Bricks, Bricks and more Bricks

Just lots of photos of the latest brick work, because I just love how it looks, and it is all that is going on at the moment.  Oh the skip has a flowerpot, some old roof tiles and a suitcase in it!

The front of the house – You have to squint your eyes and imagine the guttering is black – no idea why they put it up and _then_ paint it.

 

Left hand side of the house, looking toward the front of the house, then looking toward the back of the house

Across the back of the house – It has been so long since we have seen it, and it hasn’t been covered in brick pallets that I almost forgot what it looks like.

They make a bit of a mess on the inside

Right near the front door we have this anomaly in the bricks, it is raised.  I think it looks like a head, my husband thinks it looks like something a little more phallic, hopefully it will come off when the brickies do there clean!.  

I hope they have enough bricks to finish!

November – Roof and Bricks start

The weather has not been kind to our tradesmen, they have been working from 5am to 10am, and on the weekends.  The week after these temperatures it got to 42 degrees two days in a row.

November 5th – Roof tiles arrive

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November 9th – They are working fast despite the heat

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November 13th – The bricks have been magically re-arranged

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November 14th – It is so hot, nothing is happening.  We are sleeping in the lounge, as this photo by my 3 year old shows. No idea what ungodly hour of the morning he took this photo as we are all asleep, except the baby that is.

November 17th – Brick work starts!

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I am not happy with the brown ends that are showing.  Have spoken to the SS about getting them replaced.  My Mum thinks they give the house ‘character’ I didn’t pay $6500 extra for brown bricks. We want, grey, grey and more grey!

November 20th – More bricks, and a power box.

November 23rd – Am suffering a severe bout of gastro. Hubby took some progress pictures for me. I would have sent him back for more today, but he has gastro to :(  Hopefully tomorrow I will be alright to drive.

We are having black guttering and down pipes, so hopefully that will break the grey up enough.

We deliberately choose grey roof tiles to reflect heat and to lower heat absorption.

October 20th – 31st / Frame and Windows

I have been slack in updating the blog. 

So here we go October 20, wood arrives and frame starts.

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October 21 – They are working fast.

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October 24 – Frame is finished – Check out all the excess nails we cleaned up

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October 25th We had an independent inspection done.

All the red marks are where they missed extra bits of wood, or extra bracing.

They have all been fixed now.  Some other things we noticed was that the cut-outs didn’t match the door height, and the porch post was put right in front of the window.

October 26th – Windows arrive – Termite protection done.

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October 27th – Plumbing is done. Apparently the guys doing the frame squished the pipe that had been nicely done through the slab, so the plumber had to do some dodgy coming out the side of the house ugly thing.

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October 28th  - Windows go in.

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October 31st – Brickies Sand and Shed arrives. – White Sand and Bright White mortar

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OMG BRICKS!! We have bricks

Bricks are the one thing you spend so long agonizing over, so many conversations with my husband, so many trips to display villages and looking at houses built with different bricks.  To have them actually arrive is so thrilling and exciting.

On the homeone forum I have read so many people go “My bricks have arrived and I hate them, they totally where not what I was expecting” 

I spent so much time and effort choosing my bricks, and paid $6000 extra to have my bricks that I was confident that I would love them on site.

My bricks have arrived and I hate them!! They are totally not what I was expecting!

Worse then that, the guy who delivered the bricks was totally useless (according to my neighbour) and dropped a whole pallet of bricks down the slope.

I’ve grabbed a few bricks to take the display home and compare against.

I’ve put the brick out on the back footpath so that I have to pass it on my way to the washing line.  I need to fall in love with it again.

We have a port-a-loo

We flew back in from Darwin at 6.20 am this morning, it was a long flight with the kids.  I had the day off, but had booked the kids into childcare so that I could get some sleep.  On my way back home after dropping the boys off I went by the block. 

I was delightfully surprised to find them doing the trench work for the sewer,and we have a PORT-A-LOO !! we are a real building site now :)

I spoke to the guys doing the trench work about where they where laying the pipe, I pointed out to them that on there designs they had it going very close along the front of the house.  “Oh he said, I hadn’t noticed that”  so good thing I picked up on that one, otherwise we would be trying to put in a retaining wall to find a ruddy great sewer pipe in the way. 

Gee it’s a good thing I paid all that money for a retaining wall with scree and piping and stuff running behind it.  Can you see the scree dug out to the side there *sigh*

They also managed to bury all the orange plastic you can see, that is supposed to be up against the slab.  I am going to have to dig it up again before doing any paving or concreting :(

Footings Report

We had an independent inspector come in and do a report on the slab.  His notes are as below.  On the front page he had a photo of the slab, it is an angle that I don’t have a photo off yet.  So here it is :)

 

1.2.0 finishing 1.2.1 completion -The finishing off to the slab surface looks generally comparatively reasonable. There are signs of over pour around the perimeter of the footings. In many instances this looks like minor to moderate, seemingly extending from the face by no much more depth of the boards/formwork used in most areas. However in my opinion the excessive over pour should be removed to minimise risks of moisture ingress/slab edge dampness in the future.

1.2.2 footing beams - The surface finish of the exposed edge beams looks rough in some areas with scaly texture that looks to be flaking in some areas along with some minor blowholes. However, in my opinion, due to the blowholes being minor and the majority situated below the 75mm recommended exposure for the top of the footings, no additional works are required. 1.2.3 flatness  - Tolerances are within the recommended +/- 10mm as per Engineers footing construction report. 1.2.4 vapour barrier /damp proof membrane Vapour barrier/damp proof membrane appears to match that of recommended information. In some instances the vapour barrier falls short and will not extend to paving level - therefore a suitable waterproof compound should be applied to footing beam (Zypex or the like) prior to paving. As stated in 1.2.1 - Completion, there is some excessive concrete overpour in some areas that may effect the function of the vapour barrier/damp proof membrane to the footing beam edge. I suggest the excessive over pour should be removed to allow the vapour barrier/damp proof membrane to protect the footing beam.

 

1.4.0 set downs

showers Ensuite shower setdown has been constructed differently from plan (oversized). Rectification work (screeding) will need to be carried out ensuring it does not effect the integrity of waterproofing.

We where in Darwin on holiday when we got this report, so I sent it on to the client liaison team, who said they would forward it to the engineers.  I don’t think they are going to act on it at all.  Though I will be keeping an eye on the shower alcove thing to make sure we don’t get a leak!

Slab Picnic

They finished pouring the slab on the Friday 2nd October. So on Saturday we went up and had a bit of a picnic on the slab with my parents.  We flew kites and drank champagne.  I think people driving by thought we where terribly odd.

 

My Dad opening the champagne while my Mum and 2 year old play with the kite.

My daughter standing in ‘her’ room.  It rained a little, which I am hoping is good for the slab.  Do you see the mess the concreters made on the retaining wall at the back?  I am hoping that I can talk to the brickies and see if they can clean it off a bit for me.

 

My boys :)