Day 9 - Waffles in and ready to Pour!

What a days work.  With all the plumbing in already, Friday Metricon got back onto the block (after all the rain on Thursday) and got the waffles pods in and ready to pour the slab.  Its hard to believe that we are only just over a week in.  I received a phone call from our Site Supervisor today in relation to what is happening on site in the next week.  He is hoping that he may even get the slab down on Saturday (yes....you read correct a Saturday) and if not on Monday subject to no more rain.  he also has the frame plotted to start by Thursday or Friday of next week.  Definitely getting on with the job.

Some photo's of Friday progress

Day 8 - We have a pool and a whale....

Well not quite....  It has been pretty wet over the last day and although Glass House Mtns missed out on the heavy rain seen over the rest of the coast, we still ended up with a pool or two in the garage.  The clayey soil we've got means things get boggy pretty quick.  There was very little work done at the block yesterday (maybe a bit of plumbing finished off).  It did fine up in the afternoon so I got a chance to take some better photo's of the site and of the HSTP.

So here are the pool/s

and the Whale..........bin in the front yard

The Biolytix HSTP and irrigation area

I'm not really confident that we'll get any work done tomorrow, but its been fantastic progress for just over a week.  We were due to have the slab poured tomorrow, but I'm sure that will be Monday at the earliest.

Day 7 - We have the Power......and Plumbing

I'm not sure whether this is good progress or not, but work at our block just seems to be "powering" ahead regardless of the rain that we have had.  When we arrived out at the block late this afternoon we found that the pre slab plumbing looked to have been completed and the electricians had run power from the street to the newly installed switchboard.  Just a few quick photos from todays visit -

 I've been taking the photos over the last couple of days at about 5.45pm (i.e quite dark) with my new D300.  This camera blows me away when you get results as good as this at really high ISO's.  Definitely worth the money.

Day 6 - HSTP and Waffles

Our Site Supervisor really appears to have things happening on our block.  I took a quick drive past the block before work this morning and noticed that the HSTP Plumbers were already there starting the install.  I was really worried that this might not go ahead today given the rain in SE Qld in the last couple of days.  When I dropped by late this afternoon I managed to take a few photos of the Biolytix HSTP and the waffle pods.

The photo above shows the Biolytix system fully installed.  It still needs to be connected to the house by Metricons Plumbers which should happen in the next couple of days.  The installers also completed putting in all of the underground irrigation for the Biolytix system.  We're really happy we chose this system because it does not require any chemicals which in other systems get irrigated via sprinklers above ground.  This should give us a lot more usable land.  We've just got to make sure that nobody drives over the irrigation area and breaks the drippers.  The installers have to come back shortly before handover to "commission" the system and add the earthworms.  That should be good to see.

We also have a few deliveries to the block today including some reo and the waffle pods.  The wet weather might slow us down, but the SS still hopes her can get the slab down on Friday. There is quite a bit of plumbing work to be done before then though.   The photo's below are of the waffle pods and some better photo's of the piering.

Day 5 - Piering

I didn't make it out to the block today before dark, but Maya took these photo's of the days progress.  We were not expecting the piering to be completed until Thursday, but it appears like its all complete already.

Peggout - Day 2

Our SS is definitely getting on with it.  The site has been pegged out with lots of pink marked pegs.  We were a bit concerned that there would not be enough room to put a driveway down the garage side of the house but even though we will have to put a small retaining wall in, we should have plenty of room left.

Unfortunately, the pink pegs shown on the right in this pic are in the wrong spot.  They are supposed to mark the poles for the Colonial feature outside Bed 1 (which we are waiting to be moved out 600 from the brickwork on the plans).

We are due to have the HSTP system installed in the next couple of days and we need dry weather for that.  Its been threatening rain all weekend with only the odd shower.  Lets hope it stays dry enough to keep the build moving forward.

Day 1 - Site Cut

Our long wait is over!!!!  We had the site cut, all 25cm of it this morning.  We also met with our Site Supervisor (SS) this morning for the first time.  We were due to meet at 8.30am, but the contractor doing the site cut had already started.

Two days ago we were provided with a notification from Metricon that their Audit process of our file had turned up 3 issues.

• The eave attached to Bedroom 1 needed to be removed as there was a conflict with the roof.  We were pretty disappointed with this at the time we were advised
• A piano hinged cupboard door to one of our kitchen cupboards which we had requested at our "Colour" variation had been removed (unsure of the reason why).
• Metricon had made an error in the tile variation and only quoted on ceramic tile kickers for the kitchen.  This was being corrected with the addition of porcelain tiles.

After running through our Site Start checklist, we provided our SS with a plan to address the issues we had with the Audit Variation, the main issue being the Bedroom 1 eave.  Our SS has been fantastic in sorting through our issues with the Audit Variation and providing advice on how we can rectify the issues we raised.  10/10 for our SS for fixing stuff ups with the plans/variation and following up on calls and emails!!

A few of our photo's from Day 1 (lucky we had the day off)

From the front of the block

From the back of the block

Our SS has also given us the schedule for the next couple of days.  We should see the site pegged out tomorrow, plumbing done early next week and then piering and slab before the end of next week...assuming no rain.  Our SS also let us know that most of his builds are currently about 1month ahead of schedule and he is confident that ours will be finished early as well, which would be handy because our lease finishes in early November.

Its the Final Countdown....(not the song by "Europe")

Just 3 short days to site start and we'll finally see some action on the block.  We were contacted by our Site Supervisor (SS) during the week just to touch base and also book a time to meet at the block on Thursday foir the site scrape....not that its going to be a big job with just 25cm to be levelled.  Our SS also wants us to get our HSTP installed in the week between the 23rd and 29th of July.  Given that both the installer and Biolytix need about 2 weeks in general to supply and book installation, its going to be tight (thanks for the short notice period Metricon).  I'm also a little bit concerned given that nobody can drive over the HSTP and irrigation piping once it is installed.  Let's hope Metricon peg the area off so we don't get any damage. 

Also has a fair bit happening in the last week around the block with organising some tree lopping to get rid of a Golden Cane Palm at the back of our block and obstructs the proposed fenceline.  We got some final quotes on doing the fence with the back neighbours and will be getting this done over the next couple of weeks.

On a low note, on around Friday of last week some "tool" dumped their load of tree branches on our block and the block next to ours (photo's below).  If I find out who did this, I'm sure that I could arrange for them to get their s*^t back along with an additional load when we do our first septic tank pump out .............. enough said.

Be sure to come back after Thursday for some actual progress photo's.

Site Start Date!!

After what feels like months of waiting with very little happening, we have been notified today of our final building approval and plumbing approval.  It appears that there was a bit of delay in getting the plumbing approved due to a change in out Home Sewerage Treatment Plant (HSTP) plan.  After getting feedback from people that have HSTP's, we are really happy with our choice of the Biolytix system.  Too many restrictions with the other systems and so much better having the wastewater outflow underground.  If anyone is building on unsewered land, recommend having a look at www.biolytix.com.au .  

All of our plans have been signed off without any variations required by the Certifiers.  We now also have a site start date....the 22nd of June.  We'll have to at the block on that day.

 

We are still considering if and when to get private building inspections done during the building progress stages.  We mainly want to make sure that we get what we are paying Metricon for......a quality build...... and thats why we want to do our own due diligence.  On that note, can anyone recommend a building inspection company that does inspections between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast?

During our wait (sorry to everyone for the lack of blog posts but there wasn't much to report) we have used the time to take a look at additional items around the house.  The main items we have been working on have been quotes on a double garage/shed, fencing, landscaping and driveways.  

By far the biggest expense is going to be for fencing the block.  Most of the other lot owners in our estate have been putting up rural style post and dog wire fencing which is something that we are not that keen on given that its only 3/4 of an acre rural residential block.  We really like the idea of a full 1.8m timber paling fence in treated pine or hardwood (if the budget allows).  Our neighbour 3 lots down has done a paling fence in hardwood and it looks fabulous. 

Also, in the past few weeks we have been narrowing down our choices and quotes for getting a 2 bay colorbond garage constructed.  We really want to stick to the same color scheme as the house with Ironstone/Dune.  We are thinking of choosing one of the two designs below -

Over the past couple weeks we took a few extra photo's around the Glass House Mountains and thought that I'd post them now.  Its hard to believe that our new home is only 45 mins from Brisbane and 30 from Maroochydore.  So nice to be back on the coast again!!!

View from our block to Mt Tibrogargan

View from Mt Beerburrum (Maya's still giving me grief over making her climb Beerburrum)