22nd - 28th March 2010

Another week started and it was definitely a case of onward and upward.

Monday - there was a bit more bracing, most of it temporary we hope.


And the extra bits were added to the kitchen window frame.


As Dave was not let loose on any of the clever stuff going on in the house, he had to content himself with uprooting some more gorse and giving his treasured potatoes some more tender loving care (and super phosphate). They certainly seem to be growing well.



Tuesday - and the upward bit started in earnest. In fact there was a bit of a false start as the roof trusses to go over the lounge were the wrong size...


... so instead they had to start with the centre part of the roof.




Wednesday - and the upward continued.

We got rather a shock when we drove up the road to our new section as previously it had been invisible from the road, even when you reached the gate. But today you could see the roof trusses when you turned a corner in the road about 0.5 km from our drive. What a pity!

A rather distorted view with our new camera with a huge zoom, but it does give the idea.

The action had to stop for a while in the afternoon when the most horrendous storm arrived and even our hardy builders had to admit defeat and seek shelter.

Thursday - a lovely sunny day again and the replacement trusses had arrived so the roof over the lounge could be erected.

There was a massive beam across the room, hopefully strong enough to hold the weight of all the crossways trusses.



But major excitement was also going on else where, as a second bog appeared,thanks to Dave ...

... and a digger surprisingly appeared to clear the land in the gully at the end of our section and replace the existing broken down and rusty fence with some new deer fencing. This land is part of a very large section and has in recent times been used as a lion safari park and a go-kart track. It all looks a bit dramatic and we are not quite sure what is going to be contained inside the new fence, but hopefully it will be deer! We must investigate. Our land is to the right of the cleared area, which was mainly blackberry.


Our bore just inside our boundary (we think), hopefully it will not be disturbed.

Looking the other way, and our land is to the left of the cleared area.

But there are some rather nice old native trees in the gully and we hope they will remain.

15th - 21st March 2010

The frames were completed on Monday and Tuesday. In total, there were 67 frames made from 537 studs (plus a few more) and 10,000 nails.

Wednesday, St Patrick's Day, was the 'show day', when the frames started to be erected. The first four were in place when we arrived at 8am ...


... and they popped up all day. Don't be fooled by the blue skies, there was a bitterly cold southerly which was strong and gusty and made the whole process more exciting.






Yay, we have a front door.


The last one, and luckily it fitted just perfectly.

So, by 5pm the whole house was standing, save for a few minor details inside. Yay, how amazing and how exciting. The whole house is going to be stunning and the views from all the rooms are just amazing. Even the rooms on the darker, cooler southerly side will be lovely. If only the rest of the progress could be so rapid!

And, between holding up frames, Dave created a bog! This is to kill off the excess kikuyu grass and submerging it is about the only way to get rid of it. This time we have provided a walkway out for any hedgehogs who decide to take a dip.
And go the potatoes and blue lupins!


Friday - not much progress on the face of it but a lot had been going on. The bottom plate had been bolted to the concrete floor every 90 cm and lots of cross bracing (both temporary and permanent) had appeared.


And there was also the promise of more with the arrival of rather a lot of rather large roof trusses.

But all the drilling had produced concrete and metal dust which had to be removed before the forecast rain arrived. This was or course a good opportunity to sneak back to the house for another look!

8th - 14th March 2010

The builders returned on Wednesday, yay, and set to work constructing the frames. Most of the plates and studs had been cut before they left, so now they just had to be put together.

As before they worked at a fast and furious pace and the frames just rolled off. Unfortunately there was no unskilled work suitable for Dave so he just had to watch as the piles grew....


11 on the first day, which was basically the whole of the garage...

and 42 out of 67 by the end of the week.

While all this was going on, Dave was entertaining himself by digging out gorse bushes from our 'lawn'. We knew there were lots of them but hadn't realised how many until we started using our hose which seemed to get caught on one each time it was moved.

The veggie patch at last showing signs of growth other than gorse and kikuyu grass which is good.

And also this week, Dave's best moment so far at our new section! He found a stick insect happily munching at one of our new natives. A local friend at last!