SLAB!

In an exciting development on arrival home from a lovely few days in the Hunter Valley, we have a slab! Who would have thought one could get so excited over concrete

Here are the pics

 

      Looking straight on at the house - the drop down garage seems quite a significant drop.

                                            Looking from the water tank slab towards the front

                                                           Alfresco looking to front

                                                        Master bedroom looking towards rear

    This will somehow become our front entrance way. There will be steps but we are not sure where

                                                       I couldn't resist - had to stand on it

All ready for the slab

The builders have been busy this week getting my block ready for the slab. It certainly is exciting seeing progress and watching it all come together. I will actually be a little disappointed when the perimeter fencing goes up because I enjoy having a look at what is happening. 

I took a good walk on the block this week as it was nice to see where everything will be. It also gave me a good idea of how much backyard we will have.  It looks so small though, so I am hoping it feels bigger when the frame goes up. I also went for another walk through the display home this week, and yes, I still love the design. 

This will be our backyard. We will certainly need a retaining wall at the back and probably on both sides as well. Not sure the budget was prepared for that. Sekisui House (the developers) have built a big retaining wall along the back of the blocks up the street from us but it stopped at the block next door. Would have been nice to have had ours done for us but I guess you cannot have everything. 

This is our backyard. Not big, but enough room for the dog and some grass which is all we need.

Site supervisor tells me the slab will be down Monday!

Hiccup #3

A late Monday afternoon phone call from my conveyancer to inform me that there is water ushing down the street was an unexpected surprise. Apparently when they were going the form work for our slab, they managed to knock over a pipe.

Quick phone call to my site supervisor and he was on top of it. He had already called the plumber and the plan was for them to repair it first thing in the morning. Nothing could be done until then as it was quite a big repair job. 

My site supervisor has so far been very good at keeping me informed and returning calls. Gotta be happy with that.

The water pipe was causing quite a significant puddle on our site and thankfully was running down the road and not interfeering with anyone elses blocks or building work. 

Cut out!

 

I was so very excited to see this progress. It feels like it has taken an eternity to get to this stage .... it has in fact been a week short of eleven months , so not quite an eternity. 

The gravel was dropped on our grass on Wednesday and I must confess that I had a minor panic thinking "omg we got this close to starting and now someone has dumped something that I need to get rid of!". My new next door neighbour thought the same thing and emailed me a picture in case I hadn't been past the land. Moment of panic diverted once I texted my site supervisor who informed me it was in fact important gravel and most definitely there on purpose. I think those neighbours will be great to have next door.

Thursday morning I drove past the land and nothing........ big sigh!

Big smile however Thursday afternoon  when I saw this!

 The high side makes me wonder whether we will need retaining walls at side and back. As you can see in the below photo the estate has built a retaining wall at the back of the blocks on our high side and they stop with our next door neighbours. I guess once we get closer to finishing I will have more of an idea about our landscaping needs.

As you can see from the pics, we are yet to have any neighbours but there are a few houses further down the road that have started. Should at least mean our builders have easy access.

It now feels very real and I cannot wait for the process to continue. Next excitement will be a port a loo I am sure.
I spoke with my site supervisor today ( he calls on a Friday with updates) and he said we should have a slab by mid the week after next ( about 25th) and should expect a build time of 5-6 months. The 13th of August is the 6 month cut off  in terms of Eden Brae meeting their contract so I am estimating we should be in by late July.

awaiting excavation, shopping and plans

So, they were supposed to start the excavation of our block on Thursday last week but due to the weather the previous week, this has been delayed. We are still within our 20 days start time so fingers crossed something happens tomorrow. During the week I spoke with Chris our site supervisor and he has told me he will speak with me at least fortnightly to update me on progress. I can of course also call him should I have any concerns. Living in an estate where people talk is not always a good thing but I am determined to give our site supervisor a fair go when it comes to my build. Fingers crossed it goes smoothly. 

In the meantime I have been shopping and bought myself a new fridge. Because we are having silver and stainless steel in our kitchen, I didn't want to put my old ugly white fridge in there. We have increased the width and depth of our fridge space and this lovely 886 litre number will fit. Well at least I hope it does. I have been over the plans and measurements multiple times and it all looks good.
I had heard that fridges were going up in price significantly so wanted to get mine now to ensure I got a good price. Thankfully there have been some good sales on. This fridge is one that meets all my requirements - it had to be stainless steel, french door with a fridge freezer drawer and also it had to be magnetic. I am sure the sales people thought I was most odd carrying a magnet around as I shopped. I love photos so for me not being able to have pics on my fridge was a deal breaker. This little beauty is the winner and thanks to the lovely people at Bing Lee in Campbelltown, they are going to store it until I need it in 6 months time...... hence the reason they got my business.

It's been a busy time. I have had three weeks of work and have been doing much decluttering. I am determined to not take any unnecessary crap with me to the new house. Mum and I are making huge headway but my dad is reluctant to part with much of his junk (treasures). We have decided to not put our place on the market until we are perhaps 6 weeks from settlement as we are terrified of ending up homeless and also, we really only want to move once.

Fingers crossed I can post excavation pics soon