Slab and ground floor frame start

Lots of progress in the last week. Not only was the slab poured on the 13th (7 days ago), but the majority of the ground floor frame (excluding the garage) now appears to have been started also.

Lots of photo's below;

Kitchen, Dining & Living Room

Alfresco

Home Theatre

Internal door to the Garage

Study

Living Room

 Windows in the Garage

Garage

Pre-pour Slab Inspection

Due to wet weather yesterday, the slab inspection was postponed until today. Couple of small issues were picked up (termite protection broken being one) that will need to be rectified in the morning before the pour, but otherwise the inspector was very happy with what the builders have done so far.

Click on the photos for a better view.

Earth works and play park opening

Today the first section of the proposed park was opened, so we thought we'd take a trip up and have a look and use it as an opportunity to see what's happened with the block over the last week.

Lots of pink and white pipes have appeared on site. Possibly drainage and slab pier markers.
Site also looks remarkably dry considering all the rain we've had in the last few days.

Some massive rocks on the site. Can only assume they dug these out of the ground while levelling the block.

Jo and Ethan against a rock for scale.

And finally the new park.

Ethan having some fun on the new seesaw.

Earth has been turned

Jo went up to the plot of land this week to check on the builders progress. So far we have a fence, a portaloo and what looks like an initial scrape of the block. I've been told that the surveyors have also been in to check the boundaries etc and make sure that everything is positioned as it should be.

Photo's attached below;

It's Started!!!!!!

Finally got confirmation from Porter Davis yesterday afternoon that the builders were on site on Monday 24th Nov. Fingers crossed - in a couple of weeks we may have a slab.

More good news

After the second valuation coming in good on the 24th, we've been trying to sort things out as quickly as possible, so that we might still be able to make a start on the build in Nov.

The good news is that yesterday our new mortgage provider formally approved the loan, meaning that we only have to complete the paperwork and send it back to get the finance for the build sorted. Then we got another piece of good news this arvo confirming that our house design has been approved by both the local council and the estate manager, meaning that as soon as the mortgage paperwork has been processed, we could be in a position to start building (builder dependent).

We've got one final meeting that we need to attend with the builder to sign off on the final construction drawings and that's it.

Happy days :)

Valuation

Second valuation is in today and the news is good :)

It's going to mean transferring our land mortgage to another bank, but it's going to save us a considerable amount of money over the course of the mortgage, so it's definitely worth the hassle.

The only hurdles remaining are the approvals that we're waiting for from the local council and the estate itself (Australand).

Colours Selections

Here are some of the items that we chose for the house at our colours selections.

External

Roof Tiles

Front Door

Front Door Handle

Internal Doors

Internal Door Handles

Carpet & Laminate Flooring

Tiles (darker for bathrooms and powder rooms, lighter for laundry)

Bathroom Sinks

Powder Room Sinks

Kitchen Sink

Taps

Ensuite Shower

Main Bathroom Shower

Kitchen

Stain (External doors and stairs)

Final Plans

Some of our finalized plans from our contract meeting.
I have lots more, but these are the only ones worth looking at.

Landscape (house position on block)

Downstairs Layout

Upstairs Layout

External Elevations

Front & Left hand side

Rear & Right hand side

Slab (with reinforcements for swimming pool)