I know in 12 months I'll be wishing it to rain but...

Work has stopped for the last week - we had 2 really big storms that came through last Monday and Thursday that just drenched the site.  We went out there Saturday and you could not even see the tank - it was under water... kind of ironic.
Paul is out there today fixing up more of the posts and, weather permitting, we should start putting them in by Thursday - so it means a couple of late nights this week putting blackjack on the posts we've done - just going over the bottom plate.
I can't wait until we are out  of the ground so we can kind of still work if its rained.
Watch this space....

Now this is a crappy Job

So instead of having to HD Galvanise the 46 posts required for the footings - two coats of Bitumen paint will do the trick.  We had to paint the stumps that Paul the builder had welded.  The posts, the rods, everything!  from the bottom of them up to a metre up the posts needed to be black. So we arrived Sunday morning 7am to start.  Em arrived not long after, and Royce (to fix up Tallulah) showed up as well.

The paint was gluggy and half way through we had to clean them up with petrol to make it easier.  Of course Baxter the dog insisted on sitting underneath the posts - Consequently he is a little blacker for it.
It took us most of the day to complete 28 of them - 18 have not been made yet - so there's another fun afternoon in the making.

With only a break for lunch we finished - hot, sore, and sunburnt.  These are the times when all those romantic notions of owner building fly out the window - I even prefer the de-nailing to this.

Thanks to Em and Royce for helping - made a yukky day a littl bit more bearable... we'll let you know when the rest of them are ready for painting!!

We have a Tank

And what a tank - 7,000 gallons!! We moved the house by a metre so the footings would not be near the massive hold they made for it - these are the things you can do with an acre for a building envelope.

I was worried the dog might fall in, until I saw the plastic. This tank will be our only water supply. We had other tanks in the design, but I decided to have just one and see how we go. We have left the door open for others if we need them...

The picture below shows the tank is relation to where the hosue will be. You can also see the shed with the other tank on it ( this water wil be used for veggies) and behind the tank is where the straw is sitting at the moment - keeping nice and dry under the massive tarps.

A new addition

So.... we have a new addition to the family, so far unnamed -

When you are living in the country you got to look the part!! Too much land to push mow, so we got the tractor - kind of cute.... maybe Fergus is a good name... or Tululah (you can see the issues we have) Its running good now that I had a friend look over it - now if it will only stop raining long enough to try it out.

Posts are Up

Anyone who has been following the weather will have noticed a lot of rain up here - kind of turned the site into a quagmire - but in between falls we got the poles up!

We have 9 poles that form the basis of the build - these came from Grafton! The steel for the posts has also been delivered and hopefully in the next week these will be made a put in the ground - all 46 of them. For a green house there is a fair amount of concrete going into it - but there is not a lot we can do. Once a plot has been labelled (firezone, reactive soil, flood) you pretty well have to comply with all the regs that come with it. People say to check these things before you build, but realistically unless you have a lot of money - the land that has none of these constraints are pretty expensive. Thankfully the changes we have had to make to the design, and the materials has not been too great....

And So it Starts... Again

We met with the builder last week to discuss the start of the build and to get the take off schedule from him. He has given us the list for the footings so its off to the suppliers.
We have had to contend with rather dodgy soil so the engineer has given us footings of steel (and conctrete) and complicated ones at that. Theoretically we will be able to jack up sides of the house if the soil moves.... He also spoke of the large conctrete tank that is going in between the house and the shed - this is the first thing that needs to go in before we can start the footings.
So Paul (the builder) went out yesterday and pegged out the house so we could work out where the tank will go - I have yet to get out there, but I must admit it is both exciting and daunting - Cath and I need to keep on top of suppliers, contractors, budget.....gets me a little nervous I can tell you!!!

Will post some pictures once I get out there

The BA is in!

So it looks like we have co-ordinated the submission of the Building Application. We are going through a private certifier.. just cause its a little different. All expecations are that the house will be out of BA by Monday 14th and we can start talking to the builder on a start date. I had hoped to maybe turn over a sod of dirt before Christmas ... but sadly that is not going to happen.

Don't worry - Cath and I still have plenty to do. We have not knocked off much of the wood piles that need de nailing, the weather is just so hot that after a couple of hours we are melting - but if its to be used in the construction we will just have to soldier on!! We can also now get on to the part of costing what we need - the house, due to the soil type, will have some formidable foundations so we can at least start costing the steel and concrete to do in it. I know.... concrete and steel - there are times when you have to be practical about these things....