Frames complete, windows installed and bricks delivered!

Yet more progress which I am very pleased with - it was a lovely surprise to arrive at the block yesterday and find the bricks had been delivered and the windows were in! I didn't see the front windows when I went, but Vas went past about an hour later and they were in, and they were the windows I wanted to see the most haha! But he took pics, which I have posted below. I am very happy with the facade we have chosen, the white windows will really make it pop. I'm thinking the bricks probably won't happen anytime soon but I hope I am wrong!

Still framed!

I can't get over how thrilled I am to have frames - it is so exciting to walk into the house now and being able to walk into rooms!

Spoke to our SS during the week, loveliest guy. He is going to look into the pipe in Bedroom 2 issue, and also advised our bricks will be delivered this week - I can't see them starting this week though, there are so many MJH houses going up in the area at the moment and a lot are in the bricking phase.

Our excavator was there today on a Sunday for another day of removing the dirt. He is such a gun and I am so happy he is doing the job for us - I don't feel we are getting ripped off at all and by the end of it we will be paying about half of what the MJH contractor quoted us. Only about 5-6 more loads of dirt to remove and he will be done, hopefully this week. We will definitely be getting him back when we are able to start levelling out the backyard and do the retaining walls.

Anyway, photos galore below. Looks like this beautiful warm weather will be sticking around a while longer, couldn't have come at a better time!

Framed!

I have always wanted to say that!

And now I can. Yep, frames are up - including some of the roof trusses, hopefully the rest will be tomorrow. Unfortunately I was away for work (again, always on the milestone days!) for a few days so I have not seen them in person for myself. Our neighbour (cannot sing their praises enough) has been sending me photos galore keeping me up to date which I am loving.

Whilst we were at the block on Saturday, we arrived to find our roof trusses being delivered as well as our excavator making a start on the massive dirt pile in the backyard! He is awesome and I would highly recommend him to anyone who needs excess spoil removed, or any sort of excavation for that matter. He said it would take him about 3 x Saturdays as he also has a day job throughout the week and does excavating on the side, but there is no rush for our dirt to be removed so it is not a drama. He has made a nice dent in it so far!

We noticed in Bedroom 2 that there is a pipe in there, I thought it looked a bit out of place when the slab was first laid but then when I saw the lines marked up on the slab for the frames it confirmed it was in Bedroom 2. When Vas called the slab supervisor on Monday he said it is most likely the pipe for the conduit, not plumbing. Hopefully this is actually the case. I was just a bit worried too because it had a big arrow drawn next to the pipe as if it needed to be moved. I will call our site supervisor tomorrow (yes, we have now been handed to the site supervisor!) as I have a few questions to ask him so will include that in my list of questions. He seems lovely and personable, I had a voice message from him today introducing himself but I was unable to get back in contact with him, I look forward to chatting with him tomorrow though.

So there we have it - progress progress progress! I cannot believe it...everyone was right when they said once slab is down it flies. Every day this week the carpenters have been there and apparently today we also had doors and windows delivered. Progress pics below:

They haveth arrived...

We are no longer frameless! Thanks to our neighbour for sending this pic through to us, I haven't gone out to have a look yet, Vas and I thought we would go tomorrow and check it out together - though I was very tempted to go straight after work, but I refrained!

Hopefully we are still on track for them to start going up on Monday - fingers crossed!

Fricken Frameless!

Called the slab supervisor today because our frames were still not delivered (this was around lunch time). He looked at his computer (or whatever he uses!) and said "no, they are being delivered on 16 May. I don't know what made you think they were going to be delivered yesterday"...ummm...because you told me last Wednesday that they would be delivered the following Wednesday, being yesterday! Which I basically said that to him. "Nah, they are scheduled for delivery tomorrow". OK whatever. I then asked when they are scheduled to be put up, he said carpenter is booked in for 19 May for now (which is this Monday coming up) - hopefully we stay on track for this, that's if the frames arrive tomorrow LOL! Miscommunication much?

When Vas was at the block the other day there was a portaloo parked at the front using our water, looked like he was filling his truck tank with our water. Vas never said anything to him (kinda wish he did though) but took pictures of the block and a few sneaky ones of the truck, including the rego (that's my boy!). I asked our slab supervisor if it's normal for portaloo trucks to do this - it was an honest question, we are new to this and not sure if this guy took it upon himself to just help himself and if he and other people are doing it all the time, and we have to foot the bill! SS said "water usage is only $10 per gigajoule" - that is not the point! And again, it was a genuine question. He basically fobbed it off when I asked if it is normal and does it happen to everyone else and he said "it's all above board, all above board". OK! We will wait and see the water bill, and we have truck rego. Might even ask Stockland about it. If anyone knows please comment below!

OK, so hopefully frames tomorrow. And of course on Monday I am off to Melbourne for work, so I am sure that means the frames will go up, because I will be gone, just like what happened with the slab! That is OK, as long as they go up. I would rather them go up whilst I am away than not at all - I can always see them when I get back :)

Termites not welcome!

Today Vas went to the block and saw we now have the termite barrier around the slab - pics below :)

Frames are scheduled to be delivered tomorrow, so excited for that! Here's hoping they start putting them up straight away on Thursday.

In other news, I finally heard back from the MJH excavator about the removal of all that excess spoil from the back of our block - maximum cost would be around $6120 (over $430 per load)!!! Minimum (if he found a more economical site to dump) would be around $4200 ($300 per load)...no no no no no. Not happening. 170 tonnes apparently, which is about 14 truck loads.

A friend of ours recommended someone to us about 2 months ago, and his pricing was very competitive. Then when the block was excavated and they hit the rock etc...our slab supervisor somehow swayed us to use his bloke for the removal of the spoil. Admittedly it was going to be more convenient, and I was under the impression that the dirt had to be gone ASAP otherwise it would hold up the build (even though our excavator stockpiled it all at the back out of the way) so we thought better go with the MJH excavator. All this time has passed and the dirt has still been sitting there. When the excavator texted me yesterday with the estimated cost (and the fact he had spoken to slab supervisor who said there was no rush to get rid of the spoil) I thought bugger this, I am going to call the original guy we wanted to go with in the first place (the friend of a friend!).

Spoke to him and he is $100 per truck load!!!!!!! It is a no brainer - we are going with him. The other excavator was understanding anyway, and I was very thankful to him that he had moved all the dirt to the back of the block so that building would not be affected. We will also get our guy to help cut / scrape the rest of the backyard so we can start our retaining walls, but we aren't allowed to do it yet, but apparently might be allowed to as the build gets closer to the end. Our mate will then help do our retaining walls / landscaping.

I am a bit perplexed at the 170 tonnes of dirt...first we were told 150 tonnes a little while back, and then we were told some of it had already been taken away to other blocks that needed the fill...can't help but feel we were taken for a bit of a ride but glad we have opted to go with our own guy. We are going to save so much money which will be so useful later on.

Hopefully the next post will be about frame delivery! Here are the pics of the termite barrier (not exciting I know):

A short but sweet update...

Our slab supervisor phoned this afternoon just to touch base, he advised that frames will be delivered on 14th May which is exactly a week from today - woohoo! He also mentioned that we still have the big pile of dirt on our block and we'll have to look into getting rid of it soon. I had actually phoned the excavator yesterday to see what's going on as I hadn't heard from him and the dirt is still there - he said he would duck out there today and assess the amount - he had just wanted to wait til the piering / plumbing / formwork was complete as that tends to create more dirt. He was supposed to call today to let me know what we'd be up for $$$ wise but I haven't heard from him - hopefully tomorrow.

In the meantime we should see a few bits n pieces happen such as the kordon termite barrier etc between now and the frame delivery, exciting times ahead :)

Slabbed!

Neighbourhood watch never ceases to amaze me - neighbours texted this morning saying the concrete truck had rocked up and it was slab day! I had a strong feeling it would happen today - love it when my gut instinct is right! I didn't want to get my hopes up, I am just so happy it happened today, what a great way to start the week :)

In the 15 months since we purchased our block, I have made frequent visits even when nothing was even close to happening, and the first major milestone I had to go up to bloody Sydney for work didn't I?! So I missed the pouring, but luckily I got home earlier than expected so I was able to get out to the block just before the sun went down. Vas was able to get out there around lunch time and he sent me some pics. 

Can't thank my neighbours enough for keeping an eye out for us, if it wasn't for them we wouldn't know a lot of these things are happening at the time.

Time for the slab to cure - looking forward to frames next!

A few pics of Formwork...

We took some friends to visit the block this afternoon - I honestly expected to turn into our street and find that our port-a-loo would be blown over from all the crazy wind we have been having the past couple of days, but it seems that the fencing around the block has kept it sitting up - thank goodness! I saw a few port-a-loos blown over on a few other blocks though - ick :(

It was the first time we had seen the block with the formwork / waffle pods so it was quite exciting to see the first real shape of the house. Here are some pics:

View from the front right

View from left hand side

View from the back

Front view (again)

The 3 P's!

Wow, what a week! All 3 of the P's were completed this week - Piering, Plumbing...and Pods!

Yep, formwork and waffle pods were completed today which wraps up the best week of progress for us to date and we are so stoked leading into the weekend. After all the months of waiting and things dragging out, MJH are redeeming themselves :) but like I have said before, had I have known it would all take this long I would have still signed up with them - in the end I know we will have such a beautiful product that will make everything so worth it, and for the most part I have been happy with the customer service.

So looks like we should get a slab very soon - damn weekends! We have a busy one anyway, it is my sister inlaw's engagement party tomorrow night so that will keep us busy. Bring on next week though! Have a great weekend :)

Plumbing complete :)

Today our plumbing was done - yay!!! It was so busy in our street today you could barely get through, came so close to clipping a truck! A few people on our site and lots of pipes sticking out of the ground :)

Vas went for a drive out there about an hour after me and there was a truck delivering wooden planks - assuming for the form work, would be great if it happens tomorrow! Watch this space...

Also received our electrical variation today for the data points and ceiling fans (they also put that damn isolation cooker switch, another $65) - signed, sealed and delivered straight away :)