More Rain forecast for the rest of the week

I might as well face the facts that nothing will happen this week unless a major change to the predicted weather happens.

It is way to boggy for the concretors to even attempt to get my waffles and steel done and even if they do we need a decent gap in the rain to pour the slab.

Finger crossed for about 3-4 days of nice weather or at least no rain so we can get some progress.

In a side not I recieved an email today that I missed an attempted delivery of my taps all the way from Rhode Island USA. Hope I can get them tomorrow :)

Bit muddy... Actually very muddy

Don't think we will be getting a slab anytime soon. The trench for the blade wall is about 15cm deep in water and the whole site is very boggy. The forecast for the next few days and most of next week is more rain so not sure what effect it will have on the work done so far. There are no landslides and only a few puddles on where the slab will be. The ground is very soft and spongy.

Our mortgage broker has his sign up on the fence now, so anyone who needs a broker grab the phone number on the way past.

Pipes and Waffles and rain as well :(

We cracked out the tape measure yesterday afternoon and checked everything was in the correct position. All measurements were correct :)

This morning the waffles and steel had arrived but there was light rain so the concretors had not arrived. Hoping they will come our later today if the rain stops.

Formwork and Plumbing

Concretors and plumbers are onsite this morning 6 guys all working on it. (I took most of the pics when the 4 concretors went for smoko). Seeing the formwork up makes me realise how big the house will be and how much space we will have to the boundaries. Not as much across the back as I visualised but once the gardens go in it wont seem so bad. I will update again this afternoon when its all finished. We are due for waffles and steel tomorrow and slab on Wednesday.

Thats some flat dirt

This was the finished product once Mr Grumpy Excavator was done. There are spray paint marks all over the dirt to mark out the corners of our footprint and the big trench near the front is for footing to support the blade wall . It was the first time we have been able to get a really good idea of the size. A lot more fill than we expected has been removed so we will need a retaining wall right across the back and right down one side but once fences go on top of these we will have excellent privacy from the single storey houses surrounding us. We are due to have formwork and plumbing on Monday, waffles Tuesday and slab on Wednesday if it stays dry. So far not a drop of rain at the block since Wed and the soil is bone dry and fluffy even. Some small patches of clay were exposed in the excavation but they are not very big. All of our fill was dumped at our builders land so we might yave to get some of the good stuff back for our garden later.

Site Work has officially commenced !

Update. There were a few minor dramas as per usual.

• Excavator access was blocked my a brick delivery truck and a window delivery truck.
• They couldnt find 1 of the missing pegs
• The site fences hadnt been moved back by either of our neighbours
• the drawing that the excavator guy had were missing 2 dimensions

Lucky all of these were resolved and a very grumpy Mr Excavator could get started.

Here are some of the pics from this morning.

The Traffic Jam- the window truck for next door is backed onto my land

The first scrape

The Pile gets bigger

Hooray !!!!!!!!!

Excavator Ahoy

We might finally get some action today. There have already been some dramas which I will fill you in on later.

No start today :(

:(
The concretor has been delayed on another job so he wont be there till tomorrow.
Another sleepless night for me.
I am really over getting optimistic and excited for nothing.
:(

Rain Rain go away... at least until I have a slab

Site start booked in for this Thursday but I need it to STOP RAINING !

If it keeps raining they wont be able to even get on my block cause it will be a big mud pile.

Everything has been confirmed with the builder.

EVERYONE Cross your fingers for us.

My New Love- Kohler Karbon & Kohler Laminar Spout

I knew it was not safe for me to go on the Kohler USA website but I did and now I am obsessing over how I can get my hands on the Kohler Karbon kitchen mixer which is not currently available I Australia.

Yes- It is riduculously expensive
No- I dont really need a tap made of carbon fibre with fully articulated joints

But Its really cool and I really want one. (insert child like tantrum here)

See my baby in action here (inspiration tab, click on the positions)....I like the chrome with silver

http://www.us.kohler.com/faucets/karbon/index.jsp?id=www.kohler.com/karbon/

Cheapest I have found it, so far is around $800 AU

UPDATE:

This is my other love. The Kohler Laminar Ceiling Spout. Well this is how the water gets in the bath.

This is how it looks wall mounted.

The water comes out in a Laminar stream so its really soft fine bubbles. It doesnt splash when it hits the water or bottom of the bath and no annoying spout to bash you head on while you are in the bath.

More info here

http://www.us.kohler.com/onlinecatalog/detail.jsp?item=474302&section=2&category=8&subcategory=51

and dont even let me look at all the other stuff on the Kohler website.

Repeat to self... remember the budget, remember the budget

ANOTHER UPDATE:

I just bought both from US hopefully they turn up in a few weeks :)

Kitchen Appointment and New Site Start Date maybe

Went to the kitchen appointment and we are very happy with the end result.
The pic above is the same size as what our island will be but a different design and we are only having a single rectangular undermount sink.
Stacey at Apollo Kitchens was great. She was surprised that we knew exactly what we wanted and I had my Ipod touch loaded with pics to help the process.
We ended up getting it under budget with soft close on everything, glass overheads cupboard, hinges on the overheads that stop at any angle, glass splashback and caesarstone.
We went with the galley style layout including the chunky island with 1 metre wide drawers and a deep kick. All the shadowlines have brushed stainless details and laminate colours are the same as per previous colour post. Glass splashback will be Decoglaze, Ocean ID colour.
Cant wait to see it come together.
In other news we have been told today that the site will be benched on Thur 20th May with slab laid the following Thur, weather permitting.
Lets hope it all goes according to plan and the next week goes quickly.

Hmmm....... This will be interesting

Well we had an update from the builder today and its a bit of good and a bit of bad news.

Good News: Our frame and windows are finished and ready for delivery.

Bad News: We dont have a slab yet

Even more concerning news: We still dont know when we will have a slab. Earliest possible new start date mid next week. Builder is meeting concretor on site next Tue, if all goes according to plan they may start next Wed.

Trying to think positive news: Once we  have a slab they frame and windows will be delivered in a flash. Just need 24 hours to schedule the delivery.

Me with cranky pants delivering news to builder: Do not put my windows or frame anywhere near my block till I have a slab.

OK time to stop thinking about this now.

In other news our street is ridiculously busy. 18 out of 22 houses in our little cul de sac have now started construction. You can just drive down the street squeezing between concrete trucks and chippies and plumbers and plasterers and there dogs.

Good to see the street coming along, still hoping to be in by Xmas and hopefully most of the street will be in by then also.

Trying to fill my time boring everyone on H1 with stupidly long posts full of blah blah blah. And living vicariously through my neighbours progress.

Min

Kitchen Appliances

M & L just posted a comment about fridge size on the last post, which made me remember why we bought all of ours so early.

Just to explain first we have a deal with our builder whereby if we see the exact item we want we can buy it and he will give us credit for it. We can use the credit elsewhere in the house or get cash back at the end.

At the moment pretty much 95% of our household contents is in storage and now, so are all of our kitchen electricals.

We wanted to get them before we finalised the kitchen plans so we knew exactly how much room we needed for each thing.

Here are some of the things in our storage shed.

Fridge

Samsung SRS702GDHSS

Oven & Cooktop

Fisher & Paykel OR90SDBGFX1

Rangehood (Came free with the oven)

Robinhood RHCV 900 Vetro Wall Canopy

Dishwasher

Fisher & Paykel One Touch DW60DOX1

I love all of these appliances soooooooo much and can't wait for them to move into my kitchen.

PS any potential appliance theives reading this blog. We will be having a very good security system in the house. So don't bother trying to steal them when they do go in :)
(if the building ever actually starts)

Kitchen Plan Revision

With our slab starting soon we needed to come to a final decsion on the kitchen layout so the plumbing and electrics could be put in the right spots before the slab is poured.

Over the past few weeks we have been considering moving the sink off the island and onto the bench near the window. See original floor plan for old version of kitchen plan.

So after doing a rough map out of the units I had a massive problem with the symmetry of the cabinets. If you looked at the cabinets from across the room, the island would cut the oven and the fridge in half. Not a very good look. So with a bit of messing around we ended up with what I wanted to avoid, which is basically a galley kitchen as per below.

The pic is a little decieving as the island will be 1200mm wide by just over 2000mm long and the back wall of cabinets is 4000mm. The sink would go in the end of the island on the back side (to the top left of the island in the pic below) and the dishwasher is in the centre of the back of the island.

The door way in the pic is to the laundry and about where the wall ends is the entrance to the walk in pantry.

Not sure if I want  2 big drawers or 3 smaller ones on the dining room side of the island.

I also want the overheads to be translucent glass front awning hinged doors. And with less cabinets as per this plan I might be able to get the glass splashback I want in Decoglaze OceanID colour.

We are off the meet the kitchen design company next Sat.

Anyone have any thoughts?