Provincial Homes - Nik & Andy's Woollahra 40 Build

Tuesday, 4 August 2015

Internal Plumbing Installed

It has been a little time since our last post... time for an update!
In the last three weeks the following has been done:-

Roof Frame Erected (2nd Prog. Payment - 17/7)
Site inspection with SS (21/7)
Windows delivered (22/7)
Windows and door frames installed (27/7)
Internal water pipes and drainage completed (27/7)
Bricks delivered (30/7)

The site inspection with the SS was exciting - the first time we would see and walk through the ground floor and get a feel for our house layout.
The only issue we noticed onsite was a downpipe drain right outside the laundry door that will require moving. I believe some sort of inspection has taken place since and the carpenters had a short list of minor frame modifications to do.

Currently we are in a two week holding pattern for the brickies to start which we have been told will be around this time next week. Hopefully the weather holds out as we have been experiencing nice dry weather.

Here is the picture diary...

Window & Door Frames delivered and Installed

The window frames are in dune

Internal water pipes being installed

Lounge showing entry point for water (blk pex pipe) and gas (yel pex pipe)

A network of water pipes incl. the red hot water pipes

Solar Hot Water system location showing pipes to/from future solar panels

Powder room shower & WC showing green rainwater pipe

Kitchen showing link for service to the island bench

Butler's Pantry

Our prized indoor/outdoor double sided fireplace between Rumpus & Alfresco

Bricks Delivered - PGH Concord

We counted 31 pallets of our feature brick, each containing 380 bricks = 11,780 bricks!
In addition we have 8 pallets of generic brick for the rendered front pillars.

Wednesday, 8 July 2015

Erect frame & install roof trusses

We found this stage to be the most rewarding yet - finally the house rises and starts to take shape. Below is a photographic journey though this stage.

If only the tradesmen could start the job and be on-site everyday till completion - it would be so quick! The progress everyday they are on-site is amazing.

Day 1 - 9.20am


Day 1 - 2.20pm Ground floor frame, a lot of the cladding and joists done, as well as the starting of the upstairs floorboards.

Day 2 - End of Day, End of Week 1

Upstairs floorboards done, a lot of the steel installed. Second storey frame delivered.

Day 3 - End of Day
Second story frame erected, cladding done, balcony and alfresco form-work started. Roof trusses delivered and installed above rumpus.

Day 3 - End of Day

Day 5 - End of Day
Roof trusses completed including Garage & Alfresco. Balcony flooring done. More steel beams installed. Lots of wood everywhere!

Day 5 - End of Day

Sunday, 28 June 2015

Frame & Steel delivered

The last 3 weeks have really tested our patience - we had not had a single workman onsite and only a few days of rain!

My first call call to our site supervisor on Tuesday was great - he seems like a friendly guy and immediately lifted our spirits with the news the frame would be delivered the day after, followed closely by the steel. He said the erection of the frame should start before Wednesday next week and that he was aware the pace needs to be lifted due to the delays we have experienced.

We stopped by the site early Thursday morning which just happened to coincide with the delivery of steel and our SS being onsite. It was great to meet him for the first time and have a walk onsite.

I hadn't really paid attention to the quantity of steel in the engineering plans for the house, but it was amazing to see the amount of steel delivered - I thought the truck had multiple deliveries to make, but it was all ours! There are 19 beams, with the largest being 6570mm long and many in the 5230 to 4215mm range.

We also got our long awaited quote for tiling upgrades when we visited the showroom after taking over 4 weeks! The quote was higher than we expected, though not surprising given the finishes we are after and the fact that the only tile selected within the builders range was the tile for the alfresco, porch, and patio areas.

Here are some of the pictures...

Monday, 8 June 2015

External Drainage Installed, Tile Selection

This week we had our tile selections at Di Lorenzo and the plumbers were onsite from Mon 1st to Wed 3rd June to do the external drainage.

We now seem to be in a holding pattern waiting for the steel and frame to be delivered and erected - hopefully this happens soon! Our site supervisor said the steel should arrive this coming week with the frame at least a week after that... a disappointing delay.

A nearby house has been at the same stage as us, including having the slab poured on the same day. They now have their frame up including steel work... I guess we don't expect Provincial to be the fastest as quality is the main consideration for us, however we are closely tracking the contract period and the rain days. Having it completed within the contract time is important to us as we are paying rent while this is being built and we are held to all the contract points from the builder - they apply both ways! The liquidated damages that apply after the contract period will at least pay the rent during delays.

Tile Selection

I had been dreading the tile selection appointment as I had found the tile selection harder than any of our other selections made so far. Although we are going with wooden floors (Blackbutt) throughout, we still have a fair amount of tiles in our extended alfresco, porch, balcony, bathroom, wc, ensuite, powder, and laundry - with a lot of these being floor to ceiling tiles.

We had a few ideas but went early to have another look on Sunday 31st. It ended up easier than I expected! Isabelle our selections consultant helped immensely. Our selections are now with the estimator who will hit us with the excess charges given all but the external tiles are outside the builders range (di Lozenzo's green range), and will be extra.

In the end we made the following selections:-

Wall and Floor tile throughout - 300x600 DC1654 (same as the Woollahra showroom) with 1.5mm spacing to match the wall.

Main Bathroom feature tile to bath wall and back of shower niche - Infinity Silver Modular a natural stone feature tile used in the main bathroom of the Woollahra showroom. This will look much greyer when sealed.

Ensuite feature tile to the wall behind the freestanding bath - White Quartz Stacked Stone. I loved the rugged natural spa look this gave!
In the shower niche we used a DL10326 a glass and stone mosaic tile as the Stacked stone could not be used in the shower.

Powder feature tile was the natural split PLVS Fussana - a natural stone on the vanity wall.

For all external tiles in the alfresco, porch, and balcony we chose a 450x450 ceramic DC2623 Grey External tile

External Drainage work

All drainage from the slab was fitted off and connected to the sewer, and the stormwater connecting the downpipes locations to the rainwater tank and overflow to the street.

We had one unexpected cost with the plumbers having to put a camera down the sewer where they connected to the older clay pipes just to check they were OK. Hopefully this will not cost much - cameras down pipes are pretty common aren't they?

All the pipework has been covered over again now by a bobcat, but here are the pipes just after installation:-

Northern side - Stormwater & Sewer

Southern side - Stormwater and Discharge from the rainwater tank to street

Rainwater tank pipework

Front Downpipe connections

Connection to the sewer with Pool Discharge above

Thursday, 21 May 2015

Concrete Slab Poured

The slab was poured on Wednesday 20th May.

This is a very exciting milestone! It was interesting to see the whole thing play out and now we get a great feeling for the size of the rooms and house as a whole now.

After the last post we saw the finishing of the steel work, additional formwork added for the different levels and higher sides, and Termite barriers put in place (as shown with the tape around all drainage pipes).

The slab pouring day started very early with the concrete being pumped from 7am sharp for what was a long a busy day for the concreters. Approximately 7 loads of concrete were delivered!

The next steps are the external drainage installation and to erect the frame, window, and roof trusses...

The story in pictures is below:-