Working on a Saturday

Huge amount of water pooled at side of house

The bricks were removed to make way for the cladding

Drove past this morning on the way home from netball to see some guys working on site. Went by again this afternoon and actually stopped to try and find out what they were doing. The response received by the guy listening to the races on the radio was a vague 'just fixing up a lot of stuff'. Whilst that gives me an uneasy feeling, I also feel reassured that Troy is carefully checking the work being done by the subbies. I know they demolished the part of the facade that was overbricked now allowing for the cladding to be installed.

Schedule for the next few weeks

Onsite photos - yay!

From water tank slab looking up the side...towards garage

From backyard to the house

From rumpus room to kitchen/pantry

Rumpus room window (room with a view - NOT!)

Where the front doors and sidelights will be

For AJ - the mudroom area

Family room & alfresco from doorway

Photo fest today. I was fortunate enough to have a site visit for the first time today. I am still buzzing! So excited. Tim, from Hayward Landscapes, and I walked around the site so that he could get a better idea of the lay of the land to put together a quote/concept plan.
I was able to meet Troy, our SS, today as well. Good to put a face to the name. I am confident in his ability to deliver us a quality house. He did pick up a brickie error today.

As you can see from this photo, they have bricked where there is meant to be cladding (roof gable). Troy asked if I wanted it left this way. No, thanks! It will be pulled down in preparation for the cladding to be done.

Guttering installed

Our beautiful Monument gutters installed

Today saw a new invoice arrive in my inbox heralded the end of the brickwork stage. Not sure what comes next? Roof? Eaves? Render? Cladding?

Sad news

You will notice that the picture above has returned to the original one with facebrick above the portico. I have just received a phone call from my CS Manager, Bev, who was the bearer of bad news. The bricks used cannot take the render according to the brick manufacturer, PGH. I suppose we could try to go ahead with it but to be dealing to render falling off constantly - no, thanks! I'll keep it as it was and pocket the $2.5K for something else. Disappointed in the outcome. To those thinking about building, I reiterate....check your plans carefully to save future headaches/heartaches.

Today's progress

The area to be stackstoned appears to have been completed today

Facade changes and brick progress

Up close of the area above portico

Up close of the brick colour

You will notice the cover page of the blog has the representation of the house with the render added. We made the decision to stick with Mountain Shadow on both the render and the cladding. Pretty sure we did the right thing and if not, it is easy enough (!) to change the cladding colour later on. The brick colour is a fair bit darker than the picture as you can see by the photos and the other thing is that the fascia above the front cladding will be done in Monument.
Thanks to AJ from (redo) my space who spent extra time this weekend mulling over colours for me and visiting the site to peer through the fences.