Excited by Recycled Red Bricks

The last post here provided an update of where we are at with the first time subdivision. It included some of the challenges we went through with the finance process and outlined where the building is up to.

Since then it has all been relatively smooth sailing. It seems that the more complex tasks of financing, subdividing and registering all the paperwork have now made way for the fun part and the builders are hard at work doing what they do best, building!

Our vision for the dwelling was drawn from the inspiration of old recycled red bricks, the natural environment, and the size, shape and orientation of the allotment. That initial vision and sketch drawing has enabled us to continue to work towards a final product and home for someone (we’ll compare that sketch to the final product in a future post).

So the bricklayers are currently finishing off their part of the project (which has only taken two days!), where they are laying around 8000 recycled reds. The bricks have come from Ecobricks and are a fantastic rustic red colour. They absolutely ooze their former life which we love! The initial conversation with the bricklayers was interesting. They thought we would want to flip any painted or more rugged edges inside so that only the most clean and neat face of the brick was on display on the final wall. We quickly dismissed that assumption and outlined that in fact quite the opposite was the case! We want to embrace the eclectic aspect of recycled bricks and asked that the bricklayer lay them as they came. The interim results are below:

 

Front of house - bricks

Looking across front of house - bricks

The bricklayers are pretty impressed themselves with the finish and are looking forward to seeing the final product. We literally couldn’t be happier with how it’s looking. Cost wise - there is no real different to new and lighter bricks. The more affordable purchase price is offset by the little bit extra laying price.

The next phase in the construction is to finish the plastering, skirting and architrave within the house, followed by the laying of the tiles. Look out for those!

Within the next week or two we will also be getting a start on the landscaping, which we intend to complete ourselves. The landscape design, use of recycled materials, choice of plants and way we will carry out the works warrant a blog post in its own right – so for now we’ll leave it there. Please comment if you have any ideas for the landscaping! We’re putting it all together and throwing around lots of options.

The Building!!!

Another long spell since last blogging, and again a lot has happened.

Subdivision is all through and Title documents have been issued...not like we get to see them but the bank is keeping them safe for us. We had a really good conveyancer doing this for us. You can do your own conveyancing, that is transferring ownership of land, but it may not be worth the time or the risk (in Victoria see- http://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/housing-and-accommodation/buying-and-selling-property/selling-property/conveyancing-and-contracts-for-sellers). We were really waiting for these titles so that the bank could do another valuation of the property (two lots now and not just one) and we could get our loan approved, finally.

We are starting off on a construction loan where each of us is paying the same amount for repayments, which increases incrementally as money is released by the bank. For those not familiar with this process; your builder will require payments at different stages of the build (slab, frame, etc) and will bill you after each stage is complete. This invoice is then signed by one of us and goes to the bank who pays the builder. Not a dime of cash goes into our account, only debt. This is good in that you don't pay interest on the whole amount from the outset but it goes up in increments as loan money is actually used.

After the build is done we will roll this construction loan over into another loan, like a normal home loan.

Now that that boring finance stuff is over, to the exciting part....THE HOUSE!!!!

Our builders were pretty keen to get into it and wasted no time in scraping the site and digging footings. Before we knew it there was a slab, frame and a roof on the thing and we were doing a final decision on where lighting was going. Below are some pics, which is obviously much better than me writing about it. The dates give you a good indication of how quick it went up. We had a bit of a hold-up for a week or so recently but everything is back on track now. And since the house is so compact, most of the trades are getting in and out in a flash. We are hoping it will be the same for the second fit and finishing.

Site scrape and footing holes- Pretty boring looking but this was done on April 11

Slab up on April 18

Frame up, wrapped, roof on, windows and doors fitted and first fit electrical done-  May 25

View from the outdoor area

And something to keep warm

So the plasterboard has just arrived today and our recycled bricks are getting delivered next week, so more changes soon (I am excited about the bricks).