We're fully plastered and have heaps of pics

30/10/09: This afternoon after work I met with my fiancé at the house to do our first walk through downstairs after it had been plastered. When we started walking in we noticed that the plaster was finished and the cornices had been done as well. It has been a big day, I hope you enjoy all the pics.

From Entry

Entry Roof

Study

Dining Room From Front


Dining Room Towards Front


Piano Room Feature Wall

Piano Room

Towards Front Door

Laundy Towards Garage

Laundy From Garage

Theatre Room

Inside Theatre Room

From Meals Area Towards Kitchen & Piano Room

Fridge Space & Walk In Pantry

From Kitchen Towards Living Room & Meals Room

Yesterday I rang the gas company that hooks up the natural gas, they said they we down our way and might even get it done that day. When I arrived today I noticed that they had been onsite and had attached the gas up.

Downstairs plaster started

29/10/09: We were hoping that because the weather was good today that the plaster would be delivered, we got a little bit more than that. When my fiancé arrived this afternoon she saw two vehicles out the front, not knowing what was being done, she went to walk in to the house only to find that the laundry was plastered.

My fiancé and I had made an agreement that when the downstairs plaster was done, we would both be there together to do the first walk through, so we don't know how much has been done. Because of this there is only one photo I have to share with you tonight, we will both be doing our walk through tomorrow afternoon, so there should be lots of photos to share then

We were so excited to see this work done, it's been three weeks since something major was done to the house, we hope it's all go from here.

Finishing touches to render, feature gable framework started

28/10/09: Our render was finished off today, there was a small bit that couldn't be done while the scaffolding was up, so the guy came back today to finish it. I also noticed that the framework for the feature gable has been started on the garage.

Not much else has happened due to the weather, which makes me hate the guy who did the guttering even more. If he hadn't refused to put the gutter on last week the site supervisor told me we would have been plasterd by early this week and we would have been tiled by Friday. Due to the guy with the gutter last week and now the weather this week, the tiles have been pushed back until the week begining the 9th of November.

It's not looking like the house will be finished before the Christmas break or the wedding, thanks to one person refusing to put on 5m of gutter.

No more scaffolding, it came down today

26/10/09: Just like the site supervisor told me, the scaffolding came down today. Now they will be able to start working on the inside of the house again. On a downside I spoke to the site supervisor today and he told me that the plaster won't be deilvered if it's raining, which it looks like it will be doing for the rest of this week.

I need you all to pray for good weather over the next week so we can get this house built before they have their Christmas break, so we can move in before our wedding.

Portico pics & moving bricks

25/10/09: When I spoke to the site supervisor earlier this week he told me that we could keep the leftover bricks. In order for this to happen I needed to move the bricks to the back of the block and place a sign on them saying "do not remove." Yesterday after work I decided that I would go and move the bricks from the front to the back of the block. Since my fiancé was away my parents helped me do this.

Who knew that there would be so many bricks left over? It seemed to be never ending. After we finished moving the bricks we estimated that there were just under 500 bricks, my fiancé and I are not sure just what we are going to do with them yet, but a few ideas we have are; a pizza oven, letterbox, dog house or walls for the gardens. If you have any suggestions, or like one of these ideas, please let me know.

While I was up at the house I went up the scaffolding to take a closer look at the paint job done on the house, also to have a good look at the tiling on the portico roof and to see what the guy putting the gutter on was having a whinge about. As you will see from the photo there is nothing to complain about.

I can't see how the scaffolding will come down tomorrow, seeing as how the portico tiles have not been totally finished. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

We have pretty much lost a week

22/10/09: I spoke to the site supervisor today, he told me that the issue from the other day has been sorted out. He told me that the issue was with the guy putting the gutters on the portico. The guy refused to do it because “that the scaffolding was too high” and he would have to bend over to put the gutter on, so he didn't want to do it. It was only 5m of gutter in total. Thanks to this guy we have lost a full week of work being done on the inside of the house as the scaffolding had to stay up so they could finish the portico roof.

There were only two things done to the house this week. One of them was the windows being cleaned on Wednesday. The other thing to get done was the tiles and gutter being put on the portico today. The plumber will be coming tomorrow to hook up the downpipe to the portico. Then the scaffolding will be coming down on Monday if all goes to plan.

Scaffolding not down because our roofer is a wuss

20/10/09: After being told that our scaffolding would be taken down on Monday we were a little disappointed to find out that it was still up yesterday afternoon. I had to ring the site supervisor today regarding a few things; one of them was to ask about keeping our left over bricks, which he said would be fine.

After asking him about the bricks he told me that there had been an issue regarding the scaffolding. When the guy turned up yesterday to do the roof on the garage he refused to get up on the scaffolding because it was "too high" and it was a "health and saftey issue". Coral then had to get a health and safety officer down to check the scaffolding, which they did the same day he refused to get up there. The scaffolding was then passed by the health and safety officer. Who then wrote a letter regarding the scaffolding being safe, which Coral then passed on to the roofer.

Our site supervisor told me that it should all be sorted out now, but it has pushed the removal of the scaffolding back until Friday. I think that our roofer needs to find himself a new job, it's only the garage roof. It's the normal height of any roof, the guys that did the second storey didn't seem to have any trouble doing their job. I think this guy needs to take his scaredy pants off and get back to work or find himself a new career, something that involves being on the ground.

So thanks to this guy we are going to lose about 3-4 days of work being done on the house. My site supervisor was pretty annoyed about the issues as well since he now needs to reschedule everything, he has told me that they should hopefully be able to recover some of that lost time once they move to the inside of the house.

Top storey render fully painted

17/10/09: I can't believe it, the top storey of our render is fully painted. When I spoke to the painter yesterday he told me they would be finished at about 1:30pm, when we arrived at 1:45pm he was still there. We started talking to him and he told us that he was the only one working as his side kick wasn't going to work this Saturday. He told us that he would be working all day so he could do the two coats today. He then told us that he had to finish it today as he was told the scaffolding would be coming down on Monday, woo hoo. He was still there when we left at around 3:15pm

When we were talking to him about the colour of the render he told us that it would dry about three shades darker than what it looks like at the moment, which we knew as we had painted the back of a coral sign before colour selections with sample pots. He then told us he would be back on Tuesday to do the bottom storey, then a few weeks later he will do the second coat on the bottom storey. He also told us he would be our painter for the inside of the house too.

Our eaves have been painted plus some other little surprises

16/10/09: Today I received a phone call at around 2:00pm, whilst I was at work, it was from the guy that is painting our house. He told me that we needed to sign a form before he could start painting. I asked him how long he was going to be at the house for, he told me until 4:30pm. I tried to get in contact with my fiance but she had forgotten to take her phone with her today, after trying everything I rang the painter back. He told me that he would leave the form in the meter box and I would need to have it signed by tomorrow as he wanted to start painting the render.

After I finished work this afternoon I had to drive to the house to sign the paperwork. A little bit of warning that this needed to happen would've been appreciated. I don't know how they expect you to meet them onsite within two hours of a phone call when you both have jobs.

While I was there I went for a walk around the entire house including both floors of the scaffolding. I did this while my fiance wasn't there because she won't let me, she doesn't think it's safe. I did get some good photos while I was there, plus it gave me a chance to look for any issues with the roof, the gutters and the render.

I found a few other little surprises whilst on the inside of the house. One, that the ducting for the rangehood and the fan in the toilet have been done. the other when I went upstairs I found that almost all the holes for the light switches and power points have been cut out.

We can't wait to see the house tomorrow after the render has been painted.

Our downpipes have been done

15/10/09: I expected to see more work done on the house after not visiting for two days, but all we could see that had been done were that the downpipes had been put on.

The next two weeks are going to have to be very busy if we are going to be where the site supervisor is telling me we will be by the end of this month.

Eaves, portico frame & upstairs waterproofing done

13/10/09: We stopped by the house on our way home today. The first thing we could see that had been done were the eaves, as we got closer we could see that the front portico frame had been put up along with the rest of the frame in the garage.

I went for a walk inside but could see that nothing had been done downstairs - I can't wait for the scaffolding to come down. I thought I would take a quick peek upstairs, as soon as I opened the hatch I could smell a strong smell, almost like glue, I headed straight to the bathroom and as I expected the water proofing had been completed in all of the upstairs bathrooms.

Render has been finished.

12/10/09: We didn't get a chance to go to the house today, but we were up there on Saturday afternoon to see what had been done last Friday. We were pleased to see that the render had been finished, I guess it won't be long before they paint it, so they can remove the scaffolding and continue working on the inside.