Site Progress - In Pictures

When we bought the land - September 2nd, 2012. Not a thing in the background!

August 4 2013. Monster house going up in the background. So grateful there are a few blocks between us. Hopefully nobody else between us will build something like this.

August 8. SITE SCRAPED!!!

August 13 - Shade cloth delivered.

August 16. Piers and formwork done.

August 18 - Portaloo delivered, pipes in.

August 18

August 19, 2013. Eden Brae don't like to litter, so they tie rubbish around trees ;)

August 19 - Waffle pods in!

August 19 - view from front.

21 August, 2013 - We have a slab!!

Items to purchae, post-handover

One thing we didn't consider in any great detail, were all the things we will need to buy once we've moved in!! I've had to prioritise them so we keep some money in our account for the important things like bills...and foxtel :) I thought it could be helpful to anyone reading, to compare to what you've already listed once you move in.

These are our top priorities

• Blinds (At least need to purchase the blinds/shutters for the bedroom, bathrooms and living areas). We're looking at either blindsonline or iseekblinds
• Numbers to put on the house/letterbox - thank you ebay for the low prices and 1sttimebuilding2012 for giving us the idea!
• Letterbox (to be bricked and rendered, like others in our estate)
• Fence - seems like our new neighbours have contacts in a fencing company. I like them already!
• Concrete down eastern side of house
• Deadlocks
• Downlight cables (got the downlights already. Thank you mum for the Bunnings vouchers!
• Dog Kennel

 

Our medium priorities:

• Soil (any suggestions on suppliers?)
• Turf and mulch
• Blinds for remainder of the house
• Pavers (?) for edging in front garden
• Irrigation fittings and tubes
• External lights, spotlights and downlights for eaves
• Fridge (We are using a 500(ish)L one at present. We bought one last week as our last one was freezing everything. We hoped we could get our big one but didn't know that if you have a fridge connected to the plumbing...you need to connect it to the plumbing. We don't have that option where we are staying at the moment)
• Lounge - we have our eye on an ikea lounge
• Wallpaper for entry foyer

Lowest/'eventually' priorities:

• Pet Mesh - We have ordered fly screens from Eden Brae, but we have a 7 month old puppy who terrorises our 9 yr old (dog) and wreaks havoc on the screen doors we have here. Luckily these have the tough pet mesh and security screen so she can't do anything to them. I anticipate our fly screen doors at the new house will be destroyed in a matter of weeks.
• Gas heater
• Water Feature for front garden - something to go under our side piers below the wardrobe window.
• Outdoor Setting
• Shed - cheap sheds here: http://www.fairdinkumsheds.com.au
• Lawn Mower
• Whipper Snipper replacement
• Washing Machine replacement

Items already purchased

• Fridge - Good Guys Campbelltown should be renamed The GREAT Guys. This store has the best customer service I have experienced at any good guys. Great variety and very knowledgable staff.
• Vacuum (Mothers Day Sale!! Yeah!)
• Dishwasher
• Stove
• Microwave
• Fan
• Lights, lampshades, pendants
• Clothesline
• Beds for the dogs
• Kennards Storage fees
• Plants, pots, soil
• Furniture
• Homewares
• Sound systems
• Hose systems

Formwork, Piering and Pipes (oh my!)

This week has seen more progress than the past 11 months =)

We dropped by the block a couple of times after work this week. By Thursday we saw the first photo:

Formwork in, piering done, portaloo present and shade cloth set up at the back to catch any sediments that want to make their way onto J&M's block behind us. This was great because I could finally get  an idea of how our house sits on the block and how much (how little) backyard we have to play with. There's really not much at all  but we will make do! Unless any of our neighbours is happy to leave their land vacant? ;) The location of the piering also gave an indication of where the walls are going. On another note, have a look at the direction our street lamp is facing. How does that even happen!

Today:

Pipes are in! Reo to the left, waffle pods to the right covering up most of W&J's block.

Oh yeah. We practically have a house! ;)

Oran Park notes:
Seems Stage 2C is not registering til the end of September if they are lucky. D'oh! I hear it's to do with water issues. 

Art and Craft markets on at Oran Park on Sunday. We'll be going down for a look.

SS Appointed,..Site scraped!

A lot happened today! We received a letter (snail mail) introducing our site supervisor. I hope he is the hard-@ss some people have spoken about. If not...I just hope he is competent lol!! I'm sure he will be just fine. We'll get a call from him in a couple of days to introduce himself properly.

We drove out to the block today and found this (pic below). Very happy! There's a drop of about 30cm from the end of the scraped section, so we are a little bit concerned that there may be a bit of a drop from the house down to the grass. Over the site - front to back - we have a drop of 60cm. I don't know if we will need retaining walls...hopefully not...but if we do, I am excited to think of what we could do to the garden :)

I still find it a little bit strange that the house behind us still has no action, despite being the first in our stage to receive pegs, several weeks before we did. The EBH guys over the road are yet to be scraped. Thought they may have been scraped the same time as us. Two doors down have a slab and frames already. Next door haven't had anything done yet, not even pegs I don't think...Hoping they start soon so they don't have any access issues if we and the Allwörth build 2 doors up close them in. They have a very narrow block so it could be a problem. Luckily for them we have a heap of room on that side of the house. The Evèryday Homes builds in our stage are being built at an unbelievable pace. One in the corner already has bricks. Crazy.

Designing for Dogs

In my building-process-boredom, I have been looking into what I could put into the backyard to entertain the dogs. Very important! I have no kids so I don't need to think about them. I want to keep my dogs happy, safe, and having fun.

There are some good articles online. I will add some links later. There are some amaaazing looking dog houses - the houzz link will give a link to doghouse designs.

So what I'm thinking is something like this:

• Leaving space between fence and plants for the track they will inevitably wear into the garden
• Elevated platform/obstacles/agility type items. Tunnels/tubes
• Maybe a tiny kids pool or trough type water feature for hot days
• Grasses, softish resilient plants that can take a beating
• Soft materials like mulch or pebbles
• Different natural materials. Wood, sandstone?
• Small sandpit for digging/play
• chicken wire or cement under fence to discourage digging at boundaries.
• Flaps over kennel doors in warmer months
• Screening off garbage area (Our little one is a bit of a ratbag)
• Raised garden beds?
• Planks, benches, areas to create interest.

We have things like water tanks, sewer access pits, air conditioning units in the backyard, so if we can incorporate things around these, that would be great. If you guys have any ideas, feel free to share in the comments below! We have a Rottweiler X (9) and Beagle X (7 months). Both girls, both lovely :)

http://healthyhappydogblog.blogspot.com.au/2010/05/petscaping-designing-fido-friendly.html

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/8824871/list/8-Backyard-Ideas-to-Delight-Your-Dog

Red Pegs

We got this in early/mid July. Nothing since then. It's been more waiting. Eden Brae give themselves 20 working days to order things for our build - our 20 days will be up on Friday. 

We went through CDC rather than Council. We have been pegged for about a month now, and our EBH neighbours over the road got pegged just under a week ago. The concern for us is, will EBH wait til they catch up to us, and do our builds together? We have had that many delays so far (not entirely EBH's fault mind you!!), that we just want to get started. We chose all our colours in December - another concern. Will the tiles still be produced when we get around to needing them?

Anyway, maybe..MAYBE...we will have something on site by the end of next week? I don't know. In some ways I am completely over this building business. We bought the land 11 months ago and thought we would be in by Christmas for sure. Our CSO said realistically we could expect to be in by early March.