My House Build

Well, its been a long time coming but last friday marks the point where I can say the house is complete. There are still smaller defects to fix up but the contracted works are finally done.

Now it’s just a case of finalising the last invoice, settling the dispute over one of the variations and then scheduling the key handover. Hopefully this all goes smoothly and I can move in shortly!

The following pictures show the house from a  few weeks back and the completed front with the correct render colour.

Front with correct render

Front from a week ago before render was completed

Front from a week ago from the right hand side

The right hand side from the back

The ensuite

Kitchen

Living room area

Last week my final walk through was booked for the 29th. Things are certainly looking like they are wrapping up. Last week was the first time the house had been fully locked up and it’s looking far more complete with smaller things being added such as the bench tops, taps and fittings. Hopefully there won’t be many things to fix and the final bank valuation can take place.

 

Got round to the house this weekend and found the driveway had been completed. There are still some things to go but its getting to look more and more like the finished product each week.

Here are some pictures taken over the weekend.

Front

Hallway

Left side from garage

Ensuite

Kitchen

Living room area

Rear bedrooms

Light switches

Left side from rear

about half a week ago I received the fixing stage invoice, I popped out and took some photos. Quite impressive how it transforms each time into something more like a completed house.

The front

Outside rear alfresco area

The rear exit to the garage. This will be a roller door

Garage extension

Looking toward the kitchen from the living area

Looking toward the living area from the kitchen

Front hallway

The brick work started last week and is due to be completed this week with the lockup inspection happening this morning.

The following are pictures of the brickwork from last weekend. Obviously with easter this is going a little slower and there was quite a delay due to scheduling problems but its good to see this slowly becoming more like a real house.

The house from the front

The living side of the house

Rear of the house out from the alfresco

Rear looking back toward the lounge

 

Popped back out over the weekend and it appears that I now have a roof. The construction consultant said that this week the bricks should start going up and the roof finished off.

Still trying to get hold of the electrician to discuss where to put things such as the rack and to discuss wire gauges and sizing of the distribution board.

Anyway, in the meantime, here are some pictures.

Frame from the front

Back Alfresco area

The roof on

North side with cladding

Back Alfresco area

So, first project milestone has been reached, I’ve just been invoiced for the Slab portion of the project and waiting for the bill to arrive for signoff.

In the meantime I had my second building inspection (The first was the pre slab pour inspection) and the comment was very favorable about the build quality. Lets hope this continues throughout the build.

I’ve added some more photos below from the last week. I was also surprised to meet up with the inspector on site yesterday to see that the frames had already arrived. Things seem to progressing at a great rate now.

This was the day before they poured the slab.

This was a couple of days after the slab was poured. Looking back toward the front right of the house. This is the view from the alfresco area.

This was yesterday (28th Jan). Frames have already arrived.

 

 

So, it’s been a while, almost a year since I started looking for a plot of dirt and something to put on it, but the build has finally started.

The road from the last post to be here has certainly been bumpy and ended up costing an extra 18.5k that was altogether unexpected and I’m going to have to find from somewhere before the final payment date. So much for “fixed price” contracts eh?

In the meantime however, here are some pictures of things actually starting to happen. The first is after one week of construction handover, the piles were put down.

And a couple of weeks later, the drains have been put in, the electrical box connected and materials arrived in preparation for slab laying.

So, this week I had my colour selections and electrical done. All I can say is, there is a huge amount of things to select and its all a bit of a whirlwind. I’m still going over things that I’ve missed and trying to sort it all out. Good news is, about 1/2 a week later and I think I have everything!

Hopefully these colours will look OK. Posted below for posterity. I will need to get the actual names of some of these and update the post.

External Colours

Carpet and floor tiles

Kitchen benchtop, cupboards and splash back

Bathroom and Ensuite

Initial electrical diagram

The electrical diagram is only switches and lights, added to this is the alarm, sensors, home automation panels and switches and data points. Hopefully later this week I will be a final quote for everything and be signing this section off.

I’m quite looking forward to the final electrical quote as, not only were things cheaper than I expected (although, still crazy) I was also able to add extra goodies and still be under budget, such as an energy storage (batteries) system. This means that during a power cut I should still be able to internet, watch tv, cook and have lights/showers etc. Also, it should save significantly on my power bill.

A couple of weeks later and there is now a footpath. I talked to the land developer today and they said they were ahead of schedule on the development and were now expecting the land to title mid to late May. This means that if all goes well the build could start at the beginning of June.

There is now a footpath here

Starting to look more like a property

Sealed Road

Accessway onto the property