Now the house is at the lock-up stage

Well, there haven't been any photos for a couple of weeks now, because the house is locked up and the outside hasn't changed. Work is progressing inside ... yesterday, we wandered around and met our new neighbour, Scott, who is building a house on the plot directly to the left of ours. Scott is a landscape architect, which could prove to be very useful in the years to come.

We peeked through the windows, and I can report that the bathrooms are tiled, which means that the underfloor heating has been installed.The doors have been delivered, and the walls appear to have been painted. No cupboards yet.

So that's it, really ... not much more to report just at the moment.

The walls are sheeted

Things are progressing quite rapidly. Last week, Gail and I met with Andy and Tim to talk about landscaping and paths and what colour the cupboards will be. Then we had an unplanned walk through the house, so I took some photos - of course!

The bathrooms are taking shape

This is the kitchen

The view past the second
sitting room towards Gail's room

Inside the walls

At yesterday's inspection, we had a guided tour of the inside of the walls. The entire house is insulated now. The slab is insulated with material covered by the concrete, the external walls are insulated with R2.5 batts, the internal walls with R2 batts, and the windows and glass doors are all double-glazed. This is going to be a very toasty house in winter, and it should remain cool in summer.

The photos.

The kitchen and the door to the laundry

The sitting room

The laundry

One of the bathrooms

The next stage is completion of the plastering, at which stage this will look like an actual house. By then, all the doors will be in place, and the house will be ready for painting and tiling.

The latest wander about the house

Well, after a bit of a delay, power is connected to the house.

Here are the latest photos.

Have just noticed the lean on the builders' toilet

The front door has been boxed in

The frame for the solar panels

We are a little concerned that the frame for the solar panels will need to remain where it is, but it seems likely that it will have to be moved to the back of the house. It seems a big obvious where it is.

The front door is in place now

I think we must be about half-way there ... the front door has been installed, and the Weathertex is in place. There are only a couple of photos from this week's visit, as I could only hobble about the site briefly ...

The usual photograph take from across the street.
Note the front door.
(And no, bilious green is not the final colour).

The brick wall for the left hand side of the garage,
required for fire prevention purposes.

There is still a little work to be done on the outside
fabric of the house, including the cladding
on the lobby. This will be the same Wethertex
as can be seen on above the sliding
door at the front of the house.

When I drove past this morning, someone was fitting the solar panels for the hot water system, I think. There was a structure on the roof, anyway.

Our first walk-through

This week, we had our first walk-though of the house. We aren't quite at lock-up stage, but Tim, the site manager, thinks that is only a week away. This morning, we met with Jenny, our scientist, and Tim, at the house. The wiring is in, and there were plumbers working this morning, and carpenters putting in sliding cavity doors.

The progress shot

My bedroom

The Eastern sitting room, looking
through the sliding doors to the patio

Looking into the laundry through the kitchen

One of the bathrooms

The view through the house to Gail's bedroom

Gail, working out where she is going to put her furniture

Windows and walls

We seem to be only weeks away from the lock-up stage with our house. Here are the latest photos.

You can't see it in the photo, but even though today was a
lovely Canberra autumn day, winter is closing in. The
tradesmen will be pleased to be able to work inside
where it is warm, in a couple of weeks.

The front door

A small window into my study nook

A door

Another small window into Gail's study nook

The back of the house grows

From the front

From the Eastern side

The Eastern side again

From the South