The lockout

We are officially locked out... Garage door is on and the front and laundry doors are on, locking us out of our house. So now we have to peer through the windows :)

The internal doors have started to be put up and the electricals are being cut out.

Gyprock is finished, cornices finished and skirting boards are all done too.

Next week should see the kitchen started. Then I guess the bathrooms and tiling will start?!

Garage door

The electricals

Bit of an update since the roof started. We finally saw some nice weather and the roof was finished rather quickly. Looks great. Site has been cleaned up too.

The 2nd column out the front was finally finished off just in time for the brick cleaning to start. The brick cleaning started last week, just the sides of the house to be finished now.

The electricals/telephone line have been roughed in.

Just waiting for the brick cleaning to finish and the outside will almost be done. Everything for the eaves is on site but with this weather it isn't helping. Hopefully they can get to that this week to get us to lock up?

Also spoke to the builders who are building the house behind us and they are doing colorbond fencing so that was good news.

Our whirly bird

Roof done

Clean bricks

The gutters and fascia

Bricks are 99% done. They still have to do one of the pillars at the front. Thought it would have been done today, looks like next week now.

The gutters and fascia were done today. The outside is really starting to take shape now. Roof is due to be done next week and is on site ready to go. Sarking is there too. Wonder if the roofers work Saturdays?

The bricks

As promised our bricks were delivered today. We were keen to see the colour as the sample we got when we went to Boral looked totally different to what we saw at the colour selection and the colour on the website. So we were pleased to see the colour looked better than we thought. The sand for the bricks should be delivered tomorrow and hopefully the bricklayers start on Wednesday.

The frame continues

Another drive by the 'house' to see what the builders got up to today and was very pleased to see the roof had gone up.

Doesn't look like there is much steel left on the ground. The frame for the desk in the children's activity room still needs to go in but other than that I couldn't see what else was left to do?

Not sure if they will be there tomorrow to finish up? If nothing is done tomorrow then Monday should see the windows in, yay!

Few more photos from today's progress.

Such a great street presence with the high pitched roof.

Our roof is so tall it hides the house behind. Love the high pitched roof!

Lots of steel. Looks so clean and straight!

The frame has started

Frame started yesterday. Looks like everything but the roof had been done except for a few bits and pieces. Went past today and part of the roof has been done and the beams for the alfresco area.

It is starting to take shape and it looks great.

The Windows

Drove past today thinking that the frame would have been started since it was not raining today, but nothing. Frame has been moved around the site a bit and sorted out by the looks of it. Windows and doors have been delivered too.

The colours of the windows and doors look pretty good. The colour is Bradnams Ultra Silver.

Also noticed that they have drawn on the slab where the frame will go.

Fingers crossed we the frame started tomorrow.

The frame

The frame was delivered today just like we were told it would be. Also had a call from Peter our site supervisor today. He said they should start putting the frame up next Monday.

The termite protection was laid on Monday as well. The site has also been cleaned up and scraped the land more to tidy it up.

Can't wait to see the frame up!!!

The slab

Yay, we have a slab down! Was laid on Wednesday. Still looking a bit wet. Now looking forward to seeing a frame delivered (just like every next step in the build!)

Certainly looks different with a slab down and is good to make out the rooms and get a better feel for the house.

The waffles are down!

Thought we would drive by the land this evening and to our surprise saw that the waffle pods and steel had been laid. Pleasant surprise considering the weather this week and the rain this morning. Last night it was pretty wet and thought unless the sun is out for a few days they wouldn't get laid for some time. So hooray and now fingers crossed this weather holds off for them to lay the slab sometime this week!!!

The plumbing

Yay another drive by today and the plumbers had been. Really starting to look like a house with the pipes all sticking out of the ground. Makes it easier to make the rooms out.

Hoping the rain stays away for the waffle pods and steel to go down for the slab tomorrow. Still have not heard from any one from McDonald Jones.

The colour selection

Today we visited the office at Norwest to go through the colour selections.

We were shown 4 variations for the outside and luckily for us one of the options was exactly what we were going to choose anyway. I thought we were going to have certain colours, materials etc to choose from and pick and choose as we like but they had set colour packages to choose from that had already been selected by the interior designers at McDonald Jones.

After choosing the outside colours which was easy as we knew exactly what we were after, it was onto the interior. This was tougher as we liked different colours/materials from all of them. So it became a process of elimination by choosing the colour/tiles/benchtops we didn't like from each package and eliminating it. Actually made it quite easy and also made it easier once we had the outside colours to see next to the interior colours.

One package we liked didn't have the top and bottom cupboards in different finishes, which is something we liked after looking at the display homes. So this was eliminated. 2 other packages had wooden floors which I was against although Katie liked, but I gave in on the facade so we agreed against the packages that had the wooden floors. Another package the main floor tiles were too dark and we wanted something lighter so that was out. The other package after looking at it was too plain, so it made the decision easy.

We were shown the tapware, bath, toilet, basins, shower, laundry sink which we had no choice over. We liked everything anyway although I would have liked the chrome surround or frameless shower, but no big deal.

We had a choice of the oven, cooktop and range hood. We went with the free standing Omega oven and cooktop and the stainless steel flat (industrial looking) range hood. We had an option of the glass curve or glass flat range hood, but preferred the stainless steel flat to match the oven.

The other choice we had was the kitchen sink. We chose the new design under mount drop in double bowl sink. This was in the display home at Jordan Springs and looks great.

The garage door is B&D Contemporary and had no choice over this so it was good that this was the one we liked anyway even if we had to choose.

They didn't have a couple of the items there as they were still getting the boards made up in Newcastle. We didn't get to see the colour of the glass splashback, the driveway colour or the carpet colour/style. We can't change these anyway but it would have been nice to see the colours. When we got home we found the driveway and carpet colour anyway.

Also found out that we get a whirlybird installed (which I noticed in the contract yesterday).

All in all we walked away very happy and glad that it wasn't stressful. It was good that we had to choose from the packages available as it takes out the guess work of matching colours and also knowing that interior designers have chosen the colours and they know what works best together.

Other exciting news today, we found out our number -30- so now we are not just a Lot.