The Piano Man

A last a weekend off - we went to hear Billy Joel in concert in Auckland, the flight 1 hour Wgtn -Auckland the trip from Auck airport to the city 2 hours! luckily we didn't have any plans for Friday night.

It was really good to have a break from building for a couple of days - still felt a little guilty not working.

Very easy to slip back into sitting watching and drinking a flat white in one of the many Auckland cafes, a changed city, not a good place to be 5 years ago but now you can get a decent cup of real coffee almost anywhere in the city.

The Billy Joel concert was on Sunday at the Vector arena which was only a 5 min walk from the hotel, what a great evening of solid Billy Joel, even without hair he still can sing.

The only drama was on Monday with the trip back flight delayed, after we had finally en planed they found some little bit had dropped of the the tail and we un-loaded and sat around.
Finally arrived back in Wgtn at 4.30pm! a usual trip of 1 hour turned into 5 hours...

It was still a great concert.

High in the Sky

At last the roof is going on, if a little slowly, I don't know how the wind knows, as soon as you get the building paper on the roof it starts to blow.
Yes, that's Mrs DIY up on the scaffold, I wouldn't have been able to do this job without help, it's amazing how much braver you feel when the roof frame is covered with safety netting.

Moving Along

The build is moving at a faster pace, although not quite fast enough to achieve the self imposed deadlines.
The electrician installing the wiring system and has almost finished, amazing the amount of cable that you need to run a modern house.
The building inspector has checked the build for the pre-cladding inspection, all was OK, I always get the feeling that I might have missed something but as I normally over-spec everything I shouldn't worry but I still do.

MasterCard Takes a Holiday

While I was building the house in Martinborough NZ, somehow at the same time my Gold MasterCard had taken a short break in Rome staying at some nice hotels and flying Easyjet around the EU.
A warning to those using the Internet, your credit card details can be siphoned off and used without your knowledge.
Luckily the users only got to take a few $$$ what they didn't know, is I hardly use it and it was no where near its limit.
The card is now officially stolen, so now I don't have a working MasterCard.
Very hard to catch the crooks, from what I can see on my statement all the bookings and purchases were done on line.
Rome is one place we haven't been, I would really like to see it, maybe next time we go to see our 'children' xcxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx, good grief, that makes me feel old!.

Truss Me

The trusses are now all in place, it was all achieved with a lot of 'instruction' combined with lots of pushing and lifting but Mrs DIY and I did it!

The next thing to happen is the purlins will be fixed to the trusses, that's the things that the roof is connected to.

The last pic is of MrsDIY fitting the last fixing of the end gable truss.

Rain Day

After a day of high wind it's now pouring with rain!

I was able to put most of the trusses up despite the high winds, an interesting experience but it was made easier by having a movable scaffold so I didn't need to climb up and down a ladder every time a small adjustment was required.

I used to feel I had been doing a 'step aerobic' class all day.

As it's an inside day I will be in the container (workshop) finishing the legs of the island bench, these are out of an old Totara telegraph pole that I bought from the next door auction (see May 27).

Framed Building

The frames are all in position and bolted to the concrete foundation the only bit of the build which is not classed as ecco friendly.

The next step is to put the roof trusses in place, I will hire the crane from Mitre 10, the local hardware supplier to lift the truss frames on to the top plate.
These will be fixed in place using some over specified brackets, when they are in place it won't be going anyware.
Then its the roof...

I will be glad when the NZ and US elections are over, all we hear on the news is financial gloom and will National or Labour be the new government and will the Democrats be moving to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave?

Construction Starts and Stops

The build has started with the frames going up and now it has come to a grinding halt as the lower half of New Zealand is being buffeted by winds of up to 150Km/hr really a great time to be pushing around big lumps of timber, so its time to bunker down for a day or so till it passes over.
The met service tells us that it will be fine again soon like the news from Bush and Wall Street!
Watch this space...

We've Been Framed!

The frames have arrived, we are now ready for the next step, we will start putting them up, starting on Friday.
The way I have designed the house is to take advantage of being able to get the difficult stuff prefabricated off-site.
'My self-designed kitset home.'
Mrs DIY is taking a weeks 'holiday' to give me a hand, we hope to have the entire frame up within the next week.
We have not put them (frame's) on the slab because the concrete needs to cure for as long as possible to get to it's full strength.
This will reduce the chance of any serious cracking, as we are going to polish the slab, we won't be able to cover any blemishes with carpet.
The roof trusses are also ready but I have put off delivery for a week to clear some space (they take up quite a bit of room) and also they are quite heavy, I will need them close by eliminating the need to manhandle them around the site.
the next few weeks are going to be busy.
The long term weather looks OK for now.

Concrete Foundations

Monday dawned a beatiful day, perfect concrete weather, the concrete arrived on time at 7.00am and by 11.00am it was all in place

What a stressful time, I had the terrible feeling that I didn't put enough bracing and the whole thing would collapse and all the cement would run out.

It didn't.

As I blog the men are power floating the surface and adding colour hardener to get the perfect smoooooopth finish.

The frames are due to be delivered later this week so we will be able to get on with the easy bit of the build.

Contractors

Well what can I say, the concrete contractor didn't show, Mrs DIY is now very grumpy, told me I was to nice to them.
Thankfully it has started to rain so it probably been not a good idea to place concrete in the rain, maybe it was a good call after-all.

Passed

The building inspector passed the foundation, we are now ready for the 'big pour' that's if it stops raining (pouring?).
It looks like it will be fine tomorrow, you can just see some bits of blue sky in the far distance.

The Big Steel

The steel is now in place, thanks to my team of helpers, who without, we would still be fixing it in place - a heavy dangerous job, well done. (The Diploma is in the post)
That white stuff underneath the steel is 40mm polystyrene thermal insulation.
The next step is to get the building inspector to give it his seal of approval.
Because of the great progress over the weekend I was able to take a half day off on Monday to pick my sister up from the airport, (she's making a flying visit from Perth for our fathers 91'st birthday) and deliver her to Waikanae.

Foundations 101

Moving right along, the foundation base is complete, the steel has arrived and the underfloor insulation has been delivered and the concrete pour is booked for next Friday.

The good bit is we are expecting one of our children together with partner for the weekend - guess what they will will be doing?

They will be just in time to take part in the short course I'm conducting in fixing foundation steel for a single story timber construction, based on NZ Standard 3604, aren't they lucky!

Mud, Mud and more Mud

Dave the digger man has excavated the foundations, and now we have a pile of Mud (dirt), maybe we could sell it as a DIY Cricket pitch (family Joke).
It has been raining solidly for the past 2 days and now everything is waterlogged, however the plumber was able to install the under slab piping.
When the the rain stops I will finish off the foundations, hopefully we could be able to pour (place) the concrete next week subject to weather and approval by the building inspector.

Foundations

The building has started with the foundation base filled with crushed metal (stones), levelled and compacted, it's very hard to see but the site has a slope towards the East so we had to put a lot of extra fill to build it up to the correct level.

The weather has been really bad, rain, hail, wind and snow, the only thing we didn't get was locusts and pestilence...

Our big tank arrived last night, so we have another challenge of moving it around to the back of the site and putting it in a hole so the water will be able to fill it to the top.

Yes I made an error in my calculations and didn't take into account the height between the space between the edge of the roof and the top of the tank -oh bother! and other words like that.

It's dawned a beautiful day, so I should be able to finish of the foundation form-work, so we will be able to sort out were we will put the pipes under the concrete slab, you only get one chance of getting this part of the build correct..

RIP

Today I accidentally washed my cell phone, it didn't seem to like the heavy duty cycle on the washing machine, I even put in some fabric conditioner.

It has been blow dried but it still refuses to come back to life.

It's very clean...

Starting the Dig

Today it is planned for the digger man to start the excavations, first he will have to scape the site of all the topsoil, then I will be able to construct the boxing ready for the concrete foundation to be poured (placed?).

This time I am going to increase the pops required to 600mm centres rather than the 1200mm recommended, this will make sure there's no movement.

Investing in 'Boys Toys'

I had to have a new saw, the old one has come to the end of it's days, with the safety features becoming unserviceable, plus the off/on switch has broken in half, which makes working with it a little interesting especially when it refuses to turn off.
The new one is a De Walt double bevel compound miter saw (more power!) made in the US, I think but probably came from China, like most of the things we buy now.
Also bought the bench that it goes with it, so no excuses for wobbly cuts.

Building Consent

Great news, we have received our 'Building Consent' from the district council, so we can now start on with Stage 2 of the build.
We set the profiles out and 'shot' the levels with a laser level that a friend kindly lent, it's great to know people that have all the right equipment.
Mrs DIY and I spent a happy 20 minutes setting the levels in the gathering gloom on Sunday night.

What a Difference a Day Makes

I know it's a line from a old song but the heat pumps working like I hoped it would, it's amazing what a difference a competent air conditioner engineer can do.
The weather has be really miserable but the pump is keeping up with the change in temperature. mmmm waaarmmmmm...

Moving Right Along

The heat pump is now 'fixed' again (watch this space).

As a little light relief this weekend we set the profiles of the new house out, waiting for the approval from the local council, this is before we can start digging the hole for the foundations and turning this green an pleasant land into a sea of mud.

To help stop this happening we will scrape all the topsoil off around the house and put down some base course metal, we will be paving these areas so it should stop Oscar from tramping too much mud inside, well that's the plan, I have discussed this fully with the dog (Oscar) His suggestions of more food and walkies will be considered as a bribe.

Home Heating

As I wait for the nice man from Fujitsu to appear and repair our heat pump, it would be a good idea to give you my thoughts on heat pumps. (reliability of the unit aside)

The things that the manufactures don't explain fully is "with air-source heat pump systems, it is not generally a good idea to size an heat pump (EES) to provide all of the heat required by a house. For maximum cost-effectiveness, an EES should be sized to meet 60 to 70 percent of the total maximum "demand load" (the total space heating )The occasional peak heating load during severe weather conditions can be met by a supplementary heating system. A system sized in this way will in fact supply about 95 percent of the total energy used for space heating". (reference Canadian govt)
Note: these numbers are arrived at under a perfect lab test environment and as far as I can figure over a whole year, so it's another game of playing with figures.

In the real world this figure covers days when its warmer and days when its colder so if you have 2 weeks with cold temperatures, a time when you really need heat, the pump cannot met your needs.
We put this system in as a test in our office studio area, if it didn't meet our requirements we would not have to 'live' with it in the future.

Would we put another system in the house?, we may, but it would not be a air system but a underground loop system that takes the heat from the ground ( usually the ground temp only changes by a few degrees during the year, so system works more with more consistency and effectiveness)

Recommendations:

• make sure you get a written commitment from your supplier on the repair response times,
• who you can turn to if you need to escalate the call out, if the service agent doesn't perform.
• make sure the warranty/guarantee covers transfer of service agent (servicing and change of ownership) 'we still having problems in this area'

Heat Pumps (Fujitsu)

Don't believe everything you read, they aren't as great as they are cracked up to be, our new Fujitsu ASTS18LDC Heat Pump (May 2008) has now failed us twice and just at the time when the weather takes a dive.

They really are not that efficient when the temperature drops to below 5 deg C and even though the area we are trying to heat is insulated to the max thickness bats, plus double glazing we still have to bring in the trusty old gas heater.

I think all the hype you hear is a little like that children's story of 'The Emperor's New Clothes.

Now all the unit does is blink red and green lights at me and blow cold air.

Plus that I have just had a call from the nice man at Mitre 10 to tell me that it will be 4 days before they can get someone from Fujitsu to service it, oh, the joys of living away from the city ....................!#$%&!

Done...

At last the plans are completed, printed (3 sets, what a lot of paper!) and delivered to the council, fee paid and copies delivered to M10 and Carters for a quote on frames and roof trusses, already have the price for the windows, phew.
Now I can have a few days Off...
Before that, I really must finish the stairs in the barn, or maybe I could play with the old platten press I bought.

Plans

Felt I needed a break from drawing plans and needed some light relief, so I have updated the 'blog'.


The plans are almost finished, well almost.


The council used to only require elevations floorplan and location, at most you could cover requirements with about 3 sheets and no specifications.


Now about 30 sheets later I still haven't finished and I still need to write the specifications.
Oh joy.

Staying Focused

There are so many distractions I find it hard to stay focused - the 'Grand Design' (sorry Kevin)

I have finally reloaded the Sketchup program, so now I can produce 3D drawings (badly) of the next stage.

The blue building is the 'barn' (completed) the white bit is stage 2.

The problem with this programme is it's very addictive and you can spend hours 'playing'.

I am well into drawing the next stage of the build and the plan is to have the drawings delivered to the council for the very important building permit by the end of next week, this is not a moveable option, I'm getting bored with sitting in front of a computer and I want to get back to doing some building.

On Saturday Mr & Mrs DIY went shopping, it didn't start off that way we were only going out for a cup of coffee and ended up just having a 'quick' look in one of the local antique shops, bad move...

We are now own a set (2) of very big and very very heavy 100 year old doors, they were imported from France, it means some redesign of Stage 2 to get them in.

(the pic was taken in the shop, please excuse the extra props)

The Crop...

You are probably looking at the worlds most expensive olive oil, I picked our entire crop of olives, total 15Kg and had them pressed.

We now are the proud owners of 2Litres of extra fine olive oil. mmmmm

Auction

The next door property with the 'interesting collections' has had an auction - What a lot of stuff.

Lots of people bidding, some of whom bought boxes of complete rubbish, I wonder what they do with it?

All sorts of hardware, some tools still unopened in their origional packaging, plus 1000's of meters of native timber went under the hammer at a fraction of their value, a friend bought a stack of Rimu and found out after paying $2000 dollars for it had bought 5000 lineal meters which is currently selling, if you can get it at $18 per meter.

I must admit there was a large ammount of tempting items, but my resolve held and I only bid for the things that I knew we could use/need.

All except 1 thing - a small hand printing press!! (made in London about 1890) it needs a little restoration but will make a very interesting 'Object'

We bought a couple of big stained glass windows that will go nicely in stage 2, plus a big pile of bricks, at a bargain price, we now have enough for a brick wall and a pizza/bread oven, all we need to do is build it...

The place was a complete mess, all a bit sad...

The good bit, is his long suffering wife is really happy to be moving away to a nice new house, so he wont have the room, or the reason to start collecting building equipment or materials ever again (maybe).

'Jungle' Rocks

I spent most of Saturday moving the rocks that our neighbour offered me from his slightly 'overgrown' section to the other side of the fence.

The plan is build a low stone wall at the end of our proposed courtyard alongside stage 2 of our house build.

They were so heavy the only way I could lift them was to break some of them up with a sledge hammer, sounds easy but most of them needed some very serious PERSUASION to break, what a job.

It's still not finished, still a lot of rocks to go, maybe tomorrow.

We still need to move them to the other side of the section and that's about 100m away as the crow flies.

Another little challenge.

The Learning Curve

Once again it's back at the computer trying to finish off the plans for the 2nd stage of the build.
The trouble is it's been 5 months since I used my CAD programme and the upgraded version that I'm now using is a bit different, so not only do I have to remember how to use it, I have to cope with a bunch of new features. My old brain is having to work overtime.

When I can find the 3D drawing I created on Sketchup I will publish a picture of the 'Grand Design'.

This is a great program if you want to draw stuff in 3D .WARNING it can be very addictive, now owed by Google, and the non professional version is free. I think they even have a Apple version...

Almost There

Wherever there is...

We have almost completed the barn.

The kitchen is working well if a little small and without an oven, we have to use the BBQ for the oven stuff, it works quite well, a bit difficult to control the temperature which goes to warp speed within a few minutes, making a danger of turning a culinary delight into a black crisp if you don't keep a close watch.

The barn has turned out well, this is where we will 'rough it' for the next year.

By then we will have finished the house (stage 2) this is a 'builders promise'

Now we have only a few minor things to do, the stair banister, polyurethane the stairs and finish the dressing room (our huge walk in wardrobe)

(pics dinning area and kitchen/laundry)

On The Move

What a lot has happened in the last few weeks. Our next door neighbours are on the move, even the reclusive couple that live in the big unfinished villa are going. (pic)

They have been working on this project for over 35 years!

So what is going to happen to all the junk he has collected, old farm implements, piles of AMCO barrier that he must have picked up from the road side. the whole place has turned into a jungle of overgrown shrubs that now cover all sorts of demolition timber and stuff that he has stacked away for future use...

Also the Big house directly behind us has sold.

Maybe someone is telling us something.

Goldberg/Robinson

For those people that don't know who Rube Goldberg (American) is I have supplied a reference from Wikipedia, also included is Heath Robinson who did similar drawings (English)
Reuben Garret Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 - December 7, 1970) was an American cartoonist who received a 1948 Pulitzer Prize for his political cartooning. He is best known for his series of popular cartoons depicting Rube Goldberg machines, complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways.
William Heath Robinson (May 31, 1872 – September 13, 1944) was an English cartoonist and illustrator, who signed himself W. Heath Robinson. He is best known for drawings of eccentric machines and "Heath Robinson" has entered the language as a description of any unnecessarily complex and implausible contraption

Rube Goldberg to the Rescue

We had some friends around for dinner, and as we don't have a oven, the BBQ was called into action.

The heavens opened up and the rain came down in such quantities that a lake formed around the barn, mostly caused by the fact that the downpipes have not been connected.

So with water pouring down I constructed a down pipe out of some irrigation pipe, duck tape, wood clamp and a length of clothes line, this was all done in the dark with lots of water falling on my head and at height!

The only best thing was it was not cold - it worked! still had to walk over planks to get to the BBQ.

The result, dinner was cooked and delivered on time, and it's still working...

Mushrooms Mushrooms

It's been raining down in great quantities but it has still been nice and warm, and that means field mushrooms - lots.

They taste fantastic, at least 10 times more flavour than the commercially grown variety. it only lasts a few days, so you have to eat lots...

The Worst Job!

I knew when we started this build, the two jobs that I didn't want to do was the roof, with its associated height challenges (me!) and the plastering of the drywall.

Well we resolved number 1, by getting a contractor to put the roof on but the plastering was done by ourselves - its not the actual plastering, or the cleaning up (I'm not the neatest person and tend to work in a mess) it's the preparation prior to painting.

Sanding! dusty, hot and lots of superfine dust, even though we had bought a drywall sanding machine, it gets everywhere.

After 10 minutes of sanding you end up looking like a white rat, complete with red eyes.

If you are living in the same area everything gets covered by a coating of fine dust, that takes days of cleaning to get rid of.

We have decided that we will resist the temptation in the 2nd stage to move in until it's completely finished. -

Getting Back To Normal

Life has moved from camping in a half finished shed to living in a house/barn.

The electrician has finished (well almost) the security system has a software bug that when it tries to ring my cellphone, it ignores my answer - result -very loud and lots of blue flashing lights!

The gallery lighting system is great, it now looks even better with more lights hanging off the wires.

This will be perfect when it's a dedicated gallery space, I know it's a bit off an indulgence but as I have been telling Mrs DIY it will earn us some money, one day, I hope...

Oscar

As the dog has not been getting the attention he think he deserves, Oscar (dog) has started stealing stuff that he thinks I might need.

Here he sits guarding his 'treasures' in the the hope it may prompt a 'give that back to me game'.

Panic Mode

Before the move there was a lot of building activity fueled by a little panic, the upstairs bedroom was completed to a standard that all we had to do was move in, so at least we had somewhere to sleep and shower.

Downstairs on the other hand was still in bits as you can see by the photos, no kitchen and no living area.

I had the forethought to get the sky man to install the TV dish so we could watch TV upstairs – a bad move, I sat and watched a rerun of an old Boston Legal episode the other night didn’t finish until midnight!

It’s amazing how much you can get through in 2 weeks.

Ceiling finished, kitchen working (just), floor grouted and sealed. Dry walling completed (well almost).

Now we are in the throws of stopping and plastering, what an awful job dust everywhere.

The good thing Mrs. DIY has banded me from plastering and taken over the task (I don’t do a very good job) Oh aren’t we a multi talented family…

The pics show the progress from almost to all our sitting room and office stacked in the middle of the downstairs’ room.

Moving Day

Moving house is always a drama and this one was no different except it was only next door a distance of about 30 meters.

I don't know what has been happening to our stuff but when we arrived at the original house was with a shipping container plus a small trailer.

Now we are the proud owners of 2 shipping containers!

The Big Tick (sister)

My sister an brother-in law arrived on one of their flying visits, said I was very clever and the barn was huuuuge and looks good, she's an interior designer in Perth, so lots of discussion over colour schemes, all sounded a bit expensive.

Had a lovely dinner and as usual politics reared its ugly head - the US elections

She's a part time Democrat - and thought that Obama would get the vote to run, my premise was that Hillary Clinton should get the nod, I felt she had a better chance of winning against the Republicans as there would be enough Americans who would feel that the name Obama was too close to Osama and was probably a distant relation, and wouldn't vote.

Enough...

The carpet is now down upstairs and looks great, I'm currently putting the tiles in the bathroom only a few more to stick up grout and it's all finish in there.

Oh, The Pressure

Now the pressure is really on, we need somewhere to live.

A week of very long days and late nights we now have the upstairs (bedroom & en suite) ready for the carpet to arrive.

The plumber has completed his work so we can now flush...

All we need now is the electrician to liven-up the temporary power we have for the upstairs.

So it's all on track for the big move on or before the handover of our current house to the new owners - it will be a bit sad leaving as it (the house) has been a great place to live and entertain, I hope the new owners will feel the same.

Sold

The house that we are currently living in, is now sold!

Has only been on the market for a about 3 weeks, we ended up with 3 potential buyers putting in competitive bids for the house.

All we had to do is select the one we liked and accept - a cash non conditional offer to settle at the end of the month - easy, and at a price we were more than comfortable with.

I seems that the property downturn in this part of the world doesn't exist.

Weekend Off

Well things seem to have been moving slowly with the build, even though I haven't been finishing till 7 & 8pm most days.

So this last weekend had some time off, so built a fence between the current house and new section, only took a day.

Stairs Tiles & Gib

Have been to busy with the build to keep you updated but the time has arrived.

I have laid the tiles in the en suite made the stairs and fitted them, they (the stairs) came together quite well, the turn was a little tricky but we arrived at the top exactly to the mark.

I was pleased with my quantity surveying, I had only 500mm of timber left and at $20 per meter...

The Gib Board (Drywall) was delivered through the bedroom french doors on a pallet by crane, no lifting up the stairs.

I am now in the process of fitting the wall insulation plus fixing the drywall.

The plumber should arrive tomorrow to fit the pipes for the en suite and little kitchen downstairs.

This kitchen will be our temporary cooking area together with the gas barbecue ,while I get on and build the 2nd stage.

The plan is to start this as soon as our existing house sells, all going well so far had about 4 people through in the first few days and we have one coming back on Monday for a second look with another a bit latter in the day.

So if you have a spare $NZ600K it could be yours!

Xmas Family Fun

The team fixing the ceiling in the upstairs bedroom, plywood is very hard to get straight!
The seccret is to shout and stamp your feet!

Lost Pictures

I thought you might like to see these pictures that I just found of the big truss and posts being put in place, it was mind focusing, hanging from a strap putting in bolts about 7 metres from the ground, it doesn't sound high when you write about it but...

More Computer Probs

The new computer has packed a sad, so took it back and the nice man said sorry, here's another, it works! brilliant. Dick Smith is a great place to buy anything from even if you do not have a receipt to prove purchase.

We have (family) been working over Xmas on the barn and now we have the upstairs ceiling fixed, 100mm grooved plywood panelling, very hard to install, a lot of drama and loud words (me) but with paint and sanding looks great. (thanks team)