And we are back in business

So it feels like weeks since I have posted anything here, and when I look at the date of last post I see it has been weeks!!  There had been a lot happening, but not with the build.  Unfortunately we had to relinquish the owner builder side as we could not get the house to lock up with our own funds.  At this stage Cath and I want a house, however we get it - so the builder that has been doing the bulk of the work will complete the build.
So here we are - we are out of the ground and the yellow tongue is down.  They have framed the kitchen and put the loft in - here you can see the cross beams have been put in.

You can see the steel beam that has been put in for the loft

Framing for the kitchen.
So hopefully we will have a roof in a couple of weeks and the the internal framing will kick on - in by Christmas!

Start of a floor

So we went out to the block on the weekend to see the progress.  We are finding it harder to get out there due to Mine and Cath's work load at the moment - my project goes into PRD this weekend and Cath has been working hard with her recent cultural events.  It was nice to finally get out there and see some bearers, joists, lintels, and a floor...

This is the floor to the granny flat.  You can see the double bearers on the right and left of the this picture - these are to support the weight of the straw.

You can also see the cross beams which gives us a sense of space for the rooms.

They had started the joists for the living room, and had added the double joist for the spiral staircase so we can also start to gauge the space for the living area.  Hopefully when we go out there on the weekend we will have a complete floor. 

Talking to Paul last week the next job will be the wall framing for the kitchen as some of that is supporting the roof.  We also need to get an idea of where the loft will be so we can look at ordering the spiral staircase.

Alistair (my brother in law)  arrive tomorrow so hopefully we can sit down with him and work out some strategies for cost cutting... as this is getting a little expensive.

Steel Posts are up

We've had some more activity on the build.  The steel stumps have been cut to size and the larger posts have been added over the top of them.

Some of these posts will go right up to the roof and form part of the structure

But you wont see them in the house as they will be covered by straw, or by building.  You can also see that the angles for the joists have been added, so you can get an idea of the floor height

This is the joist height for the pool table area.

We also spent Sunday at Colin and Chris's place in Wolfdeene.  Colin is the engineer for the build and he and Chris have been involved in the straw building community for a while.  We wanted to talk to them both about what's next as far as the big jobs are - and that is the render.  We have plenty of clay to use for the render, but after seeing how good their place came up in the Lime external we are now thinking maybe we might have an external lime render - we will have to make our minds up quick as you need to make the lime up early and let it cure.

So once we have finished the nails (one pile to go)  we need to start sifting, and seiving the clay down to a workable consistency with the sand.... this job is going to be fun!!!

And we are out of the ground

... lets all breathe out shall we??
it has been a long time coming - but we are out!  Concrete was ordered for Thursday and the boys worked big hours to get all the trench mesh in and tied - but they did it!

We needed a boom pump to get over all the footings with a minimum of drama, so they arrived around 11 and set up - concrete started at 12 - and they worked until late in the evening to get it finished.

It is a relief to not be as reliant on the weather - I no longer scour the skies for rainclouds - nor am I the biggest user of the BOM site any more, but the weather interruption definitely came at a cost - we under budgeted the concrete by a third due to the footings having to be redug - and dug deeper. But we are steadfastly looking ahead - do yuorself no favours by doing the what if's.. there'll be time for recollection and beers later... hopefully on a nice deck looking out at the dam!!
So hopefully we will get a kick on now - next each post will be cut to size and the brackets for the bearers and joists will be added to the posts.  Hopefully next blog you'll see the steel posts that go over these in the photos up and get an idea of the size and height of the place.

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....