Heating/cooling

1st floor scaffolding has been installed.


Ground floor external foil insulation has been installed.

Heating and cooling ducts have been installed.
Things I was particular about
- duct placement: Didn't want it blowing over the beds, or kitchen bench
- paid extra $455 to get wireless connection to turn on/off from phone.  Has just come out this year which is good timing.  Expensive, but needed due to mobility issues.


Need to get the ground floor controller moved.  Didn't realise there was a gap due to the sliding wall, hence can't put controller there. It's in the middle of the wall - can't put anything there like tv, picture.


Also missing hallway vent - not so important.

Darker indoors than I would have liked - P's house blocks my north light


Had visit from security guy to discuss placement of cameras.  Also need to consider how to wire up WIFI to have reach next door.

Frame stage completed!

Things are moving quick and frame stage was completed yesterday.

8th June
Ground floor frames.
Bricks delivered.


14th June
Garage bricked.


29th June
Fence falls down, neighbour not happy - squashed $100 'tree' which looks like stick

30th June
Ground floor windows and doors, steel beams and first floor frames.


Realised after seeing living room window that I could have done upstairs master bedroom window as a single window pane - looks better, but oh well, will have a divide in the middle.

5th July
Roof scaffolding and roof frames.



11th July
Frame stage completed! 1.5 months ahead of schedule.
Gutters also went up.
Roof tiles also went on yesterday, which was good as frame stage inspection was done in the rain.  Not much to report from the inspection - 4 defects, pretty happy!




Retaining wall and fence.
Retaining wall is giving me a headache.  I should have got my builder to do it all.
I only got them to do the west side.  And it doesn't go all the way to the end.  So I was concerned about putting fence on top.  Builder wants fence to be put up ASAP, as he needs to fill in dirt behind wall, so that P's land doesn't fall in.  At first wasn't sure how to put up fence as wall wasn't done near garage, but found out that builder wanted fence guy to also do retaining wall.
Now I'm concerned when I do it myself, in case it undermines the neighbour's footings.
Depth of footings is 600mm, so I need to go at least 300mm out, to be safer 500mm.
When it's cut, retaining wall needs to be done pretty much straight away and then filled.
Stressed about it.

Frames

It was pouring down and I didn't expect anything.  Went by, poor carpenters, no wonder they get paid so much!

Slab stage completed!

Things are moving faster than I expected.  So fast that I didn't have time to get a pre slab inspection!

14 May 

Retaining walls completed - much higher than I expected.  Not quite sure how I'm going to do the access for next door.

21 May

Some piles of stuff

23 May

Pre slab prepartation

24 May

Concrete poured!

Finished slab!

Bit worried though as it's been raining A LOT

Excavator

According to next door, there's some action!

Still some delay with building permit - surveyor wants my retaining wall to be engineered.

Contracts signed

Contracts finally signed!

I was getting so stressed leading up to it that I got stomach pains.  I think it was the amount of money that I'm spending. Plus the added unexpected costs.

Had to sign it early Thursday morning before work as it was coming up to Easter, and I was flying off to Perth.

Things I'm not to happy about
- The builder included most of the things that I thought were already included, except for front door stain.  Because of that, I ended up having to pay for the building permit.
- I regret not asking to round of the final figure.
- It's also a lengthy build time of 11 months.

But oh well, it's done and dusted.

Can start moving.

Buyer's regret

I'm having major buyer's regret with my Asko cooktop.  I shouldn't have done a spur of the moment purchase - it's been very costly.

As beautiful as it looks, it's not worth the extra cost, especially as I don't cook!

Extra costs that I didn't realise about getting an induction cooktop
- $380 for getting 32Amp power supplied to the induction
- $2k as I now have to get 3 phase power (due to also having refrigeratred cooling)
+ long term extra running costs with 3 phase power
+ going $2.5k over what I was going to pay initially for a cooktop

That's nearly $5K extra!!!

Sob.

I also found out that it has a scratch.  I don't think I really checked it properly - it was under the paper.

Sob.

EDIT: I was able to return the cooktop due to the scratch - pfew!