Week 15 – Fixing stage completed

WOW, it’s certainly moving along.  We received our invoice for the fixing stage on Monday night.  So that means all cabinets are in, benches except for the kitchen bench and all skirting is in.  Inside the things to be done now are painting, shelves, showers and tiling.  Outside still to be done are the floor for the balcony, the roof  trusses on the garage, and roof tiling for the alfresco and garage.  The scaffolding is still up in the front.  The majority of the bricks have been clean…the ones covered by the scaffolding haven’t been done yet (for obvious reasons!).  We popped in on Monday night and found the front door open, so we had a look in!!!  It’s looking good!  Here are some photos;

Games room

kitchen, all cabinets are in now, just waiting for the composite stone bench to go in after painting.

Family room/Lounge Room complete with bath!!!

Laundry sink, cupboard and bench...on the other side is a linen cupboard and small bench

Week 14 – Infill done, Stairs in

Well, things are heating up again!  The infill in the front of the house has been done and painted and looks fantastic!  The scaffolding for the back of the house is gone.  The roof for the alfresco area has been framed completely.  The stairs and balustrades have been installed.  The site has been cleared and cleaned up.   I imagine the rest of the scafolding will come down shortly and the bricks will be finished being cleaned too!  They have the roof frames sitting there to be installed when the scaffolding comes down.  The cabinets are meant to be finished by tomorrow (according to the plan we have!).  It’s moving along at a lovely rate!  I really need to get a move on with those curtains!!!

Back a few days later…we’ve been having trouble with internet connection.  They’ve now put the kitchen cabinets in and hung most of the internal doors

Some photos;

Infill done

Stairs

Kitchen - stove side

Kitchen cabinets - sink/dishwasher side. Opening at the end is my pantry

Mystery Box – Sept 15

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been able to try the Mystery Box challenge on Simplesavings, but was able to this week.

Our challenge ingredients should we choose it is;

Capsicum
Apples
Nuts, any kind
Chicken
Filo (Phyllo) pastry
Semi dried tomatoes
Pasta

I’m afraid I didn’t stick too closely to the ingredients this time!  We had chicken pie and salad and for dessert we had apple, pastry fingers and cream.  Went down well with the family…but then again I knew they liked pies, so was always a fairly safe bet!

Chicken pie & Salad

Apple, pastry finger and cream

Whoops, taken a bit of time to actually load up photos…so these are a bit late, but it’s on now!

Week 13 – Plasterboard Finished.

We had our first house inspection with the building supervisor this morning.  Wow, what a difference it makes with the plasterboard in.  You get a good idea of dimensions now.  It’s amazing how much bigger it looks!  The stairs are scheduled for the end of this week and the kitchen benches are going in either late this week or early next week.  The Supervisor seems to think that we will be at fixing stage by the end of the month and then the painters and tilers come in to do their work.  So an early guestimate of when the house will be finished is the end of October.  I’m still saying we will be in by the end of November, it’s better to be surprised by being early then not.

Some photos of inside….it’s a bit hard with the photos to get a good idea of dimension…so you’ll have to take my word for it!!!

Family Room/Lounge Room on the left hand side is the dining area (not in photo)

Games Room upstairs

Week 12 – Lock-up!

Yep, we have officially been rated at Lock-up…and received the bill for it!  We are having an on site visit on Tuesday morning, but have been told by our building supervisor that the plastering is completed, the air conditioner has been installed and the central heating is in too.  How exciting!  They are putting the infills in the front of the house today.  And of course I will be taking my camera with us on our inspection!!!  I hope to be able to get a rough estimate of completion on Tuesday too.  We will need to start ordering our carpet and get the floor guy booked for our floor installation too.  It’s all coming together really well.  Better get a move on with those curtains Cathy or we will be moving in and have no curtains ready!

Frame in for the front infill. All brick work done for house, even balcony!

Otherside of house....brickwork complete

Week 11 – mid week visit!

Went down to the house over the weekend and had a sticky inside and out!  Well they’re not up to lockup, but really close to it.  The bricking is done all except one row near the top and many of the windows have a line of bricks to go in underneath the frame.  The garage is also to be finished as is the balcony at the front.  Inside there is progress.  The whole house has been insulated and man what a difference that has made to the warmth and sound inside even before the plasterboard and fittings go in.  We also have all our missing electricals and tap fittings done.  Some photos…

Looking at the house from the other side, one row of bricks to go and the filling in under the window frames

Back of house

Cayden in the family lounge room

Looking at the kitchen, theatre room on the right.

Games room upstairs ... with the plasterboard covered in black plastic!

Week 11

Right side of house bricked. Front to have the weatherboard look installed.

This photo was taken this morning, they’ve done the bricking on the right side of the house, also done most of the back, only the left hand side to go.  The front of the house has a weatherboard look at the top, so that should be done soon.  Looking at the schedule that Porter Davis have for us, they are saying lock-up will be tomorrow!  not so sure about that, but we will see!!  They still have the garage to put up and the other side of the house and considering no one was working this morning, I don’t like their chances!

We’ve a busy weekend coming up, it’s Cayden’s birthday on Sunday and we are having a party for him on Saturday.  Imagine 20 odd little 7 year olds running around, 10 or so adults and me hiding in the corner chanting, “don’t let them get me, don’t let them get me” and you’ll get a pretty good idea on how Saturday will pan out!!!

Until next week…

Week 10

Scaffolding up

Not much has happened this week, they did a little more bricking and then it seemed forever to get the scaffolding up to finish the bricking.  That went up yesterday, no bricking today…so hopefully that will start up again soon.

Emma learning the joys of the slide

I finally remembered to take my camera to playgroup last week and took a few snaps of Emma.  She loves the slide and spent most of the day going down that, coming over to me to put her back at the top and sliding down again, only to start it all over again!

Week 9

Photo taken today...Bricks the same height all around building

Well they have certainly been busy this week, the bricks have gone up very fast! They are up now 3/4 the way up the whole house! I’d say the next thing will be to put up scaffolding to do the next bit of bricking. The bricks for the garage and the balcony have also been started.  They haven’t started plastering yet, but I suppose that will start soon…the plasterboard has been there for a little while now. The Big Picture People came out Monday to do their wiring for the projector and setup stuff (I have no idea, Darren sorts all of that out!).

Mystery Box returns!

The Mystery Box was so much fun last week that we’ve decided to make it a weekly or fortnightly event.

This week our options were;

Mystery Ingredients

Zucchini
Rice
Steak (any sort)
Pumpkin
Carrots
Yoghurt
Tasty cheese
Pears

Store Basics

These items are available for you to use;
Flour, water, butter, oil, sugar, salt, pepper, two only herbs/spices of your choice, onion and garlic.

I came up with Rice cakes cooked like Rosti together with some eye fillet steak that was in the freezer.  I grilled the steak and served it together with the Rice Cakes and a yogurt, carrot garam marsala and parsley sauce.  This is one meal that will continue to be included on the weekly menu’s.  YUM…even Cayden gave it a two thumbs up and Emma ate it all too!  WOOHOO!

Rice Cakes, Fillet Steak and yoghurt sauce

Dessert is a Pear upside down cake…can’t wait to rip into this one!

Pear upside down cake

The kids served...mine to come!