The building process was relatively painless, there were certainly a few quirks along the way but that was always to be expected where we built – a semi-rural property. The finish of the house is excellent and despite the fact there’s lots of mud around, we’ve now converted our house to a home. Below are some of the shots of the finished house. Having never built a house before this was certainly a learning experience. One that certainly had it’s ups and downs. I’ve got a list of tips for anyone building a house, especially one with Format Homes – though that will be a later article.

Format Homes have continued working on the house and each week a little bit more has been done. Since the last update the following has happened:

• Gyprock has been completed
• Doors have been installed
• Cornus has been put up in all rooms except the bathrooms (we’re having ceiling high tiles)
• The Bath has been installed
• The showers have been water proofed
• The screens have been put on the doors & windows
• Tiles have been delivered and begun to be installed
• The bricks have been cleaned
• The kitchen has been installed
• The Bathroom & Ensuite Vanity has been installed
• The linen press has been installed
• Eaves have been put up
• The Gable has been capped

All of this happened over the few weeks since the last update. Sadly it doesn’t look like we’ll be in by Christmas. This seems to be due to the Tiler who, whilst doing a good job, is also quite slow.

On the flip side, Solaris has almost fully installed our 3.3kw Solar system. Including batteries, inverter, regulator and panels. It took the guys a week to install and they did a great job at making it work, look good and were very professional.

Below is some photos of the progress of both the house and the solar system installation.

For instance the bricky really looked out for us. First a little background. We’ve no mains water hence we’ve only had water available for the bricky via a 1000 litre tank. Initially we didn’t even have a pump hence it was all gravity fed. This gave the bricky great fun trying to clean his tools – he had to fill buckets up and use them to make his mix. However, he didn’t complain, just went about his job. He mentioned he would need pressurised water for his saw but that would be later down the track. We are also madly trying to collect rain so that we have water when we move in. Hence once the roof was on we put some temporary down pipes in place. These led into the tank.

One morning I noticed a piece of steel proped between the shed and the tanks. After talking to the bricky about this it turned out the previous day when it had been raining, the downpipe had shifted in the wind, spilling water everywhere. After one attempt to put it back in position – where he got covered by water, he grabbed a spare piece of steel and wedged the pipe back in place.

There was many little things like this that really made having the bricky working on the house great. He also did a fantastic job with the bricks!

The roofing guys (that I never met) took a little longer than expected to get the roof on. They put it up in stages, with the rain being an issue as well as the wind (we’re in category 3 wind zone). Each stage it went up we were trying to collect more and more water.

The sparky’s took 1 day to get the house ready. Very neatly done and all spot on the first time.

The plumber on the other hand really had no idea. We requested a hot water plumbing loop but this was not done.. well not properly. 1 call to the super and he said he would take care of it. Which he did. The plumber came out again and the setup got even worse – certainy not the super’s fault though. Another call to the super and this time he got me to meet the plumber on site. After quite a few attempts of explaining the concept he (and his super) finally caught on and got this done correctly.

To Format Home’s credit, the issues with the plumber were the contracting service that they use. Something that they have indicated they might re-consider in the future. The whole time the super was excellent in dealing with the issue.

So now it’s a new week and everything is happening. Monday the bricky finished – sad to see him go. The gyprock and the insulation was also delivered. Mid Monday, the insulation got put up (Walls anyway). Today (Tuesday) the gyprock started going up and within the day, all the bedrooms are done! Tomorrow the plaster starts.

Check out the progress shots of things happening….

So starting this week things really started happening. Monday had half the steel for the house walls going up, Tuesday found the rest of the walls going up and the shed getting it’s capping and floor poured.

It was interesting talking to the guy’s putting up the house walls. Apparently due to the wind speed in our area (51m/s) the amount of dynabolts that get put in almost triple. Every stud gets bolted as apposed to one dynabolt every 1200mm. The house is starting to look great. Walking through it Tuesday night, it’s nice to see what was designed on paper really working out the way that was imagined.

In regards to the shed – We have a shed! Apart from the tanks it’s the first main structure on the block – at least that is complete. Roof, walls, floor, doors! After the weekend there is even some temporary plumbing in place to collect some water. (We even collected 5 mm’s worth on Sunday night). Enough to at least make it to the tap level in the tank.

So for now, check out the photos below about how things are looking.

Format’s next step was delivery of the steel frame. Sadly the weather has not played well. Between the slab being poured and the steel being delivered there’s been the wettest July in 13 years. Over 80mm! This has played havoc with both our driveway and also with Format’s delivery of the steel. The problem came down to the ability of a semi to turn at the end of the access track. Sadly the water made it impossible for a truck to turn. Added to Format changing the delivery date from one where there had been 5 days of fine weather to one where there had been 20mm of rain. Hence a crane was needed – At our cost At least now the steel frame is ready to go up. Sadly it’s still too wet around the edges of the house for a bobcat to clean up and lay some more rubble (even though the rubble has been delivered).

On the non format side of things we have quite a few other things on the go. Our rain water tanks have been installed! 3 tanks at 23650 litres each! The base for these took quite a while to prepare. 12 tonnes of dolamite sand was used to level up the area and also to provide a solid base for the tanks. After all it’s 1tonne per 1000 litres of water. Hence that’s a total of 72 tonnes we have in an area of 14 metres by 4 meters. We certainly don’t want them to move!

With the tanks delivered (Many thanks to John, Phil, Ross, Drew and Andrew for their help), it was now time for the shed to be put up. We need the shed up to both help catch water and also to give us somewhere to store things on the block – something that has proved very difficult – It’s really annoying when you have lots of tools but can’t use them as they are all packed.

So the base of the shed has now been prepared (18 tonnes of rubble – all shifted and leveled by hand). The holes for the frame have been dug and the shed is set to go up on Thursday. So it’s all underway. We can’t wait to get in to the house and every little delay is really annoying there, but it’s getting there and we know it’s worth the wait.

Monday Carly and I attended Format Homes for our Final selections. Things went very smoothly and we were very impressed at the range we had to choose from. In the end all we ended up needing to pay extra for was a few optional things we had requested. These included a 3rd coat of paint – due to us wanting a particular colour for the internal walls. We also had to pay extra for both a hot water plumbing loop and an upgrade to 20mm piping for all water.

This these three things were not surprizing since they are all non standard. The rest of selections went very smoothly. So now it’s a waiting game as we wait for council to approve/complain about our house plans!

Westinghouse GGP475S

When deciding to build our home, Carly and I very quickly realised an Electric oven was not a practicle solution.  With our electricity being generated from Solar, a standard electric oven using 2-3Kw of power per hour would drain our backup supply very rapidly. (We will only be generating about 10kw a day).  Hence we decided very early on we would use a Gas oven.

A little research also revealed this to be a good choice. Gas ovens are generally more efficient than electric ovens. They heat up quicker and use less energy to maintain the same temperature than electric ovens.

The down side however is the European market now has gone mainly electric. The most likely cause for this is the lack of natural gas and also the increased green energy now available. This sadly ment that most ovens are now electric.

Hence we had a limited range to chose from. In the end we decided on a Westinghouse Gas oven. Not only are Westing house Australian, the internal oven space is much larger the other gas ovens on the market – and much larger than many of the electric oven on the market!

This is where some of the drama’s started. We did a quick ring around for the Westinghouse GGP475S oven (as shown). The best price we found was $1400 from Spartan electrical. We figured since the RRP for the electric oven used by Format was $990, and since we had an allowance of $350 in our contract for a gas oven, the difference in having this oven would be minimal.

Yesterday Carly and I received a variation form from Format Homes indicating an additional $1,183.00 would be payable to have this oven. We were a little astonished. Today I rang format and was told that they didn’t realise we had the $350 allowance and the price difference would now be $833 ?!?! This was nuts! This is over 2/3 the price of the oven. Hence after a long discussion we’ve decided not to get the gas oven installed by Format Homes. Instead we’ll get a credit for the Electric Oven (said to be $550), the $350 allowance refunded and put the oven in ourselves after handover. So $1400 – $550-$350 = $500. 
We can get the plumbing done for free!