youngy73

as you have your home on a contract you will get what you have paid for.nothing more, nothing less. you do not need to worry or concern yourself about anything. everything will happen in due course and if something is not done its the builders problem and expense and not yours. just remember if us contractors dont work we dont eat. its in everybodys best interests to get the job done.

ACE

We were thinking of going for the Grey-Flow system as that was recommended by the local renewable energy center. However, we have decided to liaise with the plumbers and will go with the system that is most compatible with our internal plumbing configuration.

ACE

You are so right but you see my hubby is the one who worries about these things and then gets me to make the calls. He reckons I am the diplomat as I approach everything very calmly and politely. He, on the other hand, has a bit of a short fuse so doesn't communicate with anyone unless a bit of bluster is required.

ACE

More excitment today. The drains are now finished, more frames arrived on site as did the bricks.

GinaUK

Bricks arriving is good news ! Wonder what the frames are for?

Gina

ACE

Woo Hoo! we have walls

The guys were onsite on Friday 18th trying to work but the wind and rain got the better of them. The wind was so strong that one of our ducted vac pipes was snapped in two. I phoned Solarvac in Perth to report the damage on Tuesday 22 and a new pipe had been fitted when I went up to the block today. The poor old brickies were also rained out on Monday, these pictures were taken on Tuesday.

ACE

I don't know if any of you other builders had this but I find that friends and neighbours always seem to turn up at our block when i am up there taking my pictures. On Tuesday a good friend of ours turned up at the block, he was so sure that I would be there that he turned up with a with a bag of fresh salmon trout that his son had caught off the beach that afternoon. My boss, who lives up the road from our block, turned up today with his kids for chat and to pass on a bit of advice as he built a few years ago.

Mr ACE and one of our neighbours also went fishing this week at one of our local waterways and caught 13 herring and a skippy. We are well topped up on our Omega 3 at the mo Any keen fishermen out there the fish are biting at the moment so get down to the Cut and White Hills beach.

Enough of my ramblings! There has been some more progress, we now have a bit more front wall and steel arches for the balconies and the garage.

Pics taken today Thursday 24th

ACE

Hi Gina,
Check out the pics, the frames go in and the the bricks are then built around them.

GinaUK

So, I see . Really exciting to see walls go up. You'll get a better idea of the rooms then.

Glad to hear that the brickies try to work even if it rains!

Gina

ACE

Oops! here are the pics

ACE

Yes, our brickies are grafters.

Really looking forward to the room walls going in.

GinaUK

We got our computer-drawn plans today. We had pencil sketches before. The computer-drawn plans show all the structural details. Really exciting!Costings will follow Tuesday or Wednesday. Then we may have to go to Plan B (if Plan A turns out to cost too much).

Keep the pics and reports coming.

Gina

ACE

We got our computer-drawn plans today. We had pencil sketches before. The computer-drawn plans show all the structural details. Really exciting!Costings will follow Tuesday or Wednesday. Then we may have to go to Plan B (if Plan A turns out to cost too much).

How exciting. They always seem to do a plan A and a plan B, the best plan always being the most expensive and impossible to resist There was a difference of $38,000 between our two plans. We looked at how much extra it would cost per month over the life of the loan and it was such a small amount we figured that in the scheme of things it was worth going for what we really wanted and not forever thinking 'if only'

Would love to follow your progress once the construction starts.

Keep the pics and reports coming.

Will do, although I think things will be quiet for a week or so as we have some more wet and windy weather on the way.

GinaUK

Our consultant is a serial builder himself and we've picked some handy tips from him. For example, he is against those ceiling downlighters that are really "in" at the moment.

He said we lose a house a week in Perth because of these. Each of the downlighters has its own transformer in the ceiling. And they get HOT. If they catch fire you won't know until it's too late, because there is of course no fire alarm above the ceiling.

I've looked into this a bit more and found out if you have those downlighters and roof insulation (between the joists), it makes your insulation less efficient. That's because of the transformers the insulation has to be raised rather than lying snug against the ceiling.

Although thise downlighters look fab, we won't have them now.

We had a busy Saturday: setting off at the crack of dawn to drive to Rockingham for a double-glazing quote. And then off for an air-con quote.

Got nearly all my quotes in now! !

Gina

ACE

How exciting, you will be at the pre-start stage soon and that is really exciting.

By downlights do you mean spotlights or the ones that are recessed into the ceiling?

We thought about double glazing but decided against it in the end. I would be really interested to know how much you are quoted.