Randomly purchased stuff

I've had a lot of free time to burn over the forced-holiday period, so have done a lot of window-shopping... and a little bit of actual shopping.  Plus side it looks like couches and beds have been selected, but we can't order them until we have a target completion date.
The biggest problem here is that some furniture can take 6 to 8 weeks to be made, but on the other side of that they don't want to hold it more than about 3 months.

Once we're back from the holiday period I'm going to put a bit of pressure on Metricon to at least come up with a target so I know when I can start placing orders for furniture - the massive pile is starting to look quite substantial of all boxes of gear to be moved in.

In the meantime I grabbed a few other little useful bits and pieces:

I saw these in EB Games - they're actually sour candies (in tins), but when I saw them their use was immediately obvious - they will be waterproofed, a spike drilled through the base, and them placed strategically in the front garden.

Sockitz powerpoints.  They're an Australian company who have gone and created powerpoints with two USB ports for charging things like phones.  Thtere's a major difference in these any many you might find at places like Bunnings - when the dust-cover on these ones are closed, the transformer for the USB ports are actually electrically disconnected, so there's no 'leakage' or standby power being drawn.  There's a 1A and 2A port (devices like iPads need 10W/2A ports).

Ah yes, rugs.  There's been a little stall down at Knox for most of the year, but I didn't want to have rugs lying around being stored, so the plan was to wait until they're closing up - which is now.  What I didn't expect was that they'd have 50% off everything as their lease expires.

Result is I ended up with these two matching ones for just $130!  The smaller one (first two photos) is a 120x160 one, and the larger one is 230x160 - one for the entryway and one for the lounge room.  They're really nice and plush - they don't feel cheap at all... and Casper loves them ;p

And lastly, I couldn't resist.  A fourth Animaniacs cel to line the walls - this one will be what goes outside the master bedroom doors, in the entryway.

Lock-up

And then the call on Thursday arvo - we're basically at lock-up, which was confirmed on Friday.

The site supervisor has told me he's looking to try to get someone to do the first layer of render before the Christmas break, and is also looking for a painter who's willing to work over the break so we can continue to have at least a bit of progress in those three weeks or so.

Achitraves have been installed, and of course all of the external walls are finished; small issues with the door locks also fixed. Most significantly it looks like cabinets will be installed on Monday and Tuesday right throughout.

One thing I've noticed is the glass that's on the front door - it doesn't appear to be what was ordered.  I was reluctant to have glass on the front door as because of the design of the house it would mean you could see straight down the entire length of the house - so I wanted some kind of translucent or frosted glass.  It looks like what's currently in the door is regular transparent glass, so I'll mention it in the coming week or so - it's entirely possible they already know about it and it's going to be replaced at some point... though I kinda think unlikely.  I'm not too keen on on people being able to rock up to the front door and see exactly what's going on inside.

Lastly, the camera company are still having fun with the delivery company - those cameras that were missing?  They sent a replacement package, and that package too was claimed as having been delivered but never showed up.  We've checked the security cameras here 30 minutes either side of the time the driver claimed to have delivered them, noone came in to the street, let alone near our house.  Not only that but the driver never showed at the depot that night or the next morning for more pickups.  That's gonna be a funny story to see played out.

Since it's now getting to the point where stuff is getting installed inside, I might start delaying posts by a week or two - just in case there's any opportunistic types who go "ooh, a blog telling us when everything's getting delivered that we can rock up and pinch".  Because we know how popular construction sites are for break-ins.

Anyhow, progress photos.

Oh yeah, the photos are 16:9 now because I switched away from the god-awful iPhone 4S to a Nokia Lumia 920.

More Hebel to facade

No pier yet - the small bits of Hebel that need little custom cuts are all still to be done.

Some Hebel done

Quick picture update:

Even security isn't secure

A few weeks ago I ordered one of the camera systems to be installed after handover.  It was taking it's time being shipped out, but I got told it arrived this afternoon... with a twist.

In an amusing twist, the security system had been cut open and two of the cameras stolen from the delivery.  The manufacturer/reseller have been really good about going through everything item-by-item to list what is and isn't there, and what needs to be sent out to correct this, but I find it amusing that of all things that get tampered with in the mail, it was a product which would monitor activity of tampering and theft ;p

Maybe they should ship them connected to a UPS, recording the whole time? :D

Plastering done

No Hebel up today, instead it looks like they've decided to work from the inside out.  Internally the plastering is all done, so all the electrical cabling and insulation is hidden both in the walls and roof.

No walls yet...

Dropped by after work, but there wasn't any significant done that I could notice.  Hopefully there's some Hebel walls up on Monday.
However all of the electrical cabling is done - some showing some kinda shoddy work, which I'll follow up on (and post some photos of).  I need to check on the requirements for distance between electrical and data cabling.

Plaster and Hebel delivered

I'll update with some photos later, but todays update was that both plaster and Hebel was now on-site and ready to be started.

Keep out!

"Keep out!".  That's evidently the message that's attempted to be sent at the moment, as the remaining doors went on today.  I suspect the front one is temporary, but the garage door is the same Tinker colour I love and have selected.

There's also electrical cabling visible from outside and poking through some gaps - which I expect would explain why they've now had to get doors on.  But with the roof basically complete, they're in a position to start going nuts with the internal fit-out.  Yay!

Gutters, Fascia and Roof

Now that the frame is claimed as completed, it's time to do everything that brings the house to lock-up stage.
First up - fascia and gutters.

Because of the tradie's ute being parked out front I couldn't get a clear photo from my usual spot - doh :(

That was Saturday.  I dropped by tonight (Monday), and even more progress - we now have a roof!  In fact most of the tiles are done - there's probably a few to go but for the most part they won't have much left.  Hebel should be delivered mid-week and ready to start being installed late or early next week, so then we'll have walls!

Also, while checking out progress on Saturday, I ran in to some new neighbours - the one on the corner adjacent to my garage.  Land there hasn't titled yet, and they'll start building mid January.

One thing I discovered from talking to them was that fencing along the footpath/public space isn't the same as between properties - it requires a much higher standard, and to go with that a much higher cost.  All these little things they don't tell you when you select a lot :/

Frame completion

Not much to say here - so here's 10,000 words worth of photos.  I'll add some explanations later.

Organising first inspection

Since I was given very late notice of when the frame progress would be complete, my first call of the day was to arrange an independent inspector to go out and report back on what they've discovered.  This was arranged to be as soon as possible after the scheduled frame completion date.

The one thing that gets me a bit nervous is that some inspectors seem to want to make a point of your rights to access the site, even though it's not yet come to that.  Hopefully there will be no major disagreements between the site supervisor an inspector with regards to what, if anything, is found that needs fixing.  Sparing the one missed progress update the site supervisor so far has been really good - and the last thing I want is to have them seeing me working against them and making life difficult.

To make sure everything was done by the book, I had to first book a time with the inspector.  Then it was up to me to ring the supervisor and confirm that time with him.  The SS has said I have to write to the project manager at head office and inform them, and provide some details including red card details.
To me that seems perfectly reasonable - so I'm just waiting for the inspector to send those details back to me.

As for what the inspector needs - site plans, certain parts of the contract, and, of course, payment :)
Easy enough - just gotta scan a large chunk of a contract tonight.

Super-quick frame progress

They certainly got going in the last two days!  On just Wednesday I posted a photo of the slab sitting there on its own.  Today, just two working days later, they've finished the entire wall structure for the house - not just "a few walls" like the site supervisor indicated.