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.

Something Concrete At Last (literally)

Smooth enough to skate on. Well, perhaps roller skate. And you'd need like really big wheels to stop from sinking into the wet concrete. And the nice guys who did all that hard work would probably break you and feed you your skates. In hindsight, this skating thing isn't a very good idea.

Smooth as a baby's bottom. If the baby is made of rebar reinforced concrete with a texture approaching that of sandpaper. That smooth.

Room with a view. Well, there is a view, the room is still a few months away.

So many trucks and stuff. Mostly stuff. Those teamster union bosses need a lot of concrete to cover their bodi.. uh, did I just say that out loud?

I love hard work. I could watch it for hours...

First concrete truck of several. This guy was smart, he used first gear to get up the driveway. I did not get photos, but the second truck that came up was obviously driven by someone not familiar with the handling characteristics of a fully laden heavy vehicle on a steep, unpaved surface. Who also hit our gate (amidst the clouds of burning clutch smoke).

And now for something completely different. Have some dragonflies sexing it up beside the pond. Good weather for a shag.

Scene of the crime. No teamster union bosses about to be buried under there, no Siree.

Another day in paradise... just before all the tucks descended...

Plans - an update

A lot of changes have happened sine the first concept plans we posted - here are the latest...

This is the basement level - where the footings are being done now.

This is the top floor - on three sub-levels

This gives a pretty good idea what it might look like

Progress report... Lots of steel!

Well, the work on the foundations continues. Supposedly this is one of the most frustrating parts of the build because it doesn't seem like a lot is happening... Still - we are seeing progress...

The builders are having fun at least - that's a banana...

Last Thursday this was where we stood - concrete in the footings.

The basement footings starting to take shape

On Saturday Chris and our nephew Hayden show us the now concrete filled footings

And Hayden enjoys the septic tank (or naughty room as his dad calls it)

And here's the obligatory static location shot

Footings in prep

Popped up to the site quickly today during lunch to check on progress. The guys have been busy and have dug out all the footing trenches on the lower level and today started placing the footing steel into place.

Here are some of the trenches at the front edge of the basement floor.

They had to do some serious cutting of a large graywacke boulder in one of the trenches. It may even be bedrock?

And here's the footing steel in place. The trench is filled with concrete, then the steel is bent inwards to join with the floor slab steel - making sure the floor is well and truly fixed to the footings.

Just after I took these pics, the heavy rain started. I bet it's not so pristine looking now!

So, on Monday the two water tanks arrived on site apparently (we were up there Sunday, and have not been back since - I popped up there today between meetings). So, we now have two HUGE water tanks!

They have also terraced the land above the first cut somewhat and are staking out the foundation locations, and running floor level strings.

The site is starting to look busy! Apparently the steel for the concrete slab should arrive in the next few days and then they will have the digger back to dig the pour holes for the foundations...