diaphragm wall

It was pretty hard to take a picture of the excavation, so I took a video...

http://youtu.be/31Q05UoX1TE

Cubby House

My next big project is a cubby house / firepit.

The cubby house is to be partially underground. and the fire put is to be sunken (around 450-500mm). The top of the cubby house will be around 0.9-1m and be a viewing platform/stage for Louka. The bottom bit will be the actual cubby house.

The first step is to remove the builder's toilet - done.

Second is to build what is called a diaphragm wall by the fence. I excavated a trench 100mm x 1400mm below the fence and filled it full of concrete and reo N12 @ 350mm . Being mostly sand, it was easy for the first metre. Then it was hard sandy clay. The idea behind a diaphragm wall is to enable "bulk excavation" without impacting the park. This wall is approximately half the final width of the wall.

garden spring 2011

Did heaps of gardening today to get rid of weeds and string up some tomatoes

Bird Attack

A few amusing phots of birds disturbing our breakfast in bed...

Birds launching their attack...

Liz looking annoyed.

Liz saving her breakfast and Louka looks on.

Check out Louka's eyes...

Bird just waiting in the trees.

Rozella culprit...

Forgot the name of this one.

DIY Roller Coster

DIY roller coaster at Green Valley Farm

Camper in the Wild

The camper was never really designed for wet weather. On the first night it rained and rained and the canvas got wet and kind of started wetting ur

bed clothes. Fortunately we packed a plastic tarp. The combination led to a dry night sleep. It also doubles as a bit of insulation for when it is

cold. In short, all is good.

It looks a bit cramped to sleep in, but it is not. There is a good amount of head room and a window towards the front - which is sheltered by the

rain by the tarp. On the tray proper are are tiled rubber mats perfect for muddy environments.

We are at Green Valley - a manual amusement park in the middle of nowhere off a dirt track. It is great. The roller coaster makes an absolute acket

and you have to push it yourself all the way to the top before you jump on and go for a ride. I have got to take some photos.

Home Automation

I've put in some home automation to automatically turn on/off lights. I totally recommend the one from Jaycar. It is very versitile and has battery backup. It is in parallel with the normal light switch, so you can do one or the other.

camper van

Here is is in photos. Not really shown in the dual battery set up.

There is a window in the back that opens. A smaller one as well on the front side. It has fly screen to keep out insects.

The matress sits on the shelf below. We got a latex 5cm thick matress and it works well.

Ute Camper - Squaring Up

An age old problem with mounting doors is squaring up the frame so the door does not sag. I went for the over designed industrial solution - mainly because that is all the materials I have...

Camper

We are going on two week camping holiday in a month. Time to build a camper.. The super structure is basically complete.

Corbels Again

My DIY concrete vibrator seemed to work well - see previous post. As bonus, the corbels make good chin up bars ;) Nice and chunky - suits the garage.

Here is my very dodgy form work... I wet downed the concrete blocks before placing the concrete - it makes it stick better. The concrete was a fairly dry mix. It is amazing that the mix can go dry to wet in just a cup of water.

I accidently covered some of the screws with the chip board and had to do some cutting. Not for the faint hearted is an angle grider with a multi cutting blade...

Off comes the form work and now appears the green concrete. I used a wire brush to create a bit of texture...

Baked Cheese Cake

Base:
1 cup of Arnotts Scotch Finger or Nice biscuits
6 table spoons of melted butter
3 table spoons of sugar
Filling:
375g of cream cheese (softened)
2 eggs
1/2 cup (100g) sugar
1 table spoon of vanilla essence
1 cup of light sour cream

Bake at low temp for ~ 35 minutes.

Pork and Peanuts

3/4 pound of cubed pork
2 tablespoons of oil
1.5 table spoons of soya sauce
1.5 table spoons of brown sugar
3 oz of unsalted peanuts
2 carrots
1 small onion
2 green peppers

Fry up the sauces and oil in the wok as a reduction. The idea is that this will coat the meat and veggies.

Kids should love it.

Concrete Corbels

Here is my diy concrte vibrator... It seems to work well, tomorrow I will find out.

Concrete Corbel

I placed the concrete. Big, chunky and texture matches the wall...

I welded up some steel brackets for some shelves. The advantage is that they are perfectly level and each shelf has a theoretical working design load of 600kg per shelf (if you trust my welding). Anyway each bracket can support my weight on the tip.

Corbels for the Garage

Bent the steel with my reo-bender (that I bought for the steel re-inforcing for the house) and araldited them in using Sika anchor fix. I should have heated up the stuff in my heating cabinet to make it flow easier. The welding was just to hold the steel in place.

I used WD-40 to get the coach screws all the way in. Together with an impact driver, they made it all the way in - 200mm !

I put some (temporary) brackets in to support the concrete form. I used packers to level it up - :). I estimate it will need to support the setting of around 100kg of concrete. BTW, have no fear. The wall is a solid re-inforced concrete filled wall. One N16 rod mesh at 400mm squares.

Steel Supports

Lots of drilling today - 60 13mm holes in steel and 64 masonary holes. I'm getting ready to araldite steel reinforcementg into the wall. This particular one is 50mm closer to the posts than the others - hence the washers. I only have an auger bit that can drill 150mm and a box of 200mm coach screws.

Steel Supports

As part of the garage renovation, I wanted to reinforce the bearers and posts. I bought some 8mm thick angle steel, some bolts and some coach screws.

Drilling into the steel (13mm holes) was a lot easier than I expected. Especially with one of those cheap 1/2 horse power drill presses from kmart. Admittedly 2hp would have been better. I drilled a 4mm pilot hole and then the 13mm. I kept lubricating with wd40 to keep it cool. It took around 1 minute to drill. I set the drill to its lowest speed. The steel came off in nice little sharp spirals.

Here is the end result (kind of). Coach screws to go in, steel to be painted and of course so is the concrete. The holes down the bottom are for rebar.

Giant Radishes and Compost

One of the giant raddishes removed to prepare the garden bed. Past their eat by date.

About 6 months worth of compost going into the vege patch. Really smells. Wheely bins are great for composting. The holes in the bin clogged up, so I enlarged them to 8mm.


I visited Edcon Steel for some angle iron. Their customer service was spot one, amazing, helpful and well priced. I can't wait to purchase more steel.

Concrete Path

After about 4-6 hours, the concrete was set enough to finish the step...

I added a contraction / crack gap in the middle and a micro spoon drain at the end. Hopefully the water will run off into the garden.