Day 27 - October 24th (Day 15 of 65)

Took my wife around to the property today to have a look. You can really get a taste of the house now.

The weather is starting to warm up! It has got to 27 degrees today. No clouds around just yet, so it seems (so far) that the >75% chance of showers may be wrong?

I have had a number of people asking me how much extra is was to upgrade to a steel framed house instead of using a timber framed home. The cost in our package was around $4,500. You need to bear in mind however, that this price may change over time, and would also be different depending upon the size home you are building.

The other thing to note is the roof. (Now this is my opinion...I'm not certain I am right!) We opted for the steel Colourbond roof which added around $5,700 extra on to the price. At the time we were going through the options, we were informed that adding a tiled roof onto a steel framed house would cost more. Part of the reason for this ( I believe ) is that Stoddart (I am pretty sure these are the suppliers) are providing a discount if you purchase both the frame and roof from them. Purchasing tiles would have been more expensive as the tile manufacturer wouldn't provide any discount (As that's all you are buying from them..sort of like a package promotion price I guess?).  Again...these prices are approximate for our home. They will be different for your home and area so don't bother quoting me! ;->.

So overall, it is cheaper to buy a timber framed home, but with our experience with termites in the past, having that worry over our head was simply not worth it.  Having said that, we have never lived in a steel framed home before, so we will have to wait and see what the result is!

I have found another blog, where they built the Grandview 26 out of steel as well. I had been wondering how we will go when it comes time to attach picture fames to the wall?  They have been kind enough to let us know on this blog.

I only took one photo today. No more work has been done since Friday.

Have you tried building your home with Studio M envisage yet?

We tried it out at the beginning, when we started looking at the Grandview. There are some things to note however.... We were unable to locate the exact brick we had selected (Boral's Barcleay Blend) so we choose a colour which was close. Also with the external wall at the front of the home with cladding on it, we were unable to locate Jasper (the same colour as the roof) so we ended up selecting another which was close to this colour.

So what "might" the end product look like? (Click on the picture to get a closer look)

What's the forecast say?

Looks promising!