Day 27 - pre-slab

All cleaned up and almost ready for a slab - a number of piers on the plan are missing, and holes have been dug to replace two of them, but the piers under the garage wall are just missing, with no visible sign that they will be replaced.

All in all, starting to look better - looking like a house base rather than just pipes in dirt - cant wait till I see concrete!

The above is a hole where one on the missing piers (tops) was, the idea here is to pour the concrete deeper to where the pier base is.  I am unsure of what the medium term effect will be, whether this will cause a instability due to concrete shrinkage occurring at different rates due to the different concrete masses

Day 26 - Piers removed

It seems some of my piers have been removed in the process of putting the plumbing in, and that the island bench may have some plumbing added that is required next to the sink.
Since all the piers have been buried with the plumbing work, I am interested in seeing how the site is cleared so what remains of the piers can be accounted for and perhaps ensure that they are level, as no levels were checked when the piers were poured
I have raised this with DL and he has explained that the Concreter will fix the piers today as part of the slab preparation. Additionally what I thought was a drain to the island bench is conduit that can be used to get the wiring to the bench. All my concerns should be resolved today!

Day 23 - Drainage has started, power box installed

Digger down the back will expose the sewer connection, agi drains are already in place, basic plumbing and drainage has been completed today. :-)

Day 19 - underpinning work has commenced

Work has started today on the underpinning - close to 3 weeks lost due to this issue alone

After and before shots of the under pinning

Perhaps it is too early for me to appreciate the value of this work, it has been noticed that the fence is now missing some support, and the neighbours are complaining about the road being ripped up by visiting machinery, not to mention my disappearing driveway

Day 9 - Meeting our Construction Project Manager and our construction phase Administrator

Met with DL, as he explained what was involved in the underpinning to the neighbours.  I have seen his work personally in a house he constructed around the corner and as detailed in Hyatt38's blog.  He strikes me a competent professional and I look forward to working with him (or his working on my house at any rate).
EW has been assigned as my construction administrator, and she seems like another competent and dedicated individual, if she looks after us half as well as BB did in the contract stage I will be very happy indeed.
Bad news is that we won't have a slab until the end of the month, but on the flip side the good news is that we should have a slab poured by the end of the month, and perhaps the frame erected.  I am useless at this waiting game, but that is how the cards are at the moment.  No work can start until the underpinning is completed, and the underpinning could not be scheduled until the neighbours have agreed to it, and it takes time.

Day 9 - underpinning

Our new house required a good deal of earth works where we basically excavated so that we could have some level building platforms to construct out home on, this has meant that our drive way is lower than the neighbours and there is a possibility, though very remote that their carport could collapse before we have the retaining wall in place, so for a mere few thousand dollars I will pay to extend their foundations more deeply than they are, and thus ensure their asset is protected.  In order to do this I need to get their consent, and they need to understand the implications this has for them before providing that consent.  This has taken over 1 week, but is now in place and further work can be scheduled to get my site started.
My advice is if underpinning is mentioned as a possibility, then get the consent straight away as the only risk is that the engineers may decide it is unnecessary but you will have no real delay.  My delays started with the half week to even be able to inform the neighbours of the need, then the week and a half to get the consent and be able to act on it.