The original house - 50 odd years old, asbestos everywhere, gaps in the floorboards large enough to see the dirt under the house. We forced ourselves to live in this house a few months in 2009!
Bye house! Only took about 30 minutes to drive a crane through it.
Ready for a new start. Old house gone, all utilities disconnected, and a very secure security fence installed.
Slab all poured up. I remember it didn't look that big when we first saw it!
Framing all complete - didn't take all that long to put it up, maybe a couple of weeks. Hot work in the summer of 2010.
Roof tiles all on, windows in, and ground floor wrapping underway.
Brickwork half done, scaffolding everywhere.
House bricking complete, cladding on first floor, garage roof yet to go on. We had fantastic brickies who did a perfect job, very happy with how it all turned out. They were old school, using string lines to get everything level.
Interior fitout commenced. Kitchen benches and cupboards in, no stone benchtops yet. Insulation and plasterwork mostly done, still waiting on doors, skirting, architraves etc.
Ensuite tiled up, waiting on taps and mirror. Great job by our tiler as well - everything level, no peaks/falls (non level tiles), nicely trimmed and cutout around frames etc.
Our stairs - or should I say, Tina's expensive stairs! Yep, they do look very modern and architectural - and they should, for the amount they cost!
The Sign. This should be compulsory at all building sites!
The Handover - Lights on! Almost at the end of a long, exciting, occasionally frustrating journey!
And of course, The Key(ring).
I kind of miss the excitement of building, now looking back at these photos. We're considering taking on a development opportunity, if we can find a site/land that's suitable and affordable, and either building a single luxury house to sell, or a duplex/townhouses. The general Australian economy of course will factor into things, so we'll see how it pans out. Now that we've gone through the process of building and are plenty more knowledgeable (we think!) then it might be nice to use that experience in another project. Should probably finish off our backyard before we think of doing any other work though!
Anyway, lots of pics in this post! Thanks to all the readers of our blog who have cheered us up with words of encouragement, and posted many questions which we've tried to answer appropriately. Good luck to anyone thinking of building (and I know I've been neglecting our sister-blog http://www.buildingprojecthomes.com/ which I have been meaning to update more often!) and we hope everyone who has taken the big step of building or redeveloping are having a great journey too!
t&t
