Olivia Katherine

Well, I know I said it was a quiet week on the site but in our lives it has in fact been a very busy and exciting week. One of the best in our entire lives in fact.

Wednesday 10^th August saw us welcome a beautiful baby girl into the world at 0857. Olivia Katherine Martin weighed in at 8 pounds 12 and measured 51cms. I have included a few pictures like the proud Dad that I am.

We have had a lovely visit from my parents, which was wonderful as we could share our experience with them. Being the proud grandparents they are she has already been showered with gifts.

External Drainage

As you may have gathered we are regular visitors to our site and noticed today that the external drainage has been completed and the pipes are all in place and capped ready for the next stage, framing!

After the external drainage there has been a bit of a week of minimal movement on site. Oh well we are assured by our site supervisor that things will spring into action next week with frame delivery first thing Monday 15^th August.

Slab poured

A couple of missed phone calls from our site supervisor on the morning of the 2^nd August gave us a hint there may be movement on the site. About 1100 we managed to get ourselves organised to drop passed the block and have a look. To our amazement there was a completed slab awaiting us a day earlier then expected!

The concretor’s have been a great crew from start to finish and have worked hard to get our job completed on time (a day early in fact).

It is hard to believe what a difference a few truckloads of concrete can make to our whole picture of the build and is such a boost for us.

Rebar and waffle pod footing material in place.

In the most dramatic development to date, I decided to drop by the block on the way home from work early in the morning only to be greeted by the wonderful sight of the waffle pod in place and most of the rebar completed ready for the slab to be poured Wednesday.

I bring Dawn back to the site later in the morning and the concretors are slaving away in the sensational late winter weather we are now experiencing to finish the slab framework. This finally gives us a visual representation of the finished floor height and gives us a real exciting feeling that this is going to be a truly beautiful house for us. 

Internal drainage appears and council inspection

A quick trip to site reveals that the plumbers have been and gone leaving behind them the internal drainage required for our slab to be poured. 

Things are progressing with military precision so far. We can only hope that this pattern continues for at least a few weeks to get us out of the ground and seriously underway.

Piers poured.

Today our piers were bored out and the first site of concrete on our block brings an even bigger smile to our faces! 

With the first of the wooden boards going in to display the outline of the slab we can finally see what is going to be our first ever family home coming together.

An excavator on site!!! Imagine the excitement!

So another Monday comes and goes with no movement, we are starting to get a little down but considering the rain that Sydney and the Central Coast has received over the last week we really can’t be surprised. The last thing would would want is to see the excavator bogged up to the tracks!

Tuesday arrives and mid morning I head out to the block to see how the drying out is progressing. To my absolute pleasure I see the excavator not only on site but being packed up having already completed the site scrape or cut and fill! I cannot believe how much happiness we get from just seeing a beautiful green bare block turned into a brown bare block! It has finally started!