First floor gutters, fascia and roof tiles complete

It's been raining a lot in Sydney the past few weeks and we've been concerned about the massive soaking the house has been getting since there's no roof. Anyway to our surprise they have finished all the first floor gutters, fascia and roof tiles. Just as well, the rain just hasn't stopped. The ground floor still doesn't have any roof tiles but at least the main part of the building is covered. Most of the first floor hebel panels have been installed.

Picture of the back of the house. The garage, rumpus and outdoor room don't have roof tiles yet. I forgot to take a picture from the front, so this is the only external photo I have for now.

The roof tiles we chose, Boral French Terracotta (unglazed) in Eclipse colour.

The front door frame

Sarking on the first floor. This should keep most of the dust and dirt out of the roof and allow us to use some of the space for storage. 

The first floor is pretty dry considering the rain we've had prior to the roof installation

Some misguided screws which should be holding the yellow tongue boards down. This will need to be fixed otherwise we'll have creaking floors.

Some hebel in the garage not sure how much more will be needed to finish the walls, but I'll ask if we can keep any left overs.

Portico complete

Scaffolding installed

After the driest May since 1859, the last week has been rather slow due to the rain we've experienced. Scaffolding has been installed for over a week now and they have made some progress with the hebel installation on the first floor. Once this is complete the next stage will be the fascia and gutter.

18/05/2012

We happened to be there when the scaffold was delivered.

Hebel complete on ground floor

29/05/2012

Ground floor pretty wet, was told by the SS that the materials have a three month guarantee by the supplier that they can be exposed to the wet. Really hope it stops raining so we can get the roof on.

The hebel waste so far, it's very low when compared to bricks

The tree at the front is starting to look very unhealthy, the arborist report identified it as "having reduced vigour and very poor structure" and should be removed. 

Hebel installation started

09/05/2012
Received a call from our SS to say that

• the window installation is now complete
• internal plumbing completed
• site cleaned up and the hebel panels will be delivered the next day

11/05/2012 and 13/05/2012

As expected they had started on the hebel panel installation and from what I can tell they've only spent a day putting these up and progress is very quick. One disappointing thing is that the builder never told us about the option of the blue wrap that goes on the building prior to bricking or in this case hebel installation. Really not happy, we just assumed this was standard building practice, if we had know we would have asked for it.

Hebel off cut, it's very light compared to brick.

Sitting room wall, nice straight lines

From left to right, gas, water and electricity

Plumbing for the hot water heater, from top to bottom, hot water, cold water and gas.

Family and rumpus room walls

Garage wall

Sitting room, yellow hose is for gas

Plumbing in the powder room and the hot water heater

Plumbing for the shower in the powder room

Plumbing for the laundry and powder room toilet

Plumbing for the butler's pantry and kitchen

Outside butler's pantry

Gas, cold water and hot water hose

Goop has be applied to protect all the windows during construction. It gives the glass a frosted look but once removed it will be clear. 

rain water tap

Bathroom mixer

Kitchen island bench plumbing

Windows installed

Since the last blog update they have installed the windows and also started on the main bedroom balcony. Our external colour choices closely matches the Riva display home at Kellyville, so the window and door frames will be in a Woodland Grey colour. If you're wondering why the frame is a green colour, it's because we received the white ant resistant frame as part of the 2011 Spoilt for Choice Promotion. We also received our invoice the other day for the stage 3 payment for the frame. 

Front awning windows

Front entrance

Doors for the balcony, family room and dining room

Window in the powder room

Plumbing for the powder room vanity basin

Window in the study which we didn't expect to be so low, we checked the plans and this is correct. Would have been nice if this wasn't so low, but you don't realise these things until you physically see it.

Window in the butler's pantry

Window in the kitchen

Family room door frame, these will be bi-part sliding doors so the actually opening will be half what you see here.

Dining room door frame, these doors will be 5 panel bi-folds made of aluminium. We chose aluminium over wood as it would have cost an additional $3000 and the maintenance would be practically nil.

Rumpus room window looking into the back yard

Rumpus room window looking into the grand outdoor room

 Rumpus room and the grand outdoor room

Main bedroom French door frame

En suite bathtub and window, not much of a view but atleast we're not looking into anyone's window.

Bedroom 5 awning windows overlooking the street

Bedroom 5 privacy window

Bedroom 4 privacy window

Bathroom tub and awning window which looks towards the backyard

Bedroom 2 privacy window

Bedroom 3 privacy window

Bedroom 3 awning window overlooking the back yard, I thought this window would get a decent view of the backyard but didn't realise the grand outdoor roof would be in the way.

Joist work

 Steel beam between the kitchen and dining room

Steel beam looking from the dining room

 

Kitchen window from the outside

Butler's pantry window from the outside

Laundry door frame installed.