more bricks, more rooms

All of the brickwork (prior to the slab being poured) has been completed. Now we can actually see all of the rooms / levels / outdoor spaces / views from each room. It's fantastic! I think the earth will be removed tomorrow ready for more formwork. Can't wait!

We're still having to be onto the builder constantly. The brickies weren't aware that there was a different brick for the column (see last blog entry) or that we were after a flush mortar finish...just as well we live close by!

brickies bricking

Finally we're moving ahead! We've had 3 weeks of delays due to silly negotiations...hopefully that's the last of the messing around and we can now get on with the build.

As I started this blog to help others, I'll tell you what happened so hopefully you can avoid our mistakes...(if you don't want to hear the drama, skip to the last paragraph).

Our home building company gave us an allowance to choose a brick style ($1 per brick). Our builder gave us the number of bricks required to build the house, including a break down for the front column - the main focal point of the house from the front. With this information we went shopping.

We selected a house brick and a feature brick for the column. At $3 per feature brick, we would need to pay the difference for the quantity required. We were happy to pay this extra expense as we thought the column would look awesome in a retro glazed brick.

Upon detailing our selection to the builder (just in time of his deadline for ordering), he changed the quantity of feature bricks required - from 1000 bricks to 2500 bricks, bringing our out-of-pocket expenses from $2000 to $4500...totally out of our budget.

We questioned the change (how could he miscalculate by this much???), had an engineer check the quantities (who came up with another, much lower number), then entered 3 days of back-and-forth negotiations of actual numbers required (disappointing and frustrating).

To add insult to injury, the builder tacked on an extra charge to lay the glazed bricks ($300 per 1000 bricks)...adding even more to the overall cost. By this stage we decided to drop the idea of a feature brick and just go with a slightly different tone to the house brick.Worst case, we can just tile over / render if we don't like the finished look. Not a good start, but at least a final decision was made.

Unfortunately by this stage, the builder's tradies were onto another job and we had no choice but to wait until they had finished. 

So finally we've had some movement!!! The slab should go down this week (weather permitting) and we can get a real move on. My husband and I have vowed to keep ahead of any product / building decisions to prevent any further delays. We just hope it's not the start of ongoing changes and hidden charges on what is supposed to be a fixed price contract.

On the upside, we LOVE the look of the bricks we've chosen! With the foundations in place we've got a firmer idea of the house / yard space and it feels good. It's really happening now!!!