STILL FULL STEAM AHEAD!

Just over 6 weeks since the build started and this is where we are at...

Friday 30 March Roof on!

 Thursday 5th of April - insulation, plumbing and chippies were onsite while Karl and James did the data cable wiring.

 Sunday 15th April we did our first mow!

 Tuesday 17th April the bricks arrived.

Friday 20th April the brick work was started.

PICTURES SPEAK A THOUSAND WORDS!

ROOF TRUSSES

Went in the morning and seen the trusses being lifted on to the roof:

 Come back in the arvo to this!

I am sure there will be plenty more before I go back again on Friday despite today being a public holiday. As they work like troopers!

SO MUCH CAN CHANGE IN JUST ONE DAY

Wow, what a day. I cant believe how the slab has transformed and finally I am starting to see our family home taking shape. Got a lit upset this arvo that Karl is not here to see all these wonderful changes. I feel blessed that I have such an amazing, hardworking husband who works extra hard to make all our dreams come true.

ANOTHER WET WET DAY

I apologise in advance for the poor photos, drove past the block today on the way home from school, just to see how it was holding up in all this rain.

Fingers and toes crossed and hoping like crazy that next week is sunny!
Hopefully more photos to come soon. x

THE SLAB

The site was boxed up on Monday 19th March. This is the only day I haven't been to site as I was cramming like crazy to get two assignments in, but Karl went on the way to school in the morning and this is what he had found. The slab boxed up :)

The following morning we drove past the block expecting not to see much as the weather was just awful, to our surprise the site once again was covered on people and equipment and the slab was being poured! The slab was poured Tuesday 20th of March.

We came back later in the afternoon to to check on things... the slab was really wet but the sun came out and it dried out fairly quickly. Karl said it still seemed pretty cool to touch which apparently is a good thing.

PATIO:

To celebrate the slab being laid we got some fish and chips and enjoyed it on the block. If you come to Toowoomba to see us and check on the progress bring a jacket, its getting chilly already!

These photos are not really bluilding progress but I lover them!

Hopefully more photos to come soon!

MISERABLE WET DAY FOR THE POOR TRADIES

Karl and I drove out to the block today expecting to see no change from yesterday. We were so confident that we didn't even pack our boots or camera. So I apologise for the quality of the pictures. It was really cold wet and miserable and I felt bad for the tradies who were dripping wet and working away in it!

Today is Day 6 and as at 3:30pm we had a power box, plumbing and a home sewage treatment plant in. I am really happy that the block is literally on the school run, so we are popping in regularly to see what is happening. It is great by 3pm most of the tradies are off site and we can have a look at the progress.

Its getting really excited now and I am sure lots of photographs will follow in the coming days.

Fingers crossed for a little sunshine in the coming days. xx

IT HAS STARTED!!

On Thursday 8th March, our block was cut. It was great to wake up with a message from the neighbour saying that their was a loader onsite cutting the block. So we stopped in on the way to school and took a few photos.

This pics were taken today 13/3/2012 - pier were put in place.

It was so windy that within 10 minutes of the cement being poured they were coated in a red dust!

Lots more pics to come over the coming months.

Cheers, Shal and Karl

We have an official start date!

It's the 8th March - which means we should be in this financial year!

SO excited now!

Council Approval - YIPPEE!!

On Tuesday 14th Feb we got notification that we have council approval. Very exciting considering it has only been 3 weeks since the forms were lodged with council. Long story short, council wrote to us a just over a week ago advising they didn't receive all the documents they required from the private certifer. Long story short, I gave Coral a touch up, they passed it on to the private certifer and the private certifer then took it up with council. At the end of the day council called to apologise as they actually did have all the documents and promised to give us approval within a week! Which surprised us... when they actually delivered! Surely, 3 weeks is the quickest council approval of all time.

Next step is boring, paperwork, banks etc but should all be finalised by midweek. Then we will get our start date. That is when the fun begins! And there will be lots of photos to come.

A FEW BUMPS IN THE ROAD

The colour selection is done and this is the part where it hit me that we are dealing with a project builder ... literally everything we wanted we were told 'that's an extra!' Or a big deal. We decided to do colour selection on Ethan's first day in school, thought it would be a good way to distract us. In hindsight, probably not the best move. But then again, me being stubborn, emotional and dare I say it... almost to the point of outright obnoxious, in the end got us what we wanted. We kept our colour selection pretty simple for two reasons. Firstly, our cupboards are fairly busy and the main feature and secondly, feature tiles, walls etc blow the budget by approx $800 a wall. Thankfully, Karl is pretty handy and we are going to be doing a lot our self, well more Karl then me, but i will be there with packed lunches, cold drinks and the best damn TA his ever had! By doing the tiles and carpets ourselves, we free up a lot of cash, which means that we were able to get exactly what we wanted in the kitchen. Karl is going to do the tiling, which meant that we can get a top quality porcelain tile and the carpet we want for the cost of Coral doing the tiles. The carpet we are getting from Andersons, we were lucky in January which saved us over $1000.

We now have plans in with council, unfortunately the private certifer didn't send everything they needed to immediately, and then when they did council misplaced one of the documents. It seems that now all is in order. I was expecting approval by Monday, but it has not come (surprise). Technically, council have until the 27th February to get back to us, I am still hoping that it won't take that long but that is worst case!

Apparently once council approval comes through, it should be a week before things start happening on site. Now that I cant wait for.

Here are some of our selections:

We have been out to the block a few times, its funny how every time we go we look at it that little bit differently. We went out on E's first day of school and had a photo taken, was hard to believe, this time next year our house would be behind us.

Hopefully, my next post will be soon and announcing council approval.

Unitl next time. xx