Footings Are Poured

Construction is starting to really move along now, and the concrete footings for the brickwork is now poured. It is currently "curing" (as we in the game call it), and I would imagine our friendly concreters will be back next week to set up and pour the main slab.

We had our first little issue, when the builder called to say that the surveyors had stuffed up their measurements, and placed the bottom pegs about 500mm too far down the block. As the peiring concrete had already been poured it would be a massive job to dig it all up and start again. So we are leaving it...our house is now 500mm "forward"...meaning we lose backyard and have to buy more concrete and fill for the driveway (at the surveyors expense). I will be happy if that is the only thing that goes wrong.

Ben has been excited every day...he gets to watch the "men" and the "trucks", he gets to call them "maaate", and to top it all off, they have a dog called Tilly. Tilly isn't particularly friendly, and would probably take a chunk out of Ben if given the chance, but he doesn't seem to care (as long as we are there with him). He especially loves when the men go home and he can go out on the block and throw rocks and dig in the dirt.

The photo above is a shot from the top of the block, where you can see the concrete footings running around the outside of the house. The big bit in the middle is where the front door will be (but up at street level), and to the right will be the garage.

This shot is of the retaining wall at the rear of the house (looking back up the hill). What you can see is the formwork and the wall is poured behind it. They will remove the formwork, leaving the concrete wall, and then brick in front of it. It is quite a bit higher than we had imagined, which means we will have to rethink what we do at the back door (deck v fill).

The back yard is a mess and I look forward to all of you coming over for a house warming BBQ in February...with a shovel.

The Big Toys Have Arrived

It is hard to believe that after more than 5 years of trying to work out what to do with ourselves (renovate, move, or build), construction has finally commenced on our house.

In the 2 months since my last blog we have:

• Amended and finalised the layout for the house,
• Reviewed our landscaping options,
• Signed contracts with the builder,
• Sorted out finance with the banks,
• Waited and waited for it all to come together and commence.

The bank was a real pain to deal with, and considering we were existing customers, it should have been a whole lot easier than it was. They seemed to change their mind every couple of days about what we need to do to satisfy all of their requirements.

In more recent times the surveyors have been to peg out the boundaries of the property, and we got a pleasant surprise as to the actual size...quite a bit wider than we had thought it to be.

Just last Friday, the excavators turned up and spend a day and a half pulling the tree stumps and levelling some of the block for the slab. Poor Ben was looking forward to the trucks coming, and we left for the weekend just as they arrived....so he missed it all! From what I can work out, they will still need to come back and do some final touches before retaining walls are laid and the slab is poured.

The attached pictures show the block from a couple of different angles, including the massive drop we now have from what will eventually become our back door (just increased the landscaping budget!!!).

Updates will be more frequent now I have something to tell you.