House cleaned & debris removed

Tuesday 7 October 2014

The windows appear to have been cleaned and today the debris and portable toilet were removed from the construction site.  I managed to take the following photographs at midday today (with the bright sun directly overhead).

We're waiting to hear from the Site Supervisor about the arrangements for our next inspection of the home prior to hand-over.  We will be advising the Site Supervisor that we'd like the front roof tiles fixed so that they're in perfect alignment.  It also appears that our garage door has recently been damaged (it seems to have a 'ding' in it, near the lower left side), so that will need to be fixed or replaced for us.  Overall, we're very happy with the progress to date.

Our next looming problem is trying to source a concrete contractor to complete the following things that are not covered by McDonald Jones Homes:

1.  laying a new concrete driveway (we'd like a paint-through concrete with a simple, stencilled finish);

2.  laying a paved concrete pathway from the driveway around to the rainwater tank in the same finish as per the driveway;

3.  the small front patio area needs to be finished-off (we'd like a simple slip-resistent polished concrete finish there);

4.  in the Alfresco Cabana area at the rear of the house, we'd like to finish that flooring with a slip-resistent, painted, stamped concrete (with a wood-like appearance); and

5.  we need a small 3m x 3m concrete slab to be laid at the rear of the backyard to support a new Stratco Garden Shed.

We've been seeking quotes for weeks from concrete contractors to complete the above-mentioned work for us.  It's amazing how many tradies and contractors just don't seem to be interested in providing any quotes.  I think there's so much new construction work going on around the place that they can choose to be picky about responding to quotes or taking on any more work.

Pete and I sought some quotes from landscape contractors to do the work as per our Council-approved Landscape Design Plan.  We submitted a very simple Landscape Design Plan to Holroyd City Council which was approved back in October 2013.  We were totally gobsmacked when we didn't obtain any decent quotes under AUD $40,000.00!  That's ridiculous!  So Pete and I have decided to do the 'hard Yakka' ourselves and save the money.  We've sourced all the various trees, shrubs and plants from wholesale nursery/garden suppliers and we've also sourced the Palmetto Buffalo Turf which will be laid in the front and back yards and the footpath/nature strip at the front of the home.  We'll need to get the above-mentioned concreting work completed first, before we can start on the landscaping.  We'll both be taking more Annual Leave from our full time jobs towards the end of October/early November so that we can get stuck into all that work.  It's looking like the El Nino has returned with warm, hot, dry, weather.  I hope we can keep the new turf, trees and shrubs alive during the heat.

Here's some photos that I took at Noon today.

(Click on photos to view enlarged images)

The photo above was taken on zoom from the opposite side of the street.  From that distance, the pitch of the roof appears much steeper.  Conversely, I took the photos that appear below from the actual fencing at the front of the site, and from up-close, the steep pitch of the roof is not so apparent.