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!