No eaves!!!!

Saturday 26 October 2013

So after hearing all the good news about the progress yesterday, mum, dad, felicity, and I, oh and our boarder collie dog Joey visited the house! Upon arrival we could see that the house had been foil wrapped around the bottom half of the frame. I was quite impressed by the thick material used and also the attention to detail. Where the foil was cut to go around gas pipes, it had firmly been taped and screwed back together. It was a very neat job! We also got a better look at all the plumbing which had been finished off. It all looked great and in the right locations, expept our back tap is leaking.

I was showing dad the media room when he said to me, "you don't have eave's over your garage"! I looked up and saw that the frame was defiantly shorter around the garage and definitely appeared to have no eave's. I was gutted! I hate houses with no eave's! Why didn't it have eave's? I thought it did! I quickly pulled out my plans to check and there were no eaves drawn in around the garage! I was so cranky with myself that I hadn't pick this up!! I must have looked over our plans 100 times and didn't pick up on this! Once again it was due to the type of facade chosen! I just wish MJH would advise of the changes caused from certain facades! 

I ran up the road to look at the other MJH houses being built. All of them have eaves around their garages! Mine was the only one that didn't :( I'm so disappointed! On the drive out, I saw a tradie working on an MJH frame. I stopped and spoke to him about whether it is possible to get eaves this far down the track. He said you need to run in by your SS, but it can be done as an extra peice of steel slides over the frame already there and screws into it! 

I really hope we can do this! First thing on Monday morning, I'm going to call the SS and ask if this can be done. I guess if it can be, I'll be hit with the $1000 admin fee for changing something as well as the addition costs in materials! But I really need the eaves over the garage! So spewing I didn't pick up on this! 

On a happier note, our bricks and sand were delivered. Our brick colour looks great, just as we remember it being. Funnily enough, every other house in our precinct has chosen a dark brick except for our neighbors and us, who went for the light brick!! Lol. Here are some pics from today. 

No eves!! :(

No afternoon siesta!

Friday 25 October 2013

So today I expected to see the roof trusses completely finished. So mum and I went for a drive out in the morning. I was surprised to see not only were the roof trusses finished, but the windows, sliding doors and plumbing were all done as well! It looked great! We have chosen white window frames which mum thought were quite bright, but I love that they look so crisp and fresh! The big corner windows for the front of the house were not yet in. This then bought my attention to the media room, which is our front room. Where I thought out tv was going, (right hand wall) there were now 3 small windows up high. Surely our tv could not go under the windows as it would sit too low! I also couldn't make out where our tv recess was going??? This had me in a bit of a bother. :/ There were no tradies on sight nor on any other site either? They must have had a day off from Bingara. So we left to go back home.

I wanted to get an indication on whether our roof will go on next or the bricks and also ask about the media room? I rang the SS in the arvo and asked about the media room. He informed me that due to my facade having corner windows a recess cannot fit in the media room. He also said the tv would go on the left hand wall (backs onto entry recess). It now feels a little back to front (according to my feng shui). But I wasn't too bothered by nott having a recess, at least it won't matter what size tv we get now. Perhaps it would have been nice of MJH to point this fact our during one of our meetings tho. We also realized that we may have to place wooden boards in the frame where we want to hang heavy items, such as the tv, so that the screws have something to bite into. I just don't think the screws will bite into the the thin steel frame very well. The SS said he would give permission for me to go on site and do just that! 

I also enquired about the progress. To my utmost surprise yet again, he said the house is already half foil wrapped and the bricks have been delivered ready to start on Tuesday! What tha!! That wasn't all there this morning! I'm was thinking that the SS may have my house confused with someone else's, but he assured me that the tradies arrived after lunch! He said we were lucky as a bricky had just come back from leave and so he placed him straight onto my house! You little beauty!! We may now get ahead of the MJH behind us which started before us :) I was just dying to get back out there now and have a look! 

Here are some pics of the windows and sliding doors

Frames up!

Monday 21st October 2013

Again the bush fires have been horrendous with Wilton being included in the 'at threat' suburbs. I hadn't heard from the new SS yet, so I contacted the CLO to get a rough idea of when the frame might go up. I was conscious that the fires would delay things, as Wilton was covered by a thick blanket of smoke. I was provided with the new SS's phone number and gave him a call. To my utmost shock, the SS said the frame was up! I contacted him at 11:30am and the frame was already up! Unbelievable! 

We attempted to get out to the block about 4pm but could not get through due to road closures. We came back a few hours later and the road was open. We were so surprised to see the roof trusses were up as well! After looking just at the slab and thinking it looked quite small, the frame really changed our opinions. Our bedroom looked so big and we can't wait to use our WIR's! There were still a few peices of the frame that needed to be put up and then it's straight into plumbing, bricks and roof!! Bring it on! 

Delivery of frame vs bush fires

18 October 3013

So the frame is due to be delivered to my block today, however we have experienced some terrible bush fires down in the southern highlands, including bush along Picton Road which is the only road to access my estate. I have been on the RFS website and Picton Road has been closed for most of the day. It appeared that the road closure was just after the turn off into Bingara, so Felicity, dad and I drove the back roads to avoid a traffic jam on the Hume Highway.

It was a very scary feeling driving out along Morton Park Drive. There were huge smoke clouds only a few kilometers in front of us. The sky was glowing orange and it appeared we were heading right towards the fire. It was now, it really hit me, that these fires were so close to our estate. We made it out onto Picton Road, and to our block. I was estatic! Our frame had been delivered!! There is was, beautiful pieces of blue steel, waiting to be put up! We also inspected the slab and saw the kordon termite barrier had also been put around the edges of the slab. Also, to our surprise, our site had been leveled around our slab. I didn't expect MJH to do that! Our huge pile of dirt out the front had been evenly spread around the back yard, which now battered down nicely to the slab! Whilst looking at the slab we also noticed that one of the corners on our slab in the alfresco had been broken off. It must have happened when they leveled the dirt around the block. We will have to get that fixed! All in all, we were so pleased everything was still on schedule!

Slab day

10 October 2013

Today was the day our slab got poured! I wasn't able to see the slab (actually i still haven't seen it) as I was away at Bathurst with work. I knew it was going to be a stinking hot day in Sydney, temps were estimated to peak at 37 degrees! I was a little worried, as i can only imagine how difficult pouring a slab would be, let alone in those hot temps. I was concerned that they may not pour as the concrete may set too quickly.

I gave my SS a call about 12pm to ask if it was still going to get poured. He told me it was already done, they did it nice and early and also put a certain compound in the mixture to stop it setting to quickly and cracking. I was so excited! I wish I was at home to see it!. I told Felicity it had been poured and she went straight out to the block after work. She said it looked great, and nice and smooth. She took plenty of pics and sent them to me. Its getting more and more exciting as each stage progresses. I was informed by the SS that the frame would be delivered exactly one week from now, being next Thursday.  I wonder if they will also start to put it up on Thursday. I hope so! :)