Hi Everyone... Fixing stage complete

Colleen · Jan 20, 2008 5:48 pm

Hi Fellow Home Builders

I've been looking at this forum for months now and thought I'd finally join.

I'm building a new house in Melbourne's western suburbs. I purchased my land in May last year but delayed starting the build until late last year. The slab was laid in late November. By early-December, I had nearly a whole garage and half a frame. Then work stopped for the Christmas break. I asked my contract administrator when work would be expected to start again and she told me that the trades people would all be on leave until the last week of January or the first week of February.

Last weekend I went around to my block, just to see if it had been burnt down or anything like that yet and I found that my frame had been completed. So I've been going up throughout the week to check what else has been happening. On Thursday night I went around after work (my new block is only a few kms from my current house) and found that the house had been wrapped, the guttering had been done and the water pipes complete.

I figured that would be all for the week, as they never seem to do anything on Friday but I was wrong. I went up to take photos yesterday afternoon and found that 3/4 of the house has been bricked

. I expect they'll finish the brickwork tomorrow.

So much for them not working until the last week of January at the earliest :lol:

It really is a case of blink and you'll miss it! I only got the invoice for frame stage on Friday evening and I expect I'll be getting the lock up one in the next 2 weeks. It's exciting but scary!

How's that for a long winded introduction?

ETA: Changed the title

DeeElle · Jan 20, 2008 5:54 pm

Welcome Colleen

Post lots of pics as there are several of us who commenced building Nov/Dec 2007 and we LOVE pics.

Good luck - are you building a single story or 2 story and plse show us your selections :lol:

Jet79 · Jan 20, 2008 5:56 pm

Welcome to the forum Colleen. Who are you building with? I'd love to see photos of your house as it goes up. Helps all of us whose builders are lagging behind!!

Hello again, Jet

Colleen · Jan 20, 2008 6:11 pm

I'm building a single storey through Zuccala Homes. Just a small 3 bedroom home as it will just be me and my dog living in it. I purchased an "irregular" block at the end of a court. It's very long but not very deep (hard to explain) but it's twice the size of the other blocks that I was shown in my price range and it doesn't have any easements. To give you an idea of the irregularity, this is my block from what will be my back fence but in terms of where the driveway sits, is actually my side fence:

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(that old blue car in the distance is my car parked in the driveway).

This is the slab from the opposite end of the block, I was standing in my garage when I took this photo:

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And this is some of the bricks (front entry on right, garage on the left):

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Oh, and this is my housemate :lol:

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Yak_Chat · Jan 20, 2008 6:23 pm

Welcome Colleen.
Nice sized block and tucked away in a culdesac is always a good thing as you get a lot less traffic.
Looks like a nice backyard for pooch too.
We look forward more posts, lotsof pics and less lurking :shock:

Steve

Colleen · Jan 20, 2008 6:30 pm

As for my selections. The bricks are Boral Port Phillip. The roof tiles will be Barramundi
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The windows, fly screens, security doors, garage door, external doors, downpipes and posts will all be paperbark:
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The driveway (and supposedly the porch) will be bluestone:
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The guttering will be ironstone:
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The kitchen cupboards are champagne velvet with a lunar stone flint laminex top:
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The main bathroom cupboards are antique willona white velvet with adobe stucco velvet top:
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The ensuite cupboards are also antique willona white velvet with a shiraz pearl top:
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My bedroom will also have a burgundy feature wall so the colour will flow through both rooms.

The walls are Wattyl Tea n Cream
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The colours don't really seem to translate to the screen well but I'm hoping it will all come together properly.

DeeElle · Jan 20, 2008 6:33 pm

Colleen
Your soil looks quite good. If you have been checking members blogs you might notice that the soil is not always great when it has been backfilled by developers (especially ours

). What class foundation do you have?

Colleen · Jan 20, 2008 6:40 pm

Hi Dee, it's a H class slab as it's all clay. Just after the site cut was done there was a lot of rain and I had a lake instead of a block of land
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I've lived in this area all my life (31 years) and know it to be a clay area though so I was expecting it to be like that.

Mrs B · Jan 20, 2008 8:35 pm

Hi Colleen,

How fantastic for you :z:

We were at the exact same stage as you before christmas but your build has steamed right on pass to almost lock up in just a week.

Your colours look just lovely. Dont forget more pictures as you progress, we are indeed sticky beaks(me the biggest one) on this forum.

Mrs B

PhoenixStar · Jan 20, 2008 9:15 pm

Hi Colleen, welcome to the forum!!!

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee299/matthewnathan/Emoticons/img0.gif

Your block is very similar to the one next to ours... What size is it???
They are great if you have the right house on them.

As you can tell with the comments, we are all stickybeaks :shock:

and love to keep up with everyones progress...

We look forward to your next instalment of photos...

Your housemate is cute by the way!!! :wink:

Have fun on the forum!!!

Jet79 · Jan 21, 2008 8:12 am

What a great little possie you have, tucked away in there. I love the red in your ensuite, gorgeous. And you collie is very hansome, I'm sure he would have loved to run around when all that water was on your block. I take my dogs out to the block for a run and they run around for 5 mins then hop back in the car because it's too hot.

Colleen · Jan 22, 2008 5:41 am

**Phoenix**

Hi Colleen, welcome to the forum!!!

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee299/matthewnathan/Emoticons/img0.gif

Your block is very similar to the one next to ours... What size is it???
They are great if you have the right house on them.

As you can tell with the comments, we are all stickybeaks :shock:

and love to keep up with everyones progress...

We look forward to your next instalment of photos...

Your housemate is cute by the way!!! :wink:

Have fun on the forum!!!

Hi Phoenix, the block is 560 m2. Which, as my sister who lives in the country loves to tell me, is still small. But there will be plenty of space for the furball to run around and anything more than that would just be too much mowing (the house is only going to take up half of that space).

Jet79, I walk Flynn (the dog) up to the block at least once a week and let him have a run around. I'm hoping that will help when we move as he will already be familiar with the place.

If it wasn't for the need to change the house plans a lot to fit on my block, I would be completely happy with the land. I still love it but it's just a down side that I had to rearrange things and now am worried about what it will look like from the street. The side wall of the house design is actually my front wall and the front door is on the side wall, so until everything is finished I will worry about how weird it's going to look. However, I went out and had a look last night and all but a tiny bit is bricked now (no new photos) and it looks fine so maybe I am worrying for nothing.

I contacted my builders yesterday to raise some issues - I don't have any provision for a backyard tap and I wanted to know why my colour selections say I'm having a coloured porch but my porch is clearly not coloured. They said they're looking into both things and they will be done but I talked to my dad (who is my handyman) last night and he said it's too late to do anything about the porch and not to let them paint it but insist on some other means (like tiling or something else I can't remember now, something about colour fast I think). Has anyone else had problems like that?

clath · Jan 22, 2008 10:57 pm

hi colleen your house is looking very nice looks like its not far behind my construction.

I too have a 560 square metre block and my house takes up nearly all of it.. you will find yours will be easy to maintain. Looks like you have plenty of privacy.

Colleen · Jan 23, 2008 6:28 pm

Well I just went up there to see what's been happening... the roof tiles have been delivered and are about 2/3 completed. But the brickies haven't been back to finish off the small bit they have left - I guess because there is not a full day of work there for them. Hopefully they'll manage to get out there to finish off sometime this week though. I'll try to remember to put the camera in the car tomorrow so I can take some more photos as I suspect tomorrow night the roof will be finished

VJ · Jan 23, 2008 9:51 pm

Hi Colleen,

Welcome to the forum!
Whereabouts in the west of Melbourne are you building?

We definitely love photos here... so keep on posting your updates with photos! :wink:

Colleen · Jan 24, 2008 7:09 pm

New photos:

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It's very close to lock up. The roof is not sealed yet they need to put on the tiles you can see piled up on the roof in the first photo on (the tiles that seal the joins) and for some reason, when the brickies came back today, they did everything except this bit:
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(under the window) :?:

Oh, and of course, a front door and a laundry door would be good lol. I don't know if they'll also put the back door to the garage on as well.

P.S. VJ, I am building in Wyndham Vale (Werribee).

VJ · Jan 24, 2008 9:19 pm

Great photos!

Wyndham Vale.. we almost bought a block there...
Keep on updating us with your photos!

Kryten · Jan 24, 2008 9:36 pm

I'm going to be building in Wyndham Vale soon, at the Manor Lakes estate. The house look great Colleen - won't be long for you now

Dana

Colleen · Jan 25, 2008 5:28 am

I looked at Manor Lakes but the blocks in my price range (cheap) all had big easements and were only around the 320m2 range. The one I ended up getting has no easements, but is irregular in terms of frontage, but is the right size. The irregular frontage was a sacrifice I was willing to make because I knew I wanted a border collie and he'd need more than a courtyard to run in. Now he'll have a big backyard and we have the creek at the end of our court so he'll be able to run down there.

Having lived in Wyndham Vale all my life though, it still feels strange to see houses where there were once cows. My sister and her friends used to sneak into the farm that once sat where my house is being built and they would go cow tipping. And my dad used to take our old whippet down to what is now Manor Lakes and go chasing rabbits.

Colleen · Feb 05, 2008 8:46 pm

Well after a whole lot of nothing much happening, I went out to the block this evening and found I now have doors. Okay, I don't have the right front door, but I do have a front door. Is it normal for them to put a different door on for now or should I contact them and tell them it's the wrong door?.

I also have a bath and 2 shower bases. The gas pipes have been put through. But the roof tiles still aren't finished off so still not at lock up (in my opinion - the roof is not water tight so I don't think they can call that lock up but I guess I'll find out if they try to send me an invoice).