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.