Facade update

External painting started on Valentines Day and the scaffolding came down today, giving us our first good look at the facade. There is still additional painting to be done, with the rendered ground floor to be painted the same colour as the cladding and all mouldings around windows to match the eaves i.e. Colorbond Surfmist.

Scaffolding was left around the portico for the installation of the roof frame, which will sit inside the brickwork with the roof invisible from the street.

First delay before cladding

We have had our first real delay on site since commencement – 8 working days without any activity on site. Not a big delay at all really, but as the days go by without any work on site it does begin to get frustrating.

By the time brickwork is finished, most building contracts stipulate that approx 70% of the project cost will be invoiced. It is a very big incentive to those project home builders to get that part of the project finished as fast as possible. It creates strong cash flow for them and from that point they can back off especially if they have plenty of time left to complete the build under the contract period. It allows them to allocate resources to other homes in the early stages of construction and keep that money coming in. Maybe that's overly cynical but from a business perspective it makes total sense.

The cladding started today and it will probably only take another day – if that – to finish it. Really looking forward to seeing how it looks once it is painted and the scaffolding comes down. At that point we will have a really good idea of what our new home is going to look like.

Click here to read about our external colour scheme selection.

Details, details

In amongst all the significant external construction work – roofing, brickwork etc – is the installation of the external wall moulding. This architectural feature divides the brickwork and the first floor cladding and is a minor but important detail on our "hampton" facade. It wraps around the entire external facade.

Melbourne and furniture

What happens when you make a trip to Melbourne for the Aus Open Tennis? You look at furniture.

Heading to Brunswick Street in Fitzroy for lunch, we came across a strip of furniture and homeware shops. Only natural to check a few out right?

Not sure what the budget will be for a new lounge but what is clear is that there might be some differences of opinion on style, comfort, materials etc. One of the places we visited was Sofas Direct and we were impressed with what we saw. They manufacture in Melbourne and can even make custom adjustments to their range eg. back height, arm width etc. Don't know much about them, but will definately do some more research.

Here are a few pics.

Brickwork

The roof was completed on December 11 and following a meeting between our site supervisor and the bricklayer, the decision was made to commence brickwork prior to christmas. Brickwork started on December 15 and some incredibly hot days followed over the week leading up to Christmas. The brickies worked very hard and we tried to look after them with morning iceblocks and a case of beer before they knocked-off for the holiday season. They worked on Saturday December 23 and were back again on January 4 for the last two days of work.

The only incident was that they made a decision to lower the splashback window in the kitchen from 960mm to 920 above the slab thinking the framers had made an error. If they would have checked with either Troy or site supervisor or us, they would have been told that we require a 40mm allowance for strip hardwood flooring – hence the extra height of the window as per the construction drawings. To say they were disappointed in their mistake is an understatement – plenty of colourful language. As a result, they will need to return to fix it in the weeks ahead.

We have a large number of bricks left over (both commons and face brick) which we are looking at using in our landscaping.

We have a roof!

The roof went up very quickly – two days.

What become immediately obvious was that not a lot of roof would be visible from the street.

Frame is up and roof before Christmas

Once the materials arrived and work started, the frame went up very quickly and was finished in about five working days. Normally brickwork would be next after the plumbers roughin, but with the holiday season upon us, Troy our site supervisor wants to get the roof on. Really good thinking! Hopefully the good weather continues for the next few weeks.

Flush tracks for our aluminium stacker doors

Door tracks on external sliding doors are not only a trip hazard, but a little ugly. A good friend of ours gave us a little tip from their KDR experience. All you need to do is to have a recess put into the slab to allow for the door frame. This is not standard so you need to ask for it.

You can see the recess in the photos below. All the contractors do is insert some formwork into the concrete based on the construction drawings. I watched them do it and it took no time at all.

The only reason we will have a flush finish on our external stacker doors is because we were given a great tip from our friend Kerith.

Personally I think this should be standard or at the very least offered as an option during the tender stage. It is little details like this that contribute to a great result.

We have a slab!

The slab was poured on November 8, the day after the formwork was completed.

Earthworks and Formwork

There was about a month delay from our clearance certificate to the commencement of work – something that Eden Brae did inform us would be the case. The earthworks were completed in about 2 hours and formwork started the next day. Our site supervisor – Troy – has advised that we can expect the slab to be poured next week.

Down she comes

And just like that the fences were up, the trucks arrived, the mechanical digger started and down came our little family home. The team at ANA demolition were fantastic. They were easy to communicate with and careful with our desires to keep certain trees and plants in the garden. We would highly recommend them. Once our clerance certificate is granted, Eden Brae can get started and peg out the site. Let's hope that the next step with Eden Brae will be as smooth as it was with ANA!

Farewell to our family home

We knew the time would come to say Farewell to our family home. The home that all 4 girls came home to from hospital when born.
We decided to farewell our house with a Graffiti party. We had spent many years taking care of this home - renovating internally and externally. The idea of a bulldozer going through when it still looked like a lovely home wasn't right. We had a great time decorating the walls with friends and family.

DA Approval - June 7th

We have DA approval from our local council! Yes it's real. It came through on SJ's birthday.

A simple tapware upgrade with an Epic cost

Eden Brae's standard tapware range across their Prestige series homes is Dorf's Jovian range. One of the challenges with the Home Options process is that the full range was not on display. After visiting a number of different showrooms, we decided that we wanted to change a number of items from Dorf's Jovian range to the Dorf Epic range. The Epic range maintains square angles but is a little softer and cleaner. We found the Jovian range a little chunky for our taste.

Dorf Jovian v Epic (images from Dorf website)

To get a rough idea of the potential cost change, we did a calculation using the recommended retail prices (RRP) published on the Dorf website. Seemed reasonable enough. Based on the unit cost difference and the quantities required, we calculated an overall cost increase of $203.00 to switch ranges. Note: this excluded basin mixers as we have selected a mixer from Astra Walker.

When the costing came back from Cook's Plumbing Supplies, the figure was a whopping $2,068.19! That is a little over 1000% more!! For example, the RRP difference between the wall bath mixers is $5.00 online, but the cost increase from Cook's is $257.27. Really!

Now I understand that Eden Brae and/or Cook's Plumbing have no doubt done a great deal with Dorf on the Jovian range for Eden Brae's Prestige series homes but that cost increase is truly "epic".

We queried it with Cook's Plumbing. The explanation was that their pricing is not RRP and that the pricing on Dorf's Jovian range is the result of a bulk discount to Eden Brae. Sounds reasonable but surely does not explain the huge difference. Our contract says the builders margin is 20% but with no transparency, the consumer is left with no option but to trust the builder.

This small example does show very powerfully just how costly upgrades can be.

Pendant Light for Powder Room

The first piece of our new home arrived this week – a pendant light for the powder room from Ivory & Deane. We decided to purchase it in case it was no longer available by the time our rebuild was finished. 

The smallest room in the house is where we have decided to have a bit of fun with black, white and highlights in copper tones. We have chosen a matt black subway tile for the wall behind the basin/mirror. The wall tile will be laid in a herringbone pattern with black grout. Since we do not require any storage, we will go with a 600mm wall hung basin from Studio Bagno with AstraWalker's Metropolis basin mixer in flemish copper. To soften the square lines of the basin we will hang a round mirror from IKEA (Grundtal) with a black leather strapped mirror kit from etsy.com – thanks to Robyn from Inspired Interiors for that find! The pendant with it's black and copper detailing and a retro edison filament globe will finish the look.

Feature wall elevation

Flemish copper (right) is more subtle than copper (left)

Black subway tile with 600 x 600 floor tile and spotted gum flooring sample