We're in!

Yes, folks we have been in our new house for 2 weeks now. So why the delay on the blog update? Good ole Telstra have given us a little bit of last minute grief in getting the new connection on but after 4 failed attempts to show up and flick the switch, Barry the very nice Telstra man came on Tuesday afternoon and waved his magic telecommunications wand and voila!

So what's been happening?

Firstly, all the nasty things I said about buying a kitchen from Ikea are still true, however, putting it together was really easy and the result is fantastic. We still have to get the door handles on and the kickplates, oh and the wall tiles, but I LOVE MY KITCHEN!!!!!

Now, the interior fitout is far from finished but the downstairs is completely plastered so that is where we are living. It is a giant studio apartment with our bed in the area that will be the lounge. Hmmmm, maybe we should have built a house only half the size!! I must say, that a new house makes you look critically at all your old furniture and most of our stuff is utter crap! We put a few old things outside the front gate and they were quickly grabbed by passers by (funny folk, these mountain people). More has to go but it will be a while before we have the cash to splurge on new things. I can dream though...

The most exciting development (apart from having cooking and showering facilities), has been our new stairs. We used Jones Joinery and they have done a really nice job of the external stairs (front and back) the timber and wire railings on the upstairs balcony and the solid hardwood staircase inside. I can't show you the internal staircase yet. The stairwell is shrouded in black plastic to prevent the warmth wafting upstairs and straight out the top of the building. You see we haven't lined the soffits so there is a lovely draft running through the upstairs at the moment. And, as you all know, it is the middle of bloody winter!!

Note that the gaping hole at the top of the house is finally gone. Greg broke many safety laws and possibly even the law of gravity to get them up there - 8.5 metres from the ground. The procedure involved a trailer, a platform on the trailer, a bloody great extension ladder on the platform and a large amount of pure adrenalin. Did I mention that Greg did it on Tuesday - the windiest day for years. I am pleased to report that no DIY madmen were harmed during the exercise.

So, things will slow down on the building front now as we prepare to go back to the job of earning a living and paying for it all. It has been a big journey, with much passion, frustration, elation, boredom and exhaustion. It almost killed us, and yet, and yet we still catch ourselves saying "Next time we build, we'll do if differently......." AAAAAAAHGGGGGGGHHHH!!! When will the madness end? Stay tuned.....

The Ikea Kitchen Fiasco

We wanted a quality kitchen, without having to sell a kidney. "Hey, why not get an ikea kitchen" I said.
So we visited the megastore, looked at the cabinets and benchtops, took home all the info. I measured up and spent many hours browsing the catalogue to find the perfect solution.
After weeks (no, months) of thought and mind changing, I was set.
All I had to do was order it. Of course you can't order over the phone or online. You have to visit Ikea in person.
Ok, no problem. I'll take Greg with me and we'll get it done in an hour or so.
Here's the thing. The staff are probably nice people when they are not at work, but while they are on the clock, they are trained to be as unhelpful and surly as possible. At the kitchen section, I spoke to a staff member who seemed irritated that I had interrupted her busy schedule of standing around and bitching with the other kitchen staff member. Well, sorreeeeeee!
The kitchen section staff don't help you choose a kitchen by the way, they are there purely as data input people. Don't ask for help, you will be disappointed.
I told her what I wanted, she typed it in. She checked availablility. Oh yeah, that's another thing. If what you want is not in stock, you can't order it, noooooo You have to come back in and get it at a later date. A tad inconvenient when you are ordering a swag of gear and want it delivered.
Anyway.... The Ikea chick printed me a list of 66 items that I required (this included hinges, knobs and such). Now for the fun part....
Grab a trolley and go and find all the items in the self serve area. No, better grab another 2 trolleys - and they are big trolleys!
We spent around 2 - 3 hours finding everything we needed and getting through the checkout. Then we also picked up another 2 trolleys of stuff from the 'full service' desk.
Now that we have everything (we hope), it's time to arrange delivery. Take all 5 trolleys to the delivery counter and they take all the stuff and put it in a different room awaiting delivery.
All up, we spent 4 hours, 15 minutes in Ikea. It was dark when we emerged, tired, broke and hungry.
Ok, so this may be my most negative rant so far on the blog, but I am still happy to have the kitchen I have chosen. I just wanted you all to be aware of the drama associated with buying a kitchen from Ikea.
There may be a further entry about assembling the blasted thing yet.

Less than 4 weeks til move in day

Ugly steel beam..... how do we cover it?

Voila! Beautiful timber beam is now a feature.

I just love the beautiful timber door and french doors now they are finished.

We have been given notice by our landlord so our move in date is now fixed - the 9th June.

Wet areas are ready to tile. The licensed waterproofer has been and stung us for $825. It took him 3 hours or so. He used half a bucket of waterproofing goop. This could well be the industry to get into methinks! If we had known what a scam it was, we might have been tempted to be less law abiding and create our own 'waterproofing certificate' to satisfy the building inspector.

The kitchen cabinets arrive friday ( in flat pack), the tiles arrive tomorrow. Plastering & cornicing is half done (downstairs that is) so we are on track... I think.

Our goal is to have the downstairs and wet areas completely finished by move in date. Bedrooms can wait - we'll just sleep in the living area for a few weeks.

Stay tuned for an indepth account of buying an Ikea kitchen - not as simple as you think....

Plasterboard is going up

Lounge with new plasterboard walls.

Entrance. Solid Meranti door still to be stained.

Looking more complete on the outside now

There has been plenty of activity on the jobsite over the last month. The plumber has finally finished after 3 weeks (a total of 6 days on site over that time). We put in a big effort on the shadowclad cladding and have finished except for a couple of sheets right at the top. Greg will put those on when we hire the necessary equipment (we'll get the soffit linings on at the same time). So, finally, after several months of painstaking, methodical work we can move onto other things - like internal lining!



Wow, what a difference a wall makes. We have insulated all our walls with 1.8R bats and with the plasterboard on in the entrance, lounge and dining areas, the place already feels quieter, cosier and more like a house. We'll be continuing with plasterboard and villaboard for the next couple of weeks and then some of the really fun stuff will start (for me anyway) - kitchen, bathroom fitout and tiles. Next weekend will be ceiling sheets - we are hiring a panel lift to make the job easier, well actually to make the job possible for 2 people. Greg has a ludicrous sense of optimism about what the two of us can accomplish but even he has conceded that we need help on this.

The internal spaces look so different now that the plasterboard is up. I realise now that there is plenty of hanging space for paintings so I want to keep the wall colour light and neutral in order to showcase the art.

The tradies are in!

Greg (aka Manuel Labore) saves us about 1200 bucks
by digging the trenches for the plumber.

Energex hooks up our power line

A rare glimpse of our plumber at work.

Downpipes are connected to tank so where's the rain?

The last 3 weeks has seen a flurry of wildlife on our property. We have sighted an electrician (Sparkus expensivus) as well as the rare and endangered Drainus exoticus (licenced plumber). A flock of Energexus standaroundus (energex linesmen) also appeared once the sparkus had left.
Finally some of the hard work is being done by someone other than us! Stuart, our electrician spent a day doing the electrical rough-in while Greg helped by drilling about a thousand holes for the wires to pass through.
Energex have now connected up our meter box so now we can plug in our power tools without borrowing power from next door. This is a significant improvement as Jedda the giant (but friendly) slobbering dog from next door almost knocks us over with enthusiasm every time we venture inside their gate.
More significantly, Tony our plumber has connected up all our downpipes to the water tank so now we can catch all the lovely rain. Of course it rained for 3 weeks before he showed up and now the weather is dry dry dry! Ahh... the irony.
We passed our first plumbing inspection (stormwater drainage) but it looks like we may have to dig a trench to the boundary from the water tank for an overflow - about 25 metres. Yuk. Still waiting to hear back on that - there may be a loop hole yet, fingers crossed.

The plumber will be back next week to finish off the wall plumbing - so we'll be sheeting the wet areas soon. Of course, we have to finish the exterior cladding first - stay tuned for an update later tonight.

"Tick, VG" - we passed frame inspection!

Yay!! A sense of achievement - we passed the inspection!

The bath has arrived . I can't wait for a long hot soak - luxury!

The house is looking a bit funny - wait til it's painted though.

A glimpse of all the nasty upstairs framing that will soon be covered in plasterboard.

After a long, drawn out period of working hard but feeling like we were getting nowhere, we have finally moved to the next stage of building. Our building inspector arrived this morning to check the structural integrity of our house (frame inspection). Greg has been experiencing sleepless nights worrying over whether he has forgotten anything but it was all a big worry over nothing - we passed with flying colours - phew!!!- what a relief.

Things that the inspector checked: steel frame (including bolts and straps), subfloor, roof, timber framing, bracing sections (including tie down rods and bolts as well as plywood bracing). He also checked that no unauthorised changes had been made to the plan.

So what's next? Finishing the external cladding, install the front door and upstairs french doors, kidnapping the plumber and electrician and make them do their bit. Plasterboard, kitchen to go in. Etc, etc etc.... no rest for the wicked that's for sure!

A sustainable eco-friendly house?

Building a house is by nature not very eco-friendly. Alot of new materials are required and the land is left scarred after all the excavation and site works. A pile of waste is created as well.
At one stage I looked longingly at strawbale or mudbrick building as a way of counteracting the huge level of consumption required in conventional building but Greg couldn't be convinced.
So within the confines of normal materials we really strived to build a house that has as small an impact as possible on the environment. Have we succeeded? Not as well as I would have liked.

Positive things:

• No poisonous termite chemicals required ever due to the off the ground steel frame.
• Small footprint ( 8mt x 12mt) means more land can be planted and less roofing materials are required to cover our living space because we went 2 storeys high.
• Solar hot water should reduce our coal burning power consumption by around 30%.
• Large water tank means we are self sufficient in water.
• UV treated waste water means no chlorine or concentrated nutrient loads will ever leach into the soil and build up - and water is re-used on the garden.
• Very energy efficient design means we'll use less power to heat and cool. Large eaves, minimal windows facing west, north facing verandah, low thermal mass roof and walls, high R value insulation & under floor ventilation all contribute to a design that suits the wet & humid, hot in summer, cool in winter climate of the subtropical rainforest.

Negative things:

• We weren't able to use recycled windows due to the government requirement that a glazing certificate be provided ensuring adherence to Australian Standards - bugger!
• Steel has a high embodied energy so was and 'environmentally expensive' choice - the trade off was that we have a termite barrier without toxic chemicals.
• Clearing the block removed habitat for native animals & birds - we hope to replant and rectify this as much as we can.
• Our decking (merbau) and framing (cypress) both come from non-sustainable forestry sources. The only thing I can say is that we will be living here for many years and caring for the timber so it never needs to be replaced but I really feel rotten about this point.

In the future, we hope to make our property more sustainable through the following:

• Keep chickens (to be fed on kitchen scraps and other green waste)
• Grow large amounts of our own vegies and fruit (and eggs of course)
• Grow habitat for birds, native mammals and beneficial insects
• Addition of grid connected solar power to supply all our power needs

Of course, we still have a house to build so I'd better go and help Greg with the tie-down rods!

Our first harvest

While the house has been slowly coming together, I have been chucking a few seeds around to see how good our soil is. We are now harvesting lebanese cucumbers and have 6 nice fat sugarbaby watermelons nearly ready. The zucchini's are a bit slow and the rockmelons haven't set fruit yet. I have cast some budgie seed around the front yard (which is mainly millet) to try and get a cover crop going and it is sprouting well after the rain. I've put in a passionfruit to cover the wire fence and my lovely brother Tony gave me 5 fruit trees for christmas - 2 feijoas, 1 eureka lemon, 1 tahitian lime and a low-chill peach. There is still alot of soil to be moved around before the orchard can be planted but I can hardly wait!!!!

What about the walls?

Aaaahhh, walls - what a luxury!

We have chosen an exterior ply cladding called 'Shadowclad'. It comes in large sheets and is 12mm thick with vertical grooves. We love it. Originally we were going to clear coat it to give a nice timber finish but advice from the manufacturer's suggested that the board would only last about 15 years if we did this, whereas they estimated a life of 50 years for painted boards. So paint it is. The colour is Wattyl 'weekender' and is probably a bit darker than it appears in the photo. We have found shadowclad relatively easy to put up - as long as the first board is true, the rest just slot into place alongside it.

Upstairs framing is complete - could it be true??

We assumed that the upstairs framing would take about the same as the downstairs framing but nooooo! There were lots of tricky fiddly nasty bits up there (which we will be revisiting soon with plasterboard) and we underestimated on timber by about 500 lineal metres. But, finally, it is all done.