Frame - just made it.

Well, true to his word, SS managed to get the roof all on by today AND if that wasn't enough, there was some action from the brickies as well. Now that's just showing off.

Front brickwork started

The roof trusses were delivered on Wednesday. Given that Thursday was a public holiday, we were a bit surprised that there were no carpenters on site today to meet Comdain's prediction of having frame stage completed by "the end of the month". Suppose there's still 2 working days left in April.
The brickies have been hard at work laying the 50mm bricks. These are also Greythorn in colour and look great, but can you see at least one brick that is facing the wrong way? Hope it looks less obvious when the bricks get lighter. Speaking of which, we're really happy with the colour of the garage bricks now.

First floor frame all up.

Took 2 days to lift the first floor frame into place. Garage and alfresco walls are also complete. Just waiting for the roof now.

Beginnings of the first floor frame

Getting dark earlier these days so no photos tonight of the newly erected first floor walls. The plan is still to have frame stage completed by the end of the month. The more important deadline is to get to lock-up stage because, as Kevin McCloud would say "Winter is just around the corner..."

Garage design

More work on the garage and the first level floor today.
It's so exciting seeing the garage being built. In the design stage we had some very specific requests which Comdain were able to accommodate. We wanted the garage to be slightly wider than normal, some windows for natural light and a roller door at the rear. The latter was because we had decided not to have double front doors to the house (and had run into problems in a previous home when we tried to bring an oversized piece of furniture in). Prior to Comdain when we were negotiating with a large volume builder, even they were happy to try and accommodate these specific requests in their standard house design, so it's worth asking!

Garage walls and struts

Brickies back on site today working on the garage walls. The mortar applied 4 days ago has dried to a colour that looks different from the colour of the bricks, much to our relief.

Struts were delivered and have gone on. We're looking forward to seeing the first floor frame soon. Another milestone ... and bill!

Mortar still getting lighter

2 days after these bricks were laid.

Bricks and mortar

First chance to see if our combination of brick colour and mortar look ok. The mortar is "natural", made with yellow sand and with a "flush" finish.
The mortar lightens as it dries which you can see from the photos, taken early in the morning and in the middle of the day.

Payment deadlines, inspection and bricks

Does 14 days sound like a reasonable deadline for paying an invoice? We certainly thought so when we signed our contract in December. The reality of dealing with banks is that they may require an "inspection" before they hand over the money and that this can take anywhere from 2-10 WORKING days! Suddenly you're left checking the date of the invoice and making sure that the slab was definitely finished by said date. (Another reason to blog or keep a diary of your build). It may be worthwhile for those at contract stage to see whether the 14 days could be extended e.g. to 15 working days.

We had a walk through with our SS this morning and really enjoyed the chance to display our building inexperience by asking lots of basic (and probably silly) questions. One thing we had noticed on daily drive-bys which we pointed out today is that the window in the pantry was not where it should be. After checking the plans, SS did not hesitate to admit this and said it will be rectified.
This did make us think about whether we should engage a private building surveyor but for now we're still very happy with the quality of the build Comdain is delivering.

The bricks and sand for the garage arrived today (but unfortunately not the brickies). We've chosen "Greythorn" from the Melbourne series of Austral bricks. These come in 2 sizes (76 & 50mm). At our "colours" appointment, we were able to specify that they use yellow sand instead of white so we don't get grey-looking mortar.

Spot the difference

Steel lintels and supports.

Ground floor frame up

Meeting SS next week for a walk through and to point out which walls we would like extra timber noggings in case we decide to hang or wall mount something (such as a TV).
Base payment due at this stage.
View from rear of the house.

We have slab ... and more.

Despite the intermittent showers yesterday, the concreters were hard at work pouring most of the slab. Amazing what can be achieved in one day. They will be back later to pour the concrete for the garage and alfresco area at the back.
The carpenters made their first appearance on site today and we been told that the first floor frame should be up by the end of the week. Can't wait to get a sense of the proportions once this is done.