Bricks

Bricking started on Tuesday last week, but have had a few days of rainy weather.  A few progress pics...

Brick layers said the job would be finished in 3-4 weeks.  The front of the house has 'seconds' bricks that will be rendered in Surfmist later.  Rest of the house has Vanilla Ice bricks from PGH with rolled grey mortar joints.

Vanilla Ice bricks for remaining house.  Clamps for defining area with articulation joints.

Bricks to be rendered

Inside master bedroom at end of Monday

Finished bricking front of bedroom 1 - bricks to be rendered

Roof complete

The roof team finished on Friday.  A few pics of the completed work.  Unusually, some sarking was added to the eastern and western sides (above windows).  I'm not sure whether this is for building code, as we had not specified any sarking with the build.

Also, a call with the site supervisor on Friday and he mentioned bricking will start early this week.

Roof trusses with tiles

Close up detail of tile colour/texture and mortar

Roof tiles from back

Roof tiles over alfresco

Front of house

Gutter/fascia completion and roof tiles update

The fascia was completed early Monday with scaffolding also installed.  The roof tilers were onsite today.  Most of the eastern side was covered by end of day!

Some good weather expected for the rest of the week - and then rain expected on Friday.  Will be nice to have a roof!

Tiles over garage

Tiles from rear of property

Tiles at roof level

Tiles on site boundary

Tile elevator

Water installation and roof tile delivery

Lots of tiles stacked at the front of our property.  Our site supervisor mentioned they would be installed next week.  Further progress made on the fascia gutters.

Lots of plumbing work complete, with the house left pressurised.

Lots of water in this wall!

Water for instant gas hot water (recessed box)

Back inlet for toilet (green pipe for rainwater)

One of the external taps for irrigation

Island bench services

Tiles ready for installation

Tiles ready for installation

Window/external door frame installation, frame completion & fascia/gutters stated

Another big day on site:

• all windows installed
• front door frame (and glass)
• hall-way door frame (and glass)
• frame completed
• fascia/gutters stated

Thanks again to the carpenters Jason and Steve - they definitely take pride in their work and it shows in the finished product!

Front door frame and glass

Hallway door frame

Windows and doors installed in living area / kitchen (click picture for a larger version)

Front of house with windows and door frame

Frame update, window delivery and perimeter Termimesh

A big last few days with most of the framing complete, a delivery of our windows, sliding doors and exterior door frames and installation of Termimesh perimeter protection.

Termimesh perimeter stainless mesh ready for first course of bricks

Installation of the living area/hallway cavity sliding door

Rear of property with almost complete roof structure

Lachie looking at our front door frame

Windows and door frames

Windows and sliding doors

Sliding door handles

Framing update from bedroom 1

Framing update

Gas fitter set up to fit pipes

Gas entry for oven

Beware of minor alterations!

Upon further framing, we realised the heated towel rail we wanted to install in the ensuite would be difficult to install on the designated wall.  This is due to the cavity slider void behind the wall and the structure not providing sufficient room for fixings.
Unfortunately as the towel rail is in the grey area that the Homestead electrician is going to install within the Homestead contract, but as part of a 'C-Bus' line in our contract, the construction department doesn't want to get involved.  Our site supervisor advised that he would not recommend installing on the cavity slider wall.
This has left us in the difficult position of trying to finding a solution for a problem we didn't anticipate.  We can either (a) use a narrow towel rail in the very corner of the ensuite which is not optimal based on the position of the shower, or (b) request a change to the sliding door position.  My wife and I found a compromise that we could position the slider on the wall of the WIR instead (as per diagram below).  This would solve the problem of installing the towel rail, as it could be installed anywhere along the length of the wall.
This seemed like a very straightforward change (the two walls basically swap with each other), however once approaching Homestead, a small change quickly snowballed into an impossible task - initially any change was immediately shut down due to affecting Homestead's trades and associated planning. After explaining the simplicity of the change, we did get some detail from Homestead that it was likely they could do it, but would be very expensive, as it would involve:

1. the engineers to evaluate the change and re-draw the appropriate plan (all non load bearing walls, however a small lintel above the slider)
2. the private certifiers to review the changes
3. submission of the change to council
4. re-communication to all Homestead trades affected.

What seemed like a small change was quickly dismissed by us due to the significant costs associated with each stage.

We appreciate our site supervisor's effort to achieve the outcome for our home, but we can't help but feel disappointed of the outcome.