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.

Slab

We arrived home from our honeymoon in Fiji to find our slab had finally been poured a few days earlier. On first inspection it seems tiny, however I've been informed once the frames and gyprock goes up it will look bigger. I'm sure once we move in and have to start cleaning a place twice the size of what we have now it will seem plenty big enough too!

 

 

We went in and took some photos in various locations through the 'house' as you can see below... sleeping in our bedroom, having a bath, sitting on the couch in living room, cooking dinner in the kitchen, and, yep you guessed it, going to the toilet!

 

  

A brief intermission

A fortnight of constant rain slowed things down on the house front causing a three week delay on our slab. However the delay timed out quite well with other life commitments we had going on, such as our wedding!

We spent a week in Sydney and the coastal town of Kiama with overseas friends and relatives in town for the wedding, then returned to spend a frantic two days packed with hectic last minute preparations and organisation before the big day on Saturday 12 April!

The following Monday, we set off overseas with 18 of our closest friends and family, on what I dubbed our 'familymoon', to Fiji!

Piering and brick delivery

After two weeks of on-and-off rain, progress has been somewhat slow. We had expected to sign off on the first stage, the slab, last week. However almost a week later and we are still slab-less.

The piping is all in now, and what I think is the concrete piering. We've also had a delivery of bricks, although with more rain scheduled for tomorrow and next week it's going to be a while before they're needed!

We were hoping to be signed off on the second stage, the framing (or 'stick stage' as I call it), before we head off on our honeymoon in ten days - that way we'd return to a bricked up house. However the way things are going we'll be lucky if we even have the slab by then!