[Progress.073] First floor bricks washed/cleaned, 2 new issues, naughty neighbours striked again...

I took some photos of our newly finished 1st floor roof tiles on Sunday (25/11) as shown below. Everything looks perfect from this angle...

When I zoomed in a bit, I noticed something unusual...

And from a different angle, hay how come the hip roof above the front window wasn't finished yet?! What the $#@&$!@...

This is as close as I can get, and it wasn't that pretty from such close distance. I hope they get this fixed before lowering the scaffoldings for ground floor roofing... This will definitely be a new issue...

Then I found another issue, the window for ground floor study room was somehow removed and left in the powder room by the brick layers. Now looked what happened... From the way it's been broken, looks like someone must have accidentally step on it or dropped something on it...This is issue number 2...

Yesterday (26/11) on my way to work, I saw this truck parked at the front with a generator busy pumping water...

There's this guy busy washing/cleaning all the first floor external bricks at the back. I couldn't see him but only hear the loud noise of the spray gun. As shown below, for the first time I can see what our house looks like with all first floor windows closed... Those cross bars on the windows looks good!

This is what it looked like when I returned late Monday afternoon. As it's getting dark, to be honest I couldn't work out the differences before and after cleaning. Only noticeable thing is the darker colour as the brick and mortars are now wet...

From the back, by comparing the ground floor with the 1st floor, it's indeed a lot cleaner...

Finally, the bad news... Someone decided to dump rubbish on our site again... You can see an old turn table, some kitchen/cabinet doors...

A cook top, curtain rails, plastic table....

Even a suitcase! Hope there's nothing smelly in there...

We received a council letter today about the application for the construction of new 2 storey house right across our site, they are building with Eden Brae. I then checked council web site and found another house down the same street also put in their application for new 2 storey house at roughly the same time, and also with Eden Brae! Looks like it's going to be quite busy for the next 12 months with these 2new constructions. Also good news for whoever loves to dump rubbish as they now got 2 new targets!

[Jargon.004] Roofing Terminology

As we are in the roofing stage, to make it clearer for everyone, I have added this post to explain some of the roofing terminologies been used. The following diagram is from Metal Roofing Source.com, you can find further explanation of all the terms in that web site as well.

[Progress.072] First floor roof tiles almost finished

There was news here from Sydney Morning Herald about the storm causing 15,000 home lost power yesterday. Luckily we didn't get much rain last night.

When I was on site this morning, there were 4 people working on the roof tiles. As shown below they use the machine to deliver the tiles on to the roof. They must have started quite early as when I was there around 7:40am, they already stacked lots of roof tiles as shown in right hand side of the photo.

I also took a short video from my mobile as below. The way they walk on top of the roof is a bit scary, can't imagine those timber roof trusses supporting the weight of so many roof tiles plus 3 adults walking on top of it -- it must be quite strong!

When I returned late in the afternoon, as shown below only some area at the front wasn't finished yet.

This one viewed from different angle around the street, it's all finished on this side.

This one from the back, also all done.

All those big piles of roof tiles yesterday were all gone...

I still can't understand why don't they just finish it off and save another trip! The weather forecast says there will be shower in the next few days. Well, I guess now that most of the roof is covered with roof tiles, I feel more comfortable with the wet weather and hopefully can sleep better now...

[Others.014] Election day this Saturday...

Don't forget to vote this Saturday! Can't remember where did I get this from, but it's indeed quite funny. Hope Mr Howard can survive his last election, God bless Australia (and my roof with sarking but no tiles)!

[Progress.071] Sarking installed, but is it strong enough for the storm without the roof tiles?

I having been talking and worrying about the coming storm since last week, but seems that the more you wish something to happen, the more it will go against you...

We had beautiful weather for the past few days.
On Monday, nothing happened...
On Tuesday, nothing much either. Only thing was, someone removed all the wrapping plastics around the roof tiles... As shown below, there seems to be quite a number of broken tiles...

This one from different angle, a few more broken tiles. Hope these shining dark grey tiles look good when placed on top of the red bricks...

There were a few bags of these small soft foam things been delivered as well, not sure what's that for...

Late this afternoon, we finally have some activities. Didn't have my camera with me, so only took a few not-so-clear photos from my mobile. Need to walk across the street as our house is a lot higher than the street level. From photo below, looks like they have finished installing the sarking.

But, what about the roof tiles? There's a storm coming tonight/tomorrow morning, how are these thin sarking paper going to survive the storm and protect my timber flooring/frames without the roof tiles??!! Don't they ever check the weather forecast and plan their work accordingly??

They finally have this machine installed, looks like it's for delivering the roof tiles to the higher level. Can't understand why they didn't install this thing earlier during the brick stage. It would cut down at least a week's time and save lots of effort as the brick layers won't need to manually handle the bricks...

If you compare the above photos with photos from previous post, you might notice now that the roof area been blocked, the area inside the 1st floor windows seems to be a lot darker now... Hopefully when the white ceiling been installed, it will look better...

[Progress.070] Eaves lining installed for 1st floor, roof tiles delivered

Yesterday morning we have 4-5 trades person on site, I thought they were working/preparing for the roof tiles installation. When I returned in the afternoon, as shown below, I found the "eaves lining" for the whole 1st floor were installed.

This one from the back. Compared to previous post, we can no longer see how the roof truss connects to the fascia as it's now blocked by the lining.


To make it easier to understand, I found this old post of mine with this diagram from harmonyrooftiles.com.au in case you are not sure what is "fascia" and "eaves lining":

Also found this information from BlueScope Steel which clearly shows how gutters are been installed on the fascia.

Finally, we also have lots of roof tiles delivered yesterday. We also found some of the rubbishes were removed. Hope they can finish the roof tiles for 1st floor before next Thursday as the weather forecast says it's going to start raining again next Thursday...

[Progress.069] New issue with gaps above windows and doors

I took these photos last Saturday (10/11) but forgot to mention them in previous posts. I checked all other windows and there wasn't much gap above them. But as shown in photos below, I noticed in some places there were huge gaps above the windows and doors.

The first one is the gap above the front entrance door, from photo below, you can see it's slighly more than half a brick in height. But as the door wasn't installed yet, I hope the door frames will cover the gap.

Ths second one is the door for us to enter alfresco from the family room. As shown below, you can see the gap above the aluminium sliding door is about the height of half a brick. Compared to the entrance door from above, as there won't be anything else to be installed here, I would expect this to be covered by something, either timber or brick.

The last one is the worst. This is from above the external window & door for laundry, they are right next to each other. Again, there might be an external door to be installed which would block part of the gap, but what about the gap above the window? It's such a huge gap that there's at least one brick in height!

[WeeklySummary.015] Week 15 (08/11/2007) - (14/11/2007)

Achievements:
Brick work all done, brick layers moved front porch arch 2 bricks lower to avoid been blocked by gutter.
Gutter for 1st floor done.

Unplanned expenses:
None

Issues:
1. Steel beams in Alfresco been joined instead of one full piece, painted with orange paint. Not sure if this is structurely sound and safe
2. Found a hole on the floor board of bedroom above garage
3. 2 "Noggings" in frames of bedroom above garage damaged
4. Sewage pipe (in front of property) broken
5. 1st floor main bathroom windows was installed with clear glass windows instead of obscured/glazed ones
6. Drain pipe next to alfresco post been removed

[WeeklySummary.014] Week 14 (01/11/2007) - (07/11/2007)

Achievements:
Brick work all done, not much progress due to continuous rain.

Unplanned expenses:
1. Wife wanted to add some extra downlights, waiting for quote from builder.
2. Received letter from builder explaining why we need to pay extra $900 for sewer pipes, waiting to meet supervisor to discuss details.

Issues:
1. Steel beams in Alfresco been joined instead of one full piece, painted with orange paint. Not sure if this is structurely sound and safe
2. Found a hole on the floor board of bedroom above garage
3. 2 "Noggings" in frames of bedroom above garage damaged
4. Sewage pipe (in front of property) broken
5. 1st floor main bathroom windows was installed with clear glass windows instead of obscured/glazed ones
6. Drain pipe next to alfresco post been removed

[WeeklySummary.013] Week 13 (25/10/2007) - (31/10/2007)

Achievements:
Brick work continued, more than 50% of brick work for 1st floor finished. 3 of 4 alfresco brick post finished.

Unplanned expenses:
Builder tried to ask for extra $800-900 for sewer connection, still fighting for it...

Issues:
1. Steel beams in Alfresco been joined instead of one full piece, painted with orange paint. Not sure if this is structurely sound and safe
2. Found a hole on the floor board of bedroom above garage
3. 2 "Noggings" in frames of bedroom above garage damaged
4. Sewage pipe (in front of property) broken
5. 1st floor main bathroom windows was installed with clear glass windows instead of obscured/glazed ones

[Progress.068] First floor gutters completed

After 2 weeks of continuous rain, we finally have some beautiful weather this week. We noticed some materials for gutters been delivered on Tuesday morning. When we drove past on Wednesday afternoon around 2pm, the gutters for first floor were all finished and there's another few trades person working on the safety fence for roof. As shown below, this was late yesterday afternoon where all the roof fences were also finished. Quite amaze how much they can achieve in one day.

This one taken from the back.

A closer look showing how the roof truss/frames were connected to the gutters.


According to our supervisor, they will finish the roof tiles for 1st floor, wash the bricks, and then lower the scaffoldings. Then repeat the same process for ground floor roof (for garage at the front, kitchen and alfresco at the back). Looks like we can have all the roofing finished before Christmas, and no more worries about the rain!

[Progress.067] Thanks to brick layers for lowering the arch in front of the porch

It was raining again on Wednesday (07/11) afternoon when I drove past our site. As shown below (photo from my mobile) I noticed the curve board previously been used for the front porch arch was back under the arch again. Why? I thought they already finished the front porch ages ago??

Spoke with wife and she said she noticed the brick layers removed the whole arch in the morning when she drove past, and she already spoke with the brick layers about that. When the brick layers were finishing their work, they noticed the front porch arch was too high and part of the arch will be blocked by the eaves when it's been installed. That's why they removed the arch and re-do it again.

I quickly searched through my old photos, and found the following 2 for comparison. The first one was taken on Sunday (04/11) from camera, the second one was taken on Thursday (08/11) from my mobile.


By using the garage door (vertical ones on lower left hand side) as reference, you can count the bricks and clearly see that the arch has been dropped 2 bricks lower. Really appreciate the brick layers for picking this up now, otherwise this would be really difficult to fix when the roof & eaves were all done.

[Progress.066] Windows sills done

It started to rain again yesterday and when I as on site late afternoon, I noticed the front windows on 1st floor were finished, even the windows sills were done as well. But as shown below, the windows sills for front bay windows on ground floor still wasn't finished yet.

This one is from the back of the house, quite happy to see the last alfresco post finally finished. Even the windows sills for the bay windows at the back were also done.

This one is the kitchen window, again windows sills done.

When I checked again this afternoon, all the front windows sills for the front bay windows also finished. Looks like they will be on schedule to finish all brick work in the next few days!

[Progress.065] Brick work almost done, new issue with alfresco drain pipe

It has been raining for the last few days and we even have a wild thunderstorm last night. The brick work was almost finished, if we can only have a few days without rain... Well, the rain did stop today, but today is Sunday! We need a non-raining week day to continue the brick work. Hopefully everything will be finished this week as they said -- as usual, only if weather permits...

As shown below, we only have very little work left at the front, see if you can pick it up from this photo.

This is a closer look, yes, it's the top part of the front middle window. Also, if you look at the right hand side, the windows sill also wasn't finished. Actually, all windows sills weren't done yet. There's also some brick work left in garage and the last alfresco post.

Talking about the alfresco post, we had a chat with one of the brick layers on Friday. He mentioned the reason for delaying the last alfresco post was because they have to wait for the concrete footing to be fixed -- and it has been done. They will finish the last post once the rain stops... Based on this, I start comparing all the previous photos for that area this weekend and found a new problem -- a drainage pipe on the ground for connecting down pipe from the last alfresco post was missing!

The first photo below was taken on 15/9 when the frame was half done. You can see the drain pipe right next to the concrete footing/piere highlighted in red.

The second photo was on 20/10 with brick work half done, the pipe was still there.

The next one on 30/10, the pipe disappeared! And you can see a few bricks been half buried next to the concrete footing. May be this is the "fix" the brick layer mentioned --- the original concrete piere probably wasn't in the right place and they need to dig a bit extra side wise, put in the concrete, and then support it with some bricks. That's probably why the pipe was removed -- to give way to the concrete pier.

This is another photo taken on 2/11 (Friday). The way they place the bricks around the footing doesn't look quite nice to me. And since they removed the drain pipe, hope the underground underground wasn't affected, and I wonder how are they going to connect it back??

The last photo was taken today, I found this poor little fellow been dumped under one of the scaffoldings --- yes, this is the drain pipe that's been removed. I can recognise it as it has this special cut on the top. From the length looks like the builder will need to dig quite deep (around 250-400mm ?) to connect it back (or replace with a new one?). Well, as long as it's fix, I don't really care how are they going to do it...

As it took me a while to scan through so many photos during this incident, I was discussing with wife about the idea of using our video camera instead of digital (photo) camera to record all the things happening at our site.

Main reason is, with digital camera you can only take photos of a small area at a time and it's almost impossible to cover every angle. Also sometimes it can be a bit difficult to identify which area was the photo taken (try to compare 10 close up photos of bricks or frames...).

With video camera, as long as you don't move too fast, you can sort of "scan" through the whole area, wall by wall, windows by windows, frame by frame. Only issue I can think of, is with digital cameras you can use the flash lights during night time, it can be a bit difficult for video cameras at night or during poor light condition... Any way, will give that a try next time if possible.