Between framing and lock up

It's been a while since my last post. I Could blame being to busy, but really it's just laziness. The house is progressing well with no issues at this stage.

We finished framing in early to id September. Then thee was a lull for about 3 weeks and now they are in full swing in trying to complete the lock up stage. We organised a walk through with our builders, just to make sure we were all still on the same page. We went through every room and sure everything was still ok. The even took us up to the second floor. We were completely spun out by the views we will have. You imagine what it will look like, but when you actually get to see it... just wow!

So at this stage, we have had absolutely no problems with BH Developments. The lines of communication have been completely open. During the framing stage we noticed a couple little mistake. We spoke to the tradies and the builders, and the next day everything was fixed.

You hear so many horror stories about building, but we have had no issues and the quality of workmanship has been outstanding to date. During framing I double checked the rooms and they were all square and precise to the measurements. The brick laying has been exemplary. So all in all, we are over the moon so far... touch wood!

 

 

   

 

We are being framed

Well last week was a really busy week.

One of things we have found building with a smaller builder, the schedule is a little more "flexible" than building with a larger builder. This can be both a positive or a negative depending on how you look at. Its good because you may change some smaller things over the build, but what you have to watch out for is that any additional costs need to be covered by you outside of your building loan. Also, you have to make sure you are on top of these things.

Luckily for us, BH Developments have a really good line of communications. In our spec sheet, the choice of hot water system was still TBD. BH Developments picked this up and asked us which way we wanted to go traditional or instant hot water systems (more on that later). But to make that decision we needed to finalise our cabinetry. So Friday arvo was spent on con-calls with BH and the plumber; and BH and the chippy. The chippy work over Saturday on the final designs and BH work on the costing on Sunday. In the end it came under the allowance we had set aside so went ahead with the instant hot water system.

For the cabinetry we have a massive amount in the kitchen, and have additional cabinetry in the laundry, study and WIR in the master bedroom.

So the hot water system. We could have gone the traditional 250 lt hot water system. However, with 3 females in the house I doubt whether Ethan or I would be having a hot shower in 10 years time. So we went with an instant hot water system (easy choice there). Doing a straight swap between systems isn't much of a cost difference, but due to the size of house the recommendation was to have 2 hot water systems (the extra instant hot water system is where the real additional cost comes into it) so as to not have a massive drop in pressure when multiple areas are using it at the same time. So that is what we have done 1 system for the kitchen, powder room and ensuite and another system for the laundry, kid's bathroom and toilet.

So after that weekend, the boys on site have been flying along. All the ducting, plumbing and gas went in at the beginning of the week.

Under house work

sub-floor completed

first day of framing


























second day of framing

    

Week 3 update

Couldn't think of a catchy title this week .... :)

With some good weather over the last week things are rolling along really well. The brickies have finished their work and the sub-floor has gone in. so in the next couple of days the frame will start to go up.

Just a quick explanation for those wondering why this looks different to most houses. With building on a slope you have 2 choices:

1. Use a traditional slab with a cut and fill approach. However this has several disadvantages such as, large retaining walls, possible house shift in the fill section, does not use the fall of the land well.

2. Use a pier and beam approach. Much like building a deck, the house is built on stumps made of bricks (piers) using large steel bearers (beam) and wooden joists. The floor (with some insulation) is then placed on top of this. In the long run, the costs associated with this approach are comparable to the cut and fill approach when you take into account the large retaining walls required.And the house is designed to suit the fall of the land better.

So quite obviously our builder uses a pier and beam approach.

The garage is finished ....













The front section....

























 The back of the house

Another brick in the wall

The project is gathering some momentum now. With some good weather, the walls of the garage are starting to go up

The back has been batted now as well ...

Day 1 of brick laying

Day 3 of brick laying

Day 6 of brick laying

No rest for the wicked...

It's Saturday arvo, and thought we'll just go and have a sticky beak at the block. Imagine my surprise to see 3 of the guys working there. Don't these guys ever take a break?

Thankfully no... :)

Well here's what has happened this week. Again the week started with some awful weather on Monday and Tuesday. So in the rest of the weak, we have had the retaining wall finished, the house marked out, drainage installed and the bricks delivered.

The bricks delivered and the retaining wall....

Back filling the retaining wall ...

The retaining wall wall, straight as an arrow...

Working away....

And the work begins...

The earth works are well underway. The last week in Melbourne had some unfriendly weather come our way, but the guys at BH Developments haven't let that stop them. Needless to say all the family is very excited. The number 1 request at the household is "Can we go look at the site?" (and not just from the kids!).

We got there early on the first day to have a bit of a look.

 Since then, the site has been cut...

and the initial foundations have been poured and the retaining wall is just about ready to go.

Every journey starts with the first step!

It's been 2 years since we bought our block of land, and we are now finally at the throws of starting to build. What we thought was such a simple process of choosing a home and building has been a journey in itself.

Being naive to the whole building caper, what we thought was a reasonably flat block was considered by the major builders as too severe (3.7 m over 40 m). So off to a small builder that builds on slopes. 

We started off by choosing a builder (will not name them), who did nothing with our deposit. In fact, I did all the preliminary drawings and kept pushing them for some action. After 6 months, we decided to take our business elsewhere.

We then went back to the major builders, who remarkably had changes their song in the year since first speaking with them. They were all happy to build, except the site cost were going to be around $30k. After again going down the track of dwindling down the choices to one, going through the effort of picking upgrades etc, (to the point of getting close to signing contracts), things changed. The builder, at the final stage said they had re-looked at the house siting and wanted to charge an extra $30k to drop the garage approx. 1m (and remove internal access). STUFF THAT!

So back to the drawing boards. On a whim, we went back to a builder that really impressed us at the beginning of everything. We thought they only built single story houses (miscommunication/understanding on our behalf). But thank god we did. Enter BH Developments!

They are a small mob (25 - 30 homes a year), but they do a quality job. You don't deal with a sales rep that has no idea, you get to deal with one of the builders from day dot. We got a straight talking, no BS, person. And what a relief that was. They put us onto their draftees to design a house for our block. After 10 iterations, we finally decided on the plans. Then follows, developer approval, engineering, council approval, loan approval...

So now we are here, ready to start. We can't wait to see our house go from lines on a piece of paper to bricks and mortar!