Finally Some Action!!

 After waiting for what seemed an eternity... well.. it was 26 days ago... we have finally seen some movement on the house site.  Paul turned up on Monday and set about re-digging trenches and clearing out the site.  At this stage we have 3/4 of the steel posts - which we have been painting - in the ground.

It was great to finally see some work done on the place.  We were out there with some friends on the weekend and managed to get some more of the wood de-nailed.  One and a bit piles to go.  I am dubious that we will be able to use it all having spent so much time out in the elements, but what we use will still be cheaper than if we bought it new.

At this point I would like to say to those thinking of owner building - you do truly need to know and question most things.  Hindsight is a great leveller, but I think if we had looked more closely at the footing system and realised the expense it was going to be we might have got a second opinion.... just because they a respected in their field does not mean what they say goes.

Trenches have been dug

So there was a flurry of activity down at the block last week.  Paul decided that he was tired of waiting for a good time to do this so he has done the trenches - it may turn out to be a bad move as we are again in the midst of a huge downpour - started Sunday and apart from a small respite Monday morning its just kept raining.

I thought I would help by doing a bit of labouring - if the rain stops by the end of the week we will be out there on the weekend pumping out trenches I assume - but this is another setback for a build that I was determined to get finished by End of June - it is frustrating...

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....