Flooring and verandah progress

Today saw the flooring started, which is particularly exciting as we can now walk on our lower level and start to get a real feel for the size of the space. It's also great to get a sense of the view we will have from our living / kitchen / dining. And it also means that the framing comes next!!

When I turned up, the men were nailing the flooring sheets to the joists, and it is hard work! The tongue and groove sheets are hammered together by a mallet before being nailed to the joists. They are much heavier than I had realised too. It was really interesting for me to stop for a few minutes and watch the men at work, you get a much better sense of how precise their craft is and how much time they spend to get things right. And why they don't ever need to go to the gym!

These photos are taking at about 2.30pm, just before picking the children up from school:

The joists for the verandah had also been added today:

Go the Makita! 

I was so excited about the floor, I called DH and asked if he wanted to visit the site with me after work. So later on we returned with the children, and had out first walk on the floor! Woop woop! 

I took many more photos, however I can't share them as they include the children. It was so much fun walking on the floor! Really looking forward to it being finished tomorrow.

Our back verandah!

As the week of beautiful weather continues, so does progress on site. Our verandah flooring and some framing was put up yesterday (Wednesday 21 August). It sounds crazy, however I was really excited to see tall posts and some height!

The verandah looks big when I'm standing next to it, and adds a large area to the living space. It makes the whole lower level footprint look massive! I think we're in a "it looks really big" stage, however I know that the perceived house size will oscillate between large and small throughout the build.

Joisting it up!

Our joists are in! I wasn't intending to go out to the site this afternoon, however the children and I had to make an unexpected trip to the shops, so on our way home .......

Looking here at our laundry, butlers pantry and kitchen

Close up of the Butlers Pantry and Laundry behind

Looking back across dining to the living

Looking from the living room corner back to the dining, kitchen, laundry

View from the road side

View from the garage slab

Hoping to see floor on and some framing tomorrow. Not sure if that's being too optimisitc! Some great progress this week and we're only on Tuesday.

I'm not sure if I will visit tomorrow now? I probably won't be able to help myself!

Bearers Up!

Like the addict I am, I dragged the children out to the site after school and an afternoon chiro appointment to check the progress today. We didn't stay long, however I was thrilled to see some lovely pieces of wood adhered to the piers! I couldn't enter onto the site, however I took a couple of phone pics through the fence:

Suddenly the lower floor plan looks smaller again! 

I'm not sure if the flooring on the lower level is laid before the carpenters install the bearers for the lounge room (which sits adjacent to the garage, at the front of the house). They may need the access? I will see! I may not visit the site tomorrow, however I will on Wednesday. It's hard to keep away! 

Happy Monday everyone!

No more progress this week

Despite beautiful weather, no-one was on site after Tuesday when the materials were dropped off.   I was really disappointed, especially after so much action the last couple of weeks. I know it's the way it is in building, c'est la vie!

Anyway, I have been assured that carpenters will be back on site tomorrow (Monday 19/8). Looking forward to my visit tomorrow afternoon. Beautiful Ekka weather here in Brisbane at the moment, long may it last!

It also looks like the western boundary work will commence this week (or maybe next), which is exciting. I've explained in another post, however our neighbour cut into the block along the boundary for their build, and have been planning to retain once into their house. They were going to do this independently.

However, our plans changed, and we asked if we could retain the height of the wall to the edge of the covenant line, so that we have a flat backyard. So our boundary wall is now a joint one. It will be concrete block wall starting at 2.4m at it's highest and settling not far down at 2.2m. Once the wall is in we will build the fence on top, probably sitting at about 1.2m high.

This is the area I'm referring to:

This photo shows the boundary to be retained. We won't see the retaining wall from our side, however it will make a huge difference to our site.  

The area to be retained runs up the to the RHS of this photo, along the line of our temporary fencing.  It will meet up with our existing retaining wall.  

From where I am standing to take this photo, the block will run flat out to the wall, once retained to the left. I think it will make a huge difference once the block is leveled out to that corner point. 

Looking down along the boundary to be retained. 

If you can see it, the wall will run along the yellow string to the left of the cut.

I hope I can post many more photos this week :) Fingers crossed for great weather! 

Have a wonderful week!

Bearers, joists and flooring have arrived

The bearers, joists and flooring arrived yesterday at about 9.30am. I ran out to the block after work to see if anything was happening, and the materials were all piled on the garage slab. Mark and team were termite proofing the block wall - our laundry wall will be hard against the block wall.

I assume nothing is happening today as it's the Ekka show holiday today. Hopefully tomorrow we see some bearers and joists go up and the flooring. Mark thought it would take a couple of days for the bearers and then a couple of days for the flooring. Then the garage frame and lower floor frame goes up next week. I REALLY can't wait to see our first framing go up. Bring on next week! 

Happy Ekka holiday everyone :) 

Piers / Stumps completed

DH and I were out on Saturday looking at a new rental (we have to move rentals before the build is complete - ouch!), when we saw a huge billow of smoke in the direction of our build. We're weren't intending to visit the block, however the smoke prompted a visit. Luckily the fire was still a fair distance, though our block afforded a decent view! The upside was that we were able to admire our lovely stumps! It's great to walk through and start to get a feel for how the house will end up.

Not much more to say, just lots of pictures to share. They say it all!:

The biggest pier on the block! This beast was impressive in real life! 

This one shows the bush fire over on the next ridge. The smoke was much more dense live.

These supports the lounge room, dining room and back verandah. Hard to get a sense of perspective yet. DH and I walked through the rooms to try to gauge the dimensions and height. 

These rest under our kitchen and laundry area. My clothesline will be erected on the rights, against the fence.

Our lower level will sit above the level of these piers. 

This week: floors and framing (I hope!). Mark said the timber should be onsite by Tuesday, fingers crossed. Look forward to sharing more soon. And long live the beautiful Ekka weather! (Brisbane Ekka is on this week for those who aren't in Qld, short for Exhibition. It's like the Sydney Royal Easter Show. Public holiday Wednesday as a result, so no work on Wednesday. However August brings winds and beautiful, warm sunny days with the Ekka - perfect for building!!). 

Have a wonderful week one and all!