Christmas Eve

So it's Christmas Eve and as we stand inside the house and look up we can still see the sky (and no we don't have a sky light).  The contractor who is going to sheet the roof has finished up for the year and will be back in January to sheet our roof.  So the dream of a roof for Christmas has been shattered and I must say it was a bit deflating for a few days but now we have got used to it and we must push on.

So since the last blog post we have completed most of the verandah structure.  There are still some bits to finish and the battens to add but the bulk of it is done.  The carport is still to be done but we have a plan for how to do that.  So by the end of the year I anticipate it will all be done and we will be starting to install windows.  Now for a couple of days off including over indulging on Christmas day and sitting down in the cool to watch the Boxing Day test on the tv.

Merry Christmas all.

Roof Carpentry Continues

The push is on to finish the roof carpentry and verandah so the roof sheeter can sheet the roof prior to Christmas.  It has been another huge weekend.  Progess is detailed below.

Roof Battens - The main roof line is done, Valleys between the main roof line and raked ceiling area are done

Raked Ceiling Area - rafters in.  Roof Battens in progress

Verandahs-  The base for Nan's carport and alfresco is in.  The verandah construction is under way.

Roof trusses

Another massive week and weekend of work has seen the roof trusses installed and the large laminar LVL Oregon  beam lifted into place.  This takes us closer to our dream and goal of having a roof by Christmas.  Given the temperatures over the weekend were in the low 30 degree Celsius range and that at times felt seriously hot, having the shade provided by  the roof will be a welcome relief. Especially when those temperatures start climbing towards the 40 degree mark in January.

Getting the Oregon beam in place was  major achievement.  Getting a 9 meter long, 400kg beam 4 meters off the ground without the use of a crane took some creative thinking.  After a few nervous moments and change of ends for the chain blocks we used to lift it we got it up and into place.

The roof truss installation was assisted by our friend from Denver Brian Krzys coming for a visit.  No free lunches around our place at the moment so we put him to work.  Enticed by the promise of good home brew beer he toiled away alongside us for a couple of days.  Disaster struck on Sunday evening when the beer keg ran out after only two glasses.  This necessitated a run to the local bottle shop.  Not as good as home brew but desperate times call for desperate measures and building houses is thirsty work.

 LVL Beam in place 1

 LVL Beam in place 2

 Securing the beam

 Brian lends a helping hand

 The latest in building site fashion

 The view from Below

All the trusses in place

Walls Up

A big weekend at the block saw all the wall frames installed in readiness for the roof trusses .  It is seriously cool to walk through the rooms and get a real feel for the layout of the house.  The views from each room are really quite stunning.

Melinda and Thomas worked like Trojans to get all the anchor bolts into the concrete.  After the disaster of the Hilti drill expiring we went to Bunnings  and bought a $130 dollar bargain basement Ozito rotary hammer drill.  Ozito make really cheap tools that do what you expect them to do.  If you don't use them a lot they last for years.  I have had a few Ozito tools over the years and apart from a cheap cordless drill that has a battery life of about 30 seconds they have all been ok.  You get what you pay for and if you want something that you are going to be able to go hard with day in day out for years then avoid them but if you want an occasional tool that you only use a couple of times a year they are ok (avoid their cordless stuff though it really is rubbish)

Anyway the Ozito rotary hammer drill is a beast and chewed through the remaining holes like a hot knife through butter.

Still sometimes you want a tool to last 20 years that will take all the abuse you will throw at it and then some.  In these cases it pays to spend a bit extra.  After using the brother in laws Milwaukee cordless drill I was convinced about the merits of buying a hardcore 18v drill.  After some research I contacted my mate Justin at Rudd Industrial.  He put me onto a Bosch Destroyer at mates rates (Big thanks Jus).  It is an exquisite tool, with lots of metal components (in place of plastic).  The torque this thing generates is phenomenal (it nearly broke my wrist when it caught unexpectedly drilling a 10mm hole in a frame).  This is very nice tool that I expect to own for a very long time.

 The wall frames view 1

 The wall frame view 2

The new cordless

23-November Update

Over the weekend 22-23rd November we commenced the process of erecting the wall frames.  The frames screw together with tek screws and bolt to the concrete with dynabolts.  The most time is pent squaring the rooms and making sure everything is level and plum.

End of Play on Day 1

View from the Ensuite

The en-suite caused a few problems with some high spots in the concrete needing grinding but the view out that window is spectacular.

Early on Day 2 (Melinda for Scale)

The wall along the music room/study and entrance was manufactured incorrectly and had to be shortened with an angle grinder.  No major problem thankfully and 20 minutes later it was the right size.

Boys Bathroom in foreground

The next challenge came from the boys bathroom.  The concretors were a bit hit and miss with the edge of the slab around the bathrooms and again we had to grind 10mm out of the concrete to level it out.

It was just after this that the Hilti drill expired.  We have been using the Hilti to drill the holes in the concrete and the thing is a beast.  It chews through concrete like butter.  A quick internet search showed that the model of Hilti (TE17) was first manufactured in 1967 through to sometime in the 70's.  Not sure exactly when the old man bought it but it is probably around the same age as me.

We will have look and see if it can be resurrected today.

Stumps on Day 2 Driving out the gate

More Deliveries

Things are starting to arrive thick and fast at the block.

Tuesday's special delivery was the baby alpaca next door.  I watched this little fella being born as I was plumbing in the storm water pipes to connect the shed gutters to the tank.

He is so cute!!!!

Tuesday also saw the windows arrive on site. They look fantastic.  Melinda has done an amazing job once again.

 Windows

Wednesday the roof trusses arrived.  The driver was an absolute legend.  managed to reverse a semi trailer down our driveway, lift them off with the hiab and put them exactly where I wanted them and to top things off drive out our driveway without getting stuck.  Any way for some reason these look huge but they are the same size as the last place we built and I lifted those up by myself.  Still think I might need a hand with these.  I must be getting old.

Trusses 

Tuesday and Wednesday Melinda and I have been moving frames around in the big jigsaw puzzle of our house.  Honestly this is like a giant meccano  set.  All the frames are now in there approximate positions.  I am going to work Thursday for a rest before getting stuck in and starting to stand them up and glue them all together on Friday.  Hopefully Sundays post will see all the walls in place.

The jig saw

Shed nears completion

Another mammoth weekend of work at the block this weekend saw the shed nearing completion.  Saturday was a big day with the roof sheeting going on, the roller door end door openings formed and sheeted and the roller door brackets fitted and the roller doors lifted into place.  As the sun set on the block the shed crew were well and truly stuffed.  Sunday was spent installing the door tracks, and locking mechanisms.

The race is now on to finish the final flashing and barge capping and get the gutters plumbed into the water tank before expected rain Wednesday.

Frames Arrive

We have a big double episode for today's post which is mainly pictorial.

Wall Frames Arrive
Starting with the amazing news that the wall frames have arrived on site.

Having a Hiab to unload the frames is way easier than the last time we built when we had to unload all the frames by hand.

Shed Progress
Moving on to part two, much of the work this week has been focused on building the shed.  Progress has been steady with the bulk of the structure up and roof sheeting started (suspended on Wednesday due to high winds).  Sunday was a family affair with everyone chipping in to help sheet the walls until the temperatures reached 37 degrees and forced us off the job.  No point giving everyone heat stroke.

A big shout out to Kim and Pete (Brett's sister and brother in law) for the use of their cordless drill set.  The thing is a beast and Brett is off to the tool shop on Monday to buy one.

Concrete Pad is Poured

We have a floor pad finally.  Concrete pump arrived on site at 4.40am much to the consternation of our neighbors (we have spent the afternoon visiting, handing out boxes of chocolates and apologizing for the early start).  Once they got the pump in place and the first truck in and out it all went pretty smoothly and by around 9am the pour was done.

Concrete pump hard at work

Nearly done

The Finished Pad

Shed pad pour is going to happen Wednesday.

Concrete Progress Report

The original plan to pour the concrete pads for the house and shed on Wednesday 29th of October went out the window due to a shortage of concrete.  Apparently a major shopping center development had the local concrete plants fully booked out this week so the concrete is booked for Monday morning 3rd of November.

Laying the sewer pipes

Monday was spent doing the pre-lay with my old mate Dave the plumber.  Lots of laughs and reminiscing about old time(dune buggies we had built, gear boxes we had destroyed) but not a second wasted.  Dave is the hardest worker I have ever known and if you are going to do a job with him then it's just expected that you will go hard to.  I spent my Uni years working for Dave as a labourer (shovel boy) digging trenches for storm water pipe installs and it was all done by hand.  Dave instilled in me the ethic for hard work (along with my father and my grandfather).  Work hard and reap the rewards.  Thankfully I had the mini excavator on site though as that was one of the hardest, most well compacted sand pads I have ever come across and we wouldn't have finished in a day without it.  Even with the excavator there we still spent plenty of time on the shovels and I slept well on Monday night.  I must say this building process is having a positive effect on my waste line.

Later in the week I played plumber myself setting up a pressure pump and running pipes to put a tap up near the house.  Having a tap with running water after 9 months is seriously cool.

So you turn the tap on and water comes out. What is this strange alchemy?

So as of this blog post the footings are dug, plastic laid, reinforcing steel is in and all we need now is some concrete. The shed pad is leveled and also awaiting concrete.  The rest of the weekend will be spent on the brush cutter, mowing the weeds as we are coming into summer and bush fire season.

House Pad Awaiting concrete

Genesis of a Water Tank

The water tank was finished over the weekend (see the pictures below as it takes shape).  We now have 200,000 litres of storage capacity.  As of Sunday night we had 36,000 litres of water delivered.  Watch my prediction come true.  We wont get any rain now we have a tank till next winter.  The plan is to have 2 of these tanks but we may have to save for awhile to afford the second tank.

The weekend also saw the leach drains finally all in the ground and back filled.  The excavation for the shed pad was started and mostly completed.  We are hoping to do the concrete pour for the shed floor at the same time as the house this coming Wednesday.  The shed components are on site and waiting for a concrete pad to start building the shed (hopeful that we can put the shed up next weekend)

The concreter dropped around on Sunday and ran all the string lines to define the edges of the concrete pad for the house.  The plumber uses these string lines to measure the locations of the sewerage pipes for the pre-lay.  The plumbing pre-lay is happening first thing Monday morning and involves Dave the plumber and Brett with the mini excavator digging the trenches.  Lots of activity.  Hopefully Wednesday night we have a house pad.  Keep watching this space......

 Second Layer

 Third Layer

 View from down the Hill

 The final product

Water for the tank delivered

Earthworks completed

The sand pad has been completed and has passed it's compaction test.  We are now ready for the concrete pad (see timelines below).  The weekend been was spent finishing the leach drains and leveling the tank pad ready for the tank installer.  The installer started the job Saturday afternoon and will return Wednesday or Thursday to finish the tank.  We have arranged for several loads of water to be delivered so we will have water for the weekend.

The Shed

The application for planning approval for the shed was finally passed this week  with a few amendments.  Basically the shed will go where the second tank was going to go and the second tank will go North of the house.  The planning department wouldn't budge on letting us build the shed forward of the house in our preferred location so once more we had to compromise.  The plans have now gone back to council for building approval.

Concrete Pad

Work on the concrete pad starts on the 27th of October.  The concrete contractor will set up string lines to define the extents of the concrete pad.  Then Dave the plumber and I will dig the trenches and lay all the sewerage pipes.

The next day the concrete team digs out the footings. Then the termite spray people come and spray the sand under the concrete pad for termites.  Once that is done the concrete team can lay the plastic and the mesh.

Hopefully the following day they pour the concrete and we have the start of a house.

Earthworks Update

Another week of progress.  The earthworks should be finished by the end of this week.  We need about another 100 cubic meters of sand to finish the sand pad.

The leach drains are nearly finished

The trenches are completed and all the segments in the Northern trench have been inserted and back filled.  The segments for the southern trench will go in this weekend.