Blanky time

Frank the Concreter prefaces all his plans with a weather warning. Naturally I thought that meant if it is raining, there will  be no work happening on site. Today, as per Saturday,  he is out in the rain, working on site. So I must have that rainy day policy all wrong!

Frank  packed up his toy digger following a successful inspection by the building surveyor (hereafter known as Mr B.S - oh wait, that might not work...).  Today is blanky day! Those sandy pads pictured in my last post are being tucked up nicely with their big poly blanket and overlaid with steel reinforcement. Just the thing for this kind of weather.

Meanwhile, Captain Laird's favourite supplier, the leadlighter, has been in touch to say the designs have been drafted and it is time for us to go and select the actual glass and colours. I don't feel ready! It's a big decision!  Some of these windows are going in the box bay window at the front of the house, and in the Victorian front door surrounds - kind of high visibility, so a bit of pressure.

This beautiful glass will be going into the master bathroom window, a vestibule door into the family room from the hallway, over the butler's sink in the kitchen, and a small octagonal in the dining room.

In other news, the plumber has been confirmed for everything from roof to drains and everything in between. Framer and carpenter (exterior) is set, and quotes for the painting are coming in. The staircase design has been finalised, and perhaps the biggest news of all is that I finally signed off on the kitchen design and paid a deposit.

Can't wait to see all these components come together!

Can't.   Wait.

Gosh - where did that come from?

Friday afternoon Frank the Concreter came to the site, dropped off a sandcastle and his digger and advised me he could not return until Monday, especially if it was a rainy Saturday which would be his cue to stay in bed.

Naturally enough, when Jason passed by on Saturday afternoon (following a rainy morning) the footings and pads for the slab had been prepared.

I called Frank the Concreter to express my surprise and happiness. "Yeah, I just got a bunch of guys and went and did it" he said nonchalantly.

How good is that?

My kingdom for a nail

Today started off like any other rainy Friday morning: another week of activities almost done, no where to be until later in the day, baby sleeping and a lovely cake in the oven. Somewhere over in Mont Albert a concreter was getting ready to perform the site cut for the Homemade House. Peace reigned.

Just as I was about to welcome my excellent friend Mrs Harris for a cuppa, the phone rang. It was the concreter burbling over with the news that not only did I inexplicably not need a site cut but in fact the site would need significant building up, lots more concrete, lots more money, and they were all knocking off for the day to celebrate these facts.

I could feel my frontal lobe grinding its gears as I tried to absorb all of this information. "R..I..g..h..t," I said, and then spent the next 20 minutes trying to grasp technical information sprinkled with numbers that meant utterly nothing to me. To his credit, Frank the Concreter did his best to explain that a certain nail in the fence put there by the land surveyor during set out was somehow indicating that our slab was going sit 600mm out of the ground. That is quite high, my friends, quite high.

I greeted Mrs Harris at the door, wild-eyed and flushed, the morning's peace well and truly gone. My mind was racing as I explained to her that I didn't know which of the contributors to that nail's position to call or even what I needed to ask. Mrs Harris set to with the contour survey map, the slab design, and the house plans. I kid you not, she knows what those numbers mean - and lo, before too long her suspicions had been aroused.

So I called the Lovely Building Company once, twice, thrice. I called the land surveyor. I placated the concreter. A hot potato was clearly being passed around. But by afternoon's end, that potato had found its rightful home - all I cared was that it was not in MY lap and I could save any hot angry tears for another time.

That special little set out nail has descended from on high, site works will re-commence shortly, and Mrs Harris may get the slab named after her.

Baby stirring, vet appointment to attend so here we go!

Ok - speed post! Contract with concreter signed, sealed and delivered - we will definitely have our foundation down by the end of the month - hooray!

Assuming the slab is the right size, shape and location, the frame is scheduled to be erected around July 1, with an estimate of a couple of weeks to get that done. That means in July we will be able to walk around in the rooms of the Homemade House - can not wait.

In the meantime, I have spent time worrying about getting a plumber to come and install one solitary waste pipe in the slab for the downstairs powder room. Worried about getting a quote back in time, worried about him turning up on time, worried about him putting the pipe in the wrong place. So I broke the already-purchased toilet with the sheer power of my mind, thereby making it perfectly reasonable to go and buy the "other" kind of toilet where the pipe goes out the wall, and therefore no plumber needed before slab pour - HA! (Seriously, I worried about it in the wee hours of the morning and then when Jason went out to open up the box the toilet was delivered in he discovered the cistern was totally cracked - perfect!).

That left just Termite Man and an electrician to fit into the pre-slab work. I told Termite Man that the only penetration in the slab now was the conduit that will run wiring to the island bench in the kitchen - happily, that means he doesn't need to do his bit until after the pour as well.

The electrician was delivered unto me by the kitchen company and as we hoped, the conduit placement is a fairly simple task that he will be happy to do.

So no more worrying about those puzzle pieces holding up the main business of getting that slab down.

In other quick news: the hydronic heating contract has been awarded - tick; and the kitchen, butler's pantry and laundry design and quote is finalised - tick. Plumbing quotes are coming in, and we have our carpenter lined up for all the exterior work. That all means the next few months of actual building are fairly locked in and I can turn my attention back to the interior fit-out.

Tomorrow Bridget and I are off to look at big slabs of lovely granite for the kitchen - cannot wait to see that array!

Time to go and spend more money so the vet can admire her handiwork in removing NINE of Coco's teeth last Monday. Sheesh.

Pimp my portaloo

So now that the building permit is all approved, the only thing holding us back is us. No more hiding behind plans, applications, reports and so forth. It is time to actually award contracts to real live tradespeople and commit to paying them money to do Serious Construction.

First cab off the rank is the concreter, who will also do the site cut as well as the foundation for the house. He is booked in, deposit is paid! The concreter won me over with not only his lovely quote but also his efficient and professional front of office lady. These people are organised, they coordinate with the other trades, and they are pleasant and helpful. That's good enough for me.

That site cut may well happen in the coming week, the actual concreting process is scheduled for the last week of May.

A plumber needs to come and stick a waste pipe in the right spot first, so I am scurrying to identify someone for that. An electrician to run a small section of conduit for power to island bench later is also needed.

Spent sometime today fretting about surface drainage requirements during construction but the captain of Team Laird issued the advice to contemplate rather than fret. It's all in how you spin it, I guess.

Part of the site set up is installing "facilities". A lovely portaloo arrived yesterday. Ever heard of those tv shows "pimp my ride" and "pimp my crib"? I sent Captain Laird a text about the arrival of the portaloo and got this text back: see photo below.

But why wouldn't you?

(Now taking suggestions for a theme...)

Building Permit Issued - BANG!

Permit application issued in under a week - I'm claiming that as an A grade on my submission. After all, I did put it in a fancy folder and make little labels etc. Now it's really all up to us from here on in. Gulp!

Down to business

Ok, so we can't spend all our time buying second hand tat - a house is just going to have to come out of the ground sooner or later. To that end, good old Ash the Land Surveyor came round and banged in a few stakes, nails, and pretty pink streamers. First we panicked they were in the wrong place, then we actually went there and educated ourselves with a tape measure and a house plan - all good, of course. I actually stood where the front door will be and imagined the house before me. Jason set to with the spray paint to mark the temporary power pole location and I , ever the fantasist, took a photo of the autumnal tree as some kind of seasonal benchmark for where we are up to. What will that tree look like when we are done?

If you prefer the modern, look away now

We love the character, uniqueness, and sense of history that older objects can impart. Whether it be a set of tiny teaspoons, the lovely turned legs of a console table, or even a whole house, something intriguing from ye olde shoppe or just a found object, there is something about these adoptees that warms the cockles of our heart so much more than the mass produced or the new.

The challenge with this new house of ours is in ensuring we can create that atmosphere with a careful blending of old and new. I think we may have found something very special to set the tone. How about an1860's French stained glass hall light? I can just imagine opening up that front door of an evening and seeing the rich colours thrown by this beauty, with the hall and lovely timber staircase continuing beyond, and the Victorian arches opening up either side to the formal rooms.

It's all there in my mind's eye.