Final roof trusses for garage, dining room and alfresco .. roofing too 20 - 26 November 2013

Finally we get to have the house to the stage of being closed up..... roof trusses get installed on the 20th with gutters and fascia installed as well...

The garage gets some trusses...

Looking down into the dining room...

Looking up from the dining room off the kitchen...

The alfresco gets tiled... On the 25th we got a new gas line and on the 26th we got tiled !!!
The ceiling is so high, should be great for the first BBQ.....

Great to finally be out of the wet in these two rooms.....

Almost there... we decided against the eaves on the front of the garage as they would spoil the look of the facade. PD were great, they just cut them off and bingo.... no eaves.

Should look even better now from what we have seen of this facade on other PD homes.

More rendering tomorrow... and we are told that our kitchen might be arriving on Thursday the 28th...... here's hoping !
Will keep you posted....

We have stairs !! - 19 November 2013

We have seen so many posts where the excitement of your first set of stairs is talked about and now it was our turn. It is certainly a great feeling to climb a set of stairs rather than a ladder.... the look and feel is sooooo much better and different too .....

From the family room upstairs and looking back .....

From the hallway looking towards the front....

From the meals/Kitchen looking up to the void....

From the front door..... Ready for staining .... fantastic....!!
and to think they were installed in a day...... we love the glass look and feel, can't wait to see them stained.

Front bedroom upstairs gets cupboard doors...

Bedrooms get architraves and skirting...

Linen cupboard with deco doors too 2340 high..... love it !

Bath hob with my extra fibre glass insulation... toastie... should keep it warm...

Upstairs bedroom door.... looking more and more like a home now.....

Rough in and plastering Starts - 06 November 2013

Well the PD team power on. On the 6th November we had the alarm system roughed in with eaves being installed and the fridge tap (a late addition) also put in. A note for this considering a new fridge, it is hard to buy a family fridge without a need for a water connection, so well worth doing it when you get the chance at tender stage.

On the 7th the plasterers arrived and we thought they might take 2 weeks, but they only took 4 days !!
Wow it looks great too.

The upstairs family room...

The kitchen and butlers pantry...

Our fireplace... now behind plaster...

While the plaster was going on our 2nd story bricks got cleaned on the same day.. the eaves were painted on the 11th of November and they worked hard to remove the scaffolding which revealed the house ... Finally !!

The front facade and colour comes to life....

Rendering already... the first coat has been applied to our facade - 02 November 2013

Well the day has finally come.
Rendering is here but three coats with only the base coat applied so far..... this has changed the look of the house already ...

Looks very different yet again but will look fantastic once the final colour coat is applied; can't wait..

Another colour selections challenge to admire coming soon !!.

We guess they need to finish the top first so that they can get the eaves done before they will start to do the bottom section.

The render is a cementitious render that is troweled on. Three coats to be applied; looks easy but you can tell they have done a few of these before !!

Insulation and electrical installed including the noise insulation batts - 01 November 2013

Well with the push on to catch up, PD decided to send in the cavalry...... the house was filled with trades installing electrical wiring, communications systems, plumbing and insulating the home. Wow !!!! What a difference some insulation makes.....

The hallway looks and feels much different....

The grey batts are for sound insulation. Well you might ask, why put in sound batts when you have a big section of wall missing and a void !!.

A good question... behind the study is the theatre room and also the void is a big space in the living area. We read that some had commented that they wished they had added some extra sound insulation to the Sandringham design to keep the noise or vibration sensations down. As it was not such a huge cost, we thought we would give it a go and put it in and around the theatre room and the hallways on the ground floor. We won't really know until the plastering but it sounds very different to us already.

The kitchen area...

From the kitchen looking into the void....

Master bedroom from the ensuite....

We have a bath hob !!

.... another tip we will try is to install insulation in and around the bath hob. This will keep the water toastie; we think. Worth a try for a bag of insulation.

The activity room....

Down the hallway looking towards the void... Our other favourite vista !!

Bricklaying starts again Yay - 25 October 2013 to 2 November 2013

The shower bases were installed... The upstairs adjoining bathroom shower...

The guest ensuite... shower base 900 x 900..

T-Lintel installed across the garage door. The brickies build up the brick work, let it set and then place the lintel on top.

The bricks are laid out on the top floor, ready to brick the top.

Someone asked if we could show the installation of the arch. The principle is the same for all steel lintels. They brick up to the final height and then place the lintel on the following day; once the mortar has set. The installation was very quick.

so quick when we went back to take another photo.....

BAM !!! .... we had an arch !!

I would say the brick cutting tool got a work out for this. It looks impressive though !!!

Can't wait to see it all rendered, although it looks good in brick too, if only we had our selected brick instead of the standard. Nice work PD !!

The garage lintel didn't stay long without taking on some load... the bricks got laid on the next day too !!!

With the focus on the front not much had changed at the rear of the house, at least at ground level. The bricks were put onto the first floor very quickly. Only 14 coarse's goes up very quick !!

And before we knew it, the front got a healthy bit of bricklaying too..... Looking good !

Bricks across the rear...

Bricks along the side above the theatre room.... ready for the carpenter to start installing the underside of the eaves.... Nice work !!