Day 11 - No Slab

I went to the block today with the expectations that the Slab would have commenced with the nice weather we are having, but no. A good thing though was our sign was up at the front of our block. If you look closely at the sign it reads owner P.Maple only (poor Mel I can evict her anytime I want). I measured the distance between the metre box and the fence and the gap is 4 metre's.

As part of the recomendations from the soil report the builders had to put some concrete footings spaced 2 metre's apart because of the Tree's on the Golf course side. These have been completed as you can see in the photo they are the disk type things of concrete in a row next to the pipes.

Day 7 - After work inspection

After I spoke with Jarrod (our Metricon site supervisor, his official title) I had to go and see what had happened during the day, so we were going to meet after work, As you can see our Meter box is on site in position on the left hand side of the house, It dosen't look like much room down that side of the house but it is around 3.5-4.0 metres to the fence and then opens up to a huge backyard area straight off the back of the house. The framed house behind is also a Metricon house being built and they are cracking on that build, you can see in the photo pipes coming out of the ground with orange paint on them, that is where the boundary of our water pipes run for storm and sewer. The toilet was also delivered and Mel and I are putting on bets when we take the boys to the block who says that they need to go to the Toilet First, It is a lose lose bet because we both say it will be Bayley! do you agree?

Day 7 - Plumbing in.

You may be thinking 2 taps? why? purple? Well the answer is recycled water! we have access to recycled water from Melton for our garden and lawns, the purple tap is the one to use when doing the Gardens. Like all things you would like these things off to the side however they were put right in the middle. All our underground work was completed on Friday and Jarrod told that the slab would be going down next week and that the framer was booked for the following week.

Day 6 - Resisted the Temptation

The week has passed and there has been some sunny days at the start of the week but today and Tomorrow they have fore casted rain. I have resisted the temptation this week to go and inspect any works done. Jarrod our builder told us last week that we were only getting our temp fences, portable toilet and maybe the plumbers might get in to do some pipe work. Mel is heading down there Friday to check out what is going on as well as taking Sandi down to show her where the block is and what is around Eynesbury.

Day 1 - Site Scrape (more photo's)

A veiw of the level land looking across to the golf course, our temporary front fence will arrive next week.

here is a photo of the digger levelling the block, as you can see some blue lines at the start of the block where they measure the fall and rise of the land to get it level.

Day 1 - Site Scrape

Our block is on the right of this path, they have put down some base material before they finish off the concrete footpath, the sun was out today a little chilly but I can imagine this scene in spring or early summer with the sun breaking through the trees, what a thought!

Today was the first day of our build, how exciting, I went and sat in my car and watched the 2 guys starting the site scrape, as you can see in the photo I did get out of my car and take some photo's around the block and I did have a chat to one of the blokes working (I think he thought I was someone who worked for Metricon, so I just played along), he mentioned that they would be done today, I had a call from Jarrod our builder and he mentioned that they had been there and completed the scrape (I didn't tell him that I went there and watched what they were doing, especially on the first day - stalker) and that the toilet and bin would be dropped off next week and also that the plumber would be in to do the pipe work. It is all happening and if it goes to schedule it should finish around Xmas eve, we might do lunch if that is the case!

Build Date

Well the time is finally here! we have been given a start date for our house, 16-07-2010. Just over 1 year ago we purchased our block and started the process of getting our new house built. So now it is time to drop in after work or before with the camera and start the Album.

Floor Plan of our house

I have added a floorplan picture of our house so that when it all starts it may make it easier to understand what room we are talking about. It is the Santorini 29 design with a few a few changes to the original design. The garage is at the back of the house, the dining area has been extended as has the master bedroom and we have added a walk in linen closest to hide all the crap Mel has in the house ( no its really all my crap!)

Rylie's Report

Hi It's me Rylie.Sorry that i have not typed much in the past few weeks.As you can see what dad has written there has been a lot happening.We went and had a look at the block of land,i did'nt hop out of the car because it was so muddy but i could still see houses being built around our land.Well see you next time.Rylie

Jarrod is Our Builder

I have put up our first photo of the block, I had a call from Jarrod who is going to build our House, we talked through the Marker situation and hopefully have that resolved. Jarrod has our house on his agenda to complete, he wasn't able to give me a start date but with all the action that we have had in the last couple of days I would say that next week may see some dirt starting to move. So hopefully the next photo will see some action. The next edition I will try and add Video.

Street coming together

The 2 pink stakes in the ground represent our driveway off Castlemaine drv, temporary fences have been put up on either side of the driveway.

Same as below only on the left hand side of the street

This Photo is from Eynesbury Rd looking down Castlemaine drv right hand side

While there checking site markers we took some photo's of the street, there would now be 10 housing being built. In Feb there was none now they are popping up everyday.

Site Markers

Now with the stake I hammered in. You can see our built side fence on the Golf course side.

Site marker is the sqaure peg and the spray painted line heading towards the marker.(this was all there I didn't spray the line)LOL

Call from Chantze about missing site markers on our block that we needed to get rectified before any work can start on our block. They offered to get the markers surveyed at a cost of $1099.00. I said, not a chance in hell are we going to pay to get these markers found. We went to the block today and found the Markers pretty quickly, our neighbours temporary fence had covered the markers so I took my hammer with me and put the stakes back in place. took photo's just in case they were required, i will attach some of the photo's.

Mad Paperwork Dash

We had a phone call from Chantze (Metricon), she is our new consultant (we have had Max, Sylvia now Chantze). About some papers that needed signing, She emailed them through, I forwarded them to work, printed, signed then sent. Got a phone call from Chantze, she had not received my letter yet and asked if we could get them to her ASAP (this was at 4.05pm) she needed them by 5pm. I had just finished swimming at norlane pool when the call come through (picture this, speedo's,men's change room, talking on phone). dressed, in car calling Mel, to email Janine (world's best sister in Law) documents so that I could meet her at work,sign documents then to email back. Lets just say pressure on. Janine was a star and had documents ready when I got in the carpark of her work, signed them, then Janine emailed them back to Chantze by 4.45pm. Legends.

IT'S all happening

This photo shows all the work happening around our block, we know have both of our neighbours building, we only have 2 neighbours now whoo hoo. the house on the right is greybox and behind us is Metricon.

Bank to the PARTY!

We finally got news from our bank about our loan and valuation, we can look at it in many ways but the end result is we can start, back to the valuation part, not what we wanted, we wanted the block revalued at a more realistic price but unfortunately they did not change the value I believe to stand by there valuer rather then opening up a can of worms knowing that there are other values that we know about that were way off the mark.
It took 3 weeks to get our loan approaval through, so we sent our letter straight through to Metricon. Now comes the time to build (we hope)