The roof is out there...

Although there were many potential lines to do with the roof (my personal favourite is from The Hangover "why don't they call them floories, because you're more likely to hit the floor than the roof"), the 't'roof is out there seemed appropriate, as our new home has a roof now. A big shiny Woodland Grey colourbond roof (provided by Bluescope Steel of course) has been placed on top of the big wooden frame of the Cranbourne North site that will become our home sooner, hopefully, rather than later.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond (or perhaps completely under) my control, I've been unable to get out there and view our future home. We spent Friday night and Saturday moving into our new temporary digs in Armadale and then I've been up in Darwin for work since Sunday. Whilst it's lovely up here (weather excepted, with it being hot. Then wet. Then steamy. Then dry. Then hot. Then thunder. Then wet. Repeat…) it's a long way away from being able to view the construction taking place. I'm sure our possum friends in Chadstone are now missing us, but at least our new temporary home is exceptionally comfortable and close to the city. I'm sure it's going to be difficult leaving in a few months time, even though we'll have our own new home to be moving in to.

Although I didn't get the chance to visit Cranbourne North, Sare was able to take her parents out to view the work that had been done in the last week. The following photos show the progress that has been achieved since our visit on the previous weekend. Windows are now in, the roof was mostly completed by Sunday and they are now able to start work on the bricks to give us a proper appreciation of what the house will eventually look like...

 Shirley admiring the magnificent entrance hall, with 3m ceilings and plenty of space  for us to fill.

 Some instructions noted on the wall by our helpful builders.

 The underside of the roof.  Maybe our Chadstone possum friends will come out to visit us sometime?

 The big window out the back of what will become Sarah's Studio in the future.

 The view through the rear door of the rumpus room.

 On the outside looking in through the rumpus room.

 Our al fresco area on the side of the house.  So much natural light, so little time to enjoy it.

You turn your back for just a few days...

And all of a sudden, there is a frame on the slab that is on your block of land!!!

It's been a hectic couple of weeks since we got back from holidays, and we've barely had time to stop to smell the roses, let alone watch the progress of our home.  Apart from a quick visit shortly after getting back, Sare and I have been busy with work, birthdays, and just catching up on everything that needs to be caught up on.

It was with huge anticipation that we visited our block this afternoon, and we were thrilled to see the progress.  Before going into detail on that, it's worth updating on the build administration going on while the real work happens in Cranbourne North.

We hadn't been in touch with Metricon since our return, thinking that we would leave it to them to get in touch if they wanted to issue the invoice for the slab.  Lo and behold, on Wednesday afternoon I had a phone call inquiring whether we'd received the invoice.  Bingo.  Since nothing had arrived in the mail, I requested that they forward it to me again so that I could pass it on to the bank.  Easy.  Upon passing it to the bank I was advised that they were still awaiting a copy of the building permit to proceed.  Not too difficult to arrange, but it would have been nice to have been asked for it, as we received it over a month ago.  With a bit of luck, everything should be sorted early this week.

The second phone call received from our builder this week was in relation to, wait for it, another one of their oversights.  This time they had forgotten to include in the contract the plumbing for our recycled water that is one of the estate covenants.  Quite how this had been missed not only by Metricon but also the developers when they gave their sign-off is quite beyond me.  Needless to say, the only way to deal with this was through a variation (number 9, and counting) and of course an extra cost to be added to the build.  My enquiry as to whether this should have been included in the fixed site costs was rebutted with a simple 'No'.  I guess that's not negotiable then!

The third and final call this week was from our site-supervisor.  He gave me a quick run down of the expected progress over the next few weeks and promised to call each week to update me.  It will be interesting to see if he follows through or not!

Anyway, on to the more exciting developments now.  The slab was finished on October 5 and looked absolutely huge when I went out and visited it.  Everyone has been telling me how the slab is supposed to look small compared to the finished house, so it may be that our home is going to even bigger than imagined!

 The slab, in all it's glory.  From the rear of the block, the bathroom plumbing centre left and wood for the frame at the far end.

Over the space of the last week and a half, the entire frame has been put up and the chippies were putting the finishing touches on the roof trusses.  With the guys still there doing their works, we decided not to venture on to the site to explore any further.  There will be plenty more opportunities in the weeks ahead.  The expected progress is that the fascia will be done on Monday and the roof shortly after that.  Then it will be on to the bricks, which we're both really looking forward to seeing the end result of our choice of colour!  The windows had all been delivered as well, so it won't be too long until the house is looking like a proper house, at least from the outside.  

 The view from the street

 Down the left side, with the windows in the foreground and the side al fresco jutting out

 The front entrance.  Garage on the left.

 The view from the rear of the block.

With this rate of progress, we may even be in by xmas.  Okay, that's way too optimistic, but at least it's full steam ahead at this point in time!!!

Back to reality...

We're back.  Our three week dream holiday to the States is over and it's a case of back to reality.  It's been a whirlwind week since getting back, work has been going at a million miles an hour.  Lots has happened to our block since we left, and I managed to get out there for a quick look during the week.  I'll update the blog with some photos of what's happened when I get a chance, but I thought I'd digress from the usual topic in the mean time and list out my top holiday highlights.

Top ten holiday moments:

10.  Getting our room upgraded at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas to a strip view Charlie Sheen themed room with a view of the Bellagio fountain.
9.  The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, seeing the history of human flight from the Wright Brothers plane through to the space capsule Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin travelled to the moon and back in.
8.  Seeing the Cirque du Soleil show 'Zumanity' in Vegas with Sare wondering when the animals were going to appear...
7.  A spur of the moment bus ride through Brooklyn with the guidance of a very helpful local bus driver.
6.  Our anniversary in LA, spent at the beach at Santa Monica and a five course Asian dinner at RockSugar in Beverley Hills.
5.  Riding bikes through Central Park to Harlem, experiencing a gospel church service and eating soul food on a beautiful Sunday.
4.  Seeing How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying with Daniel Radcliff and John Laroquette on Broadway.  Fantastic show, and boy can Harry Potter sing and dance!
3.  Attending the taping of the Hamish and Andy Gap Year show and getting a front row seat to see Coldplay.
2.  Taking a Mustang out for a cruise to the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas along Route 66.  It was red, went fast (120mph fast!), and the Canyon is pretty spectacular too.
1.  Living like a local in a Fifth Avenue apartment in the greatest city in the world, seeing all of the familar and yet entirely new sights of New York and surviving on a diet of bagels, burgers, burritos and slices of pizza.

 So now it's back to the job at hand.  The house has now begun and the next few months will see our home take shape and we'll become residents of the Avenue in no time at all!