One Point Four Hectares: 2011/04

Friday, April 22, 2011

Photos from week starting 18th April

I was rather optimistic last week in thinking that the roof would be finished before Easter. I didn't appreciate the amount of additional battens that needed to be installed. Also, the container of windows is still at the port in Sydney; apparently it is still waiting to be fumigated. So given that next week has only three working days (due to Easter Monday and Anzac day on Tuesday) I am not going to predict where we will be in a week's time.

So many roof battens

Roof over the lounge

Roof over the second bedroom

Roof over the hallway

The battens are needed to lift the roof steel above the valley gutters

We have also been testing various colours for the external walls of the house - such a difficult choice because it will be seen against the roof and window frames (which are grey) and the terrace tiles (which are green/brown). There is also how the colour looks in full sun and in shade.

Our favorite is a colour called Tumbleweed from Murobond

http://www.murobond.com.au/viewproduct.php?id=76

Also this week we have decided on the front door (which is obviously a very important decision). We have ordered the door from a company called Urban Front in the UK. The design is contemporary, the quality is great (it is steel framed with a hard wood finish) and the cost (even with transport, customs duty and GST) is cheaper than the alternative quote that we had from a company in Sydney. The only downside (as with the windows) is that it will take about three months from order to delivery.

The link below shows the type of configuration that we are going to have; which is a door with two sidelites (we are also having the number three etched in the glass).

http://www.urbanfront.co.uk/contemporary-front-doors/1/configurations/p5/door-2-sidelites/r50

The link below shows the style of door which we are going to have

http://www.urbanfront.co.uk/contemporary-front-doors/1/designs/p1/porto/r1

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Photos from week starting 11th April

The progress on the roof this week has been fantastic. I was on site on Wednesday and there were 7 carpenters fixing the roof joists. As you can see from the photos by the end of the week half of the house has the ColorBond roof sheets in place. The water tightness of the roof has been tested immediately as today it has been raining all day.

I was hoping that we would have some photos of the windows on this post but the container is still being processed by customs in Sydney. Delivery is now scheduled for next week.

The roof is on the whole length of the west side of the house

The roof over the kitchen and dining room

All the roof joists have been installed in the roof on the east side

The joists for the roof over the study

The valley gutter for the roof over the main bedroom

The roof over the dining room

Looking at the roof over the kitchen

Inside the laundry looking into the courtyard

Inside the main bathroom

The canopy outside the garage

The roof over the garage

You can now pretty much see the profile of the north facade of the house

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Photos from week starting 4th April

There has been a real leap forward in the roof construction this week now that all the main ridge and valley beams are in place.

Other news is that the ship carrying our windows arrives in Sydney tomorrow and the container should be delivered within about a week. There have been lots of issues to resolve around this, including organising customs clearance, transport and a place to unload the container (the truck and container are too large to get to the site so we are going to use an industrial unit belonging to a friend of the builder on an industrial estate at Somersby Falls next to the freeway).