Oh Danny Booooyyyy!

The Pipes, the pipes are calling!

Well, it certainly was a hive of activity at the block today. Drove past in my usual creepy, 'nothing to see here' manner this morning and saw diggers and pipes galore!




THERE'S A PIPER DOOOOONN!



They were going to keep at it and try and get it finished before the weather broke, but these chaps are made of stern stuff and they ploughed on through the rain and the storm water is done!



Tomorrow they'll be back for the sewage... to connect that is, not to go searching for some sewage obviously.

Absolute POWER!

They say Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely!

I'm not entirely sure that's true but we're going to find out because we NOW HAVE POWER!!!

The end of week one signed off with a lovely Porter Davis sign on our fence plus all the OH&S info you could ever need. Also... a tap!



Week 2 started with a damn good trenching! It's become habit very quickly to leave for work, scoot by the block to see what's happening. Then, if there is any action, a quick call to the missus so she can then drive past herself to see if what I said was true!

At the end of the day we have a lovely brand new Power Box and a lovely pole and also a fair mound of gravel (not pictured, gonna have to take our word for it!).



Can't wait until the morning when I can do my slow, creepy drive by...

Then call the wife!

Approved and Away!

... And we're back! It seems an eternity since our last post but we've been playing the waiting game with permits and start dates. After feeling like we'd dreamed signing to build a house, we finally received our email from PD saying "Congrats y'all, your building now has a permit!".

Amazing says we, they must be starting tomorrow at 5am! But alas no.

We then played the waiting game to hear on start dates.

One week...

Two weeks...

TOILET!



Nothing says impending trades more than a portaloo!

So on Monday April 18, the block was scraped which officially marks DAY ONE!

So our site is scraped, and excitement is all the way back up to full! The next day a plumbing van arrived marking out so we are back to driving past daily to see who spots the most difference.

Only 286 days to go!!

Contract signed, locked in Eddie!

Just a quick update for y'all. Contracts signed at PD on Wednesday the 3rd. No massive surprises, site
(read slab) costs rose slightly but that was about it...

Until we got the glazing quote back on the picture windows. We have two 2700 x 1800 picture windows going in that are too big to double glaze. We had been waiting on an 'alternate' solution (Low-E, Laminated etc) but only heard at Contract. LOTS of thousands more to go with Smart Comfort glass. Slowly broke into cold sweat at the added costs and went to lunch to ponder.

During the break we took the opportunity to investigate getting film added post build. Found several options and discovered they come in rolls 1800 wide, so no join lines! Has the thermal efficiency of Double Glazing and roughly a cost of $500 per window! SOLD to the couple sweating buckets over food court lunch!

Back to PD and with that cost removed, contracts are signed! Financing has all been approved so we play the Council Permit Waiting Game. Still it's a great feeling to know that we are full steam ahead.

All in all, apart from the odd cost surprise, everything up until now has been pretty smooth. As in previous posts the odd hiccup has been resolved and PD have taken on board the feedback very well.

Here's hoping our next post isn't too far away showing the block scrape to indicate we are away!

A clear block and some headaches!

Not too much has happened since our initial post....

I say not too much, however the block is finally cleared, and in the process of cleaning up the last tiny bit of concrete... this happened!!!

The demolition had gone beautifully and right at the last second the neighbours garage had a slight run in with a massive excavator... points win to the excavator. Needless to say we were devastated and felt awfully responsible!! Our lovely new neighbours were great about it so hopefully insurances get it fixed very quickly so we can look them in the eye again.

The Demo company had done such a wonderful job, and it was another guy taking care of the last bit! Needless to say, his future prospects with the company would be questionable at best!

Anyway to balance the bad with the good, here's the block all clear ready for Porter Davis to begin!

We also had a minor blip at the end of the week with news our Kitchen Island would need a slight re-think as the Sink (promotional item) and the Bin Drawer (again, promotional item), wouldn't quite fit in said kitchen Island! We panicked a bit thinking extra stone (massive dollars) or no bin (massive smell) or single sink (massively angry wife) would be the solution. But Vanessa (Kitchen Guru) found that a slight tweak to the size of the Island was all that was needed to fix. A very slight price increase but better to nip now than nip onsite when someone tells you the sink doesn't fit!

So all to do now is attend PD on Wednesday for official Contract Signing! 

Dream is under way!!

Hello peeps! So here goes an attempt at something you kids are calling 'Blogging'!

Last year we decided to build the dream house. After much deliberation we decided to sell the family home, buy a knockdown and build. We found a house with a suitable block close by, we sold, bought, moved into rental and began our journey... hate the word journey but according to reality TV, that's what we are doing so, journey it is!

We found a design we loved at Porter Davis and were helped immensely by Damon at PD who was a godsend in taking us through all the initial planning and prep. We are building a Rochford 40 with Master Suite option and Alfresco. It should look a bit like this...



We've attended both World Of Style days (immense fun and seduction by pretty shiny things) and Tender (discovery that pretty shiny things cost money!). As this is probably the last time we do such a mad thing we let the pretty things win!

Over the last week, the old house has been taken down and site being prepped for final soil test. Once final contract and drawings are signed on March 2 we should be good to go! If all is o.k. with the soil test we've been told a start date of the first week of April (fingers crossed).

So far the process has been quite smooth and all at Porter Davis have been great to deal with.

We can't wait for the first pegs to go in!!