Buangi Lane - page 5

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12/13 March 2008

Spent a couple more evenings down at the shed finishing off the setup for the power. Got the conduits and wires run up to the lights on the roof, and down to the back wall for the light down there. So now its all ready for dad to terminate this weekend.

15 March 2008

Jack and the excavator have been back and cleared out more around the western end of the house, and the back courtyard, so that's ready for the blocks. Jack was still going this morning, flattening off the garage site, digging some trenches for water and power, and flattening off in front of the shed. Another load of concrete arrived at 10:15. This time we can back the truck along the top, a week of dry hot weather has been great to dry out the ground. Got some bodies this time too. Pete was down so we roped him in, Dad was down too, so he got a float, and Otto was around again and help with a barrow. We had enough concrete to get all but the last 2 rows done.

In the afternoon dad was in the heat of the shed finishing off the electrics. I made a trip down to Bunnings to get some stormwater pipe and fittings. Then got to dig out the rest of the electric trench to the tank. That was some fun going through the clay and rock.

16 March 2008

By Sunday lunchtime dad had the shed lights and power all finished. We put the conduit and wire in down to the tank for the pump, but the outdoor powerpoint we had was wrong, so that's the last bit to do. So now we got outside lights on the shed too. I got to fill in the trench we'd just dug the day before! After lunch dad and I got to sorting the stormwater. By 6pm we had it all hooked up and into the tank. So now we can sit back and watch the rain fill the tank up. Except now that its hooked up it probably won't rain!

20 March 2008

It was a bit of a hectic day, but now we've got the concrete footings done, and the excavation and block moving is getting awefully close too. Jack was back and moved the blocks into place. We still need a few more, so hopefully next week we can get them in and sorted before we start putting posts up. He filled in the water pipes and finished off leveling the garage site. I'd guess that is where it will stay now and we'll just make out 6x6 slab fit there.

The concrete truck was an hour earlier than planned cause they had a load brought back. It was lucky that dad had come along to lend a hand, cause we still had to barrow the lower row in, but then the last row we shot straight out of the truck. That would have been the way to do all of them! We had a bit left over, so we used that to make a slab next to the tank for the pump, and a step outside the access door on the shed. Turns out the 2.5 cubic meter load we had worked out perfectly.

21-24 March 2008

You think a lot would have happened over the easter long weekend. But between the rain and us going away to Gosford for Nana's 90th birthday, there wasn't heaps of progress. But the bits we did were key. Friday Trev and I got to setting out the post feet. Checking and double checking the measurements takes time, but it does help if they're in the right spot when the floor starts going down. Before the final storm on Monday afternoon we got to drilling and bolting in the top row. Our system of gluing the base plates to the concrete with liquid nails and then using the holes as a guide will work great. So a bit more gluing, drilling and bolting, and then we'll be ready to start shooting levels.

30 March 2008

While we were away in Canberra on the Saturday Trev got busy and drilled and bolted all the remaing base plates. So Sunday we got the dumpy out and a post with a tape glued to it and got all our pole heights. So not much to see in pictures, but we'll get some poles cut early next week, and then we can start sticking bearers up onto the new posts. Hopefully the floor will then take shape nice and quickly.

2 April 2008

Trev gave the old Courier a workout again today. He went and picked up all the steel posts after they've been all cut to length. We went and sttod them all up to make sure they were all there. And running the eye over them they even look pretty level. Gives a great idea of the size of the house and where the floor level will end up. Its a long way off the ground at the front, but that's all good. Will give us a beaut outlook from the deck and dining room.

9 April 2008

So now that all the birthdays and parties are out of the way we can get back into the house again. Last Saturday morning Trev and I screwed down the first 3 rows of posts and attached the bearers. In between rain showers this week we've been slowly knocking over the rest. Only 2 and a bit to go now, but they'll take longer because they're the tall posts so need to be spot on vertical. In thoery the tek screws can just be put straight through in one go, but in reality some of the brackets seem to have the density of diamonds! So drilling then screwing is needed, and even then is a bit of a struggle.

And I thought I'd include some pics of my shoe to show you why I hate that dirt so much after a bit of rain. It just sticks to everything. Its horrible stuff.

13 April 2008

After all the posts were stood up we chucked on a few bearers to keep them from falling over again. We've also gone around and started on the bracing. We're putting it pretty much everywhere we can. This bugger ain't going to be rocking, even with the big westerlies and a couple of little tykes running around it.

15 April 2008

More bracing went on. While I was doing that Trev worked on the end blocking for the bearers. Once one side of blocking was done we put down the first lot of joists. The floor is coming together.

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