owner builder

by

Paint Colour and Progress

Latest exterior

Latest exterior photo

It has been a while since my last post. Things are at the pointy end now and we have started on painting the void areas before the scaffolding was dropped in these areas. The main wall colour we have chosen is British paints Stone Path, the photos are not a good representation of it, its a nice grey/beige.

The exterior is taking shape now the porch roofing has been completed but there are still quite a few details to be finished off on the outside. The tiling starts on Monday, that’s a bit exciting and I guess when it all starts looking more complete. This is also the stressful part where you wonder if all the selection you have made are going to end up looking like they do in your head.

The cabinets are now in production and are due for install at the end of the month, its hard to believe that by the end of this month it will be finished to that extent. The amount of overlapping/organising of the different finishes at this stage is immense, already the install of the timber flooring  has delayed the island bench install as we need it to sit on top of the timber as it has a skirting board around it and we wanted to do away with beading around the base of the cabinets. As with other trades once one thing is delayed it has a knock on effect on everything else. This is the part you wish would run smoothly but never does, needless to say wine consumption in our house in the evening has gone up to cope with the stress.

The end is in sight though now. The next post I will show you the finishes we have chosen.

View looking down to to the great room

View looking down to to the great room chimney breast

Round void window

Round void window

temp balustrauding around void

temp balustrading around void

Ready for garage doors

Ready for garage doors

 

by

Painting and Plaster Progress

It is now part way through June and we are hoping for a September move in date. Things have been powering on and we have had that many people on site its hard to find a parking spot most days.

We have had a team of plasterers for the last week putting up gyprock and starting on the cornicing upstairs. We had some quotes on rendering and white skim coating the interior but surprisingly it was cheaper to gyprock and tape the entire interior rather than plaster, this also worked out better in the two storey height great room as we could use really large sheets of gyprock across the upper  slab which would do away with putting a stringer around the join to disguise cracking around the slab line that usually occurs in plastered interiors.

The cornice we chose was CSR Concerto, we had a moment this morning of google-ing pictures of it to double check which way it was to be installed as this one can be used either way, in the end we chose based on what looked better holding it to the ceiling and we are happy with it.

We have had our cabinets check measured on site, I’ve lost sleep over the design of the kitchen so I hope it looks as good in reality as what I envision it to look like. At this stage the cabinetry will be ready by the end of July.

Josh from Talbot Le Page Design continues to be our go to man for trades, his help has been invaluable on this build and I doubt we would have kept things moving so fast without his help.

The R9WA guys are still going hard finishing off the windows, which thanks to the millions of cross bars that need to be applied are proving a time consuming  job, these Hampton style windows are a lot of work but look brilliant, the guys are doing a brilliant job.

The build is changing daily so I will post more photos of the progress soon.

Exterior progress

Exterior progress

Exterior

Exterior

Weatherboard in Dulux Flooded Gum half and window detail

Weatherboard in Dulux Flooded Gum half and window detail

Interior plaster upstairs sitting room

Interior plaster upstairs sitting room

Cornice plastering detail - Concerto

Cornice plastering detail – Concerto

Plastering completed upstairs

Plastering completed upstairs

Chimney breast plastering

Chimney breast plastering

Master bedroom plasterwork

Master bedroom plasterwork

Blue board moisture resistant gyprock in ensuite

Blue board moisture resistant gyprock in ensuite

Backyard view of office window

Backyard view of office window

Backyard view facing Great room upstairs windows

Backyard view facing Great room upstairs windows

View from backyard of Upstairs sitting room bifold windows

View from backyard of Upstairs sitting room bifold windows

 

by

Almost weather tight

It seems to be ages since my last post so apologies for those of you following.
Things have been absolutely powering along lately with trades everywhere.

We have a roof now and a good looking one at that. The roof was something we had agonized over for ages, light or dark, tile or tin. Finally we decided on a dark roof in colorbond monument in a trimdeck profile. We had decided that if we went for tin we wanted something to look similar to the profiles that are used in American houses and after seeing a house in City Beach that is being built by Talbot Le Page Design  we decided to go in that direction as it looks amazing.

New Roof

New Roof

Trimdeck roof in Monument

Trimdeck roof in Monument

Roof and gutter detail

Roof and gutter detail

Talbot and Josh from Talbot Le Page Design have been helping us out with suggesting tradies and getting quotes and a wealth of knowledge in the building industry, without them we would have been stuck a few times as owner builders having limited access to tradies etc but these guys have certainly lightened the load.

The R9WA guys have been pulling long hours installing our windows and getting us to lock up, we are still thrilled with the product and now its weather tight you can begin to see the thermal properties working.

We have had so much rain in the last week but which hasn’t helped but we now have started the cladding on the outside, which is exciting but along with that came the decision on external paint colour, I will talk about that in a separate post because that is a long topic 🙂

Cladding started

Cladding started

Gable Vents

Gable Vents

dining room french doors

dining room french doors

The very sexy double glazed windows are installed. They are white but most still have the protective tape on and havent got the trim details attached but are still really nice. The fly screens are retractable and roll back into the sides of the windows and will be concealed by a white facia panel.

kitchen window

kitchen window

Kitchen window with retractable screen

Kitchen window with retractable screen

2014-05-28 13.39.50 (360x640)

2014-05-28 13.40.34 (360x640)

upstairs sitting room window

upstairs sitting room window

internal roof and air con install

internal roof and air con install

by

Progress Report

front elevation

Front elevation

Front elevation

Apologies for the delay since the last post, we have been quite busy. We now have the upper story panels pretty much complete and the roof starts next week.

We did have a few hassles with concrete which put us back a week or so and we had to organize to get a concrete saw to cut through an air conditioning penetration that was concreted over courtesy of a form work faux pas, this and a few other delays with Easter thrown in the mix delayed us a little bit but we are now back on track.

Our sea container of windows arrived today, we decided to go with double glazing to help maintain the energy efficiency of the build. We did have a couple of casualties though with the top section of our french doors being bent from being packed incorrectly in Thailand but the window company have been great and have already organizing for the damaged sections to be replaced. We are very excited by them, I’ll post some photos when they are in.

We had a Architectural students come through the build also and were really interested in seeing the alternative building material and how it is constructed.

The roof starts next week, all things going well so we will have more photos then, we are close to lock up sometime in the next few weeks (hopefully before the rain sets in) and then the fun really starts.

Linen cupboard install

Linen cupboard install

Architecture students touring the build

Architecture students touring the build

Below is the view from our upstairs sitting room, these will have bi-fold mid sections so you open up the room. I couldn’t find a photo of exactly the type of windows as these are custom made but if you look at the photo of the finished room under this one you will get an idea of the style of windows and look of the room we are going for.

The second lot of photos below is the ensuite window opening, its hard to see what type look we are going for from the stage the build is at the moment but the idea picture under it gives you more of an idea.

View from upstairs sitting room

View from upstairs sitting room

upstairs idea, similar style windows

upstairs idea, similar style windows

Ensuite window above vanity mirrors

Ensuite window above vanity mirrors

bathroom window idea

bathroom window idea

by

Upper Floor Concrete

After much checking, measuring and checking again the position of plumbing and various other sticky out bits (technical term) we finally have some upstairs concrete.
This is good for getting a perspective of how big the rooms and bathrooms will be and getting a feel for the layout. Upstairs wall panels will be ready to go in a couple of weeks giving the concrete some curing time and from then on we hope a roof.
Below are some pics of the reinforcing and concrete that was completed yesterday.

First floor reo complete

First floor reo complete

First floor reo sitting room and office

First floor reo sitting room and office

 

Upstairs reo, office, bathroom and master

Upstairs reo, office, bathroom and master

Stairs boxed up

Stairs boxed up

Concrete in master and ensuite

Concrete in master and ensuite

Concrete looking from upstairs sitting toward family

Concrete looking from upstairs sitting toward family

Concrete stair well and family room opening

Concrete stair well and family room opening

by

Formwork done ready for concrete

We have just had the formwork done in readiness for the concrete upper slab.

We got to stand up on top of the formwork (with scaffolding in place of course)  the other day and see room sizes and the outlook, it was very exciting.

All going to plan the concrete should be poured in a couple of days and from there we will have the R9WA guys back to do the upstairs walls.

Formwork and plumbing being worked on

Formwork and plumbing being worked on

Street side formwork

Street side formwork

Double story family room boxed in

Double story family room boxed in

rear view from formwork

rear view from formwork

 

 

by

Lower Floor Complete

So it is now 6th February and we have the lower story ready for boxing up for the concrete upper story floor.
So far so good, more pics to follow next week.

Front elevation

Front elevation

internal wall detail laundry

internal wall detail laundry

internal wall stairwell

internal wall stairwell

internal wall powder room door detail

internal wall powder room door detail

 

by

R9 building product close ups

Some close up shots of the R9wa panel we are using for the build.

External wall panel close up

External wall panel close up

Close up cross section of external wall panel

Close up cross section of external wall panel

Panel track corner detail

Panel track corner detail

window corner detail

window corner detail

internal wall panels

internal wall panels

kitchen window ground floor

kitchen window ground floor

corner window close up

corner window close up

Links: R9wa.com.au

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by

Site Clean and Ground Floor Wall Panels

3rd of December 2013. Site clean in preparation for the R9 panel tracks to be laid on the slab. The wall panels slot into metal tracks around the perimeter of the slab.

Site Clean

Site Clean

Site clean rear view

Site clean rear view

23RD of December 2013. The track system that the R9 panels slot into has started to be put in place on the slab. After this everything slows down after Christmas for a few weeks.

R9 panel track

R9 panel track

Tracks down ready for panels

Tracks down ready for panels

20TH of January 2014. Ready to unload the panels from the truck but a minor setback of the forklift getting bogged holds us up for a day. Oops.

Forklift setback

Forklift setback

21ST January 2014. The panels have been unloaded and the first panels are up! all in the same day. I have never seen a build this quick, the crew are fantastic, seriously hardworking blokes. Our house has it’s first walls, happy days.

Panels unloaded and first panels up

Panels unloaded and first panels up

First panels up day 1

First panels up day 1

22ND January 2014. By the end of the second day there are more walls to the lower floor.

Second day progress

Second day progress

Second day wall progress

Second day wall progress

Second day progress rear view

Second day progress rear view

Second day progress outside view Great Room

Second day progress inside view Great Room

external wall office and laundry

external wall office and laundry

Day 3 progress

Day 3 progress