of all the kitchen, laundry and bathroom cabinets, internal doors, door frames and skirting boards.

Some of our colours are there on the cupboards, but hard to see in the torch light.

Chatz