Following on shortly after getting the gyprock put up, we were able to get our kitchen and laundry cabinets installed.
I was able to put a undercoat/primer on the walls before the kitchen was installed.
We decided to go rather simple and straight forward kitchen, with a breakfast bar, fridge alcove with small cabinet above it, corner pantry.
It's just a laminex benchtops, as the thought was not to spend heaps on the kitchen now, as we're going in to a new home with a new lifestyle from the last home of 28 years and built way back in 1980. I'm figuring once we get used to the new home, we're likely to do things a lot differently to what we used to, and we might find the kitchen isn't going to work as good for us. We can think about re-doing the kitchen in about 5 years or so, but since it has been built by cabinet makers that know what they're doing, it should last a hell of a lot longer. K & K Cabinets at Logan Village built and install it all.
Laundry has been done to lift the front loader washing machine up off the ground by about 350 - 400mm, so it will now be a lot easier to load and unload it. The tumble dryer will be above it to keep both together. A broom cabinet to the left of the washing machine and to the right a reasonable sized sink and cupboards below them all.
Sunday, 1 March 2015
Gyprock done (November 2014)
Apologies for not keeping this blog up to date, and a lot has happened since I last wrote on this blog.
Early November had the guys in from Ornamental Contracting come to put up all the gyprock, square set throughout the house.
Had 13mm multistop (similar to soundcheck/firecheck) gyprock put all through the home theatre room, which I may or may not at a later date add another layer of 10mm with green glue inbetween the sheets.
The rest of the house is the normal 10mm gyprock with 6mm villaboard in the wet areas like bathrooms and laundry.
Under the back patio (alfresco) and front verandah I've had done with 13mm water resistant gyprock, as it looks a whole lot better the fibro with plastic joins all the way through it.
During the following after they put it up, and another crew came in the did the finishing off to bring it up to painting ready.
One thing they would rather I didn't do, was not to cut holes in the walls for the powerpoints/light switches, as it makes it a lot harder to do the joints and sanding. ...now they tell me. :)
Early November had the guys in from Ornamental Contracting come to put up all the gyprock, square set throughout the house.
Had 13mm multistop (similar to soundcheck/firecheck) gyprock put all through the home theatre room, which I may or may not at a later date add another layer of 10mm with green glue inbetween the sheets.
The rest of the house is the normal 10mm gyprock with 6mm villaboard in the wet areas like bathrooms and laundry.
Under the back patio (alfresco) and front verandah I've had done with 13mm water resistant gyprock, as it looks a whole lot better the fibro with plastic joins all the way through it.
During the following after they put it up, and another crew came in the did the finishing off to bring it up to painting ready.
One thing they would rather I didn't do, was not to cut holes in the walls for the powerpoints/light switches, as it makes it a lot harder to do the joints and sanding. ...now they tell me. :)
Sunday, 26 October 2014
All Bricked up
We had our Boral Sandstone Gold double and single height bricks delivered way back in August, as we'd ordered them just before the price rise at the end of June, and they simply had to be paid for and delivered back then.
After many delays of getting the doors ordered and finally delivered, followed by having them installed, as the bricky we'd chosen to use said he would lay them until all the external doors were installed, the bricky emailed us advising he was pulling out of the job due to commitments to his regular employer, a project builder. Not much we could do, as our job was a 'one-off' to the bricky, and the project builder provides him with employment for the rest of the year.
I've stained and put clear top coat on both of these doors, as I knew when the bricking was being done, the bare wood of the door would get messed up.
After a bit of hunting around for a new bricky, we ended getting one but his quote was nearly $4000 more than the original quote. Knowing that the original bricky may or may not be able to do the job after Christmas, it was decided to pay the extra to get it done now, rather than pay more in rent over the next few months.
We went with off white mortar and pleased that we did so, as we were pointed to another house with the same bricks as us, but using regular mortar.
It appears the bricks are different, but in reality are the same.
As you will see in the photos, we put galvanised lintels above all doors and windows, and it does look so much better than the alternative of fibro above the windows/doors.
The garage and laundry doors are half glass, as it's always good to see what's going on outside, as well as let some light in.
Never been a big fan of sliding glass doors, as they lose heat quickly, get hot in the summer sun (even though this is on the southern side of the house). Also you lose bench space in the laundry if you have a sliding door, and things fall down between the bench top and sliding door.
20 pallets of double height, 2 pallets of singles
After many delays of getting the doors ordered and finally delivered, followed by having them installed, as the bricky we'd chosen to use said he would lay them until all the external doors were installed, the bricky emailed us advising he was pulling out of the job due to commitments to his regular employer, a project builder. Not much we could do, as our job was a 'one-off' to the bricky, and the project builder provides him with employment for the rest of the year.
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| front verandah with front door and external door to HT room |
I've stained and put clear top coat on both of these doors, as I knew when the bricking was being done, the bare wood of the door would get messed up.
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| front pivot door |
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| bricks stacked and ready to be layed back of house |
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| The side of our house, off white mortar |
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| The other house with standard mortar same time of day |
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| front of house |
As you will see in the photos, we put galvanised lintels above all doors and windows, and it does look so much better than the alternative of fibro above the windows/doors.
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| Looking down front verandah from garage end |
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| Back of house |
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| Back of house |
Never been a big fan of sliding glass doors, as they lose heat quickly, get hot in the summer sun (even though this is on the southern side of the house). Also you lose bench space in the laundry if you have a sliding door, and things fall down between the bench top and sliding door.
Friday, 3 October 2014
Special Site Inspection
I was just in doing some agi pipe extensions around the house and grabbed this image the other day of a special Site Inspector doing his inspection of the site.
He did have a question that he asked :-
"Where is this amateur tower thingy they said I could climb ?"
Had to tell him that paranoia had won out at this stage, and that the $6000 tower would not be appearing due to the tin foil hat brigade, that thought that amateur radio was a lot more 'dangerous' than having a mobile phone stuck to the side of a persons head or a leaky microwave oven in a kitchen.
Here's the photo that indicate the total height of the tower, taken by Logan Council officers from the street, that clearly show that the tower would not have been higher than the surrounding trees, and not much would have been seen from the road. I might add here that the pipe they held up was only a 100mm pipe, so the actual width of the tower would be less than 4 times the pipe (380mm) width.
I might add that the neighbours in the right of this photo were quite supportive of my AR hobby, even though they would have been the closest to the tower.
He did have a question that he asked :-
"Where is this amateur tower thingy they said I could climb ?"
Had to tell him that paranoia had won out at this stage, and that the $6000 tower would not be appearing due to the tin foil hat brigade, that thought that amateur radio was a lot more 'dangerous' than having a mobile phone stuck to the side of a persons head or a leaky microwave oven in a kitchen.
Here's the photo that indicate the total height of the tower, taken by Logan Council officers from the street, that clearly show that the tower would not have been higher than the surrounding trees, and not much would have been seen from the road. I might add here that the pipe they held up was only a 100mm pipe, so the actual width of the tower would be less than 4 times the pipe (380mm) width.
I might add that the neighbours in the right of this photo were quite supportive of my AR hobby, even though they would have been the closest to the tower.
Friday, 27 June 2014
The Roof is now up
It's plodding along bit by bit, and it is allowing me to do bits and pieces before we get in there.
Just last week the roof finally got finished on the house, it took quite a while to do, as the roofing guy had other jobs going at the same time, and I made the mistake of telling him no need to rush for us and he could do other jobs at the same time.
At least this roofer did quote correctly and did not come back later to tell me that there was additional costs involved. The first one I got from either service seeking or hipages, and so far every time I've got a quote from them, they've always misquoted or not bothered responding.
A view of the house from the road with the surfmist roof now on, but still no bull nose verandah, as that was to take another couple of weeks to get a 110mm batten up on it.
A view from the back of the house very late afternoon, which also shows the SW3000 Solar Whiz fan.
I'll try and get another lot of photo's now the roofing has been finished.
Just last week the roof finally got finished on the house, it took quite a while to do, as the roofing guy had other jobs going at the same time, and I made the mistake of telling him no need to rush for us and he could do other jobs at the same time.
At least this roofer did quote correctly and did not come back later to tell me that there was additional costs involved. The first one I got from either service seeking or hipages, and so far every time I've got a quote from them, they've always misquoted or not bothered responding.
A view of the house from the road with the surfmist roof now on, but still no bull nose verandah, as that was to take another couple of weeks to get a 110mm batten up on it.
A view from the back of the house very late afternoon, which also shows the SW3000 Solar Whiz fan.
I'll try and get another lot of photo's now the roofing has been finished.
Sunday, 18 May 2014
Frame and Trusses up, Windows installed.
Have been extremely slack at updating this blog, and after about 3 weeks of having the frames up, I thought I should extract the 'digit' and blog about it. :)
Frames were delivered up the top of the driveway close by to the slab on the Tuesday, and my chippies put it up on the Wednesday.
The following week, the trusses were delivered, but instead of up the top of the driveway, they were put on the ground about halfway down the driveway, however the driver of the truck didn't pay any attention on the way out of block, and basically splattered our letterbox. :(
You can see in the second photo by the tyre tracks, not only did he flatten the letterbox, he drove over the top of the drain, which fortunately wasn't damaged, lest the council get up me for any damage.
After several weeks, the truss and frame company finally sent out a new letterbox, less the stand for it. Time for some more emails to them to get them to replace it, even though the post is around $10, it's the principle involved, as the letter box was a fair way from the road and not on the edge of the driveway, and dozens of other trucks have managed to clear it okay.
Edit: I made a mistake, the letterbox did come with the post inside the box. I opened the box up and found that the post for it is a 3 segment post that is screwed together. The new letterbox is there now, let's hope we don't get any trucks running over this one. :)
Dan and Jake the chippies getting close to finishing off the trusses.
It's now really starting to look like a house now. :)
Just last week we had the windows and sliding door arrive from Bradnams, so the boys after wrapping the house in that foil insulation wrap R1.3 rating, put them in to the house.
The windows on the front are of a Low E glass, which have a slightly green tinge to them, but will help keep the heat in the house during the cooler months.
Frames were delivered up the top of the driveway close by to the slab on the Tuesday, and my chippies put it up on the Wednesday.
You can see in the second photo by the tyre tracks, not only did he flatten the letterbox, he drove over the top of the drain, which fortunately wasn't damaged, lest the council get up me for any damage.
After several weeks, the truss and frame company finally sent out a new letterbox, less the stand for it. Time for some more emails to them to get them to replace it, even though the post is around $10, it's the principle involved, as the letter box was a fair way from the road and not on the edge of the driveway, and dozens of other trucks have managed to clear it okay.
Edit: I made a mistake, the letterbox did come with the post inside the box. I opened the box up and found that the post for it is a 3 segment post that is screwed together. The new letterbox is there now, let's hope we don't get any trucks running over this one. :)
Dan and Jake the chippies getting close to finishing off the trusses.
It's now really starting to look like a house now. :)
Just last week we had the windows and sliding door arrive from Bradnams, so the boys after wrapping the house in that foil insulation wrap R1.3 rating, put them in to the house.
The windows on the front are of a Low E glass, which have a slightly green tinge to them, but will help keep the heat in the house during the cooler months.
Wednesday, 2 April 2014
Worm Farm Treatment Plant installed
Last week we had Al from Worm Farm Treatment systems come up from Victoria to install our new sewerage treatment plant.
To top it off it coincided with the biggest lot of rain we've had all year! so by the end of the two and a half day's work, it looked like a boggy ol' swamp. :)
First step is getting the hole dug and the extra tie downs in the hole to ensure the tank doesn't move, even in very wet soil and empty/buoyant tank.
There's also some 100mm agi pipe down the bottom to drain off extra moisture that finds its way down there, which drains above the ground further down the block.
The tanks going down in to the previously dug hole for it, still to get the hopper on the top of it and the 'stink pipe' to allow the tank to breathe to keep the worms alive, as the processing of waste is an aerobic system.
Tank is now in place with hopper and 'stink pipe', just the transpiration pits, all 12 of them to be dug lower down on the block, where you see next to the driveway which get dug right across to the other side of the block. Those were done the next day.
Whilst rain on the day caused some delays, the biggest delay was with the Logan Council's plumbing department who had never seen this system before, in particular the fact there are NO pumps in any part of the system, so the entire system cost absolutely zero to run, unlike the usual HSTP systems, which can cost you $700 per year in electricity to run. Even if the block was flat, it only requires a 400watt pump that runs for around 10 minutes per day. As I mentioned earlier, all the 'head honchos' of the council's plumbing department came out to see it in real life, so that were able to ask questions and get answers from Al who owns the business.
To top it off it coincided with the biggest lot of rain we've had all year! so by the end of the two and a half day's work, it looked like a boggy ol' swamp. :)
First step is getting the hole dug and the extra tie downs in the hole to ensure the tank doesn't move, even in very wet soil and empty/buoyant tank.
There's also some 100mm agi pipe down the bottom to drain off extra moisture that finds its way down there, which drains above the ground further down the block.
The tanks going down in to the previously dug hole for it, still to get the hopper on the top of it and the 'stink pipe' to allow the tank to breathe to keep the worms alive, as the processing of waste is an aerobic system.
Tank is now in place with hopper and 'stink pipe', just the transpiration pits, all 12 of them to be dug lower down on the block, where you see next to the driveway which get dug right across to the other side of the block. Those were done the next day.
Whilst rain on the day caused some delays, the biggest delay was with the Logan Council's plumbing department who had never seen this system before, in particular the fact there are NO pumps in any part of the system, so the entire system cost absolutely zero to run, unlike the usual HSTP systems, which can cost you $700 per year in electricity to run. Even if the block was flat, it only requires a 400watt pump that runs for around 10 minutes per day. As I mentioned earlier, all the 'head honchos' of the council's plumbing department came out to see it in real life, so that were able to ask questions and get answers from Al who owns the business.
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