Framing mostly complete

The upper story is taking shape and the hallway annex is going up

Garage trusses now in place

Master bedroom and ensuite trusses in place, along with front windows 

Rylock Windows Arrived

Our Rylock Windows were delivered to site this week and now sit on the ground awaiting installation. The process of window selection was by no means an easy task, deciding on style, manufacturer, size, type, etc. In our case we chose thermally improved double glazed aluminium windows for the whole house, with low-e glass on the north facing windows. The standard supplier offered a large selection, but not the same quality as a specialist supplier. Window type/quality (i.e. standard residential vs. commercial grade) vary greatly in price and you can soon find you've doubled the budget for windows, be warned.

For further info see my previous blog post

Stylish Shower Drains

Thought I'd look for different styles of shower drains and came across some sleek designs, especially this Dallmer integrated linear drain link. Sized at 300x40mm it lines up perfectly with your 600x300mm tiles.  It's an expensive option at around $250, but would give any bathroom that extra 'wow' factor.

Update: We approached our site supervisor about changing the drain and he automatically thought we we're going to ask for a channel drain. It's seem like this is a common request, that can be an expensive option depending on the number of showers, length of drain and plumbing changes required. We've also noticed at our friends places that the channel drains tend to clog more frequently, so we think we'll stick with a shower drain gully and waste basket like the following;

Update 2: We ended up purchasing the ACO Gully 150x150mm square tile insert drain. The drains cost ~ $130 each (twice the price of similar products) and are made of stainless steel, rather than chrome plated brass. The total height is also much lower than the ones stocked locally and means the leak control flange will  be flush with the cement sheeting in shower base.

ACO (German) - Gully

Bounty Brassware - Bermuda

Carpet Options

If you walk into a carpet retailer and say you have kids and dogs, they will point you straight to SDN (Solution Dyed Nylon) for stain resistance and high traffic areas. In our case we started with a particular Carpet Call store that was recommended by Rycon and soon found that the options were rather limited given we were after a shade of grey. As a double whammy, most wool/wool blend carpets will have various earth tones only, but if you're after grey that is not (brownish-grey) you will invariably end up with a SDN.

We eventually found a Tuftmaster SDN 60oz carpet with a colour called Gothic 990 which was supposedly exclusive to another supplier, so were about to credit the carpets to go to the other supplier until we found out the 'trick of the trade'. It seems suppliers will provide carpets to retailers under an exclusive only 'range' that leads you to believe they are the only provider. A quick search of the exact colour may lead you to other retailers who have the carpet you are after under another 'range' and Carpet Call were able to source this range after all.

Online Carpet is a good reference for pricing

For the underlay we chose the heaviest Airstep Supa Blue to add that super plush feel; we'd highly recommend upgrading your underlay given the cost is negligible (specifications)

Summary of underlay options and good site for getting an idea on pricing Online Carpet Underlay

Rycon built home for sale in Glen Iris

Came across another Rycon home for sale in Glen Iris link.

Framing lower levels done

Panorama of current progress...