Roof Tiles!

We finally have roof tiles! And fascia and guttering on the portico too! These photos were taken on wednesday 23rd June. I'm happy that progress is being made again.




Pictures from the front right and front left. The bricks are our next door neighbour's garage.



The long ladder, and the thing which I think they might use to bring tiles up on to the roof. They were packing it away just as I arrived. Picture is from the front of the house.



Something is happening on the portico.. I'm not entirely sure what.



I snuck around the back and took this picture from one of the properties behind our house.

Delays ..

It's now two weeks since the portico went up, and still we have no roof tiles! The SS said they would be done in the week that just passed, but all we saw was a water pipe pouring water into a pool in the ground (picture attached).

Given that each week costs us several hundred dollars, I am not happy with how slow things are going right now.

UPDATE: The SS just called and said he's been delayed by the following things

1. Corporate inductions (I think he's new to Metricon)
2. Rainy days
3. On the days that aren't rainy, he's been dealing with the fascia people. The fascia needs to be complete before roof tiles go on, but the fascia installers decided to re-order materials that were already at the site, and were waiting for those. So he says that is sorted out now and they just need to come in and do the fascia, then roof tiles can go on.

We finally have a portico! Apparently someone said Bunnings and someone heard Bowens, or something like that, and the result was a 2 week delay while no-one knew where the wood was. They've also straightened up the trusses and added extra studs where the gaps were too wide.



The portico! At last.



The bi-part door sitting in the backyard was finally installed. Not before being covered in mud though.



This is where the spa bath will go.



Our inspector is enthusiastic about the latest developements at the mud house.



Our laundry door. We didn't know it had a window in it. Apparently it does. The pipe is so water can drain out through the floor when something overflows.



Here's the side of the house. It's supposed to be 1.77 metres between the side of our house and the fence, I'll be measuring it tomorrow to make sure. The bricks are the side of the garage next door, presumably a 0 offset one.

UPDATE: Distance has been measured - it's more like 1.8 - 1.9 metres from the edge of our slab to the edge of the garage next door. And it's about 10 metres to the back of the property, which is also about right (the plans say 10248mm).



Extra studs have been added where the gaps were too wide underneath these windows.

Frame Inspection

We had Mark down for a frame inspection on Thursday 13th May. He found only two issues that he labelled as defects, with a number of other more minor things that he pointed out but didn't say they needed fixing. Defect 1 was that some of the roof trusses (the triangles supporting the roof) were at an angle, leaning toward the front of the house. Defect 2 was that some of the windows were supported by studs over 600mm apart, as they had used 2 studs in a gap where 3 were needed for the right spacing. He also had me take photos of a number of other things, in case there were problems later on.

Site supervisor said they will be fixing the defects when the carpenter comes down to do the portico, which will be as soon as they get replacement wood to build it.

Overall Mark said the frame was pretty good, with a lot of common mistakes avoided. He was expecting worse from a volume builder.



These are our roof tiles. Still lying in the back yard as they are waiting for the frame to be completed, after someone decided the frame wood would be better off in their house than ours.



He also suggested I document the windows lying in the water, as the reveals (the visible part of the window frame) aren't designed for this kind of exposure.



A bit too much cut out of this joist, he said. But not a disaster, especially as it wasn't in the middle of the joist where it would have caused more trouble.



The pipe here is off-center. Not as bad as some others I've seen! One pipe I saw in someone else's slab was in the entrance of the toilet instead of at the back, and they had to dig up the slab and lay some more pipe to fix it. The site supervisor said they have a little rotating attachment that will let them adjust it to the correct spot.



Mark pointed out that water collecting here wouldn't drain away. The site supervisor said they'll soak up the water before closing it off.

Even more frame!

We went down to the block again and saw we now have a wrapped ground floor, and quite a lot of roof frame. No garage though. I have managed to get truss layout from the builder and am chasing a frame layout as well.



The front left corner of the house, where the garage will be.



The back left corner of the house, looking into the outdoor room.



Our rear door sitting in the back yard, endangered by the fence that keeps falling over.



Gisele certifies the building site to be free of wild pokemon.



Meanwhile, Charlotte inspects all the empty tuna cans, making sure they are safe for handling.

More frame!

We now have a second storey! And so far things look to be in the right places. Luckily it was much less muddy this time we visited, so we didn't end up with huge, heavy mud-boots like last time.



Front left - garage will be between the camera and the house.



Front, slightly to the left.



Front right.



Second floor, looking towards the back. That mess of wood will turn into bedrooms later.



We caught this spy snooping around on the site.

Frame!

We visited the site the other day and found the beginnings of a frame. We've since been told the entire first floor frame is done, and that the second floor will be started today, weather permitting.



Some frame building materials.



Our independent inspector surveys the work done so far.



The wall frames were lying on their side on the slab when we visited (Saturday 17th April)