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.

Parallel lines

This week we made more particularly visual progress by putting up the rafters and a few frames. Also all the interior wall framing has been completed. One gets a fantastic sense of the interior spaces and the variation from outside to inside.

This week my brother visited Hanmer Springs and also helped out lifting framed and fixing rafters. He is overlooking the site in the picture below.

360 UB 45

On Tuesday the ridgebeam arrived with the rafters. We managed to overcome this hurdle without too much difficulty as the HIAB (truck crane) was able to set the beam in place within its maximum reach. It is temporarily braced at the moment and soon the rafters will hold it in place.

For the remainder of the week we worked mainly on the attic floor and ceiling below. Once that flooring is complete the rafters can be fixed in place.


Jacob unhooks the strop after the beam is set down in place.

Full steam ahead!

Since the last post we've been very busy. A lot of progress has been made - visible and actual. The underfloor insulation has been installed (the white stuff between the joists above) and the floor has been laid over the whole first floor now. Merlot is here inspecting the job. The 4 framing packs for the first floor arrived at Midday Wednesday.

Below shows the frames being erected since Wednesday and some of the steel that helps support the roof. The second picture below shoes Jacob and I moving one of the smallest bits of frames out of the way(sits under the steel portal-frame to the left).

The frames going up make the most visible difference to any site, whereas they have been prefabricated and we've merely tacked them in place. Most of the work today has been cutting slots in the floor for the steel to be bolted onto the block wall beneath. [click on the photos to see them larger]