Finally.... we have a start.

Tuesday 13th July - drove by and still nothing had started. This was 8 days after the supposed: "will start in a week". So I got on the phone again, but they couldn't provide me an answer because everyone was in training. Later in the afternoon, I received a call back with the same old explanations. One of the points made was the time to complete orders can vary depending on the complexity of the order. I asked specifically if there was any issue causing delay with our orders with the response something along this lines of: "I'm not sure, it's done in the ordering department". I don't know why I bother.

5 minutes later, I received a call from our site supervisor. He confirmed he would be on-site on Friday for a start. He seemed like a decent bloke and was happy for us to give him a call anytime. From this point on, we hope we don't have to call head office again. They can improve alot!


Friday 16th July - 4 weeks to the day since the benching was completed, and we have lift-off. A couple of guys were measuring and hammering in the wooden frame.


Saturday 17th July - We dropped past this morning with the family. We had 2 guys with their kids spray painting markers for the pier holes. The kids were doing the spraying (with guidance) which was a little un-settling. But a least dad was concentrating on the plans. They confirmed that the piers were going in on Monday.


It gives us our first sight of how the house will sit on the block. The backyard is to our expectations, but the front of the house looks alot closer to the street then we thought it would. Can't wait to see how high the slab finishes up to see the gradient of our driveway. At the moment it looks short and steep. We can also imagine sitting in the alfresco on a nice winters day with the sun shining in.

An interesting development, our next door neighbours (the site in the background of these pictures) are building with Claredon. In one day, they had their benching, slab frame and pier holes drilled and concreted. While we have been teased for 6 weeks with little progress, our neighbours are in front of us after 1 day.


2 doors up we have a single storey Eden Brae home, which started with their benching and within 5 working days had their concrete slab poured. 2 examples of what can happen in little time.