Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 29, 2009 8:08 am I'm so excited that now I get to have my own construction thread
As many of you already know we are building Plantation's Empire design on our block at Narangba. The block was cut about a week ago and since then things have started to move along quickly. Monday they delivered the bricks and pegged out the site and left numerous empty coke bottles and food wrappers Tuesday they did the plumbing - we got a call from the SS to say they'd hit rock There goes the $3000 provisional amount in our contract for rock excavation which we thought we'd get back Today they are boxing up the slab and then tomorrow they should start pouring it! When we saw the house pegged out we realised that the slab for our Polytank was going to extend out too far and block access down the side So I contacted Plantation to see if we could pay the extra fees and costs and swap to a slimline tank - it turned out that it was going to cost us over $2500 to do this once we factored in the extra cost for the slimline, the redrafting fee, the council fees and the $500 post contract change fee So we decided to stick with the Polytank I know everything needs to be ordered ahead of time but it's very frustrating that it's so hard to make changes. I'm a very visual person and it wasn't until I physically saw the tank slab that I realised it was leaving it very tight ... oh well - I guess i'll just have to go on a diet Anyway here are various pictures of what's happened the last few days: (I hope the pics work!) Here's our bricks! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Here's a close up of our bricks - I dont know why hubby put that wood on top of the brick Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Some of the plumbing: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I know I shouldn't be excited about this - but sadly I am : Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Anyone know what this is for? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And oddly enough this is right where our front door is meant to be? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I hope that's not to many photos!! Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 2Apr 29, 2009 8:22 am the second last photo is of the release valve for the pipes that connect into you water tank. if it doesnt rain for ages the water in the gravity fed downpipes that go into your tank can get all crappy so you pull this valve to let it out to the street and not into your tank Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 3Apr 29, 2009 8:58 am dinga the second last photo is of the release valve for the pipes that connect into you water tank. if it doesnt rain for ages the water in the gravity fed downpipes that go into your tank can get all crappy so you pull this valve to let it out to the street and not into your tank ahhh! that makes perfect sense! thanks so much!! Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 4Apr 29, 2009 9:32 am congrats on your new thread Cant wait to see pics of the slab!!! How much rock did they find??? Did they find rock on your soil report?? is that why you put in the provision? Living in Caloundra Thread****** Lovin my house all finished!!! Now tackling the HUGE task of the Garden- viewtopic.php?f=31&t=14782 Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 5Apr 29, 2009 9:59 am mellybuilding How much rock did they find??? Did they find rock on your soil report?? is that why you put in the provision? Well the SS was meant to call us yesterday/last night and let us know how bad it was but we didnt hear from him But we went up anyway and to be honest I couldn't see much. I took some pics and you can see some rock around the plumbing and I did find this one rather large rock Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Our soil test did show rock in some places but it was quite far down so that's why Plantation put the provisional amount in. I'm hoping they wont use the full $3000 as we already have it spent in our heads why do my pics have those black borders? What size should I be uploading them to ImageShack so they aren't so small? Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 6Apr 29, 2009 10:08 am 78xtc mellybuilding How much rock did they find??? Did they find rock on your soil report?? is that why you put in the provision? Well the SS was meant to call us yesterday/last night and let us know how bad it was but we didnt hear from him But we went up anyway and to be honest I couldn't see much. I took some pics and you can see some rock around the plumbing and I did find this one rather large rock Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Our soil test did show rock in some places but it was quite far down so that's why Plantation put the provisional amount in. I'm hoping they wont use the full $3000 as we already have it spent in our heads why do my pics have those black borders? What size should I be uploading them to ImageShack so they aren't so small? hmmm crosss fingers for you there wasnt too much rock.!! Not too sure about the pics.... you should be able to resize in imageshack. make sure your using the right imagecode aswell. you can normally remove the description bar that shows the size too. Living in Caloundra Thread****** Lovin my house all finished!!! Now tackling the HUGE task of the Garden- viewtopic.php?f=31&t=14782 Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 7Apr 29, 2009 11:02 am Hopefully you'll get some of that $3000 back. We have M class soil but P site. We have rock not far underneath the soil... Extra costs: Power service - $98 Sewerage - $400 Stormwater - $947 Water - $85 Be happy though. Rock is excellent to build on. Isn't reactive to moisture changes which means, your foundation won't move much at all and you won't have cracks forming inside and outside the house. PS - Use photobucket.com instead of imageshack - it's better Also Maranda, have you got a picture of the plan (dimensions) of your block? Al & Caitie- Building the Hamilton 278 (Coral) at Narangba Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 8Apr 29, 2009 11:53 am alk Hopefully you'll get some of that $3000 back. Be happy though. Rock is excellent to build on. Isn't reactive to moisture changes which means, your foundation won't move much at all and you won't have cracks forming inside and outside the house. PS - Use photobucket.com instead of imageshack - it's better Also Maranda, have you got a picture of the plan (dimensions) of your block? Ok I joined Photobucket and here's our contour plan with the house siting - is that what you are after? I hope this works! I hadn't thought about the rock that way - thanks Alk how's everything going at your end? Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 9Apr 29, 2009 12:19 pm Yep, that's perfect. I wanted to see how much room you had on the sides (after mentioning your tank problem). It's finally going - May 12 start date. Then we find out if we need a small retaining wall once the site scrapes done. I don't see how as the building pad on our block and the one next to us is flat. Al & Caitie- Building the Hamilton 278 (Coral) at Narangba Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 10Apr 30, 2009 5:55 am Ok so we went up yesterday and as promised the slab was boxed up - ready for concrete (which should happen today!) This is from the back (hubby was standing on a palate of bricks) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ You can see our rain water tank slab here and how close it is to the retaining wall Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I've never wanted a day to hurry up and finish! I can't wait to get up there this afternoon and see the slab poured! Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 11Apr 30, 2009 7:00 am thats awesome congrats!!!! What bricks are those?? I like the colour Living in Caloundra Thread****** Lovin my house all finished!!! Now tackling the HUGE task of the Garden- viewtopic.php?f=31&t=14782 Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 12Apr 30, 2009 9:07 am mellybuilding thats awesome congrats!!!! What bricks are those?? I like the colour They are PHG bricks and the colour is "Rice" - PGH have this high res pic of them on their site: http://www.pghclay.com.au/Uploads/Downl ... ighres.jpg however I don't think the pic is a true indication of how the brick looks. We've seen it on a few houses and it has a white 'wash' over it if that makes sense. We thought they'd delivered the wrong bricks until we realised the 'face' of the brick was facing inside the palates We originally wanted Castellano : http://www.pghclay.com.au/Uploads/Downl ... ighres.jpg but it was an upgrade so we decided to stick with Rice as it was standard and put off white mortar in. Hopefully it will look ok. You know it's funny - when we were doing our colours we hated all the other bricks other than the creams and we were dead certain we wanted cream and black. But since joining this forum I've discovered how much I love some of the other bricks (especially Tarin's ) and now i'm not so sure if we've chosen the right thing!!! I'm worried it will look dated and ugly as cream and black has been so popular <sigh>.. oh well it's too late now! Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 13Apr 30, 2009 9:19 am Congrats 78xtc on the site start . You might already have a slab by this afternoon. We are also building with Plantat*ion...at lock stage....plaster and cornice finished this week and we are expecting to see the kitchen cabinets next week. We have the Castellano bricks with off white mortar . we were also tossing up between Rice and Castellano. you are right we never thought of going bold with our colors.......we also stuck to the safest choice ...cream bricks with ironstone CB roof and black window frames......but it all looking great so far Will follow your progress and i hope everything goes well for you from here Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 14Apr 30, 2009 9:33 am curious We have the Castellano bricks with off white mortar . we were also tossing up between Rice and Castellano. Will follow your progress and i hope everything goes well for you from here Thanks! yep the SS told us the slab was being poured today Do you have any pics of your place with the Castellano bricks and off white mortar? I asked Plantation what their mortar mix was as I was worried we would end up with yellow looking mortar but they couldnt tell us Apparently no one had ever asked the question before which I find hard to believe! So our SS suggested we drive past a house he was over seeing up near Maleny as they were using off white but it was hard to see from the road!! I assumed off white mortar looked similiar to John & Tarin's beautiful home but this mortar definately wasn't as white!! Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 15Apr 30, 2009 9:43 am Plantat*ion has got a display in Heathwood with castellano bricks and off-white mortar. I got the pics at home...will try and upload them this wkend. At the moment our mortar is not really white white......if that makes any sense!!! but we still love the mortar as it is. they still have to clean the bricks. Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 16Apr 30, 2009 9:47 am curious Plantat*ion has got a display in Heathwood with castellano bricks and off-white mortar. I got the pics at home...will try and upload them this wkend. Thanks Curious I'm so jealous you've got Castellano- which house are you building? Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 17Apr 30, 2009 9:56 am 78xtc curious Plantat*ion has got a display in Heathwood with castellano bricks and off-white mortar. I got the pics at home...will try and upload them this wkend. Thanks Curious I'm so jealous you've got Castellano- which house are you building? CASTELLANO bricks are BEAUTIFUL. I wanted them but they werent standard with our builder. We went with the PGH- Paddington ( new name sand dune) they arent anywhere near as golden as the PGH site though. They are great. and happy I chose them. But i loved the Castellano. 78xtc- no no no, dont be worried about your choice the rice bricks are great and will look fantastic with black there are a few houses up in our estate that are using rice with the off white mortar and they look fantastic.!! We are going for the light bricks but with a chocolate roof instead of black. The put our roof tiles on yesterday we went and held a brick up next to it and are so excited!!!! There is a pic of the castello bricks on the boral website. In the PDF file for concrete roof tiles. Its shown on the house display of the EDEN by Plantation and looks amazing. Im jealous of you Curious. they are beautiful bricks!! Living in Caloundra Thread****** Lovin my house all finished!!! Now tackling the HUGE task of the Garden- viewtopic.php?f=31&t=14782 Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 18Apr 30, 2009 9:58 am 78xtc curious We have the Castellano bricks with off white mortar . we were also tossing up between Rice and Castellano. Will follow your progress and i hope everything goes well for you from here Thanks! yep the SS told us the slab was being poured today Do you have any pics of your place with the Castellano bricks and off white mortar? I asked Plantation what their mortar mix was as I was worried we would end up with yellow looking mortar but they couldnt tell us Apparently no one had ever asked the question before which I find hard to believe! So our SS suggested we drive past a house he was over seeing up near Maleny as they were using off white but it was hard to see from the road!! I assumed off white mortar looked similiar to John & Tarin's beautiful home but this mortar definately wasn't as white!! 78xtc- i wouldnt be worried about the off white mortar being yellow. we have really white sand here in qld and often find the off white mortar is lighter than some other states!!! lucky for us. Living in Caloundra Thread****** Lovin my house all finished!!! Now tackling the HUGE task of the Garden- viewtopic.php?f=31&t=14782 Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 19Apr 30, 2009 10:36 am Hi Mellybuilding All those brick names are so familiar....our choices were Rice, Paddington and Castellano. Castellano was not standard with our builder as well so when we did our color selection we choose Castellano as our preferred brick and Paddington as the second choice depending on the $$$ they charge for the upgrade which came in just over 1k from memory. 78xtc rice is also a very beautiful brick and to be honest we had seen so many houses with these bricks that in the end we couldnt even tell the difference between these bricks (from the address given to us by PGH)............why does these choices has to be so hard ....but we are very happy with our selections so far and hope to see our kitchen next wk ....al least the cabinets as the splashback might be installed towards the end. 78xtc we are building retreat 385 and our slab as poured in the first wk of march..........so very good progress for us and most of all no tension unlike the contract stage Re: 78XTC's official build thread! 20Apr 30, 2009 10:42 am curious Hi Mellybuilding All those brick names are so familiar....our choices were Rice, Paddington and Castellano. Castellano was not standard with our builder as well so when we did our color selection we choose Castellano as our preferred brick and Paddington as the second choice depending on the $$$ they charge for the upgrade which came in just over 1k from memory. 78xtc rice is also a very beautiful brick and to be honest we had seen so many houses with these bricks that in the end we couldnt even tell the difference between these bricks (from the address given to us by PGH)............why does these choices has to be so hard ....but we are very happy with our selections so far and hope to see our kitchen next wk ....al least the cabinets as the splashback might be installed towards the end. 78xtc we are building retreat 385 and our slab as poured in the first wk of march..........so very good progress for us and most of all no tension unlike the contract stage hahah thats the house we were originally going to build. We ended up chosing a diff builder but stole the ensuite plan and used that in our house. LOOOOVE the ensuite!! Good choice curious Curious, was it really only 1 k. ohh now I am jealous If I had of known it would be that amount I would have gotten it. We just had so many upgrades we didnt even want to consider 1 more. Well I think, 78xtc, yourself and myself have picked the best of the PGH then !!! hahah Can wait to see all the pics 78xtc!!! Living in Caloundra Thread****** Lovin my house all finished!!! Now tackling the HUGE task of the Garden- viewtopic.php?f=31&t=14782 9 24757 This is one of the reasons I decided to go overseas for my double glazed windows. As the builder indicated, he's worked on many upmarket builds, these were the most well… 13 19081 2 15459 |