Video of our slab being done!

Slab's down!

Our slab has been poured today a day before they were planning. I got down there around 11ish and it was already poured and they were running the helicopter over the top and starting to knock out the framing around the edges. There was a bit of water sitting on the top as we had light showers on and off most of the morning. By about 1pm the sky was blue and there wasn't a cloud in site.

It was funny, the slab in some ways looks really big but once you look at and start mapping out the rooms on top it starts to look tiny. The garage area is HUGE though. It would make an awesome rumpus area with big bi-folds opening up on to the backyard. But anyway... that's not going to happen!!! Here's some snaps... forgive the quality.

We're Screwed!

Screw piers went in at the end of last week. We went down on Saturday with the kids and they seemed more impressed with the port-a-loo! The area that the piers cover looks tiny, even though its going to be a pretty big house! I'm sure once the slab is down we're going to be wondering how we'll fit everything in.

Plumbing and drainage begins today, and slab prep and pour are booked in for Thursday and Friday. Fingers crossed for good weather. Lots of 'possible showers' this week, so hopefully it holds off!

...and they're off and racing!

On Tuesday we got started and we had our on-site meeting with our Site Supervisor, Steve. He seems like a really good guy and that he's going to be extremely easy to deal with. Nothing much had been done yet, but that was kind of expected, even though there was a chance that the site cut may had been done the day before. It was being done later that day and was only going to take about an hour. So when we were therem we had a toilet, a green fence and the gravel for the driveway.

It was also good to see that a lot had been done on the estate remaining stages. Our street is more or less finished, as are the other streets in stage 6 and onward, and a lot of the blocks have been shaped. The more of this work that is done before we are finished the better as the access point to the site is one block across from us! Khai will love it though! There's heavy machinery everywhere!

Here's a shot of what's being done. I just used a program called DoubleTake to stitch some pics together and it was awesome. Only took 1 minute tops. I was expecting it to be trickier! Big thumbs up. I think I'll register it so I can get rid of the watermark you get in trial mode.

On your marks, get set.........

We have a start date! FINALLY! Tuesday 9th August, two weeks time, which I'm happy about, that means they'll be starting before they really have to contractually.

Can't wait to see some action. It's good timing too, my Aunt and Uncle are going to be here around the 12th ish, so at least there will be something to look at other than just a patch of dirt! Hopefully a slab, but at very least, some turned dirt!

Stacey's been shopping!

It's probably not entirely accurate to call it shopping. It's more like she just went to her other place of residence and grabbed a few things. She must surely be on a first name basis with 75% or more of the Ikea staff.

On today's 'shopping' list was some furniture for Ebony's room. We have been wanting to do that white french provincial style. We've been keeping tabs on trading post and ebay and gumtree but when stuff comes up, it's still pretty expensive and it doesn't last long. Ikea are ending a line of furnitire at the moment in this style, except rather than white, it's a dark grey. Looks good, and it won't be lost in with the white walls and white bedding Eb is having. So white, pink and dark grey it will be, and I think it's going to come together nicely.

Here is the side table.

And here is the dressing table (is that what they're called?)

They were discounted heaps which helped the decision!

The table doesn't come with a mirrow, but Stace found this one that we think would look great on the wall behind it. (I assume Stace means with it mounted horizontally, it looks huge)

So close now!

Ok, update time... the slab design has come through now from the new company that Coral uses after Heltech shut up shop.  We're having a different type of slab now.  Apparently it is a thinner slab, but it's stiffer.  I don't know too much about them, but I've been told from some people online that it's a pod slab, whatever that is.  To be honest I don't really care what type of slab it is, as long as there is a house sitting on it and it doesn't fall down!  So, drawing for that are off to the private certifier, which will hopefully come back on Thursday, the same day that Coral should receive the signed variation.  So I am hoping that by Friday or definitely early next week we should have a start date!

Raelene posted a video (destination3977.blogspot.com) of a before and after of their estate the other day, which inspired me to take some video and post it up here.  Here it is...