- UPDATE
30th July, 2009

A drive down tonight after dinner and we have noted the following changes:

1. - Internal plumbing fit off's for water and also gas are in for the kitchen, laundry and bathrooms.
2. - We have the external taps :)
3. - Electrical rough in is all complete
4. - Plumbing return lines into water tank are complete
5. - Our Seaforth bricks have arrived. This is exciting... 15 pallets worth
6. - All windows and sliding doors are installed.

Can't wait now till the weekend to grab some pictures... Be back Soon !!

- MID-WEEK UPDATE
29th July, 2009

We have taken it easy this week and so far haven't been down to the block. I had a chat with our great CS on Tuesday and the following week sounds exciting. Weather has been wonderful over the last three weeks which has helped also.

- GUTTERS, FASCIAS AND A ROOF
25th July, 2009

Today another visit and the Colorbond Jasper gutters and Colorbond Paperbark fascia's have been installed. Boral Windsor Walnut Roof tiles have also been installed. Ridge capping is lined up ready to be mortared in place. Gas line is also ready for the fireplace and stove. Things are going along really well and the quality and workmanship so far is great.

- FRAMING AND MORE DELIVERIES
21st July, 2009

Tonight we headed down to the site again. The frame including the most of the roofing is all pretty much complete bar some tie down's and a few little niche sections here and there. The windows and sliding doors have been delivered to site along with the gutters and fascias.

The 31,500 litre concrete water tank is now in the ground also. It will just need some backfill around it and then it will be approx 400mm out of the ground.

- FRAMING
16th July, 2009

Another day and another exciting addition. Today we notice that a fair chunk of the framing was up. The weather over the past week has been classic Queensland winter. Cool to cold mornings and perfect starts to sunny days with hardly a cloud in the sky.

This weekend we headed down to the block to have a good look around.

- SLAB IS DONE

15th July, 2009

The moment we had been waiting for was the slab. The first real piece of the building puzzle. It was exciting as from this point it gave us an idea exactly where the house would sit and the surroundings could then be planned.

- MARKING OUT
11th July, 2009

Next up was the set out for the slab. The house boundary pegs were hammered in ground and all main corner sections spray marked onto the soil.

- CUT N FILL !
8th July, 2009

The ground finally dried out enough to continue on. Winter's here are never wet !

The site scrape appeared more like a mini cut and fill so when the final cut was done it was a little more dramatic. It has however created a nice slope which will allow us to be more creative with our landscaping. The rear of the house, due to the fill, will be be elevated and this will give us a nice outlook across the rear of the block and the future summertime pool.

- GO, GO, GO !!
21st June, 2009

Site scrape came as a surprise as it was only a day after our Construction Supervisor received the building file. This was very exciting. What came after the scrape was almost a week of solid rain (50mm +) which turned the site into a massive mud pool.

- READY SET ..


Skip forward a few months and the plans are final stamped and on their way back from council. The council approval was quite fast which I was impressed by.

- WHAT PLAN / WHICH BUILDER?

After now grabbing our block of land we spent the next few months browsing New Home Estates. Spring Mountain has a fairly hefty covenant on home size so we knew this would limit single story options a little without modifications to the plan.

We finally settled on the "Retreat" by Plantation Homes. As it stood the house was a great layout and the size was also large enough to suit the covenant. We also made some additional changes to the plan here and there to make it a little unique.

- THE BLOCK

It all began when we recieved a sales email from the developers at Spring Mountain back in June 2008. We almost bought there a year ago but put it off. This time we didnt. Within a month we had a deposit on the block, lot 1022 Songlark Place and our current home was then put up for sale.

The block is 4461m2 and is long and narrow. Although narrow in this stage means 32m wide. With the home we wanted to build we still have plenty of room. Our block is around 150m long on one side and 127m on the other.

Our block is in a very small culdesac in a section of Spring Mountain called "the Pocket". We have the Spring Mountain Forest Reserve at the back of our block also.