Taking Shape

Inching closer on the bricks

The site supervisor advised that the bricks should be completed by ~ end of next week. The roof is booked for the end of the month. Hopefully the weather remains good, there are no unforseable delays and they stay on schedule. Starting to look good.

Bricking Continued (Slowly)

More brickwork. The team has been intermitantly there despite good weather. They're making progress, albeit relatively slowly. It looks good so far.

Brickwork Started

After a bit of a wait, the brickwork has commenced. It's early days, so very hard to visualise what it will look like when it's done. Hopefully we'll get a better sense in the coming days as more is completed.

Framing Done

Looks like the framing is complete. All windows are in. Email recieved to say that exterior work will commence on the roof and brickwork. Happy days. Let's hope they maintain the momentum.

Frames Nearly Complete

Framing appears to be getting close to the end. Looks like some minor roof framing left to go and a few windows and doors to fit. A pallet of mortar has appeared at the block. Hopefully that means bricklayers aren't far away.

Frames - Continued

The framers are back from the Christmas break and have made steady progress. The outline of the house is really starting to take shape. There have been a few rainy days, hence the mud, but it doesn't appear to have slowed them down. Windows are in. If they keep up the progress and the weather holds, they might be done by the end of the week or early next.

One day of framing and it's starting to look good already. Some real progress and we can start to see the house beginning to take shape. The roof trusses won't arrive this side of Christmas, so looks like we'll be at mid-January with the Christmas shutdown before the framing is fully completed. Looking good.

Frames Delivered

We have frames! The site supervisor says they are planning to get them up this side of Christmas. We'll be on track if that's the case. Outside of the frame delivery, the external drainage was completed last week.

Slab Done

On schedule, the slab went down today. Looks good. Starting to get a good sense of the spaces.

Polly Waffles

Plenty of activity these past few weeks. The form work is complete, the polly waffles and steel are in place. All things going well, the slab is due to be poured tomorrow. The question then is whether the frame will be up before Christmas. According to the site supervisor that's the current plan. It would be impressive to see the frame up prior to the Christmas break. Here's hoping! Some good drone pics courtesy of my son.

Internal Drainage

We have internal drainage started. Looks about half way done. Good to help us get a sense of where the rooms will be.

Form Work Started

The Formwork has started. Internal drainage to be installed on Thursday at present. Starting to get a good view of the dimensions.

Colours

Clarendon has a neat facade builder on their website that lets you visualise roughly what the home will look like. It doesn't have all colours, and the Bowral doesn't have the loft option, but it gives a pretty good impression of what it will look like. These aren't our bricks, but are close enough to visualise the finished home.

Our brick selection is San Selmo Smoked - Cloudy Silver.

Most Bowrals with the Hamptons Facade are rendered. I recall the total cost to render was ~40K. The brick upgrade was pretty pricey in any event (I recall ~22-25K), but still cheaper than render. We're hoping it'll have a good Hamptons feel. We managed to find a house not far from us with the same bricks. It has the same Iron Stone roof that we have selected, so should look similar.

Excavation and Piers

Here's where we're up to to date. Excavation was done a little over a week ago. Piers have been installed. I was expecting traditional bored holes filled with concrete, however, they appear to use blade piers. These are steel tubes with a corkscrew style blade on the end that are twisted into the ground until they reach the solid ground. Our soil is very clay heavy. I'm not sure how I feel about the blade piers. From what I have read on the net, they are stronger than concrete, are faster to install, and avoid the need to remove spoil, get a council inspection etc. I'm not sure how they go with corrosion. From some reports they're good for 40 years, longer if they are galvanised. They don't appear to be galvanised. Anyway, they'll outlast me, so....