Photos from week starting 23rd August

Another fine week of weather for excavating.  The whole house and the area of the swimming pool have now been excavated.  For the first time we were able to drive the car up the driveway and park it in the garage!

The driveway at the site entrance now has a compacted clay capping layer

The driveway through the trees

Our car parked in the garage

The excavation is now complete for the full length of the house

Matt's container is sitting where the courtyard will be

This is where the swimming pool will be located.  The pool itself hasn't yet been excavated.

Photos from week starting 16th August

The weather has been fine all this week (spring is definitely on its way) and Matt has made great progress.  The driveway has been cut out and the excavated clay placed and compacted to give it a really solid foundation.  About half the length of the house has now been excavated to the depth of the ground slab.

The start of the driveway - the area on the left is the passing bay

The driveway through the trees with compacted clay fill

Looking back down the driveway from the car parking area

The car parking area with the cut and fill completed

Excavation for the rear retaining wall

This is where the laundry will be - you can see how the house is partly buried into the ground

This week we also received a sample window unit from Westcoast Windows in Sweden (http://www.westcoastwindows.se/english/default.asp).  We are seriously thinking of buying the windows and sliding doors from them as they have fantastic thermal performance (U=1.4W/m2K),  and they are also cheaper than buying them from an Australian supplier!

The window sample - this has triple glazed windows but we will have double glazed

Photos from week starting 2nd August

Unfortunately the week was wiped out due to the amount of rain at the start of the week.  We are waiting for the ground to dry out before Matt can continue the excavation work.  It's very frustrating.

Although it was sunny at the weekend the exposed soil was still very soft

Photos from week starting 26th July

Unfortunately it rained for most of the week and as a consequence there was not much progress.

Top soil removed along east boundary of the site.

This area will be built up with excavated clay from the house and then the topsoil relaid

Looking up the driveway.

We have agreed with Matt to excavate the top soil along the driveway 

as it is not strong enough to support the drive sub-base material

Looking down the driveway.  Very muddy.

Excavation for the garage

Excavation and fill for the fire truck turning circle