Path

I've put in a path to the front door - well it is not much, didn't cost anything and took ten minutes. At least stones should not be dragged up the steps anymore.



I've finished most of the storm water. I just need to connect the pipes to the tank.

Here is my garage - it is a bit old, but you can see the lights.



My downstairs bathroom which my wife will never visit. It is a secret bathroom - don't tell her! I'm planning on putting a men's toilet sign on it. It is very industrial with a dual strip fluoro lighting, exposed pipe work etc. I'm even planning on putting in the old crap washing machine when the wife upgrades. I'll probably paint the concrete blocks.

Tiling

The tilers have come back to finish the tiling. They managed to finish most of the grouting, but they ran out of time - they have to finish by 5pm, so they are back tomorrow for an hour or so.





I've been busy doing the storm water. I need to get this inspected next week. I'm handing over to my wife Liz at the end of next week, so there is a big push to get everything done.

Balustrade and Tiling

The tiler has finished tiling the upstairs with the downstairs to go. He is doing a good job.



There is no floor drain here because it is a summer kitchen. Tiles just look nice.



I put in a balustrade to block off the stairwell. I won't have time to do the stairs, so this will do in the meantime. It is very solid. Certainly Louka proof.



I spent some more time doing the storm water. It is very fiddly. I'm putting a first flush devices on each down pipe.

I missed my target of being finished by christmas. I'm very close.

Storm Water

Yesterday I started putting in my storm water. I was very excited to arrive this morning to find the pit full of water and a little water stain near the gutter. Meaning of course that it is successfully draining storm water. Another yay.

I also found time to demolish my rear shed and finish my privacy barrier. The barrier looks good as it frames a rather attractive crepe myrtle.

lockup

Well, I can finally lock the house up. All the external doors are in. Yay!

Here is a rare inside view of the house. Notice how the high windows can open up to a horizontal position. This ensures maximun ventilation.






The light coloured roof reflects the sun. Insulation helps as well. The place is noticably cooler inside than out.



I'm sure a tree has decided to invade my block. My wife is a real greenie so I can't cut it down.

Sashes

It is full steam ahead in installing the windows. I've finished the low ones and now I am installing the high ones. The high ones open inwards - called hopper windows. The idea is that I can easilly put in fly screen. It is really good how the windows can open up to beyond a horizontal position. This insures that maximum ventilation will be achieved. I'm using decking to cover up the voids for the electrical.

The fixed stays are really forgiving in the sense that the gap around of the window can vary quite a bit and still work.



Here are my living room viewing windows. A fantastic view of kids as well as sometimes parents who do No1 and 2s behind the gardeners shed - gasp! I'm thinking and hoping that they might choose another shed to do their business.

Mean while, the carpenters have started the easy task of putting in the door jambs and beading.

Windows

It has been full steam ahead. My glass for my opening windows has arrived and I have just started putting them in. All of my opening windows are awning windows. They are really easy. The only issue will be the fly screens. I'll need to make hinged ones so you can open them to open the window. The top windows are hoppers that open on inside so I can put the fly screen on the outside.




The electrician has put in my fluoro lights and my garage is fully illuminated.



The gyprockers have almost finished.

Water Proofing

The water proofing guy came. He put fibre glass down and the next day, he put a coat of solvent based water proofing down.

The gyprocking boss decided to sack the guy who chipped the bath. He decided that he was lying about the chip. Presuambly the sacked guy lied because he though he would have to pay. He would not have had to, but the boss man could no longer trust him, so he sacked him.

It is a difficult thing. At the end of the day, an employer can not force an employee to pay for damage. I felt very guilty to be associated with someone who lost their job.

I started painting on cutek today. I'm quite happy with the result. It makes the bloodwood very dark.

Fifth Bath

Ok, I'm on to my 5th bath. Surprise, surprise I am not a happy chappy. The 2 after I found a rusted crack had defects and fortunately they were not installed. The 4th was damaged by the gyprockers - they used a hammer rather than their special tool to trim the villaboard! The guy that did it kept on denying it but fortunately the boss man said he will pay. All I had to do was organise for its removal, a new bath, the plumber to come back and the gyprock guys to finish it that day. Fortunately I did it! It cost me a day and a bundle on phone calls.

I had already organised the water proofing guy for tomorrow (he could not come today), the council guy Monday and the tiler Monday as well.

Hit by reality on the ground

I have suffered from the reality on the ground by the plasterers regarding insulation. I specified expensive sound screen R2.5 for all walls and ceilings. I knew the insulation would fit. However the plasterers could only get their hands on R3.o, so they got R3.0. Unfortunately it didn't fit and was causing the plaster board to bow. So they ended up splitting the insulation into 2. So I having paid for R2.5, I effectively get R1.5. It started off just a little bit here and there which I shrugged off as not that important and then it degenerated into most places. There was not much that I could do since the plaster had already been hung.

The moral of the story is do the insulation yourself. I know tradies "can" do a better job, but they are constrained by the need to perform the job efficiently and economically. Sadly the end result to a customer is all too often a worse outcome than doing it yourself.

Insulation is pretty much a exercise in trust. It is one of those things that you can not effectively tell whether a good job has been done or not.

What I am really annoyed with is that I allowed this to happen. The other thing is that I can't really justify getting it changed. This is because with the high ceilings, tree shading, very wide eaves, excellent ventilation, etc, etc I think we will have a very thermally comfortable house. It is very frustrating that I get home and my minds eye bends the whole issue into a huge injustice, but when I get the the work site, I realise it really will not make a significant difference. My wife and I have decided to use a product called thermilate which apparently will increase the R value by 50%.

plaster board, bath defect and insulation

The bath has a defect and I'll need to get it replaced - groan.

More gyprocking in underway. I'm putting sound rated insulation into all walls - internal and external

The plasterboard has started

The plaster board work has started. The guy thinks it will take between 2 and 3 weeks. Arg - it is going down to the wire.

Stairs and Glass

My glass for my fixed windows arrived today - yay! We started to put them in. Unfortunately one of the panes blew out and smashed before the beading was put in. But fortunately for some reason I got two extra panes so problem solved. The glass is special "comfort plus" and has a low U value (or high R value 0.28). It is really expensive at $250 per square metre. It reduces heat loss by over 30%, reduces voice noise by 15%, blocks out 99% of UV. It also lets in 82% of the light - which is good. Most of the windows have been reduced in size due to being made out of timber and having the jambs made out of 45mm thick timber. Technically I should not have to use energy rated glass, but I'm hoping that I will save on energy.

I have noticed that the acoustics have changed since installing the glass.

The stairs are in and they are great.

Here is the status of the kitchen windows. The glass has been ordered, the sashes have been built, the electricity, gas, plumbing have been roughed in. The kitchen has been bought. The gyprock people have being arranged to start next Wednesday or Thursday. The only thing left to do is install the fixed glass, sashes and a bit of oiling.

The carpenters will return on Monday to finish a few more things off.

First Two Sashes

I installed the first two window sashes today. They have no glass yet. I'm going to try to install the glass in-situ. Of course I spent the first 7 hours of the day getting W2 right and only half an hour putting in W3.

The window sashes are an unusual design. They are not glued, but held together using a loose mortise and tenon with a bugle screw. They are suprisingly very strong.

8th attempt at window sash w2

I routed the groove to hold the glass pane in the sashes today.

I attempted to first do this with the window frame all held together as a rectangle. Somehow I lost my grip and the window frame kept on bouncing off the router bit like a pool ball on a pool table (except it was the pool table moving). It made a complete mess of window sash W2 - ripped it to shreds. Not to mention that I almost dislodged my router - it was hanging loose and at an angle - which made it even worse. Fortunately the router was ok and the bit was also fine. Really scarey though - I was shaking a little bit. The router bit is around 5cm in diameter with 4 teeth and the speed of the router is 22000rpm. So the angular velocity is a cool - wait for it- 44.6 m/s or 160 kilometers per hour!

I'll redo W2 for the 8th time on Monday.

We went to IKEA today to buy our kitchens. We spent around 5k and got exactly what I wanted - very boring but very practical (kind of). Liz is "ok" with it, but she would have prefered a solid wooden kitchen. I'll do the upgrade in 25 years when the warranty runs out.

Sashes

I had spent most of the week playing around with making the sashed for my windows. I tried to do a double loose mortis and tenon and it just would not work. I didn't fasten down the stops in my jig so everything was all over the place. I though to my self "stuff it" and I'll start all over again this morning. I managed to complete all of the low window sashed in just a day. I ended up doing a single half inch wide loose mortis and tenon and fasten them using a bugle screw.

Here is a trench I dug for the the services.

Progress

The cladding is almost done.

Cladding Finished and Roofing Sheets Up

The cladding is basically finished and the roofing sheets are up. The carpenters and taking cup day off. I dug the trench for the services. We have water! (to the house)

Roof and Cladding

The roof and cladding is going on. Here are some photos:






Here is some detail in the flashing of windows and the colorbond wall.



In the meantime, i've being working on on the window sashes. These will be double loose mortise and tenon joints held together with a bugle screw. Designed to not fail after being hit with a sledge hammer - a bridge too far.

Record Rain

Yesterday it rained non stop. 114mm and the garage was overflowing with water when I arrived this morning. I spent most of the day collecting rubbish and draining the water. I did also however fit my first stops to one of my windows.

Over the last week, we made a small change by adding another room. We added a small kitchen complete with sink and gas outlet. Now we have a two bathroom, two kitchen, two living room, two bedroom house (four toilets including the temporary oudoor dunnie). I've got the plumber to put in some more taps for a washing machine to go into the downstairs bathroom - so maybe we have two laundries as well. We should call our beachhouse "two".

Flashing and Window Frames In

Today the window jambs that I have made got installed-except for the high windows. They are very solid (and heavy). Not everyone's cup of tea but they look good to me.

Inspection

I had my framing inspection today. A pass! and I am upto date with my inspections! the guy spent a whole hour looking over things.



ocean views from the roof.



funky plastic plumbing that has just become legal in nsw. They have just gone through the once in 100 years plumbing review.

Plumbing fixtures chosen

Graham had the plumber in recently and he needs to know all our fixtures. So today I went to Reece to pick them all out.

The showroom had a range of showers connected up, with pushbuttons to operate them, which Louka found quite exciting.

We'd already picked the washbasin (same as in our flat) which probably helped. I went in and asked for everything in the highest water-saving star rating, because that's what our BASIX certificate requires. They told me everything is the same anyway, which didn't help. So I gave them some general guidelines (bath size, mixer tap preference, etc) and went with the cheapest or their recommendation for everything, which simplified everything. I thought.

Except when I got home and actually checked our BASIX certificate, it required 6 star rated bathroom and kitchen taps. Which don't seem to exist, or if they do they're not available at Reece, where everything is 4 star. So I updated our certificate and of course it no longer passed. Graham suggested getting a bigger rainwater tank, so I increased the size from 3,000 litres to 3,200 litres, and now we pass again.

Tiles are chosen

I'd been looking at tiles for a week or two, but hadn't made a decision (it's hard to decide when you're not just choosing for yourself). Then this morning Graham suggested we look at tiles together. The only tile shop we could find open on Sundays was Amber Tiles, so that's where we went. They happened to be having a 20% off sale this weekend.

Louka sat at a table going through the contents of her treasure box and occasionally bringing us coins and polished stones while we looked at tiles for the entrance and bathroom floor and walls. We found a pleasant dark grey tile for the entrance quite quickly, but weren't getting very far for the bathroom. Graham was favouring dark greys while I preferred lighter and warmer colours. Then Graham said something about "blue". But it seemed there were no blue floor tiles. I saw a beautiful dark blue tile, which Graham thought looked expensive, so I went to ask about it. It was a wall tile so I asked if there were any blue floor tiles. At first the salesman said only the little mosaic tiles (which were the wrong blue anyway), then he remembered another one. Among all the grey-brown tiles it looked pale and dull, but when we put it besdide the white wall tiles it suddenly looked much richer. We considered using it for the entrance too, but the dark grey looked better against the deep ocean external walls.

So now we have all our tiles chosen, in one morning. I thought that was pretty good.

Rafter from the Rear

Here is a rear view of our house from the park. We decided to make the rafters for the top roof shorter. They put the rafters in at 600mm - the spec said 525, but they looked too long. You could not possibly see the sky. I got them to reduce it to 400 (a reduction of 125). This compensates the high windows being 40mm shorter. The angle from the bottom of the high windows to the end of the roof is still quite low. Absolutely no possibility of rain getting in those windows.



The carpenters worked back today. At 5pm the neighbour came out and demanded they stop. There are tight restrictions on working hours in this suburb.

More Framing

The framing is going up - ever more timbers. I think I have bought all the timber I need now. I've been beavering around making up the 24 high windows.

The high roof is a bit funny in the sense that it is really supported by purlins and the eve is supported by rafters. You will understand when I take a photo when this is done.

The main man chippy has made up his own scafolding - I don't want to know. Here is a picture. Straight from the turn of last century.

Most of the trusses are up

Most of the trusses are up. I can now get the feeling of what it will look like.

Trusses and Sanding

I spent most of the day sanding the exposed beams and trusses while the carpenters erected the trusses. They tell me that they can see the ocean while they were doing that. I'll get up there to take a photo.

They told me that I have ordered too many 2.7's. I said that is strange. I thought for a few seconds and then realised that they were going to install too few trusses. Another case of lucky I was there.

The Rain is Back

The rain came back and the garage is flooded. I resorted to trying to siphoning water out from the bathroom. It seems to be going ok albeit slowly. It really has that dungeon look now - dripping water, water marks - pretty scary. I drilled about 5 holes in the subfloor to try to get the water to drain through.



One of the problems of such a huge garage is that it will collect a lot of water. Every 10mm of water equates to 1.3 cubic metres of water. I'm expecting 50mm this weekend. I did the calcs and by punny garden hose siphon will remove around 200ml per second. So this will take 10 hours to drain away. The easiest way to calcuate the effect of siphoning is the cross sectional area multipled by the square root of 20 times the height difference.

I returned on Monday to find that the siphon had stopped. Either it had finished or became blocked. I started it up again and it drained most of the water after about 6 hours. I suspect it finished since there was a water mark on the park's footpath.

It is a very interesting garage. I may call it a dungeon. All those water marks - which would be impossible to artificially produce really make it quite dramatic and theatrical. A few moose heads would give it the finishing touch. The very rich dark red tanins from the spotted gum and bloodwood really add colour which I suspect would be almost impossible to remove. I'm not even going to try!

All of the posts are in and trade connect

All of the posts are in. We hired a crane ($500) to drop them all in. The carpenter thought they weighed around 200kg each. Of course I know this not to be true since that would mean I could lift 100kg - yeah right. The raw posts were 158mm square and 6.1m long. Their density would have to be 1.22 to be that weight. I forgot my camera, so sorry, not pictures. They all went in well and matched up so that they are vertical.

I took the plunge and asked for quotes through Trade Connect. After posting the job, 3 electricans were around that morning ready to quote me. Another couple are coming around Saturday. I recommend it.

Roof Framing

The roof framing is going up - yay!



I stood there and made sure that they put in 600mm eaves - Critical for the long term durability of the place. For every 100mm of eave, 200mm of wall gets protected from the weather. It goes from a H3 to a H1/H2 hazard rating. Together with the gutter, it means that just about all of the windows, they will theoretically not get wet when it rains. That means we won't have to wash or maintain them much. It is funny how most new dwellings these days have zero eaves - minimal protection against the weather.





I did a bit more pruning of the trees. Poor crepe myrtle - still it does show signs of life.