Its All Happening!!!

6 WEEKS!!! That's how long I've given hubby to get the job done. Poor love also has a clients house to finish in that time too, but its all under control. I, however, am not!

We are getting going as fast as we can because the owners of the house we're renting are wanting to move back in. Nothing like the thought of living in a caravan on site with no running water, shower or loo to motivate you.

So to that end, we are on the go. 7 days a week on the go. I have given him today off though, to be nice (and as I'm fighting the dreaded lurgy and cant bring myself to traipse back and forth carting food).

Upon inspection, I was so very thrilled to see the bones of the job coming to life. The frame is up, trusses are up and the lean-to off the side is up. Next week should see the insulation paper, windows and a roof on.

Once thats done, the little kitchen can be measured (always a good idea rather than just going off the measurements on the plan) and the electrician, phone, plumbing and gas rough ins can be done.  Rick assures me that we will be done in 6 weeks (we hand keys back in 7)

So I better get off my butt, and get started on the cleaning and packing... Anyone want to help??  Or have tips on beating a nasty persistent cough would be much appreciated!

Happy Sunday All, stay tuned for weekly updates.

Side view of the shed. Some bracing sheets still need to go up on external walls and internal walls. The blue timber is the chemically treated pine that help to prevent termites. We also use a termite barrier called Kordon (thanks to the guys from Hervey Bay Maryborough Pest Control) which is put between concrete slab and the base of the frame. The BEST way to help protect yourself from termite attack is VIGILANCE - visual checks, keep gardens and especially things like timber mulch and taps away from the perimeter of your building. Termites need water, so taps and plants up against homes and weep holes is the BEST way to invite them in. 

Walls meet roof

Lean to, home of Ricks truck and trailer for the duration of shed living.

So from left to right, the first room will eventually be my office once the main part of the house is finished. to the right of that, you can see the frame of the cupboard and behind that is the bathroom. Then there is the door and window and where Ricks standing will be the workbench which will host the kitchenette for the duration of the shed living. It looks small but trust me its not :)  During construction, the size of the house and the rooms can often be deceiving When a base or slab goes down, we often see a look on clients face that says "ummm Are you sure thats the right size, it looks so small?"  It's so deceiving to see without walls up. This optical illusion keeps changing during the construction. Rooms can often look smaller when the gyprock sheets go up, but once painted often looks spacious again. I put it down to the dark greyish colour of the sheets. The kitchen is the same. Unitl the cabinets go in, it can often look out of proportion. Kitchens going in is one of my favourite times of construction as it gives the owners a big lift to get to that stage, and generally they can really start to visualise the final product which is so hard to do when you are looking at drawings on paper.

Just to give you an idea on size, hubby (on left) is 6 foot... And I cleaned up what he was really thinking!!

There's Been Movement at the Station.......

For the word had got around.. Donna wants to moooooove!!!!

We're finally underway. Albeit a bit stop start but the clients must come first so I'm re-learning my patience skills.  Anyhoo, the slab is down. Both the main slab for the shed and the awning slab. Posts are in to support said awning. Now its time to order the timber for the frame. We're opting to construct the frame ourselves, or also known as a "stick frame"  That way we can plod along at our own pace and not have prefab frames sitting exposed to the elements given that our place will be worked on during weekends. So here's a little preview of whats been happening so far.

Main slab put to bed with plastic gift wrapping :) This slab is for a Class 1a building because we have set it up suitable for a habitable room   i.e Shed or Granny Flat. This sort of slab requires stiffening beams and is set up as though it was a normal dwelling, therefore will look different at this stage, to a standard shed slab that wont have habitable rooms.

Aaaaaand we have a slab.

Like my work boots???  I think we need a little rain.

Stage 2 boxing for the awning slab. This one has no beams in it because its not set up for habitable rooms. However it does have a thickening beam around the perimeter because the engineers say so. 

All hands on deck. Rick was "chute boy" The posts had to be in place before the concrete could be poured (see the big uprights at the front) This is to ensure that the shed has the correct bracing. Good thing those clouds went around. It did make the concrete supplier a bit nervous, but twas all good.

TADA!!!!!!! we have a slab. Now get that timber ordered Rick!!!!!

The Day has Finally Dawned!

It's finally all happening. Tomorrow, the footings will be prepped, inspected by the certifier and made ready for the slab to be poured next week.  Of course, this all happens on the day I'm also manning a cake stall at a local buy swap and sell. LOL excellent planning on my behalf.

So just to clarify, this is the first part of the building process that we start tomorrow. "The Shed". This is stage 1 and where we'll live for probably the next 12 - 18 months while we work and play and find the time and finances to start the house.  The plan was always to have minimum debt and do as much of the work ourselves to minimise costs. So this will take time. But not to fear, "The Shed" will be made very comfortable. In the design, there is a permanent room that will eventually be our work office, a proper bathroom and loo, and benches and washing machine and laundry tub will give us a pretend kitchenette for now that will later be Rick's workshop and Kiah's horse blanket/dog blanket washing area.  The floor will be sealed, and obviously the walls lined and ceilings in to not only keep us comfy while we're in there, but for when it turns back into a workshop (a man needs to be comfy in his man cave).

I guess it gets a bit real now. We need to organise the septic treatment system, order the plumbing fittings, tiles and oh my lord, select colours. We want "The Shed" to compliment "The House" and this hasnt been an easy task for me. Normally, I can pick colours in my sleep. But for some reason, I had a real issue with it this time. I don't know whether it was because I was restricting myself to Colorbond colours, or that I was trying to do something different but I had a heck of a time choosing.  This weekend, that will be done. I'm going to contact a local Colorbond rep to see if the main wall colour has been installed locally so I can go view it for myself. I find this the best way because trying to select colours on a computer screen tends to lead to a total and epic fail as the colours simply are not true. So if you are having issues with your colours, talk to your paint specialists or as I'm doing Colorbond experts and ask them if they can recommend where you can see your colour in real life. If its paint, you can also talk to your friendly painter, and get them to paint a board for you. One more tip, if the colour is for a wall, dont look at it in a horizontal position. Go and prop it up, put it outside (if its an external wall) and stand back and look at it in all lights before you decide.

Well that's me done for the day, I'm off to prep my cup cake toppers for Saturday.  In the meantime, I've made a little video of our journey so far.  Hope you like it :)

Donna.

Nearly There!!!!

SO, where are we all at?

 Well, the plans will be out of council this coming week. Yay!!!!  Most of the front paddock is finished thanks to nifty machinery. We are still waiting for the silt that was pushed up and over the dam wall to finish drying out, so we can reposition that around the top to make for a brilliantly rich and fertile soil to work with for the garden. ... AND the biggest woohoo of all..... the fencing is finished!!!  So stay tuned for lots of photos to come showing the progress so far. It's been a lot of hardwork, but the end result is worth it.





The gate is to be sorted, for now we've raided the local recycle centre for some pool panels to swing the gate from so that we don't have to leave the dogs alone on weekends now. They are so happy.... and just a tad dirty. The city dogs have discovered the joys of country life and what a dam is all about!










I get to have some time off work next week from the surgery, so I'll put together a collage of photos, and some more tips for building :)

Till then,

toodles!

Big job, had to get the whole family in!

Got to keep the workers happy. With my trusty little helper at my side, it was hot dogs for lunch that day!

Donna's Tips - Oh Dear, We Have a Latent Condition!

CONTRACTS!!!  Scary things, boring things, but necessary things!

How many of us really do look at the fine print?

Mikiah Homes use contracts prepared by the Queensland Master Builders legal team. After perusing the various contracts put together by building industries bodies, we feel this is the fairest contract for both the client and the builder. At the time of signing, we sit down with the client/s and read through each individual part of the contract. It's required by law that we do this, and though time consuming, it still sorts out things that may have been inadvertently missed. So. how many of you really pay attention when going through your contract with your builder?  It can be a long slog and a lot of information that maybe you glaze over. But here's one that you really should pay attention to. It's a clause that probably wont effect you, and one that we haven't come across in our 10 years of building... UNTIL our own home!

Latent Condition

definition : as per Qld Master Builders Residential Building Contract*

"Latent Condition - means any physical condition on or around the Land, including surface and subsurface conditions, which differ materially from the physical conditions reasonably expected by the Contractor at the time the Contract was entered into;" 

In lay men's terms** that means a latent condition is something that is found above or below the land surface that despite the normal tests carried out prior to the start of the construction ie soil test survey etc, something has been found that has caused a problem with the works. That problem can mean a time delay, a financial cost or both.

So how did we come to a latent condition on our own block?  It was the driveway and phone and power trench that was our undoing. In the process of getting the driveway levelled and putting the trench in to run power and phone cable from the street to the proposed dwellings, we hit a shelf of rock. BUGGER. So everything came to a stop till we could arrange for heavier machinery (time delay) to come out and spend the day digging the trench (unexpected financial cost)

Now as I said, this is the first time in ten years of building that, had this been a contract with a client, we would have had to implement the clause.

What can you as the client do to prepare for this? Make sure you have a read and understood the contract as to what the extra charge rate would be in this situation. Always budget for more money than the cost of the contract.

So what was your unexpected surpise when building??

uh oh.... this isn't good.

aaaaannnddd.... we stop!

Mikiah Homes ..... Building dreams in Hervey Bay since 2004

QBCC 78836

https://www.facebook.com/MikiahHomes

* sourced Queensland Master Builder wedsite - www.masterbuildersasn.com.au
Residential Building Contract - general conditions. Clause 14

** The writer is not trained in legal matters and the interpretation given is a guide only and should only be taken as such. Professional legal advice should always be sought before entering contracts

How's Your Weekend!

Look what hubby is up to today. After a dubious scone cooking effort on his behalf (someone may have put a few too many coals around the camp oven) we enjoyed a cuppa by the dam, then onto his latest project, stick raking! It's an exciting life we lead.

Have a great weekend all!

hmmm Sorry about the product placement, but someone has to watch his cholesterol level :)

Rome Wasn't Built in a Day... and neither was the Gallop Inn.

Patience is a virtue... apparently I am learning that :)   We're so very close to submitting plans to council I can smell the ink being written on all those forms!  Should have our plans early this week back from the draftsman. (Thanks Brett and Sarah!) and then off to Engineers Plus for more technical info. Because we aren't connected to the council sewerage, we are putting in a pretty nifty septic trench system. Col from Enviro Water Design has put together our hydraulics plans incorporating the Advanced Enviro-Septic System.   This system is perfect for us, being a simpler system, leaves a greener carbon footprint and a more economical system. Here's a link to their videos if you're interested.

 http://www.enviro-septic.com.au/advance-enviro-septic-australia/galleries/video-gallery/


Now those plans are all done, so my next few days will be spent filling out those forms to submit to the plumbing department. Generally building applications that have an onsite sewerage system in place, take a little longer than the average sewered lot application. So by lodging the plumbing application while the engineers work on the structural side, I'm hoping to speed up the whole process a tad.

So what have we been up to while the drafting and engineering experts have been busy... well look at this. We've cleared, we reconstructed the dam... and it rained!!!!! It was really important to us to have the trees cleared and the dam done before the first rains. This meant the compacted topsoil would be broken up and the dam made deeper to be more effective in holding water for irrigation of veggie gardens and paddock grasses and fruit trees. Well we got all that done just in the knickers of time!

 Okay so it looks a little bare, but you cant build houses on top of trees. That one little peg on the right is the edge of the house verandah.

Looking from where the front verandah will be, (you can just see the peg just off centre to the left)  this will be the view over the dam. I took this just before it rained.

And here are the before and after shots. Nifty timing hey!!! The top photo is a bit of an optical illusion because I've been told it looks like an open cut mine. In reality, the dam now averages a depth of around 10 feet. The bottom photo is after just a few days of rain. I'm so excited because now I can see what we have to work with garden wise. There will be a beautiful terrace spot that we'll backdrop with lillypillies and small native bushes. Then in one spot where we'll be bringing a spoon drain to carry water to the dam from the back, I can imagine how amazing it will look with a creek bed created with river rocks, down to hopefully some bush rocks into the dam to create a rock pool look. Of course this won't happen overnight, but a girl can imagine :)

To finally show off how beautiful this place is coming along, Rick built me a little bonfire, a over Easter we shared a late afternoon, quietly imagining the trees and shrubs and memories we will create on our little piece of paradise.

Stop Start Stop Start

Well we have been busy behind the scenes. We've tripped to Town Planning and we have stage 1 underway in as much as the application for the tree/vegetation removal is in their hands now. I feel for the guys in there, because it is a process and we have been down this path before on behalf of clients. So we understand that things take time. Add to that, a new town plan brought into effect late January, and everything needs to be double checked. Suffice to say, it was a very large glass of G & T that I looked for when we got home. It's not that it was difficult, we just made it more difficult for ourselves by not lodging a building and plumbing application at the same time, as they would have negated our request for a large area of trees and vegetation for removal.


But you see, its a bit like what comes first, the chicken or the egg?

There is a process that needs to be followed, so that you have accurate information to give your builder for quoting purposes.

A building and plumbing application can only be lodged once the soil test is done and that information is passed onto the engineers so that the footings are correct and the hydraulic people so that the sewerage treatment plant and subsequent disposal area can be designed.

BUT, to get a soil test done, we (a) have to get vehicles on the site - they cant at present because of the trees, and if we did get them there, and then did the soil test (and then engineered the plans etc etc etc) but THEN removed the trees, then we have changed the outcome of the soil test. This is because one gum tree can take up tremendous amounts of water. So removing them obviously changes the structure of the soil.

Happily I can report that we have had our application approved and we can now get serious about removing the trees, repairing the dam and get ready for the rains.

That was the other issue I was concerned about. The topsoil has become compacted and so to take full advantage of the coming rain, I needed for the ground to be broken up. This way instead of running off, it will soak up, and then we can get busy planting with good quality natives that have longer life spans than the current ones, and improve the quality of the soil.

Anyone looking for information on looking after small acreages can have a look at a very clever lady called Jane Meyers. She and her hubby run seminars etc and have a website called Equiculture. Very easy to understand and good quality information. I am hoping to have her up in the Bay next year to conduct seminars.

So unless it POURS down tomorrow, the work on the dam starts at 6am bright and early Saturday morning. Did I mention I'm not really a morning person!

To The Draftsman

The day arrived. Months of drawings, several 2b pencils, numerous pieces of scrap paper, hours googling different ideas, endless conversations over early morning coffee, mid morning coffee, afternoon coffee and finally........ we arrived at a point where we can nit pick no more. The plan is complete.

I have to say, that the builder (aka hubby) has done amazingly well. As with all people intending to build, we are conscious of budget vs our wish list. We've managed to design a home that (a) suits our needs for now (b) can be very easily and with little cost to new owners, suit a larger family - ALWAYS keep in mind a resale factor - and (c) can be built in three stages so that we can build as we feel comfortable to do so.

Off to Brett we went. Brett Turner of Design Plus Group, has been our draftsman for as long as we've been in business. It's exciting sitting and discussing ideas with someone who shares the enthusiasm, understands what your are trying to do, and shares ideals concerning designing for the climate, environment and the family living in the home. Now I will admit that I do tend to glaze over when the boys get excited talking Ibeams, portals, purlons and rafters. Lets face it, while I appreciate that all of this is very important to the structural integrity to the home, I want to talk about design factors, which way to run Linea Boards and Axon, layouts of rooms, positions of windows, and then put me in a room with laminate samples and tiles I'm a little like a kid in a lollie shop.

BUT when I hear words relating to financial savings, and ideas like, no posts on the back verandah, I sit up and take more notice!

So here's some tips on what to take to your draftsman.

Budget - You need to be upfront with these guys. They have a fair idea on cost of construction. You have to be realistic. You cant build a 400m2 house when you only have money for a 280m2 house.

Wishlist - make a list of what are must haves, and what are wish lists the latter being the items you can be flexible about.

Address or site plan. If you don't have a plan of your block of land (it should be in the contract you received when you bought it) have the address. The draftsman can look it up on various sites. They need this info for many things apart from the obvious of where to site the house. Your local council will have zonings over various areas of your region. Some of these zonings can have an impact on how and what you can build on your land. The easiest example is a bushfire zoning. Low, medium and high all have different construction requirements.

Your ideas, I'm using Pinterest to help me put my thoughts, ideas and colours together for the new home. It's Steampunk, so now she's looking on Pinterest for steampunk bathroom ideas..... and she founds some!! She also wants a chandelier in the bathroom.... not going to happen kiddo
amazing what you can find on there. I have told the daughter that she can pick tiles and colours for her ensuite, and suggested she use pinterest to give her ideas. She loves

Also have a look at the house you're leaving. What works in it that you'd like to replicate, what doesn't work that you'd like to change. Measure the bedrooms so you understand sizes. Have a good look at your kitchen. is it too small, is it big but useless when it comes to workspace? Do you need drawers rather than cupboards. Laundries are the most spectacularly overlooked room I find. A good working laundry MUST have bench space. If you don't have room for a good sized laundry, look up. Can overhead cupboards help? Would a front loader washer free up bench space?

There are so many aspect of designing a new home it can make your head spin, but a bit of forethought and trusting the professional people around you, makes life so much easier.

Oh Lordy, We're Do We Start

Firstly, Happy New Year. I hope the celebrations were fun and fabulous.

We were out with friends last night, and we were discussing our observations of 2013. We'd gathered on New Years Eve 2012 and decided that 2013 was going to be a year of big change. We were so spot on with that insight, as many of us there faced huge changes in our lives this year. So last night we again looked forward and decided that 2014 would be the culmination of those changes. We're a philosophical bunch.

With that thought in mind, we walked all over our block, having a good look at it for the first time, now that it was ours. We needed to have a look and try and ascertain where certain buildings were to be sited, and therefore which trees we would need to remove and which trees were worth saving and which ones were just rubbish trees. Now before the tree huggers jump up and down, when I say rubbish trees, I mean those ones that are half dead, dangerous, or trees that naturally aren't long living and are already on the way out. We don't intend to vandalise the land in anyway, but to do what we plan which also incorporates improving the soil and the fauna there, we need to remove trees.

So we wandered all over and had a good look at the fall of the land, and took a good look at our dam. Its quite shallow, choked with reed and runs a good width of the block. Basically, its stuffed and in need of repair. This is not our area of expertise so we called some fellows who have been doing this sort of thing for years. Wayne and Barry met with us to discuss the issue of the reeds in the dam etc. I was so pleased to hear their take on the dam. They have no concerns with the reeds and can see that pushing them out and over the dam wall and spreading them out and adding mulch will improve the soil in that part of the paddock and help the grasses grow. Nice to have someone on board with the same ideals. They have given us a plan of action, and once we have completed all the town planning forms, we're good to go. Hoping to get it done before the first rains and get the paddocks prepared properly. I've been doing lots of reading on managing small properties, but that's another post!

When we first looked at the dam in December the water was about a metre from the edge. Now as per photo below, its about 3 - 4 metres from the edge. Man we need some rain.