Day 130: Brickwork complete

It’s been a while since we have provided an update.  As of today, the scaffolding is still up and it seems the bricklayers equipment have been removed from the site.

Our usual front of the house photo

The the first floor bricking was completed on Wednesday (13 March).  We think (???) this completes the brickwork part of the lock-up stage.  There were a few bricks left over which we will want to keep, but will probably not enough to do anything significant with.  One of the next things to be done is to clean the bricks.

Some of the nice brickwork. We love the colour. Bricks will need to be cleaned.

We have noticed the eaves have been installed but not sure if they are complete (???).

Closeup of the eaves at the front of the house.

The carpenters have been back to work on the pre-plaster defects and the balcony.  The cladding (Scyon™ Linea™ weatherboard) has been delivered and it looks like the carpenters will be putting these up in the coming days to the front and rear of the house.  The metal capping has been installed on the balcony in preparation for the weatherboard cladding.

Balcony is starting to come together.

Metal capping on bricks ready for cladding.

Below: We went through the house and marked up on the frame (which you can see in blue in the photo) and on the plans where we would like towel rails and toilet roll holders.  Our site manager, Simon, got the carpenters to put in some noggings for the towel rails and toilet roll holders which was great based on our markings.

One of several noggings throughout the bathrooms and toilets – this one is for toilet roll holder.

We have been really pleased with the work our Site Manager, Simon, has been doing.  Simon has been fairly prompt with replies and has worked with us to find solutions to any issues that have arisen and has been following up with the quality issues and defects which has been great.  We might have to nominate him for best site manager award (if there is one). 🙂  We are hoping to get a walkthrough in the coming week with Simon once all the pre-plaster defects have been fixed and before the plaster goes in.

We are also waiting on Telstra to provide a quote/solution to the Telstra phone pit on the nature strip – it is currently where we will need to locate the driveway and the new crossover.

Below: We have noticed the following signage put up on our fence.  Looks like Metricon is getting in as much advertising as possible.

C&K

Day 107: Bricking continues…

We didn’t go past the house yesterday so we went past today after dinner and more good progress has been made on the bricking.  Looks like the ground floor should be bricked by midweek next week.

Also the temporary doors to the house have been installed.

Front view of the house.

View of the portico – you can see the brick pillars holding up the balcony have started.

The bricks are going up and around the front sitting room window.

Internal garage walls making good progress up to the first floor.

View of garage – the external walls that goes along the boundary with the neighbour has started

Bricking making good progress down the left hand side of the house.

Bricking along the right side of the house – view from the rear.

Bricking along the right side of the house – view from the front.

We are really loving the Mocha bricks.

C&K

Day 103: Bricking started

Today was a hot day with a top temperature of around 36 degrees, and it was the first day of bricking.  We are having rolled joins as suggested by Simon, who also consulted with the brickies, becuase he felt that it would work better with the type of bricks we had selected (Boral Mocha).  The flush morter had the capacity to look “messy” when finished with our bricks whereas the rolled joins will produce a much neater finish and will do justice to our lovely bricks.  So if you are thinkig of having Boral Mocha bricks keep rolled joins in mind.

We love the look of the bricks so far, the colour has come up great even though they are yet to be cleaned.  We are using off white mortar colour.  The brickies have managed to start the internal garage wall and along the left hand side of the house.  All in all good progress on such a stinker hot day!!

Things are hotting up, and we just don’t mean the weather.  The ground floor bricking should be completed by mid next week.  We should also have the rear roof completed tomorrow – just in time for some thunderstorms later in the week.  Plaster delivery tomorrow.  Frame defects to be fixed.  And the sparkys should be on site the next 3 days.  *Phew*

Hope you are staying cool.

Bricks that were done today.

Boral Mocha bricks

Zoom in view of the Boral Mocha bricks

C&K

 

Day 93: Bricks delivered and house is wrapped

We didn’t get on site today, but on our drive by after work we saw that the first floor is now also wrapped in blue.  The whole house looks like a smurf hut!

The scaffolding is gone which means most of the first floor external frame and wrapping is complete.  However, we are not sure if the wrapping is totally finished as there are a few loose bits hanging loose and just flapping about and there are parts still not fully covered.

We noticed that the bricks got delivered today.  Bricking should start next week.  Our bricks are Boral Mocha and from what we can see it has some nice blue tinge to it.

Front view of house – lots of bricks in the foreground

Side of house

Bricks delviered – our bricks are Boral Mocha

Brick – Boral Mocha

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Brick Samples

Today Kristen took a drive to Boral Bricks in Thomastown to pick up some samples of the two brick colours we are considering – Kurrajong and Mocha.  Both are from their Horizon Riverside range.

Each sample pack comes with 3 of the same bricks with polystyrene in between which kind of gives you an idea of what the bricks would look like with mortar.  With 3 bricks, the sample packs are quite heavy but nicely packaged to carry.  Snap!

At Boral they also have a display yard with their range which you can go and view anytime.  We found their displays very useful in helping us narrow down our selection.  We did this last week while they were closed during the Christmas break.

We are leaning towards the Kurrajong which is only a category 2 upgrade. The Mocha is a category 4B which means more $$ if we decide to go with it. Given we like both choices and the Kurrajong is going to be cheaper we think this is the one we will eventually go with.

The sales people at Boral were very friendly and helpful. We asked for a list of addresses of houses built using either bricks which they happily provided. We are planning to take a drive to look at some of them this weekend to make sure we are happy with our choice.  We will also look at matching the bricks with the other external colours (render, roof, downpipes etc).

Boral Bricks Sample Packs

Boral Brick - Kurrajong

Boral Brick- Mocha

C&K