Week 3

Week 3 was as expected. We had to wait until the site dried out enough for trucks to come in and remove excess soil. Apparantly over 30 truck loads of soil were removed.

Not much happening next week. Waiting for the bricks to arrive from South Australia. They should come Thursday or Friday. I'm hoping week 5 will show some big differences with bricks starting to get laid.

Need to make a decision about a pool. Worried that we might run out of cash, but on the other side, if we don't do it now we may struggle to do it later as diggers tend to make a mess. The way I see it is we've already got a mess now so let's dig another hole? Going to need a permit first. We'll see.

Week 2

Footings went in this week despite the rain we've had.

 Things might slow down now until the site is dry enough to clear it of all the excess soil. Bricks and water tanks can then be delivered as soon as the site is ready. Then the bricklaying can start.

Started at last

 

                    29/07/13 - We have finally started digging today. The beginnings of plumbing, piers, foundations were all started today. A very exciting time. We should have a slab for our 2 downstairs rooms by the weeks end and then foundations for the rest of the build will commence next week. Hopeful of having regular updates from now on.

  As usual for Warrandyte, we hit a few rocks. We will have a solid foundation to build of, that's for sure.

31/07/13 - Made some great progress over the last couple of days. Inspections have been done and we're ready to pour the slab for the lower level on Friday. The footings for the rest of the house will be completed next week in time for the bricklayers to start week commencing the 12th August.

Meanwhile, some rocky ground underneath has been a challenge but nothing the guys couldn't handle. Weather so far has looked after us.

  The slab went down today for our lower 2 rooms. A great first week. Hope all the trades can keep going at this pace.

   We have a bit of clean fill to get rid of. I was really surprised by the amount of excavating that need to be done. I think the extra soil will be removed sometime next week or, at the latest, Monday 12th August.

Before we begin

 After many sleepless nights we have got planning approval for our new home that we will be buiding. It took 8 months and much tooing and frowing but now we can get down to business. The exciting thing is now we can start organising a schedule and ordering materials. In fact I have just paid deposits for windows and bricks as they have the longest lead times. 12 weeks for windows and 16 weeks for bricks. That means we can probably start to break dirt in 8 weeks to start on the foundations and the initial stages of plumbing and wiring. That reminds me....I have to get power connected to the site otherwise we wont have any to power the tools. Better get to it

                                   This is our block and we are building just on and over that step...looking from the back

 

and this is what we are building.

                                                                      and, out of this.........timbercrete.