The Baynhams

Week 13 and we were offered another chance to go inside the security fencing with our site-supervisor Paul Jones.

Gareth was very excited and put on his new builders hat and jacket that Auntie Carrie gave him for his birthday! He said in the car "They will think I am the Boss Mum!"

We were pleased to see that the scaffolding was being taken down. The brickwork on the upper level has been fully built up to the roof and had been cleaned down. They are now trying to get the last little bit of brickwork on the back of the house finished and also trying to get the garage roof on before things slow down for Christmas.

The house build is on a 30 week timescale. We are currently week 13. Everything shuts down for 4 weeks over Christmas and Byron and myself were debating if 30 weeks of actual building was needed (meaning a 34 week build) or if the 30 weeks allowed for 4 weeks of Christmas break?

We nervously broached the subject of the timescales of the build with Paul. Of course I didn't ask straight out when we could have the keys, I was much more subtle than that. I told him that Cathy and Derek and their three kids land in Sydney on March 25th 2007...... and that our lease runs out on March 28th 2007..... I think he got the message!

The good news is that the 30 week build allows for 4 weeks of non-activity and 26 weeks of labour.

The even better news is that Pauls crew of workers are not all taking the full 4 weeks of time off and there will be small amounts of work going on in our house during the Christmas/ New Year holidays.

The best news of all is that Paul is still aiming to finish slightly ahead of the contract schedule and so far is on track to achieve this goal! Looks like Cathy and Derek might not be needing the lend of a tent after all!!!