Some progress, just not on the house!

As suspected, there was no progress from Wednesday; they are probably waiting on our cheque for the Frame stage, the cheque should be in their letterbox tomorrow so they can start up again.

We did achieve a couple of things on Saturday, we confirmed the windows in our front door and we purchased a couch.

While we had decided on the make & model of front door I was having second thoughts on the window inserts, should we have clear, obscure or translucent glass?

We had ordered and payed for the translucent glass and after a drive out to Campbellfield to the Corinthian showroom we made our selection, translucent!! So really no change to what we had ordered and we didn’t really need to go on our trek to Campbellfield but I needed piece of mind, Mrs B just thought I was being stupid as she was happy with translucent all along.

As for the couch we had our mind set on a leather couch with a chaise and a matching 2 seater sofa. Last Sunday I managed to visit nearly every furniture store in Nunawading and while I found a couple of nice couches, they were either too big for the space we had or too expensive.

Never fear though because I had been surfing the net for quite a while and had found Frogs Sofas who are a small company selling direct to the public and make to measure as well as provide a wide range to choose from. We went into the factory and found the “Toad Hall” sat down and instantly fell in love, it was sooooo comfy and we knew we were on a winner, especially as they could make it to the right size.

Well we asked for a quote and they were very reasonable, so reasonable in fact we managed to squeeze 3 kiddies chairs in and only spent $16 more than our budget, including delivery. The kiddies chairs are very cute and should be good until the kids turn 6 or 7 and they are making them out of the same leather as our couch, so they will match perfectly.

Now all we need is a house to put them in!!!!!!!!!!

Framed & Wrapped

Well after our disappointment on the weekend we wondered if a mid-week trip was in order so we jumped in the car and we are sure glad we made the trip.

We have been Framed & Wrapped, woo hoo!!!!

It would appear the availability of power on site may hold the key to our progress so I am hoping that when we pay a visit on Saturday we will see some roof tiles.

Back of house & rumpus room

Front of House

Front & Garage

Garage

Side of house

Side panoramic

Back panoramic

Bring on Saturday and hopefully more progress!!!!

The Joys of Building part 4

Well it’s been a weird week in that we have done a lot in regards to our old house but apart from an electricity meter absolutely bugger all happened on our site this week.

We successfully transitioned our life to Mrs B’s parents. We have had some calls to go home from our eldest and we did pay a visit to our old house with it empty which seemed to help him understand but being 2 & a half your never quite sure.

We had the carpets cleaned and thanks to my mum who spent all day Monday cleaning, (thanks Mum!) The old place came up a treat and on 11:20am Friday the 20th of November and after 6 years and not quite 2 months it slipped into the hands of another.

Now onto our new home, as I said we have a electricity meter, woopie, we can now get power bills to go with our water bill.

Other than that sweet fa happened so that means a week where there was decent weather was wasted and yet again what the construction manager told me didn’t happen. I must say that is the most frustrating thing about it, here he painted a picture of progress and I should have seen roof tiles this week but alas NOTHING.

I will give it another week and see what happens, if we get to next weekend with no action I will be really shitty because they would be damn close giving up all the spare time they had in their schedule after pouring the slab ahead of time.

I have said it before and I will say it again, ah the joys of building!!!!!

A Big Week

Well it’s been a big week for the MaxyB family as we moved out of our old place and in with Mrs B’s Mum & Dad.

It was long drawn out weekend which started early Saturday morning when I picked up the van from Budget. Mrs B’s dad helped me load in all our stuff we were taking with us as well as the hard rubbish and op-shop gear. This took us close to lunch time and I arrived at our new (temporary) home and preceded to un-pack which didn’t take too long and I had the van returned by 3pm.

I spent the next 5 hours finalising all the boxes and breaking down all the wall units and storage units ready to be packed in the shipping container where they will live for the next 4 or so months.

I was back on site at 6:30 Sunday morning finalising somethings before the removalists arrived just before 8. I set the removalists on their way and I disappeared to get other chores done like delivering more stuff to the Salvos, wash my car and have a bacon & eggs breakie while reading the paper.

By 11am the guys were finished and there was room to spare in the container, but not much. We had a joke about the fact the BBQ would be one of the first things out and I said I would do some snags when they unloaded in a few months time, they said sure thing and mentioned the esky wasn’t too far from the BBQ, I am guessing they will want a couple of "frothies" to wash down the snags!!

Here are a couple of photos of our old place which has served us well over the last 6 plus years. Mrs B & myself will always have fond memories but our family has well & truly grown to big for it and we now count down to when we can move into our new home.

We will pay one last visit & take the kids to say bye bye on Thursday as we settle on Friday the 20th and it will be ours no longer

Now while we were busy with moving we did go and pay the site a visit. Now after speaking with our construction manager I had expected to see all our roof trusses up and our frame completed but alas we had everything bar the roof trusses fixed to the frame.

Our Bedroom

Family Room

Rumpus Room

Now here’s hoping that by the end of this week we have roof tiles because if we do we are back on schedule with what our Construction Manager said last Wednesday.

Also there is an added bonus in living with the in-laws, we are closer to the block so a quick visit is only 15 min each way, a trip I am sure I will be making more often now, gotta love daylight savings!!

Let the Frame Up Begin

As most of you will know its been an usual week here in Melbourne as we have had the Melbourne Cup, in which we lost a massive $5, but also here in Melbourne the building industry takes a few days off, namely Monday through to Wednesday. So it was quite surprising to find our house had been framed, well minus the roof joists and the window frames, but we have the wall frames up.

It was great to walk around and really get a sense on how big our place is and where everything will go.

We were surprised by the size of the rumpus area as it’s a bit bigger than we thought as is bedroom 3. We thought our soon to arrive 3rd child was going to be jibbed compared to their 2 brothers but in the end all 3 of the kids rooms are pretty similar in size.

The best money we spent was getting more cupboard space in the kitchen and putting in bi-fold doors between the lounge & the meals area, you can see right through from the front of the house right to the rumpus at the back.

We also met our next door neighbours and they were really nice. I spent a good half hour chatting so it would appear that we are doing all right on the neighbours’ front, as you know everyone needs good neighbours!!!!

They did tell me something disturbing in that my internet options maybe restricted to 1 and that is Telstra Wireless, something I am not happy about as I don’t wish to pay a kings ransom each month for internet access. I will have to do some digging there but for mine its bloody ridiculous that new areas can be developed without adequate infrastructure for ADSL as a minimum. To get a Telstra Wireless account that will cover our current usage I will be paying 80% more per month, highway robbery if you ask me.

Anyway, below are the photos from the visit, feel free to click on any photo to get a better look and you can click on the plans on the right hand side menu to get a better idea of the floor plan

Now next weekend is a big one as we move out of our “old” house and into the in-laws until our “new” house is built. We do the move next Saturday and the removalists come on Sunday to place our stuff in storage.

We then have a week to clean up and we settle Friday the 20th and for the first time in well over 6 years we will be living with our parents, this time with two kids. I do wonder if Mrs B’s parents really know what they are in for!!!!

Ready to be Framed

Another weekend and another journey to our block to see what has happened over the last week, and not surprisingly not too much has happened.

Our garage has been completed, well the brick work anyway and the frames have arrived on site, ready to be attached to the slab.

As this week is a stop start week and I suspect the builders will only be working 3 days I am not expecting too much action this week, but I guess you never know.