Grand Designs Oz Style

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Hi All
Last entry was Xmas 07 so thought I would update our lives. In that entry I very assuredly stated we would be starting our new home on January 7th 2008!!! What a blissful thought. It didn’t happen. After much negotiating with our preferred builder who wouldn’t do it for the price we thought appropriate, we decided to embark on this great journey of being “Owner/builders” at the end of which we will have saved a bucket load of money!!! This remains to be seen of course so will get back to you on that around Xmas time. John had a lot of trepidation about going down this route but as we have gone along he has had help from some very good friends and his confidence is growing daily. Owner/building means engaging all your own subcontractors and scheduling, getting quotes and supervising the whole deal, not for the faint hearted.





As all Xmas blog readers already know, the house was demolished in November 2007 and the site then sat vacant until Wednesday 27th February 2008, when the excavator arrived to dig the foundations. This went really well - the excavator Dominic, a great worker who did the job exactly as John wanted. When we needed to do some manual digging of foundations we had help from our mate Geoff (recently retired from the Tax Office) and our new neighbour Nick. So far so good. The concrete footings were then poured on Thursday 6th March. This was very timely because John left on Sunday 9th March for 4 days of golf at Barnbougle Downs in Tasmania - yes Tasmania!! He was quite worried that the house building would interrupt his golf but the gods were smiling and as the photo shows the boys had the best time and the weather was glorious for every one of the 4 days. In case anyone is interested, I had a nice time too whilst he was away!!!






The next step was setting out the foundations ready for the bricklayers. To those who don’t know about building, we are building the old fashioned way with bearers and joists topped with floorboards (the alternative and more common these days, is to build on a concrete slab). The brickies started on Wednesday 26th March and finished on Monday 7th April - you don’t need me to fill this blog up with too much junk about why it took so long - it just did OK!!!






John and I at this stage spent days cleaning up the site and moving tonnes of dirt from one side of the block to the other - just because we can - and I did! There are photos to prove it.





We have since had the plumber setting up the sewer, and then on Thurs 15th May the carpenter arrived to set up the bearers and joist (the rafters under the floor) This feels like the real beginning of the house as Lindsay and his workers do what I see as the building of the actual structure. They spent 2 days doing that and then went away again to finish another couple of jobs and returned on Monday 26th May and will be with us fulltime until the house is finished. Yippee! Will not go into much more detail as I don’t want to bore everyone. Just thought this is a much better way of keeping all interested parties up to date. Will also insert some family photos along the way to keep it interesting. Don’t know how often I will update this so just have a look every now and then. A photo history is probably more interesting than reading my drivel so will do that fairly often.






By the way, back in January we moved from Sylvania to Peakhurst - our landlord at Sylvania wanted to put the rent up so found this house which is cheaper and smaller but has storage for all our furniture and suits us down to the ground . Mailing address stays the same until we move to Connells Point. Will we be there for the opening of the Olympics on 08/08/08? Watch this space.

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Photos

House Demo 1
The start of the demolition

House Demo 2
One very big machine in one very narrow street!

House Demo 3
It is actually quite sad watching a house with all its memories just being demolished - someone went to all the trouble to build it and probably loved it as much as we will love the new one.

House Demo 4
This all happened in one day

House Demo 5
Now where did I put that house?

Excavate 1
Dominic in his Bobcat.

Teeing off at Barnbougle
John isn't in any of the photos because he took them - The scenery is maginificent.

Concrete Pump
I know it looks like overkill but they really only come in one size fits all!

Foundations
Can you pick the site manager and the owner/builder?

Moving the dirt.
See, told you there was a photo to prove it!

Brick piers
What can I say - these are the brick piers that our house will sit on.

Site Office
The van is finally where it belongs and is a great site office. I feel like I am on holiday every time I go in and prepare lunch.

Sam
The new applicant for site manager! Just had to add this because he is so cute.

Wednesday 28th May
The floors are down and the wall frames are being built and will start going up tomorrow.

Comments

[Graham and Gayle]

A building site?
John and Jo You both win the competition for the neatest construction site I have seen!! Well done with the blog Graham and Gayle

[Jan and Gene]

Braver than we are.
We could never do that. Since January we have been to Reno, Tahoe, Nevada, Big Island of Hawaii, and The Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks, got into a lot of snow over 10,000 ft passes. Beautiful. Good to hear from you, All our love, jan Gene

[Phil Runfola]

Impressive
Hi Jo and John, I'm impressed about the owner/builder concept. I was on the site when I built my house, but was happy that I didn't have to supervise the sub contractors. They can be difficult to tell what to do, so having a builder to complain to was nice. Good luck from your Florida connection. Love, Phil

[deleted_11048]

Cheap labour available
Guys, in this time of skills shortages, I am willing to lend a hand if required. I recently purchased a $4 hammer and a pair of gloves for 50cents from Bunnings (i.e. little China). So now I am fully equipped. We look forward to watching the Olympic Opening Ceremony in the audio-visual room in your new house. Michael PS. I am glad to see you have stopped spending our inheritance on lavish holidays.

[Brett and Chris]

Nice to hear from you again
Hi Guys Great to hear from you again. 2006 when we first met you on our trip around the block seems so long ago. We had many good times in WA and have been wondering what you have been up to. We have just left on a 3 year trip this time and are currently in the NT. Chris and the boys are well and loving our next adventure. Check out our website www.followourtrip.com if interested. Take care Brett, Chris, Alex and Harry

[Gary]

Reacquainted.
Hi. Tried to send you an email, but it got rejected. Glad to see you have updated your blog. We have corresponded a couple of times, just in case you were wondering who this mad person is. We will be started our Australian 3 month adventure in late August. Its an ambitious, lots of mileage trip!!