Stairway to heaven?

Well, no building yesterday - the weather was horrible. But I popped up this morning and the guys are hard at work - the floor joists for the "TV room" were going in while I was there, and they have built a temporary staircase too - easier than the ladder :-)

The TV room takes shape

Joists in - nogs next...

A pretty pink temp staircase!

It's a steel (and floor)

So on Thursday David, our builder, sent me the pic below of the steel beams freshly installed. By Friday, the floor was pretty much done (well, the living area, dining and kitchen floor anyway). There are of course two gaping holes in the middle - one is where the stairs will emerge, and the other is going to be built over and is a raised extension of the dining area which meets up with the stairwell.

I have also included a 3D view of the house I threw together using SketchUp which might help make sense of what's built so-far... and of course how much more is still to come!

Foggy day - Photo: David Willemsen - Innovative Homes Ltd

Standing in the kitchen - looking South West

Standing in the living area - looking North

3D Rendering - looking from the South West

I'm floored!

Well, the living room floor is starting at any rate. So, since our last update: We have had the fill placed behind the retaining wall - all recycled crushed concrete - sourced locally of course (and waterproofing membrane installed, protected by polystyrene panels), floor joists installed over the single garage, and flooring panels starting to be installed in the living room area!

Clean recycled fill behind the retaining wall

Floor joists and floor panels underway

The view downhill from the final floor level in the living room

David gets his logo in front of the camera...

The view from the living room (minus windows, walls etc.)

Kitchen floor's not there yet!

It's a frame up!

Yes, framing has now begun! Yesterday the framing for the basement level was installed, and I got there at lunch time to see the floor timber arriving and the bracing for the framing underway. As I left the steel fabricator arrived too - he was there to measure up for the steel beams. It's moving quick now!

Basement framing - it's a frame up!

Through the games room window

Ben the site bum boy actually doing some work! ;-)

That garage is almost ready for my car!

And here's the good old fixed position shot for you

The Great Wall of Te Miro - Part 3

So it was a fine but cool day of Saturday, and the concrete trucks made their way once more up the hill - this time to fill the block wall with nice wet concrete...

Bring on the trucks!

Hmmm - gotta hate that splash-back!

Don't fill it too much!

A concrete waterfall!

We need a Dutch boy! Stat!

And now - for your viewing pleasure - the video!

The great wall of Te Miro - part 2

So, today I was called onto the site urgently to work with the sparky in determining where we wanted power and network ports on the concrete block wall - they were almost finished laying the blocks, and the conduit needed to go in today. So, here's some pics from today.

The wall about 2 hours from finished

The wall getting close to done

Pretty close to finished now. The sparky on his knees marking out sockets.

And here are a few from the last week - just to fill in the gaps :-)

This is the famous boulder that is now a key part of the foundations

The second part of the slab (the double garage) freshly poured

Picnic time on the foundations on the weekend 

So - tonight it's raining hard and heavy. I'd hate to be working up there tomorrow! Still, will be interesting to see how they get on with the drain laying and insulation behind the wall. By the end of the week the structural block wall should be totally complete - next step is basement framing!

The Great Wall of Te Miro



Half-cooked retaining wall :-)  Events are progressing apace.  Photo courteousy of David Willemsen, our builder.