Week 31-32: Goodbye scaffolding - the big reveal (23 Nov - 4 Dec)

I would like to say there was so much to report with 2 weeks progress and only 20 days to countdown to when they think the build will be complete.

Amazingly, the last two weeks have seen more days with NO trades on site than WITH trades. Of course, this is the trouble with the count down to Christmas, trades are just so in demand. For us, it's carpenters that are spread too thin, with promises day after day that they will be there but they don't deliver.

We had a few days with them there, with imperceptible changes or backward steps (like gyprock being ripped out of my stair well because it was not quite plumb - awful to see but obviously worth it!). The excitement of the kitchen being installed was eclipsed by a call saying they were out of stock of the stone we had selected for our bathrooms and could we please select a new colour... today. So I drag 3 tiny kids out of the house on a 42 degree day, to various kitchen shops who did NOT want to serve me, partly because at least 2 of my kids are crying and partly because I am not there to BUY a kitchen, I have already bought one! I am dragging a massive tile in the base of the double pram, with the third baby strapped on to me, dragging the pram backwards up stairs to get into these kitchen shops to see stone samples. Of course, the pram JUST fits through doorways, but wedge an 800mm wide tile under it and it is the worlds worst jigsaw.... now it is screaming kids, broken tile, a bleeding shin, still jammed in a doorway, a sweaty hungry baby and a Mum who wants to cry! Nonetheless, I was raised a stoic and soldier on, selecting a few key samples, attempting to get hubby's agreement by phone between his appointments, we reach agreement and I phone the stone company.... NO THOSE FIRST THREE BACK UP CHOICES ARE OUT OF STOCK TOO. Right, I see, gather my composure... we'll just get white stone bench tops! Oh I'm sorry to inform you that will be an upgrade fee. I am sorely tempted to delivery my three sweaty, screaming children to the stone people's store and demand a foot massage and a cold cocktail rather than pay an upgrade fee because they failed to put my stone on hold when I ordered it 11 months ago. Don't get me started.

In an otherwise uneventful 2 weeks, here is the big news,

• the site was cleaned, 
• the scaffolding was removed
• the stone benches are in
• missing eaves have finally been installed
• the stone on the fireplace is complete (almost) and
• the kids have a climbing frame!
• 130m2 of travertine paving was delivered direct from a quarry in turkey to my front yard. And the driver let me help with the crane :)

The best part... after some persistent texting to my site supervisor and head office contact along the lines of... "I am feeling pretty stressed about no trades on site for the last three days, so I can't imagine how you must be feeling!"... out comes Fearless Frank of Fowler. He has a reputation for being a great leader and it was awesome to see his command on the site. He listened to my concerns, looked at everything in fine detail and made countless phone calls to line up trades to finalise the issues. Unlike the responses we've been getting at this time of year, when Frank himself calls it's like "of couse, we'll be there first thing tomorrow!". So tomorrow, Friday, more is planned on site than has happened in the last two weeks! 

• Friday: Painters, downpipes, carpenters, plumbers
• Saturday: carpenters, pest protection guys, my concretor for steps, my landscaper, my irrigation guy
• Monday: gyprockers, cornice guys, my tiler for the alfresco and porch. 
• Tuesday: my fireplace delivery, and back comes the painter.... 
• then electricals, plumbers for bathroom fit off, wardrobe fit out, floors, appliances, kickboards and skirting... here's your keys Maam. 

Within a hour of him being on site, he had summoned the mysterious disappearing carpenters and they were ripping out a wall of the master robe to make it larger! I loved seeing Frank, here in his shiny shoes and business shirt, grab a chisel and get to work alongside the young carpentry apprentice. I really respect leadership like that. I left site after 6pm and they were still slogging away, he wasn't letting them ead home anytime soon!

 Can't wait to see the fruit of his calls in the coming week. After feeling pretty down about the progress - I am feeling hopeful. 20 days until they think they will hand over the keys... let's see!

Some progress shots this last 2 weeks:

We've got stone tops... even if the bathrooms are 'just white'...

 The scaffolding was removed and site cleaned - revealing at last the shape of the finished home. Look forward to seeing it framed with driveway, steps and some nice hedging so it won't look so monolithic.

Progress on the back yard - a sandpit to surround the tree, welcome to 75 new trees, climbing frame assembled and one more garden bed still to go now the scaffold is out of the way

 The stone cladding the fireplace has been all but finished by Super Jay - just need a marble shelf and the actual heater to arrive next week, DVD/appliance cabinets either side and the oak tops for the cabinets, wall mount the TV and enjoy! Right is all the Turkish travertine arriving ready for Super Jay to start tiling our alfresco and porch next week.

Air con ducting return framed and new eaves

 And to sum it up... this is how I feel! I could fall asleep just about anywhere, anytime right now. Bring on the next 20 days. Lord, please give us strength to get through this!

WEEK 30 – We have a kitchen!!! (16-20 Nov)

WEEK 30 – We have a kitchen!!!

I can’t tell you how excited I was to see my very own cutlery drawer piled high on the many many items of cabinetry ready for construction! For those who hyperventilate a bit when attempting to build Ikea… best you don’t read this post!

Our custom polyurethane cabinetry was all manufactured at a factory and set to us like a great big lego set ready for them to install. It was amazing just how it came together. It truly was a wonder to behold! In one day, two guys built an entire kitchen, laundry cabinets and three bathroom vanities! We are starting to plan the interior furnishing and how to do this adequately without spending a fortune. So to celebrate the kitchen being installed, I secured 4 white bar stools, just 6 months old bought from Domayne for $160 each... for $22 each! Can't wait to see them in their place.

In other delights this week, Super Jay is back to stone clad our fireplace. This fireplace project has been an incredible matter of coordination. When looking at a blank wall, every single trade needed perfectly exact dimensions, that had to come together precisely to make this work! The trades involved all the below:

• carpenters to frame it
• bricklayers to leave a gap for the flue to run out the wall
• electricians to wire in TV power behind it, as well as isolation switches and gas, and feature downlights either side. (Raston Group)
• gyprockers to apply villa board (and cornicing... except for above the fire place... but they messed that up, sigh)
• Fireplace installer and supplier (Lincs BBQ Hornsby, and Banjo their installer)
• kitchen cabinet maker to construct cabinetry to go each side of the fireplace to house the DVD player, speakers etc (Brindabella Kitchens)
• Flooring company to supply 'bench tops' to go above the cabinets
• Super Jay to stone clad around the fireplace (Jay Papandreas, Jayscape)
• Stonemason to create a stone shelf above the fire below the TV so the TV doesn't melt with the huge heat output
• painters to paint the outside niches
• another electrician to install the TV (which we had to select well in advance, right down to the dimensions of the sound bar we want to use and pre-selecting the TV mount so the right spaces could be left in the stone cladding! 
• I feel exhausted just thinking about it!Hopefully it will look great and there will be many cozy nights by the fire to enjoy it and make it all worth it 
  
   The kitchen arrives - it filled the whole three back rooms of the house. Like Ikea on steroids.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   And within a day... almost completed, just a few doors still to go on... and a bench top, appliances etc.
  
  
   Poweder room vanity (excuse the flash, it's quite a dark room)
  
  
   Laundry cabinetry in my super-sized laundry, custom made for three very dirt loving children!
  
  
   Double sink vanity in the children's bathroom. They even thought to mount it extra low so the kids can wash thier hands - cute!
  
  
   The vanity in our ensuite - I love this layout... to the left side is the shower tucked away and to the right is the WC.
  
  
   Day 2 of stone cladding
  
  
   Day 3 of stone cladding (a half day as even Super Jay had to knock off when the heat hit 42 degrees!)
  
  
• To give some sense of how chaotic the whole fireplace saga has been... I needed to pick up some stone for the shelf between the fireplace and TV above. After about 4 phonecalls to source supply of this, I secured some nice stone, drove about an hour in the summer heat, with three kids in the back of the car to the warehouse in the city. Crank the aircon and put on a Disney movie to keep them calm while I collect the order from the warehouse door a few metres away. Too easy, right? Wrong! The stone they supplied is not actually tumbled on both sides, it has ugly machine marks underneath so it will be seen underneath the shelf. Cue a dear old man sitting with my two howling daugthers while I carry the baby around the warehouse inspecting alternative stone. We finally find some that looks more suitable with a rebated edge. I phone Super Jay to confirm it will work, the movie has ended and the dear fellow is losing the fight to entertain the girls...  I can hear them screaming from the warehouse! I drag the new stone to the car, drive it back to the build site and proudly present it to Super Jay, who apologetically explains that the rebate is 60mm not 75mm so it just won't do. Wah! I spend the afternoon phoning alternative stone suppliers, who all tell me they are booked out until February and can't supply me with a custom stone shelf. I finally find a marble supplier who can have it to me within 3 weeks. While waiting in a doctor's surgery with the three bears, I juggle giving the baby some puree, keeping the girls quiet and taking calls to get agreement between Super Jay and the marble mason on the exact set out of the holes to be drilled in the stone. So when I say "this fireplace had better look fantastic!" now you have some sense of what I mean. Take that episode and times it by the 11 trades involved in the creation of our fireplace and I feel like a lie down!
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• In other news this week, we also got a garage door and a front door - officially a house that locks!
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   The garage door looks great, and I think the white plantation shutters ordered this week, ready for install mid Jan, will really lift the facade with nice light contrasting tones.
  
  
  
  
• And before I sign off, a little bit of cuteness from the kids who are the reason and motivation for this long journey and the beautiful home... an over-representation of Denver, but he accompanies me to the build site almost every day, so he deserves extra credit!
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Week 29: A diversion - the Great Australian dream of a big backyard (9-13 November, plus about 4 weekends leading up to then)

Week 29 – The great Australian dream of a big backyard.

Week 29 inside the house was a continuation of more tiling and more carpentry, so this is the week I will explain what is happening outside the house. All I really wanted in a new home was a backyard for the kids to play. 

The downside to building your home is that the site generally gets completely trashed, it is just mud and muck and builders rubble when you are handed the keys. I couldn’t imagine the feeling of arriving to our new home and the kids so excited about their back yard and just finding a mud puddle there (though I am sure my little grubs would love that too!).

We were very fortunate to have such an exceptional Site Supervisor that he let us have access to the site on the weekends to get the backyard landscaping done. This is such a blessing and opportunity, and one I am very grateful for. It has also been a pretty extraordinary challenge in logistics!

The process roughly looks like this:

•     Coming up with a garden design (as we didn’t require a landscaping plan for the complying development process)
•      Selecting and coordinating landscaper trades. Upon receiving the first three quotes I had a small moment of horror, then got creative finding young guys who are starting out to do the work at much more competitive rates, it just means I am more involved in the project management closely. As an upside, I am kept entertained by awesome dreadlocks and dance party music while he digs (bless Lachlan!), stories of diving with sharks (Tom-can-crete the concreter), hearing the dreams of a kid who always wanted to play with diggers (James Wheeler, great guy!). It brought youth and fun and humour to the process, lovely to work with guys who enjoy what they do.
•     Remove all the builders junk (unfortunately, the site cleaners only do the front yard, so this meant us cleaning up the junk mostly by hand!)
•     A big bobcat to get rough levels across the back yard and did out for the retaining walls on the high side (24/10)
•     A little baby digger to level the narrow walkway down the side of the house (where the washing lines and wheelie bins will reside).. (31/10)
•     Stump grinding the roots that were unveiled in the process – a stump a good 1.6m wide! (24/10)
•     Digging posts, then laying sleepers for retaining garden beds around the rear perimeter fenceline, and also building a cool bench seat around our tree that will double as a lovely sandpit for my little ones. (25/10, 31/10)
•     Importing (read, hours of barrowing!)  turf underlay/top soil that is nice sandy stuff our beautiful turf will love.(14/11, 21/11)

   And still to come in the next two weekends... 

•     Installing irrigation on a nifty timer system so it will stay watered (twice a day for 10 minutes!) when I am not on site, to ensure our baby grass grows up strong ready for when we move in (next weekend 28 Nov)
•     Planting 55 Lilly Pilly Resilience plants in the garden beds (next weekend 28 Nov)
•     Installing an awesome climbing frame and cubby house for the three little bears Christmas gift (next weekend 28 Nov).
•     Laying turf (the following weekend 5 Dec) 
•     Installing steps (5 December), which will later be tiled along with the alfresco in a nice travertine pavers by Super Jay (of the wall cladding fame… from 7 December)

Here are some progress photos over the last 5 weekends of work (roughly 1 weekend of excavation, 2 weekends of retaining wall gardens, 2 weekends of topsoil import and levelling), then there are two more to go until the back yard is complete.

 Site clean did not quite cover the back yard... so we had to clear this up by hand! It gave a nice opportunity for a 'before' shot of the yard! Quite a slope and a lot of rubble.

 The bobcat arrives. It was so fun to watch James playing robotics with his favourite machine. You could tell how much he loves this job, trained up by his Dad.

 A tight squeeze to get the Bobcat around the side with the scaffold in place!

 You remember that rotten old fence? He pulled the old thing down in about 2 minutes!

 Denver's first ever viewing of a truck at work....

 This is an excited face! Little boys and diggers - go figure!

 Our newly levelled yard - not such a slope now!

 Uncovered a massive stump from the old silky oak we removed - so much for it having been stump ground previously, it still measured 1.6m diameter! Gonski!

 Digging holes for the cemented posts for the retaining walls, which will discreetly hide this stormwater access too.

 Then came Peter on his much more maneuverable mini-digger. Just 900mm wide and able to cut and level the narrow side of the house (in about 40 very expensive minutes!)

 Lachlan's retaining wall posts with string laid out to carefully level them. They will function both as retaining wall and garden bed.

 Sleepers laid for the garden beds, just a matter of bolting them on.

Moving in 20 tonnes of turf underlay/top soil... on a day when we received about 30ml of rain! The poor guys were drenched!

 And the next weekend of another 10 tonnes of topsoil - flattened with a 150kg cement roller to a nice firm base, ready for turf to be laid. Tomorrow's job is to use those sleepers against the tree and transfrm them into a great sitting bench and sandpit inside.

 I love how much more level this is now!

More to come!