Pre-concrete

The following photos were taken prior to the concrete courtyard and driveway being poured. I made outlines where the concrete was to go to help the concrete man from Le Concrete quote for it. Mr Hackett, the concrete man, is a fantastic worker. Sometimes you strike it lucky with the subbies and sometimes they're woefully difficult or unskilled/incompetent/uncaring etc.

In the next post I'll upload the completed concrete.

Linings done

Great things have happened since the last post, which isn't really surprising considering the duration between posts now. The initial enthusiasm to keep these posts up has wained I admit. This is mainly beause it seems I'm making the posts for only myself, however for those out there who have been looking in from time to time: cheers.

Well, All the major building work has been completed. All the interior linings have been done, including the tiling and flooring (vinyl, carpet) and the decking (including the ramp has been built). I will have pictures of these soon.

In this post You can see some of the progress of those additions and a picture showing the fire and gibstopping.




Below is a picture showing what I've been working on personally for the last week or so: the ceiling polyurethane. I've almost completed 2 coats of water-based polyurethane, semi-gloss finish and the picture shows the difference between no-coat, one coat, and two coats, which can only bee seen easily like this when a light source is positioned as shown. That's an awful lot of work for something that can barely be noticed... but there is a lot of that kind of work in building.

Subbies for miles

So much has happened i feel a bit guilty about not updating more often, but here is a selection of what has been going on right now. I'll get more pics of the gib-stopping later and the kitchen which just went in! In these pictures you can seen we've been working on gib-board (plasterboard) and plywood v-groove ceiling and the floor people have come and sanded the floor down ready for the vinyl. The floor sanding/buffing has got to be the loudest few days we've had on site!

Utilities

The house now has some services running through it. The plumbers have plumbed up the house and it's 'live' (water in the pipes). This is done so that if anyone hits a pipe when putting in the interior cladding, they know about it. Also the sparky has been up and wired upstairs mostly. There is still a lot of wiring yet to do.


The solar panel guys also have turned up and put the pipes up through the roof and hooked up the 'header tank'. The header tank is a tank that acts as an intermediate step for the steaming hot water from the roof to cool a little before entering the house's hot water supply. Apparently the temperature of solar hot water can get past boiling point!



Of course building work has also been continuing apace with all the weatherboards (those supplied) stained and fixed and some corner-boards done. We're short roughly 8 lengths of weatherboard, but we have to wait about 2 weeks for any more! Strange that they can't make some sooner, oh well. Needless to say there is copious amounts of sawdust being produced and each weekend a cleanup is more or less essential.

October Snowfall

Last friday we had an amazing turn of weather. It started on Thursday with rain -and lots of it! I'd say It rained for about 7-8 hours, because it was bucketing down when I went to the pub and the same when I came home!

The next day we all woke to snowfall as these pictures show. This continued on for about 24 hours and even bent some of the guttering on the new house that had no snowstraps.

Luckily because it wasn't winter temperatures the snow melted as quickly as it fell during most of the snowfall. Even with all the melting the level of snow on the ground still reached about 10 inches! I hope to get more pictures of this soon.

More like a house

Since the last update the matchstick quality of the house has transformed with the roofing, building wrap, cladding and even some windows being installed. These elements are comparatively fast to put on, when the structure and framing seemed to take an awful long time and effort. Just as well I suppose since that is what keeps the house standing after all!

I've been staining the rafters, dummy rafters, and weatherboards and there is still a great deal to be stained/painted. I'll probably be doing that job most of the time until the house is complete.

Shout from the Rooftops

Haven't updated in a while, but here is where we are at: - 90% of the roof framing is up and the plywood v-groove sarking has been mostly fixed around the eaves and verandah roofs. This week the roofer is coming to size up the colorsteel and flashings required. The traditional 'roof shout' is approaching.

The scaffolding company has started putting up scaffolds which will eventually surround the house as a safety measure when the roofers are working.


We've also had some wierd and wonderful weather hot days and mixed bags which served up at least half a dozen rainbows throughout one day stretching across the Hanmer basin.