Lots of changes

I was being slack and didn't take photos of the prep of the front of the house, so you've missed a stage ... they've started painting!!! The new green looks very pretty on the one veranda post they've done so far, I'm really pleased at how the rafters under the veranda have come up (considering I don't like them and wish they weren't there!).Looking at the corner of the house below ... on the left is the new paint, on the right is the old paint ... even in "real life" it is hard to pick the different colour (the new one is a shade or two lighter ... oh, and not covered in dust!).

They've got the french door frame in for the living room in ... which means I've lost another room!! But of course ... means the finish is a bit closer!

The bay window on the dining room is moving along ... the window frames are sitting in my garage, I can't wait to see them go in. I also noticed that the tin for the roof over bathroom arrived today (it isn't corrugated like the rest of the roof ... architects!!) ... the roofer was supposed to come today, but bad weather once again put him off. Hopefully nice weather tomorrow will mean they can get the capping on (I'm in a bit of denial about how much water must have got in over the last couple of days ... most of it has the old stuff temporarily attached, but there are gaps).

Your first look at the full house

Whilst the weather was lovely they got quite a bit of the roof tin on ... and I finally got to see what the final look will be like. Gone is the little cottage side ... now it is a lovely big house!!

Below is the window that today made me cry in front of the builers (how very embarrassing!!) ....

&^*(E#&(@! architect!!! His lovely design on paper ... doesn't actually work in reality. It was supposed to match the existing windows (below) ... the specifications say "match existing windows" - but even the dimensions given don't match the existing window!

The red line shows the line of the veranda rafter ... the window was supposed to go up to where the open section is ... obviously ... not going to work. Soooooo frustrating!! If certain people had measured properly, if they had actually looked at the design, if they had actually thought!!!! I suppose I should have know - but I thought he knew what he was doing ... and that if I read something said "match" then it was going to ... match!! The pretty pictures (not sure they can be called plans) looked right.

The poor builder is fairly cross about it all (being nice of course!) ... other than 1 window, every single window in the specifications is wrong. He's been unable to order in the windows and the wall frames have had to have alterations.

We have the same rafter problem across the french doors going out from the kitchen and dining room - the builders had already agreed that the rafter will have to be cut so it doesn't block the door... there is no other alternative anyone can think up!

Friday afternoon - roof started

By the end of Friday we had part of the roof on ... it looks great!! There was a massive storm over the weekend, so I spent the time hiding inside waiting for the lovely new roof to fly off!! Lots of banging and crashing, but nothing seems to have flown.

Hopefully more will be done today ... they got Chocolate Praline Mousse Cake for morning tea (cake baked at my neighbours a little while ago and frozen) ... so plenty of sugar to keep them working!!

I don't have a girly tape measure!

One of the tanks is going behind the house, the builders had started to create the sand pad for the tank a couple of weeks ago. The tank was supposed to arrive about 3 weeks ago and I've commented a couple of times to the builder about whether the sand pad will be ready in time "sure, no problems".

The sand pad looked too small ... I'd stepped it out, and whilst my legs aren't exactly metric ... I've got some idea of distances!! The pad needed to be 6.85m ... my steps made it seem less than 5m.

I approached the builder again last week, said that I was concerned the sand pad wouldn't be ready in time (we may not have got much notice for tank installation) ... once again "no problems, it's all sorted".

On Monday night I got the phone call ... the tank will be arriving in the morning. Went out with my measuring tape ... measured twice ... and sure enough ... 5m not 6.85m!! Ring the builder ... no he says, it is the right size, it is complete and ready. I was thinking I must be mad ... so back out I go with the tape measure, still is 5m to me!! I'm wondering at this stage if my tape measure is missing a bit ;-) !!! Maybe there is some odd way to measure the pad? Maybe I'm confused by diameter and another measurement ... I was never very good with square meters!!

Next morning ... the builders arrive and I stay inside until they've got working ... sure enough, when I go out ... there they are ... making the sand pad bigger!!! I DON'T have a girly tape measure!!!!!!!

The tank didn't actually get installed after all that ... the weather was dreadful again!! The tank people arrived and marked a circle ... that was way too close to the house for what I wanted. Builder promises me it wont end up there!

Lots of changes happening elsewhere ... the veranda for the old part of the house is nearly done. It is looking fantastic. Although over winter I've loved the extra light coming in through the windows, it is nice to feel a bit protected and not have rain/hail on the windows.

Weatherboards going on

Because I see it everyday sometimes it looks like there is no progress and no point taking photos ... but when looking through today's I realised there have been big changes and it is starting to look more and more like a house vs a frame.

More windows have gone in (and they fixed up the holes from the other day so I've got my other room back!). I was quite excited to see a new part of the veranda going up ... this part I'm going to try to work out how to turn it into a courtyard ... but it is a bit smaller than I was expecting.

The tin for the roof arrived on Friday ... but the weather expected this week is not so great so I doubt it will go on immediately.

Down to one room

Yesterday the builders took out the window in "bedroom 3" ... my current living room, dining room, kitchen and pantry all-in-one ... of course it would "only take one day" ... but I was left with some rather large gaps in the walls. Since it got down to below freezing last night, not exactly a nice place to be!

So I'm now down to just having the master bedroom ... my toaster and I are coping just fine!!!

Bits of progress, but it is still really slow. They've put in the door frames for two of the french doors, I've received a quote for the flyscreens (only slightly scary - of course ... will put the door PC amount at least treble what the architect allowed), nearly finalised the bathroom order and I've picked the glass for the bathroom window (one sort looked prettier - if my visitors didn't mind being nearly completely visible to the outside world!).

Next coming decisions are the floorboards, some of the kitchen stuff and I'm sure there'll be some surprises in there!