House Design Plans

As mentioned in a previous comment, I thought I might post the Design Plans for our house... a slightly Modified (Internally) Memphis by JG King.

This is the Electrical plan, minus all the jargon as it's probably the cleanest of all the plans.

As you can probably see, what was normally bedroom 2, we have converted into another living area with double door access from the kitchen/dining and also an entry from the adjacent living area. After all, it is only the wife and I at the moment (No Kids) so having 3 spare bedrooms is not a great use of space in my eyes and if need be, in the years to come, we can always convert it back to a bedroom again.

We also added a sliding door to the living area, and another to the rear of the family room, plus one in the Guest Bedroom.  In time, I hope to build a little enclosed courtyard for the Living Area and Guest Bedroom and a pergola joining the side outdoor area and rear sliding door for outdoor entertainment... But of course, all in due time as we have to save for it first.

We wanted a fair few extra power points around the house too so all the XX on the plans are double points, and also added a 2 way light switch between the bedroom hallway and the kitchen - to save any guests having to walk through the meals and kitchen area just to get to a light switch. 

If you have any questions about the layout, please feel free to ask.

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EDIT

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As pointed out by wifey, I forgot to mention; we moved the Microwave spot to the pantry, (it was originally under the bench next to the kitchen sink as standard), hence the power point in the pantry. We replaced the Microwave spot with a cupboard instead. We didn't like the idea of having to bend down all the time to get things out of the microwave... Especially if it contains hot liquids and the like, and besides, it's out of the way in the pantry.

And we also moved the phone point from the kitchen to the lounge. We aren't planning on having a phone line but it came standard so we thought we'd move it out the way. We haven't had one for years anyway. Yay for mobile phones. Besides, if we ever did decide to get a land line, we would most likely use cordless phones with base stations so the phone point didn't make much sence to us in the kitchen. 

Framing up, Gutter on

I received another call from our site supivisor letting us know the framing has been completed. A few hours later we also received the invoice for our next progress payment.  We called in today to take some photo's and found not only the framing finished, but the guttering around the whole house too!

I must also point out, the site is immaculate. I am so impressed with how clean the entire property is. They have obviously taken some time to clean everything up. It was also a nice surprise to see all our windows and sliding doors delivered:

(Windows)

(Sliding Doors)

Christmas is coming up next week so I'm sure a lot of work will be stopping everywhere, including the house. I would also suspect the neighbors houses will be put on hold too during this time. The site supivisor told us most things will start up again by mid January so I am not expecting to see much until then. Would be nice to see the windows and doors go in though!

It's started

This is very cool. We weren't expecting the frame to go up until Monday but here we are, just one day later and bam, nearly all the framing has been done. I am so surprised at how quickly this has gone up. We were only here yesterday to see the delivery and thought we better bring the in-laws down before the frame goes up. To our surprise, when we came around the corner the frame was up and most of the roof trusses were on.

That was some quick work by the builders.  At this rate I would suspect the frame to be completed by Monday or Tuesday.

Frame has been delivered

I had a phone call from the site supivisor yesterday to let me know the frame is on schedule to be delivered today.

We of course wanted to see the frame before it started to go up so we went down there and took a look:

Sure enough, the frame was delivered in full, roof trusses and all! We've been told the framing should start Monday next week so here's hoping all goes well. 

Payment Done!

Well, as we had already inspected the Slab and all was good, we Signed off on the invoice and sent it through to the Bank on Monday night.

I wasn't sure how long it would take for the bank to actually make payment but I received a txt on Wednesday informing us that Payment had been made!  Whoohoo.

Less then 48 hours and all was done.  Checked the bank today and sure enough, the payment had gone through. This should allow JG King to continue with the Framing un-hindered.  I was a little worried the Bank might delay payment, for whatever reason, and in turn that would stop JG King from doing the frame.  At least now we have the full go ahead and nothing stopping us!!!!

All filled in.

Made it past the slab tonight and was happy to see the ditch around the slab had been filled in. Looks like a whole heap of stone right around the entire perimeter. They have also removed any excess mounds of dirt so at least the place looks flat again.

The slab is looking great I must say. It's given me a chance to do a few measurements and work out what size I want the outdoor entertaining area and what not. Looking forward to all the little extra improvement I will be able to do once we move in, even though I'll be doing it all slowly, one thing at a time. 

First Progress payment

I received another call from our Site Supervisor today to let me know the slab has been completed (we already knew but it was still nice of him to notify us non the less).

We also received the Invoice from JG King for our first Progress Payment. This will be the first official payment from the bank so here's hoping it all goes through without any hiccups (there should be absolutely no problem as everything has been approved already)! It's a bit unnerving as it now means our loan is getting larger.

The Site Supervisor also said that some time this week there should be a bobcat down there filling in the dig out around the Slab.  I'm heading out that way Tuesday night so if I have time I might detour to the land, I'm not expecting any change but if there is I'll be sure to take more photo's. I'll also be heading out there over the weekend so I'll be sure to see something done by then.

Oh and the other good news....(saving the best till last) the Site Supervisor has been able to bring our framing stage forward. Sounds like we will be getting the frame delivered end of next week!  I wonder if they'll begin to put it up then too? Either way... things are moving ahead at a fantastic pace as far as I'm concerned. Looking forward to seeing the frame go up.