update from the house site

I went out over the weekend to check the place out (without Cath cause the car is broken and the only one with a car seat) and took some snaps on the progress.  They are making good progress with the exterior cladding and the sliding doors are in.  We will be out there one the weekend (car permitting) so we can finish the cleats and tidy up behind the shed in prep for all the gardening equipment to come out there.  We worked out we have about 8 weekends before we go to Canberra and there are a lot of things that need to be done from our side.

Hoping that Paul will start trimming up the walls so we can get going with the cobbing

Installing cleats

When we went back to Paul and asked him to quote for the whole job there were a couple of things we excluded.  Preparing the soil (which with all this rain has become a major headache - hopefully resolved by the stuff that was taken out of the biolytix hole).  The sanding and finishing of all floors, and installing cleats to the steel joists.  We decided that screwing the decking to the steel would take too long and was valuable labour time we did not want to spend.  We came up with the idea of installing pieces of timber along the joists so the decking can then be nailed to the timber - making it a quicker process.  This will also make the decking hopefully end up in line with the internal flooring making it seamless.... well that's the theory anyway

Site Supervisor - you just gotta have them!

Thanks to everyone that came out on the weekend to help - we managed to get all done bar the pool table area and the northern breezeway - and that was because the doors and scaffolding were on them.  We'll get back out there this weekend and hopefully some of the decking will be down.

Biolytix, Kitchen is in

With the first dry week for a long time occurring we have been able to get the Biolytix installed and the irrigation in place.  This filters all Grey and Black water from the house without having to worry about a separate system. 

The irrigation area is closer to the shed than I thought, but Rod has built up around it and once we move all the soil from the bottom of the envelope up to the fence ( creating an area so water will flow away from the house) then we should not have an issue with run off.  We will plant some shrubs in the are to help soak up the water and a week after we move in Rod will come back and put the worms in.

We also had the kitchen installed.  A little earlier than we wanted, but we had no choice as we had to line up with the kitchen's schedule.

We are really happy with the look of the kitchen - Paul assures me that the proximity of the end near the straw is not going to cause any dramas with the rendering process.  If it does become an issue then we may put gyprock where the kitchen buts up against the straw.

The island bench looks really great - though it is a pity that I wont be able to cut directly on the surface - but I will just make a big board to cover the area.

One thing that did come to light is that the depth of the fridge space is too shallow - Lucky we picked it up now and not when we were moving in!!!  Paul said it can be fixed... cheaper than the cost of a new fridge I hope.

straw is in

All the straw is up and complete - compression is under way. We went out there last weekend and took some photos

Granny flat outdoor area

2nd Bedroom, bathroom, master bedroom

Looking North, 2nd room, bathroom - you can see the bath

Kitchen, living room wall - spiral staircase up to loft

From the master bedroom there will be sliding doors through to the living room

Outdoor area.
The Electrician and Plumber have roughed in, materials are onsite for flooring, decking.  I think its a push now to get the kitchen ready as that will be the next thing to get in - doors and windows should be arriving soon....

Straw Has Started!!!!

What a surprise to find that the straw has started - found out later that the engineer wants to see the tie downs as part of the framing certificate so its up with the straw.  It is kind of a bittersweet moment - something that Cath and I have schooled up on and wanted to really do ourselves is now not an option - but that's the way it goes.  Hopefully we will be able to do some cobbing as I'm sure Paul does not want to be left with all of that.

Start of the living room wall.  When they moved the straw from under the tarps where it has been for 12 months there was some trepidation as to what was living there.  We already knew there was a Red Belly (thank you Baxter the dog) but what else?  Thankfully the boys only saw a couple of field mice, but the worker in the shed had a meeting with afformentioned snake when it bolted out of the straw and into the shed!! 

Paul making a start on the Nothern Living room wall.  Some of the straw has been lost to the weather and a few of them will need to be handled carefully as the string has relaxed a bit - but it aint gonna fall down - not once the tie downs are there.

Pile of straw waiting to be put in

Electrician has already roughed in so hopefully those snap decisions we made on Wednesday will work out.

Solar Panels today - plumber on Monday....

Framing along

We went out there last week to see some of the framing and bracing on around the rooms - we had a quick dash over to the bathroom place to select a bath so we needed to see if the one we wanted will fit in the space.  We will have to back over the bathroom list so we can see if the other stuff will fit.

This is looking at Ollie's room- bracing done and the window starting to be framed.

The bathroom framing has started - with the toilet being framed.  We also have the the framing done for the walk in robe.

The kitchen with the window framing done.  This window is going to be a sliding window and screen allowing for this to be used as a servery

Cath and Ollie looking out of the ensuite.

Additions to the dam.  Where possible we are going to try non chemical ways of dealing with with different issues with the block - one big issue is the mosquitos - so we bought 20 Pacific Blue eye and put them in the dam, with the hope that they will bring down the Mosquito population.



And the rest of the roof is up

So we went out the week before last and we have the roof done. They have also cracked on with getting the framing completed.

This shows Oliver's room - you can also see the framing has started for the master bedroom.

From the front - Cath and Oliver having a sit - you can see the framing for the loft is almost complete.

View up from the living room looking out to the east.  This is how the living room roof will look.  The framing for the sliding doors can be seen below and they have also framed for the louvres and windows.

From the living room looking up to the loft they have framed for the storage room on the left and at the front you can see that the frame for the railing has been done - where there is no rail is where the spiral staircase will go.

This is looking from the South.

So its all starting to get a crack on - spoke to the builder last night and Paul said the kitchen people are keen to get their stuff done and he expects that we will have a kitchen in 4 weeks!  Also means that gyprock and flooring will also have to be done.  We will go out there this weekend to hopefully see most of the framing done.

Makes us both happy when we go out there and see progress - the house has a presence... and I think that with the position of the road where you wont really see the house until you turn the corner will work really well.
Cath and I are keen to get started - we have the permaculture plan and we hope to start building gardens in the next month - but not before we overcome the elephant (or should I say mud )  in the room.  We have to sift the clay to get it ready for rendering.  And as each day brings rain I just hope we haven't left our run too late for this....