Day 40: More Frames - First Floor

(Source: lazyoptimist.wordpress.com)

Does anyone love Mondays? Just when I thought I should be able to get home early that I then find out that I have a few things to do before I call it a day.  Well, 3 hours later, after almost everyone has left the office, I was still there. Aaargh ...

Anyway, just as I always do after work, I thought I might just pass by the building site and, lo and behold ... frames gone up on the second level of the house.  Wow! Only last Friday I had my first IN-SITE visit with my Site Manager, and it was all just the ground floor frames up then.  Now we got some of the first floor (in some countries, they call it the second floor, just to let you know) frames up, too.

Unfortunately, it was already late. Wouldn't like to alert the neighbours with me taking flash photos while driving past.  I'll have some photos posted later on the week, on our next regular weekly meeting with our Site Manager.  Promise.  Just so excited to let you all know.

Day 37: More Frames - Ground Floor

Had my first meeting with our new Site Supervisor (SS) this morning. Chris. Top bloke, surfie dude, chippy by trade. Introduced himself and showed me around the site. First time I've been inside the construction site since they poured the slab. Crushed rocks on the ground, making sure it's an "all-weather" site.  The slab came out perfectly finished, by the looks of it. It looks level, no cracks, and Chris assured me it's up to quality standard. No bumps, no lumps, it's all leveled. Brilliant!

Took the chance to take some photos again, and here they are.  Refer to the previously posted construction drawings, specifically the ground floor plan, then let your imagination paint the picture.

Online Security: Am I Over-Sharing?

This could potentially be "old news" to most people. Well, it wasn't to me until my friend and colleague (Thanks, Ed) asked me and told me about GeoTagging.

Wow! That's some awesome stuff.  What this means is I don't have to remember the places where I took the photo from as it's all stored in the picture itself (in terms of longitude and latitude coordinates), right? Well, you have to have the proper gear for it like a Nikon D3X with a GP-1 GPS Unit attachment, for example.

Or ... how about an iPhone 4.  Everyone (well, almost everyone, or maybe most) has got that!

Cool! Now I can take all the photos that I want, all the places I've been to, take photos of my kids, at the playground, at home, take photos of my Audi S7, my house, my beach house, etc.

Ah, it would be nice to share these photos to my friends and relatives and post them in my "Dropbox" and "Skydrive" and my "Picasa Web Album". And, don't forget my photography blog. I'm sure everyone who's following my blogs would love to see the pictures I've taken. 

Day 32: We got FRAME

(Source: www.clipart.com)

We went to the Home Show today thinking that we would be able to get some ideas for our fencing, backyard, etc., once the house is done.  Bit disappointed, really. Thought it would be better than the Home and Ideas show a few months back. It was the same stalls, same displays, same products, even the same people demonstrating some of the kitchen gadgets.

We drove home empty handed with not much in our show bag, but just a few brochures on blinds, home automation and gas log fire heating.  We thought we'll pass by the construction site (as you do) and see how things are progressing. Thought it would be slow as just last Friday I was talking to our Site Supervisor (Scott, top bloke) to get some status update... Oh yeah, everything is fine, slab's done and hopefully the carpenters will be coming in Monday to put up the frame, etc, and guess what - he's not our Site Supervisor anymore!!! He said he's been promoted to Construction Manager and another guy (hopefully, another top bloke) will be looking after us.  Well, good on him and congratulations. We're just hoping his replacement is as good or even better than him.  We'll see.

But anyway, yes, from the Home Show on our way home, we thought we'll just drive by the construction site and lo and behold ...

Day 29: We have a SLAB

(Photo courtesy of Carlton United Breweries)

For people like me who only knows that a slab is a carton of beer or a box of 24 stubbies or cans, I have to consult my two friends - G and W (Google and Wikipedia) for the true meaning of a slab or concrete slab in building terms.

So, according to Wikipedia ...

"A concrete slab is a common structural element of modern buildings. Horizontal slabs of steel reinforced concrete, typically between 10 and 50 centimetres thick, are most often used to construct floors and ceilings, while thinner slabs are also used for exterior paving. In many domestic and industrial buildings a thick concrete slab, supported on foundations or directly on the subsoil, is used to construct the ground floor of a building."

For our case, we were recommended a "waffle raft slab" (or a waffle footing system) suitable to an "H" site reactivity (385mm overall depth ... 300mm boxes + 85mm slab).

Metricon Open Home - Liberty 42 ... 27th August 2011

Nope, we are not advertising our place for viewing. Wish we could, but it's not completed, yet.

When we decided to go for the Liberty there are no display homes found in Victoria.  Did we ever mention that we even drove up to New South Wales for one weekend just to have a look at the Liberty 42 on display?  My wife wanted to see what we are going to build. We were not disappointed.

On the 27th of August 2011, there'll be another chance for us to have a look inside the Liberty 42. This time in Victoria. In Glen Iris, actually. And this is for a limited time only.  We'll see you all there, yeh?

(Source: emailed to us by Metricon Homes)

Day 1: Site Start - 21.07.2011

As soon as M3tric0n got the news that the property has been cleared, they wasted no time in ordering a second site survey and soil test.  My site classification still came back as Class "P", unfortunately.

Why? They cited a number of reasons:

1. Site classified "P" due to the depth of filling material encountered.
2. Site classified "P" to account for abnormal moisture conditions caused by trees on this and the adjacent sites and road reserve and recent demolition of existing dwelling from this site.

Fair enough.

Now let's get started with the construction phase of this project, shall we?

Going ... going .... going ... GONE!!!

(Source: us.fotolia.com/id/30958345)

We forgot to mention from our previous post that the demolition company actually requires at least 15 days before they can start the demolition.  The demolition company applied for the demolition permit from our local council which also required a signed consent (within 15 days) from our neighbour who was directly affected (common (garage) wall).

Be good to your neighbours and you will reap the rewards.

And here's some photos (Warning: unfortunately, I didn't have the chance to take photos when they were actually demolishing the property down, with cranes or bulldozers, etc.) ...

Let's get started ...

You've seen in our previous posts (way back when) Our Old House.  We've chosen the Liberty 42 to be our new home. And M3tric0n is going to build it.  Now we need our old house demolished.

A few things need to be done, we never thought it would be this difficult and tedious.

Firstly, choosing a demolition company...

This was late February 2011. After a number of calls here, look at some websites there, exchange a few emails here and there, get the best price, we finally chose a demolition company.  They were not necessarily the cheapest, but we liked what we saw in the quote they sent us:

Status Update #2

(Source: my.metricon.com.au)

My apologies, but we've been remiss in updating our blog for more than a month now. Been very busy work-wise. But here's some quick Status Update ...