Electronic Disaster

I do not know what wrong with me, all my electronic equipment has taken a dive, camera, computer and CD player.

So you will have to put up with no visuals...

Great news, my wonderful DIY wife has bought me a new laptop. (Totally blown away) now I can see WERT keys, they were worn out (I'm not a touch typist)

Passed!

The building inspector passed me on my Pre-line Interior ( sounds like a digital Dr examination) this means I can now line the build.

Getting There

They say it's not the destination but the journey...

In this case it's definitely the destination.

Closed In

At last we are all closed in and the build is now lockable.

putting the windows in was a bit of a mission as the double glazing made them extremely heavy, plus they were a very tight fit. The window manufacturers did say they should have allowed an extra tolerance of 5mm but we got them in. (nice to tell me after they deliverd them)

The bathroom is all ordered including the floor tiles and underfloor heating.

Carpet has been ordered for the bedroom, and they will lay it early February, after the summer break.

It's only stage 1 but I think it's starting to look quite good. (this is looking out of the 'gallery') the seat is so I can sit and imagine...dream??

Progress

To bring you up to-date the "Barn" is finally coming together. the windows and doors are all installed, the wiring is complete and the security system is in place.

We should have electricity connected within the next few days.

This means we are able to lockup and I don't have to disconnect and role up the power cable, pack my tools into my trusty 4 wheeler and trundle them to the garage.

This little chore was a little annoying as I haven't been finishing until about 7pm most days.

The weather has been perfect for building over the last 2 weeks clear, sunny and warm.

If the wind stays away I should have the Soffits fixed ( that's the lining that goes under the eaves).

Sundown

The end of a great day - achieved a lot, the roof and Velux skylight/window are now fitted, so now the rain doesn't fall on our heads.

We finished the day sitting on our neighbour's deck sipping champagne watching the sun go down, 'what a life'

Moving On

The roofing contractor left his scaffolding behind, so I have made good use of it, its very high up there, especially when you are wrestling with a 1200 x2400 sheet of plywood.

I now know why Sloths move so slowly when they are climbing trees, they are scared of heights!

This insight came to me while I was moving very slowly over the roof.

The soffits (that's the lining under the eaves) are now being fixed, a difficult job as you have to work above your head height and up the scaffold! (good fun)

Roof

Today the roofing team arrived and now we almost have a roof, only one more side to go and we will be roofed.

Before I can start cladding the building inspector needs to check out my penetrations! (Holes in the building, e.g. pipes etc.) so he's visiting tomorrow.

Frustration!

The rain ceased as soon as it started and the sun came out, no wind, it turned into a beautiful day. No wonder we choose to do all the work ourselves, having to rely on other people can drive you to distraction.

Raining!

Bum it's raining, so no roof today, my roofers gone away (sounds like the start of a song) but I'm sure I can find some thing to do.

All Wrapped Up

The Barn is now wrapped waiting for the roof, an interesting exercise trying to tack 160 sq meters of synthetic paper to the outside of a house in a light breeze, how that artist wraps structures like the Eiffel tower? is any-ones guess.

We had hours of 'fun' just wrapping the barn, this included a lot of loud discussion.
Especially when the number one helper slipped and bumped one of her front teeth with a hammer! No tooth, very traumatic, very expensive...

Building Inspection 'Passed"

The posts for the deck/verandah were erected using the HiAb crane from M10, the next day the building inspector passed the build to this point.

The posts are now concreted in and now we can proceed to installing the deck.

We are running a little behind schedule, caused by the extreme winds over the last two weeks, it was to dangerous to work upstairs 120 - 140Km/hr winds, the building creaked and groaned but the temporary bracing worked.

Next it will be wrapping, cladding and the roof (Monday) subject to weather.

Summer has arrived????

What a day, the weather was great, achieved a lot put up the 7m posts for the deck it took a little longer to erect than expected but with the Hi-ab from Mitre10 we made it.

With a great day at this time of year means frost, the helicopters have been arriving all evening, when the frost comes down it can get very noisy with the choppers moving over the vineyards at about 100m, just above the inversion layer moving the warm air down, it sounds like 'Apocalypse Now'.

Gale force Winds - Only 110kms Predicted!

A beautiful clear still day this morning, so I was able to get the scaffolding up to align the truss ends (string line and a saw).

All went well even though I was a LOOONG way from the ground, I had to move fast as the weather was predicted to change by lunch time - it did with a vengeance, the blue skies turned to black and we had all the rubbish predicted.

Another Rain Day

It's raining again, I had to call it a day as the water was dripping down my neck and my power tools were getting a tad moist.

The build has been moving along well with all the trusses in place and securely fixed, all the bracing is complete, so now the house will not fly away in the winds we get in Martinborough.

The good news is that we have someone to put the roof on, a job that I was not looking froward to as its quite high up there, plus he can do it when we want, which is within the next 2 weeks, ya.

With all this rain all the grass is growing very fast -especially the bit which had all the attention for the cricket match...

The Stress of it All!

The truss frames were lifted up and 'roughly' placed in position, the wind was increasing, the frames were starting to swing and yours truly was hanging on about 6 meters above the ground.
I was only able to get 3 fixed in place before the predicted high winds arrived (est 120km/hr) this went on and off for the next 2 days.
Sunday arrived and between the All Blacks/French game we finally finished the truss fixing, with Mrs DIY shouting at the TV and Oscar hiding in his retreat under the stairs, a very emotional day!.

1st Floor Frames

Time delay photography over 3 days.

It got a 'little' exciting putting up the end gables, almost ended up with some very expensive firewood! but with the help of Mrs DIY it was all completed.

The next bit is the roof trusses which will be interesting - I am not keen on high places...

Builder's Rest Day

The building work has come to a welcome halt as it's raining!

I can't complain , because up to today, progress has been really good, the ground floor framing is now complete with the flooring fixed on the 1st floor.

As soon as the weather clears I will get the big fork-lift from Mitre10 to come around and lift the 1st floor framing up, then I will be able to start on the top floor.

I should have the top floor frame up ready for the roof trusses to be fitted by the end of this week (builder promise!)

During this stop I will finalise the stair drawings, making sure they will fit the allocated space.

The making of the stairs should be an interesting project, I plan to make them in our double garage - the garage has never held a car as I took it over as my 'shed'

Raining

The construction has been moving on well, until the rain, which has brought the build to a halt. Although it's only light rain it's getting a bit unpleasant and slippery moving up and down the ladder, I'm getting risk adverse since I squashed my thumb almost flat, stupid accident just as I was thinking "that beam looks a bit unstable", it fell and... I must admit I did say "bother that hurt!" an number of times.

I have just had a email from some friends who are comming to stay, It will be great to catchup and have a few days 'leave' visiting some of the local vineyards and tasting a few wines.

Half a House

My environmentally friendly builders 4 wheel drive is always parked nearby.

This took 6 days to get to this stage, the next project is to fit the floor so we can lift the 1st floor up(that's what's in the white parcel on the right). This should be 'exciting..

Instant House Kit!

The frames were 'unpacked' and moved to their allocated position.
They are really heavy. so it was pull, push and grunt all the way.

At this stage I was feeling a bit concerned how I was going to put these up by myself but I had a plan - the plan was to buy a boat winch, which I got at the local el cheepo car accessory store.
It worked!! an electric model with a remote control that connected to the tow bar of my car.
It was like having 2 big fellows to help!

The pad

The concrete pad is completed, ready for the frames, which will be delivered tomorrow (Friday).

A surprise that I wasn't expecting, they were due later in the month, this means we are now ahead of schedule in the build!

Foundations

The building inspector passed the foundation formwork and site footings.

So today was concrete day, an early start, 7.00am, the sun rise was brilliant with a heavy frost on the ground, but with a frost you normally get a great day.

We weren't disappointed, the temperature got to about 17 degrees and a clear still day, (midwinter!) global warming?

The Avenue

Sometimes you need the help of some heavy machinery to get things done.

I did for a fleeting moment think I might be able to do it with some hire machinery but sense prevailed...

The Trenches

The trenches were dug, average of 2 meters depth, the cables and pipe laid and then filled in, never to be seen again, I hope!

Catchup

Have come to a halt in the construction, rain, hurricane force winds of 140km/h, so it's a great opportunity to catch up with the blog.

The trenches have been dug for the drainage, power and telephone, the drive has been constructed, together with the entrance so now there's no excuse for delays due to access.

The drive is looking good with the Almonds, Beech and Poplars that we have planted over the last couple of years, although I think we will remove the Poplars as they have a bad habit of sending out very long roots searching for water, bad mistake.

The concrete pad/foundation will be placed next week, I will need to wait for about two weeks before I can start building the frame.

I will post some pics of the progress later.

Onwards

On with the project...

I dug the foundations out for the concrete pad to be placed. It never ceases to amaze me how the dirt expands when you are digging a hole.

I think it worked out that I moved about 25 cubic meters of earth.

For a secure pad for the foundations to sit on, I had delivered 30 tonnes of metal base course (stones and sand) that's 3 big truck loads, it arrived on Friday my birthday, hurrah!

Had a very entertaining day spreading and leveling the site, I was a little tired, but still had the energy to celebrate. We both went out to a local bistro for dinner for 'the birthday' and the start of stage 1 of the build.

The food was brilliant, happy time, and like all 'responsible' adults, decided to walk home as we both had drunk a 'number' of relaxing wines.

The Grand Plan

We have decided to sell the current house as I need more space to be able to continue with the artistry, my painting technique can become a a bit untidy and I tend to fill the available space, so a dedicated area would be great.

The current house is in the corner of the plot (section), we will still have about 4700 square meters to use for the new construction.

The design will be in two stages, the barn which will house our bedroom, studio/office and living area (this will become a small gallery when stage 2 is completed), while the build of the main section of the house is completed.

The barn will give us a place to live while we sell the existing house, giving us the $'s to build stage 2.

The Artist

In between building and landscaping I have been painting (that’s the arty kind) it's something that I have been doing on and off as long as I can remember, but this is the first time I have treated it like a job.
Total commitment is a must when I am painting or drawing and if it is not working 'right' to stop and start again, and keep on doing it, until you get the spontaneous look to the brush strokes, color and the layout.
I think you can liken it to an actor learning their lines.

Last week I sold my first painting…

I sketched it 3 times to get the layout correct and painted it 2 times to achieve the color balance correct, our son was over from the UK acted as art director (his job in London)
It was good to have someone I could trust to be a honest critic – not an easy job.
Family and friends can be very bad critics as they can say things that you want to hear.

Completed!

The house was completed, the end result a 3 double bedrooms plus upstairs office studio attic and 2 bathrooms.

It now has been finished for 18 months, all the planting around the garden have made the house look as if it's always been there.

Would we ever 'do' a relocated house again?
The answer is an emphatic No!
With what we needed to do to bring it up to current standards it would have been cheaper to build a NEW house.

Reconstruction

The house had a new bay window and a veranda installed, the interior seriously remodeled, with the ceilings put back to the original height, all the windows removed and french doors installed.
The house was insulated under-floor, walls and ceiling

Doors

During the 6 month wait I made all the Windows and French doors that I had incorporated into the design, yes, I had also done all the architectural drawings with a little help of a friend who was a architectural designer.

I had never made anything quite like these before, I needed to buy some woodworking equipment, drop saw and a thicknesser, the models I chose were made by RYOBI, big mistake both items were not up to standard.

I couldn't get a straight cut on the saw, it wasn't until much later in a fit of desperation that the machine was pulled apart – the cutting guide was not straight and the bolt holding the saw was loose on the bearing, both manufacturing faults. The thicknesser worked but after stripping it down during the blade change I found the pressure rollers were made out of centre , which made getting a perfectly smooth finish impossible.
The lesson: don't buy cheap RYOBI equipment made in China!

I completed all the doors and widows made from Red Cedar, all painted and glazed ready for installation, this exercise saved about $9000.00.

Moving Day

The House arriving in the village 5.30am -
All other road users beware...

The Building site

The site before planting, tree cutting and house arrival.

Permits, Approvals, Resource Consents and Settlement

6 months went by waiting for the title and plans to be approved; we had a double challenge as it was a new title the approval takes at least 6 months. The building permit was complicated because it was a old house and needed resource consent as well as a building permit.
At last it all came together, the title, building permit, settlement of the sale and delivery of the house all on the same day!
It was all a little to close for our nerves and blood pressure, a bit risky, much later, we found out how close to disaster it could have been. As well as the timing I found that the contractor moving the house didn't have any insurance!!!
The delivery route - 37Km trip up and over a 500 meter summit.

In the begining

The story so far…
After 20 year I closed the doors on my very small advertising production company,

• Offered and accepted job in an small IT company.
• Small IT Company purchased by a Large multi national,
• Made manager, then
• 12 months later, made redundant. (8 weeks salary! )

It was decision time - I needed to have something to do, another job looked difficult as I was past my usebye date, as far as employment consultants and HR departments and I didn't feel like starting another business all over again.

We must have some money as the redundancy payment wasn't going to last long.

My wife had just started her own business and was going through the growing pains of being busy one moment and then thinking the phone and email would never work again.

We decided that the only thing we could do was start again, I would build a new house, I had proved I could be fairly handy in the DIY area and so...

• Sold the house to clear mortgage,
• Moved into rented cottage
• Bought small block of land in close to a village that was within commuting distance of the city.

This is where the DIY really started in ernest, we bought a old house to be relocated to the land we had bought and start some very fast work to bring it to a living standard, and have somewhere to live and call our own.
In New Zealand you can buy old wooden houses for relocation they are usually in bad repair – Ours, was an old 90 year old wooden farm cottage, that had been very badly modernized about 1966 it was a mess.

When we first saw our new home, it was in a contractor's yard sitting up on 44 gallon drums, looking very sad with its roof sagging down, looking like a beached wooden whale, surrounded by other old tired houses waiting to die. (It was love at first sight!)

The cost included delivery to our site on pile foundations
So we paid the man some money to be deliverd to the site in due course.

But first we had to get planning approval - to be continued!!!!