Our House Build - Fascia Started

When I pulled into our street tonight I was greeted by our fascia, the first of our selections to reveal itself on the exterior of our house.



It's amazing the way it cuts through the monotonous colour of the timber to separate the roof from the walls and show the shape of the building more.



It's now easier to distinguish the location of the entryway as well.



The proper support timbers have been installed. We are expecting our frame invoice now.



The fascia really shows the exterior dimension of the roof well, especially on the far (low) side where it really accentuates and drives home just how high the building is above the street here.



I've found another drain cover to stand on to try and get shots from the same angle every time. I hope to be able to stitch together a couple of time lapses showing the building progressing from an empty lot through to the finished home.

Our House Build - Roof Frame Completed

Portico and valleys were fitted to the roof structure today.







There are more lengths of fascia and spout onsite, according to our Site Manager they will be going on early next week.



I took a few photos from a little further away than usual - the photo above is from the south (approx where the frontage of the blocks that back onto our side boundary)



This is from the east (looking west, hence the sunset)

Our House Build - More Truss Work

More of the roof structure has been built today - with a fair bit more (looks like all/the majority of?) the trusses going up and being tied together.

Panorama of the rear of the house/shed pad area - click to enlarge.

Looks like some or all of our fascia and spouting are onsite now too ready to go up - exciting times!

Our House Build - Standing Up The Roof - Part 2

Our house is quickly taking shape - more of the roof has been stood up and put in place today.





The portico area will be tricky - my understanding is there are some beams to go up here to support the roof; then brick pillars will conceal them later.

Our House Build - Standing Up The Roof - Part 1

After Friday and Monday were pretty well rained out, progress resumed on-site today! We have the beginnings of the roof trusses being stood up.



Ensuite/WIR area



Garage started



Interesting bit of structure in the garage, the three trusses close together I guess because the roof has to be supported this way rather than on the area the doors will cover.



Garage from "behind". We're having some cool sunsets now - it'll be proper post-work-photography season soon!



Living room roof well underway.



This shot just shows the retaining wall/building/eaves and their relationship to one another a bit better than previous shots.

The neighbouring block is coming along well too - looks like their plumbing is down ready for concreters to start doing the crushed rock etc so they will likely only be about a month behind us through the whole process.

Looking forward to seeing even more progress on the roof tomorrow night!

Our House Build - Roof Trusses On-site

Look out - the roof trusses are onsite already!



Unfortunately the weather forecast for the next four days looks terrible with over an inch of rain due to fall.



Very keen to see the roof start to take shape but not going to hold out too much hope for progress tomorrow if the weather forecast holds true!

Our House Build - Framing - Plywood Bracing

Back past again this afternoon (it helps that the block is about a 1 minute detour on my normal drive home) and I took some photos of the frame now that it's got a bunch of plywood bracing installed. I believe this bracing is due to the amount of small wall sections (because our windows are quite large) - otherwise normally the metal strap style bracing would be used to help the building withstand wind racking.

A cool side-effect is that this gives makes the frame look a lot more solid.



I've used a different method of uploading the images from my iPhone this time (iCloud->Macbook->Blogger instead of the iOS Blogger app which is out-dated and seems to scale images down in resolution) - it looks like these will be much clearer, so I think I'll keep doing them this way in the future.



Simon let me know that the roof trusses should be starting toward the end of this week which is exciting. I'm sure at some point in the not too distant future the build will be progressed far enough that I won't be able to see something new every time I come past- but for now it's great to turn up and to be able to easily see progress!



It looks like we'll be able to drop our lights and fans off next week to the builders, so I'll actually have enough room to move at home again - which will be nice!



You can see the offset temporary frame in this shot. Thankfully nobody is building yet on the south side of our block so I can get a good look at the back/side yard from outside the temporary fencing.

No progress on the formwork for the shed slab yet - I'm not sure what's happening with that as I was originally expecting it to be done simultaneously with the house slab.

Our House Build - Frames and Sketchup - Blended Reality

Our House Build - Frame DSLR Photos

All of the photos in this post should enlarge to 1500x1500px if clicked.



I took some more photos tonight showing the entirety of the frame from the outside.



The wide angle (10mm) lens on the 5D gets the whole lot in easily from the diagonals - not quite so easy looking straight on from the entry:



Above is a panorama using Lightroom CC and the shots are full width (5 shots) holding the camera above the temporary fence - if the fence wasn't there, obviously I could step back and get the shot easier without needing to do a panorama so without the distortion - but I don't think this has turned out too bad!



A shot from down the hill showing how high the garage sits above the surrounding area; the front and rear frames are temporary, I believe just to help support the roof structure etc until the bricks and lintels are in as I've seen this done on other houses while they're built.

There looks to be a lot more bracing up today than there was yesterday too so I'm guessing all the frames have been set up true/plumb. Excited for more progress- I believe the roof trusses will turn up soon and be laid on top of the assembled frame.

Our House Build - Framing - Day One

Wow. I am absolutely amazed at the amount achieved in just one day by the team putting our frames up.

Not only do we have a front door, but almost our whole house assembled:

I was too busy walking around, taking in all of the spaces in their real-life dimensions to take many photos before it got dark.

The iPhone camera is showing its limitations in terms of wide-angle now; I'll have to try and remember to take the DSLR tomorrow so I can get some better shots of this stage.

First impressions are: the tall ceilings are awesome. The window sizes are awesome. The layout is awesome. The walk through robe feels bigger than I expected, and the ensuite smaller. I think in reality the fit out in each room will reverse the impression of their space.

The garage wall frames aren't up yet but they're going to be very high! Above is the view looking down the hall from the living room past the theatre room toward the garage.

This is looking in the front door through what will be the slat wall that sizes the living room.

The splashback window view finally framed, taken from an approximate viewing height as if seated. Initially I thought this was a bit low as you can't see the lights of the city opposite from standing height up close, however any time anybody would be enjoying the view would be while seated either at the island bench or at the dining table and this height is perfect.

Our House Build - Structural Steel, Meters and More

Our site was very busy today! I didn't go past on my way to work but went past at lunch time - Powercor onsite fitting our 3 phase meter:



Local steel gurus RA Steel on-site doing structural steel. Fun fact - one of our neighbours is the owner - Graeme Aberline - he's a great bloke and a car nut - one of those neighbours you wish you could take with you when you move!

Back again this after work to check on progress and not only is the structural steel in place - we've also got stormwater, crushed limestone for drainage, AND our timber frames!

You start to get an idea of the area the extra-wide A&L Boutique stacker door will cover - as well as the view (of the shed, to Sarah's dismay) will give.

Scarlett was pretty stoked!

More crushed limestone waiting to be spread around:

Stormwater, I'm not exactly sure what the one in the middle of nowhere is for - I think it's based on the original cut/fill plan (I think I've seen it there) and we've gone for a flatter yard in actuality.

Starting to get a better feel for how the house sits on the block as the ground level is brought up closer to the base height of the brickwork part of the slab. It's also easier to see where the shed/drive-way will be.

We also have a water meter now, and it's not even in a terrible spot (that's lucky - given some I've seen haha)