Here is the upstairs layout (I know downstairs first would be normal, but we are upside down here). Only the master bedroom has certain owners. Giulio & Amelia still have to fight over rooms although we suspect Giulio will have the front bedroom (Bed 4) and Amelia the room at the top of the stairs (Bed 3) to keep an eye on Giulio's night time wanderings!

Well here is the down stairs layout of the house.

Done some measurements to check the size of the house base is correct.

It all seems in order (although the slab for the water tanks is too small)! Lets see how that works.

Frame complete (according to Porter Davis) our independent surveyor says different!

A few (minor, I hope) problems: Steel posts not bolted down, Brackets exceed 1800mm Max, Sheet flooring (second floor) nailed too far apart (should be 150mm actually 200 - 250mm).

Time to pay the frame (once the frame errors have been corrected).

The roof appears to be complete, we just need to pay an extra $670 dollars as the Roof Tiles we originally selected are no longer 'Class 1' so we need to pay the upgrade cost!

It all adds up......... Just got to keep out eyes open and not just believe everything they tell us.

Not expecting much progress this week as its Easter (and the building industry has great unions) and therefore great holidays.

Visiting the site again today (16 April 2011) and we can see the second floor is almost up. They don't mess around when they are building here in Australia. A 'wide' shot of me opening our 'secure' building site so we can get a little closer.

Nothing done on the garage frame as yet. Although I was wondering today how they are going to do the brickwork on the side of the garage next to the fence (15cm clearance). So will they build the wall from the inside (of the garage) ? Will have to wait and see.

The first image is the view from the front door, right through to the back of the house, with the lounge and dinning area to the left, study and down stairs toilet to the right. (why this is underlined) is anyones guess.

A view from the dinning area the three large openings will be doors: Directly in front double doors with glass side panels, the other two will be 5 panel concertina type doors (bring the outside inside).

One of the folding doors that goes straight out into the back garden (decking and pool)?

This is the side of the house closest to the boundary fence. Outside of the laundry door. The extra slab is for 2 x 5,000 litre rain water tanks that we asked for. Will have to look for space for other tanks around the house (pool and vegetables)

View of the house from the 'back garden' we have now just realised that the sewage pipes (running in the trench in this picture) to to large sewage pipe at the back of the house. Will have to find out how deep it is, as it might cause problems with the swimming pool position. Will have to go back with a tape measure and check distances from boundaries. A little unsure as to how the roof shape will be, looking at the roof as it exists now

I think (although I am no engineer or builder) that they may have made a mistake here. The slab is about 10 inches too small for the house ! How they are going to fix that is anyones guess.

But this is why we pay an independent guy to check things out, lets see what he has to say.

The view from the family/rumpus room (upstairs lounge). The wall will be all windows (not floor to celling, but above the wooden frame to celling. Not a bad view, will look a lot better once the park in front is established (trees, bushes etc)

The View from one of the bedrooms into plot 913 (still no sign of beginning the build). Will it be a single story (still a good view) or double story (less good view).

The 'master' bedroom comes with its own private balcony, again a view into plots 913 and 912.

How the view is in 6 months will depend largely on who builds what and where.

2 of our folding door frames (with side lights, double glazed).

Final view of the house to date from the other side of the street. The right side of the house is right next to the boundary fence, with the left hand side approx 5 meters from the boundary (this will be our vegetable patch).

Well after visiting on Saturday (9/04/11) the only difference we saw was - red lines drawn on the slab marking out the external and internal downstairs walls.

Our building inspector (independent) went around to the site on Monday to check the slab was up to specifications. He informed us that the frame had begun.

Today (Wednesday) we went around ourselves to see our house rise from the ground.

We did not go 'on-site' as the builders had arrived to start working for the day (we arrived at 6.45am).

Here it is a front view of the house, Garage to the left of the image (no framing on that this morning). For Amelia - look there is metal in the structure, although I suspect this will be removed and is only there to brace the frame until the first floor is in to give some rigidity.

From this side you can see the porch and the lounge.

Lots of wood stacked around the site to finish off the ground floor and garage.

Will return this weekend and see what has happened (Wednesday, Thursday & Friday)

lets see if the second floor is up.

How the builders will make it from ground to first is anyones guess (but I am interested to see).

Will be 2 weeks to get the frame up (according to our Site Supervisor). It all feels so real now.

Winneke way - Thats where our plot (914) is, this is looking from the corner plot (913) just to prove to my dad that they are building around us (not sure of the plot number on that side of the road though). Framed and roof truss done. Plots 913 and 915 have no sign of work as yet. Plot 916 has had piers put in place for its 'upgraded' slab.

This is a shot looking back from the corner plot back up Winneke way, plot 913 (corner plot) is in-front of us with the first floor peaking over the fence.

Well our slab has been poured (Monday 4th April).

Looking at the positions of the waste pipes we are still trying to work out what they are all for

(Toilets, Sinks, Kitchen, Laundry, Pantry.....

Looking at (and walking on) the slab today, I tend to agree with Giorgia now, it does look small!

Forgot the measure this time, so we could not check the distance from the house to the footpath, once we have an idea of the size we can think about plants.

As well as the fact the foundations go down about 50 cm (to 1.2 meters in places) and rise about the ground 40cm (10 cm to first step, then 30cm to floor level). We think that the first step will have the damp proof course over it. The wooden house-frame will be on the floor level and the brick skin from the first step.

The front garden looks a little smaller than we thought, supposed to the 5M from the front porch to the public footpath, thats fine by me it means a bigger private back garden.

Still standing a few meters from the back fence, so lots of room out back.

Will have to make good use of it.

Other houses in the street are starting to take shape, slabs poured and frames going up. The reserve at the front of the house (near by Toomuc Creek) has had the overgrown grass scraped off and is being levelled ready to make the walkway to the new Cardinia Train Station.

2 days ago an excavator on site ready to dig the foundations ready for the slab to be poured on Friday 1st April.

2nd April: No concrete yet, but thats fine because it gave us the chance to see how the foundations have been laid out.

So we got to see our 'upgraded' waffle slab with the extra rebar. I thought the outline of the slab looks to be a good size, Giorgia thinks it looks small !

There was some concern over the depth of the foundations, but as you can see from the photo it should be deep enough (about 1.2m deep).