Electrical, plumbing, air con and clean bricks

On Tuesday afternoon I met the electrician at the site for the walk through and set the locations of the alarm pad, lighting fixtures, switches, power outlets and data points. He then came back throughout the next two days and installed all the wiring and switch points.

The electrician's main piece of advice was to keep the hallway clear of switches/outlet points so it didn't look cluttered as you looked down it from either end. I had never thought of that but it makes a lot of sense. So with that in mind, I moved everything from the middle of the hallway - the alarm pad, mid hallway light switch/es and hallway power outlet, round into the secondary hallway off toward the laundry and the garage. This left only the one switch panel at the front door and one at the far end.

We opted for a three-way switch for the hall lighting so they can be turned on/off no matter where you enter/exit the house, from the front door, the garage entrance or the kitchen. We also coughed some more money for an extra double power outlet on the bench so there is one on either side of the cooktop, the electrician told us the most often call backs he has is for additional outlets in the kitchen. Along with the double outlet we already added beneath the lip of the island bench top we'll be well and truly prepared for anything!

To allow for easier access in the future, we had conduit installed through the wall from the study to the front of the house for the National Broadband Network (NBN) cables to be passed through when it becomes available.

 

 

The air conditioning ducts were installed in the roof cavity at the same time as the electrical. The combination of the ducting and the wiring, along with too many years in the job, led to my immediate thought that it looks like we are setting up a grow-house!

 

The frames for the two sliding doors in our main bedroom (the en suite and the walk in wardrobe doors) have also been installed and the plumbing within the walls has been completed - all ready for gyprock sheeting to go up next week, making the house ready for the internal fit-out to begin!

And last but not least, with the excitement of scoping out the internal work, we didn't notice until we were about to leave that the bricks were all cleaned up, and looking pretty good I might add!

 

  

Roof

And so the saying goes; "it never rains but it pours". And it's definitely pouring now with the house, changes are coming thick and fast. Every time we go to visit we discover several new additions have materialised - today being no disappointment with the roof appearing over night! It looks like we're one of only two Colorbond roofs in the street and, although I may be biased, I think it makes our place look so much nicer than the standard run-of-the-mill tiles.

Bricks, gutters and fascia

This weekend we found the majority of the bricking was complete. And although still pretty dirty and dusty, they look pretty good. It gives a much better idea of the size of the rooms, now that they're walled off and for the most part they're a decent size. Strangely though, our en suite is bigger than the master bathroom. If we'd realised how big the rumpus room was going to be we may have reduced it slightly, using the extra room to increase the size of the kitchen. In saying that though, the kitchen is big enough for what we need, and it opens into the living areas which will make it feel bigger.

 

Another new development was the attachment of the fascia and gutters. I'm quite happy with how the colours complement the bricks, Colorbond 'Surfmist' (the same as the window frames) for the fascia, and Colorbond 'Dune' (which will be the same as the roof) for the gutter.

 

 

And below is a shot from afar since I haven't posted one for a while!

Trusses and bricks

With the completion of the trusses earlier this week, the frame is now complete. It gives a much better feeling of the size of the space inside and I can tell already the high ceilings are going to look great and were well worth it.

Below are some internal shots, first from the rumpus room through the half wall into the kitchen/dining/living areas, second a shot of our extra tall front door frame to the front entrance/hall, and third a shot from the dining area back down the hallway with the rumpus room off to the left. 

Two more internal shots below, first one is looking from the lounge into the kitchen/dining room with the al fresco area on the left and the rumpus room through the half wall gap on the right, second one is looking straight out from the rumpus room, over the half wall into the kitchen and out through the al fresco area to the backyard.

The piping for the water and gas has been installed and the brick work has begun down one side of the house. I'm very happy with the colour of the bricks, they've turned out just how I wanted, with a mottled varying colour through them rather than just a flat uniform colour.

   

Frame and windows

Things are coming along in leaps and bounds now with our frame springing up, complete with windows, almost overnight. The bricks have also arrived and the builder expects the shell to be complete by the end of the month.

Here are two of the bedrooms. I'm so happy we opted for increasing the window size. They're going to be so bright.

Below are the living areas. The top is looking into the kitchen/dining area from the living room - with a view of the half wall into the rumpus room, middle right is looking into the lounge/living room from the kitchen/dining room, middle left is the living room looking toward the alfresco doors, and bottom is the rumpus room taken from the hallway and showing the half wall opening it up into the kitchen.

Once again, despite the additional cost, I'm happy we opted with bigger windows. Together with the half wall connecting the rumpus room to the living area it's going to make the whole area seem a lot bigger and open.

Last of all, here's a picture from the road above our house, taken from across what will be our neighbours house to the back of our house.