Hi! Welcome to our Porter Davis Cremorne 41. This site will follow the progress of our home from the start, through every stage until the end. We will try and include as many photos as we can along the way. Why do you care? You probably don't - unless you are building or thinking of building your own place, or unless you are one of our friends or relatives. Strap yourself in - it's going to be a long and bumpy ride!

Sunday, 11 May 2008

Lots of activity!

Quite a lot of activity over the past few days - work was happening on Friday and Saturday. We have the gutter and fascia installed on the garage, the remaining brickwork completed, the fix all but complete, the painting started, cabinets all in, shelves all in, all doors hung - and more!

Sorry - lots of pictures, may take a while to load!

It seems there was a bit of a screw up with the height of the vanities in the ensuite. The cabinet should be another 118 mm from the floor, which would bring the bowls up to the correct height under the taps. The pictures below show you what I mean.

These cupboards should be over 300mm from the floor. Originally, they were to be "floating" (mounted on the wall), however PD changed the specifications as they don't do the floating ones any longer.


If you look closely, you can see the mark on the wall where the top of the bowl should be (yep, I went in with the tape measure!).


The main bathroom vanity



Fascia and gutter for garage delivered last Friday....



....and installed the next day!



Our Blanco sink. Not fitted as Caeserstone bench tops will be going in later.



Enamel paint on the window frames



and again



our kitchen taking shape



Laminate shelf in the pantry



Dishwasher space



cupboards next to the fridge space



laundry cupboards and basin



Glo-tub in white



Downstairs Powder room



Plaster inspection revealed many issues - here are a few of the marks.



Master Bedroom doors are hung



Brick sills completed in the al fresco


Today (Sunday) we visited Fowles to finalise the colours for the laminate floor boards and carpet. We borrowed a door from the kitchen and took it with us to determine what would look best. For all you colour freaks out there, we decided on the Cherry Spice Timber Laminate, and the Godfrey-Hirst Milano Caramel Kiss.

Labels: , , ,

Thursday, 17 April 2008

Acid wash

Bricks were given a dose of the acid scrub today and cleaned up. We are very happy with the colour, and the guy doing the cleaning also commented on the excellent work done by the brickies.

Some photos for your enjoyment! As you can see below, there are two windows still to be installed (these were the ones which were knocked off, but replacements have been delivered).








We particularly like the nice even brick work in the picture above. The plasterer was also at it today, and although the house was locked we could see that there had been plenty of patching and filling going on.

Labels: , ,

Tuesday, 15 April 2008

Bricks done!

Brickwork is complete, with the exception of a few minor pieces which will be done later.

Quiet on the job today. The security company came back and pulled the wires they needed through the plaster.










Later this week we should see the eaves lined, and then the scaffolding will come down. Once the scaffolding is down and the bricks cleaned the place will look totally different!



Labels: ,

Sunday, 13 April 2008

All Hung Up

After a couple of days away we stopped by the house today and went in and took a few photos.

Yes, the house was unlocked. Looks like some more deliveries had been made, but doesn't seem as though anyone has been in there that shouldn't have been.

The change since last Thursday is amazing as the front brickwork is almost done, and the plaster sheets have all been hung.


















Labels: ,

Thursday, 10 April 2008

Busy Busy Busy!

More bricks and plaster today, and only one photo for your viewing pleasure - because the house was locked when we got there. Good work!

This side of the house has been bricked today - these guys work fast! We could see that the interior has had a lot more plaster done.

Tools and Bits

In the right column of this page (if you scroll down) you will see a new section titled "Tools and bits". There are three things in this section:
  1. Some handy checklists which may help others building or about to build (we are happy to add items to these lists)

  2. A Firefox Search addin for the homeone forums. If you are building or planning to build, visit http://forums.homeone.com.au)

  3. A new album of all the pictures of the house on this blog. We thought some people might want to have a look an album of pictures.

Our Cremorne 41 (the album)

Labels: ,

Wednesday, 9 April 2008

Busy, busy!

It must have been very busy at our humble little (!) home today as we had the following people on site:
  • Brickies - the brickies have been hard at it and have finished one side of the house in one day;

  • Plasterers - the plasterers have started upstairs and almost every room has some board hung now.

  • Neighbourhood Kids - the local teenagers have been visiting the place after the tradies leave. How do we know? Because Bernadette caught them climbing out one of the windows. I think they were a bit surprised by the firey blonde putting the fear of God into them. Let's hope they got the message. Even though they claimed never to have been in the house before, I suspect it's the same kids who helped themselves to some cables previously.

    It would be nice if the tradies locked up when they left in the evening! Even though it would mean we can't get in to take photos, we would prefer that the place is secure.
People have said that they like the pictures, so here are a whole bunch more.

First, a picture which was taken from the top level of the house this evening:


The latest house picture. Check the upstairs brickwork:



Interior pictures:

Everything happening very quickly. Great to see!

Labels: ,

Sunday, 16 March 2008

More Bricks

The past few days have seen some extreme temperatures down our way, so it's not surprising that the brickwork has slowed down.

More pictures to show the current state:




The only minor problem so far is that the chippies didn't see that the drawers in the pantry (which live under the stairs) needed to be framed in. Should be fixed soon!

Labels: ,

Wednesday, 12 March 2008

Roofed!

Lots of activity after the long weekend. We noticed over the weekend that windows and doors for the lower level were put in so the brickies could do their thing.

Today we have a roof and the beginning of a garage. As usual, click on the photo to see a larger version.






Some steel has also been delivered today. At a guess I'd say we are looking at some lintels for the brickwork, and uprights for the retaining wall.


Labels: , , , ,

Friday, 7 March 2008

Bricks on site

Some bricks were delivered to the site today - probably enough for the brick around the ground level and garage. Looks as though the brickies may have opened a few packs and moved them to where they are needed.

Out brick choice is a Boral "Cleveland".

Looking at the photo, it's hard to believe that we had persistent rain this morning. It will be interesting to see if any mud gets mixed tomorrow!



Labels: , ,

Thursday, 6 March 2008

Wrapped - partly!

Spoke to the Site Supervisor yesterday who told me that they are waiting on roof tiles, and that the brickie may start the ground floor this Friday (that's tomorrow...)

Problem is, there are no tiles or bricks on site, so I went there not expecting to see much change.

I can honestly say that our house is "green". See for yourself:



Labels: ,