Roof on al fresco, garage and back room

Quite a bit of progress in the last week, just haven't gotten to the house for regular updates. Now that upstairs render is done, the roof over the alfresco and back room, and garages is taking shape, and electrical work progressing. An interim front door has been installed and we are close to lockup. What that exactly means I'm not sure. But I assume it means the house can be locked up with a key, and now they are ready to work on internals. 

One point to highlight - the stone and cabinetry we'd chosen in laundry/powder rooms/bathroom were no longer available and we had to choose replacement. This came as a blessing in disguise, as I'd made a mistake with the feature tiles I'd chosen for our ensuite. I'd matched them to the benchtop in the laundry not the benchtop in the kitchen. If the benchtop and cabinetry hadn't no longer been available I'd be none the wiser and the feature tiles would have been done looking absolutely awful ... fortunately we picked it up as a result of the above change and were able to change to the other benchtop. Phew. Thanks to CG for coming to the rescue.

some photos:

view towards the al fresco

My dark laundry taken from the hallway. I plan to install a skylight. The light from the left is the glass door. Light on the right won't be visible because the roller door will be there. 

just love my iphone - panorama shot of the back room. To the left is the kitchen, with the 3 stacker door going out to the alfresco, and the sliding doors on the right to the back yard

from the alfresco

carpet rose blooming in the back yard - thought we'd lost it after the demo :)

our new (interim) pivot front door

I'm really pleased with the colour of the Hebel. There is a house round the corner from us totally rendered in a dusky pink - say no more. I thought we may have gone too dark with the Dulux caveman but it's looking really sharp, especially with the black aluminium window frames. 

And let there be render upstairs

the latest

Garry, Alix and Rod met Friday morning.

Alix went by tonight and there was colour upstairs :)  So I thought I'd better go round to see the latest. Light was a bit deceptive - but here goes:

view from the street

up close and personal, showing upstairs front bedroom (that faces south) and the bedroom behind that faces west

from the back of the property looking south 

upstairs, facing north 

and this is the same colour as the others, this time this is facing south with the sun out. Doesn't look the same, does it, as the others? it's a browny/purple - or purply brown 

the colour is a discontinued Dulux caveman. So far, quite impressed.

Upstairs Hebel looking good

Visited after work today. Looks like the Hebel is 95% done. Went a little overboard with the photos but I'll never get to stand outside upstairs again!

 looking from the front right of the house upstairs past the shower window, then bathroom window looking north

this is upstairs, namely the front of the house, which is what you'll see from the street

 from inside the garage looking up, window on the left is the shower, next double window the bathroom (bottom one will have film on it), then the toilet window followed by the highlight window in the leisure room. The green downstairs is the wrapping of the door from the 2 car garage into the laundry. The blue is the wall of the garage for car no. 3

 looking at the highlight window above the kitchen in the leisure room. We won't be able to see that angle once the downstairs roof over the kitchen/dining room/lounge is in place (will be done once upstairs Hebel is in place).

the sliding door in the picture is the dining room, this wall faces north. the upstairs window is in the leisure room. The only Hebel upstairs remaining to be done is where the green is showing.

What really hit me tonight is how dark the room at the back might be. Maybe it's because of the time of day we were there, but that whole room doesn't look that light, despite the kitchen window splashback, 3 narrow windows in the east wall, the 2 windows in the north wall (ie the sliding door you can see) and the highlight window just in frame of the photo on the right, and the 3 stacker door in the west wall. Time will tell...

I didn't see any retaining wall: maybe that will happen tomorrow. The pillar is of the northern strut of the al fresco.

that's it. most pleasing to see how much Hebel was put up this week. looking forward to Rod's call tomorrow afternoon.....

All set for Hebel upstairs

Haven't visited since last Monday. Downstairs Hebel looks nearly all complete, and scaffolding is now up in readiness for upstairs Hebel....

Carter Grange called Friday. The sarsen gloss laminex we'd chosen for bathroom/laundry is no longer available. Were we available Saturday to decide on a replacement? With Garry in Canberra for Megan's softball competition the answer was no. So we are booked in for next Saturday. But whatever we choose has to match with the floor tiles and vanity tiles... hope a matching colour is available.  We'll know next Saturday.

Once again thanks to James for his suggestion to remember to allow for power for the door bell.

We looked at letterboxes last week. Not impressed so further searching required. We did however find the right clothesline - a rotary that is removable. Perfect :) the only decision will be, will it go in the back corner where it used to be, a superb position but viewable from the dining room ie north east where it catches the breeze? Or, closer to the laundry door near the butler's pantry so no one can see it? Decisions decisions....

Ground floor with Hebel

went round to the house on Monday after work, what great progress! lots of Hebel....

view from the street to the alfresco

the front door on the left, garage on the right

master bedroom, porch and garage

Hebel around the laundry door

the small window on the left is the 'splashback' in the kitchen, then 3 floor to ceiling windows

view from the back fence line 

view from the front door showing the lovely wide hallway, where the stairs will rise from the back  

and view from the street.

not bad for one day's work :)

Work resumes after a week of record temperatures in Melbourne

And here is our first post for 2014. The weather last week was absolutely awful - 43 degrees C 4 days in a row, and overnight temperature only going down to 27 degrees which made it so hard to sleep let alone work outdoors. Even so, there was some progress :

• Hebel was delivered although a few panels were damaged
• ground floor was wrapped and the supports that the Hebel will be attached to were put up
• roof over master bedroom 
• frame upstairs around the top of the stairs 

Will be interesting to see how much progress is made when work resumes tomorrow.

some of the delivered Hebel, plus the wrapped wall with our master bedroom at the front, showing the supports

upstairs frame

 

roof over our master bedroom

Back wrapped

Last Post for 2013

Just had a call from Rod wishing us a Merry Christmas and New Year.

Work is now stopped till 6th January. That week work on the ground floor Hebel will start, to be followed by upstairs. Scaffolding to let them do upstairs will go up round 13th.  Once the Hebel is all done, rendering can be started followed by work on the downstairs roof.

Also on the to do list for January is moving the water meter, as the current one will be in the way of the driveway once the new crossover is in place.

A little disappointed as the Hebel downstairs was planned to be started before Christmas but the key milestone was to get the upstairs roof on, which has been achieved.

On our drive to and from Creswick St we've seen the fence go up on a house on Shepherd Rd. Demolition occurred really quickly - it was there Tuesday evening, gone Thursday! It will be interesting to see how long it takes Builders Latitude 37 to do the build.

So that's it for 2013. Quite a year! Fabulous progress made on our house, from a vacant block 30/10 to plumbing, slab, frame and upstairs roof completed  in 7 weeks. Looking forward to 2014 and all it brings :)