Sandwich construction

When you build a new house, you generally start at the bottom and work up. With a renovation, you can start on the top layer and the bottom at the same time, and meet in the middle. This week was pretty awesome, with our roof being done (well, the western side anyway).



and even bigger, our first slab was poured. Mark (the builder) rang to tell me it was happening so we could watch on the webcam. The snaps below (from the less-than-accurate-colour webcam) show that they don't do the old wheelbarrow-loads off the truck anymore. We got the big pump-truck running a hose right over the top of the house, reaching from the front yard, and pouring it straight into the formwork. A bit of shoving and shaking (to remove airbubbles) and then a gentle polish follows... From first to last pic is four hours.



and now we have a lovely new slab! Or, at least we think we do. It's now wrapped in a blanket, to ensure it cures slowly and strong.




You can now clearly see where the staircase will land and lead into the basement. The lip around the edges of the slab is where the block walls go, so it adds a little bit of additional waterproofing



We also seem to have vermin in the house. You can tell by the little leftovers. Concrete poo.



I'm told the guys used some of the left-over concrete from the slab to form the pads under the lounge-room floor for the new piers, straight out of the hose off the pump. We think that's better than some rock-eating marsupial having invaded the house...

CONstruction

The excavator has gone (for now), the pile of dirt and rubbish in the front yard is a lot smaller, and suddenly things start to look like they are being added, not taken away. Not yet anyway, but at least there's formwork for the basement slab appearing...




The slab extends underneath the house to provide a base for the stairwell for the three levels we'll have - basement, house level, and the roof deck. The slab is thicker at the edges to provide the foundations for the external walls.



If you squint you can imagine yourself (below) at the bottom of the stairs looking into the basement. It's hard to get a sense of scale, but the basement is 10m long, 6m wide. Roughly. We've had some great suggestions for what to do with the basement, including some profitable agriculture (or given earlier rains, an indoor pool), but we expect we'll use it for more fun things.



Another sign of progress, "stuff" is being delivered, like roofing (at least a small fraction of it). We're removing all the old concrete rooftiles, which probably isn't a sensible roof material in most of Australia, and replacing it with corrugated iron. That also makes the roof a lot lighter (one eighth of the original weight!), so it allows more of the internal walls to be removed. Interesting engineering detail - the concrete tiles sit down by gravity (and the occassional nail). The corrugated iron roof has to be tied down so the house holds the roof down...



There also appear to be some squatters making themselves comfortable - the (still functioning) toilet remains the only walled room in the house, with new toilet paper and air freshener appearing at intervals, a gas bottle appeared last week and now there's a barbecue and a microwave.



Since they also brought ladders, tools and wheelbarrows we expect these squatters will do some renovation work on the side, so we're ok with that. But if bedding and a TV show up, questions will be asked!

Slowly a hole emerges

There are times where one sees nothing but destruction, and it gets you down. You're renovating and want to see some construction. However, to get to that point, you need to have the space to swing the tools and pour the concrete and place the bricks. It's looking like we're getting close, with the basement pit nearly clear.

Turns out you can't just shovel the granite out; you need the excavator with the rock hammer to soften the edges (where the footings under the slab go)










Even the cellar (next to the basement, where the rainwater tank will go) is looking pretty empty. Note the ramp on the side to get in and out of the hole, which is fun to walk on if your shoes have no tread... Oh - and where's our garage gone?

NOW we're starting to get serious...

A quiet week

A quiet week, due to the Easter break, and of course the obligatory downpour. As it turns out, where clay is really poor for drainage, decomposed granite can be even worse. Nothing that a pump and some long hoses can't fix, turning our swimming pool back into a building site.

It's also become clear that daylight savings/summer time is over. We need to visit earlier or take extra batteries for the camera flash...

Still, the digging did make some more progress, and the stairwell pit is becoming clearer.