Block on, Block off

Already the block work is well underway. I have to confess I am a big fan of raw blocks. I love them and yes I am using the word 'love' and I mean it. I don't mean the flimsy 'like' love you get after every other comment on Facebook, but the love that you feel when you buy your first CD (mine was Poison) or your first Apple Mac product.

I know most people prefer to render block work but for me I love them grey and basic. There's a lot of block work and so far it's been great watching block after block go up, with nice clean straight lines taking shape. I just hope the General feels the same way.

LOVE BLOCKS: A view of the ground floor block work climbing out of the Yuraygir National Park. 

The General's best mate from his Avalon days, Raoul the bricky, has brought his family up to the North Coast for a working holiday. Along with Turk, our local bricky, the boys have been busy laying blocks for almost three weeks now and things are starting to take shape. The General has been their labourer. They have had him running double time.

I've gone for a stacked block pattern, rather than the usual staggered pattern you see around the place. The brickies are claiming it's taking longer to lay, which budget-wise isn't something you like to hear. But on the positive side, the blocks are not going to be rendered or painted so hopefully we'll gain some money back in the budget there.

So what do you prefer? Feel free to comment.

STACKED

STAGGERED

As is the way, we've had a block drama. A dud delivery showed up of a different sized bock to go above the windows. These blocks turned up from a different distributor and were a much lighter colour (see below). We decided to just push on and use them. The General thought they'd make a bit of a feature and break up the grey pattern a bit. He's happy with the result but I'm not so sure. I'd be happy to hear your thoughts on it, as they are meant to run above the garage door and a feature breezeway window as well. I'm pushing to not use them in those two big openings. But let's see what the majority thinks?  Build By Numbers has put out it's first plea for help. Should we keep going with the feature blocks above windows or just stick to the one shade?
NB Most of upstairs will be timber so only an issue downstairs really. 

COLOUR BLOCK: What do you think of the lighter coloured block above windows? Send me your thoughts.