20th February 2012

With good weather we have had some activity over the past week or so, block layers were onsite late last week and put up one wall of the garage at the side against the neighbours wall. Today concreters were back onsite to prepare for the slab, they say it will take 3 days and I don't envy them with all the steelwork in place. Concrete is planned for Thursday, framing is scheduled to arrive on Friday and next Monday the chippies will be back to start framing. All things being equal and weather permitting.

Skies the limit

Main Portal

Not what you would call flimsy

Even the Boss is into it

By using a large crane steel was lifted from one end of the block to the other  without shifting.

Building the meccano set

Gives you a good idea of the size of the main structural steel.

All fitting perfectly and more to go.

12th February 2012

Chippies were onsite Thursday and Friday preparing for the steel work which arrived on Friday amazing how heavy duty the steelwork is, you could be forgiven for thinking we are building a factory. Concreter will have his work cut out trying to get all his reo starter bars straightened up again, see bottom photo, the whole site was looking like the few left standing in that photo prior to the drainage work. If the weather stays good we may see the slab down by the end of the week.

After the plumber finished there wasn't too much reo left standing

9th February 2012

9^th February 2012

Another week nearly over, looks like the plumber has finally finished the drainage and storm water plumbing and it looks terribly involved, in all two of them plus a person with a small excavator took three full days to complete it all. Surveyor was back onsite yesterday establishing more critical points and a couple of chippies are here today to mark out and prepare for the steel work. Ryan (Casey Jackson’s manager looking after this job) explained the procedure and showed me the extra plans they had to get produced for the steel fabrication and installation, at least they keep us informed and I can see why these early stages are taking so long to get established.

Steel will arrive over the next day or so and it is expected that a large crane will be here Monday to erect it all (Showers are forecast for next week). After looking at the construction plans once all the steel is standing passers by will think a heavy industry factory is about to be built. Ryan also thinks they should get the slab down by the end of next week (weather permitting), progress will then accelerate.

We had a massive downpour yesterday afternoon, it was like the summer storms we used to get in Brisbane about 45 years ago, absolutely bucketed down for about an hour causing plenty of flash flooding and traffic problems, a real nightmare for the RACQ people.

Our Landcruiser had been in a service centre overnight having a major service carried out and I had used the train for the first time in Qld in 47years to get into the city where I was to be picked up by a courtesy bus, of course it was right in the middle of all the downpour and my umbrella was naturally in the car at the service centre, so I got drowned just racing across the foot path to the courtesy bus, at least it cooled the atmosphere down. It was amusing to see so many people taking photos of the downpour, quite obviously they hadn’t experienced a typical Qld summer storm before.

A pleasant surprise was in store for me when I collected my car, I had been given a basic quote a few weeks prior to booking it in and there were figures of $1300 to $1400 providing there weren’t any problems. When I booked it in I requested extra checks to be carried out on three particular items, so I quite expected the service to cost at least $1400 not withstanding any issues that may have arisen.

It turned out everything was spot on, no issues and my extra checks were fine, because it was a big service they gave me a discount on both labour and parts and the bill came to $1135.08 so I was stoked. Must admit it was nice driving a nice high 4wd safely through those inundated roads on the way home.

Cheers for now.

2nd February 2012

Silverton far west NSW near Broken Hill

Based on a wine cellar I saw in McLaren Vale

My latest rendition of a autumn misty morning with Mountain White Gum Tree focus

This is a smaller version of the one I did at the Kenilworth Art Workshop

Another re-vamp of one I did in Todd Whisson's class 18 months ago

2nd February 2012

How the heck am I expected to keep my weight down, Nancy arrived home from shopping today with two packets of fresh cinnamon flavoured hot cross buns. Actually I think it is sacrilege, here we are one month into the New Year and Nancy tells me the supermarkets are full of hot cross buns and Easter Eggs and Easter isn’t until April.

We have had a good week weather wise a few showers at night but nice sunny days, a little steamy at times but we are getting a good breeze across the Bay.

There’s been a hold up with the steel fabrication for our house, apparently the structural steel drawings weren’t detailed enough for the fabricators and had to be redrawn in 3D, not at our expense though (so I’m told). The builder is pretty certain it will be all go next week albeit the middle of the week, I can’t help being a cynic and betting it rains next week.

As you can see from the above pics I have kept myself busy during the wet weather.

22nd January 2012

Here we are at the end of another week, at least we had some activity this week. Plumbers and machinery arrived onsite Thursday to do their bit before anymore concrete can be laid. Being the first dry day all week it was certainly nice arriving back from my morning ride at 6.30 to find people getting ready to do something. After watching two plumbers and an excavator work steadily all day, i've come to the conclusion that this has to be the most complex design for the base of a house I have ever come across and the strangest way of going about it. According to the builder they still cannot lay the slab section until all the structural steel bracing has been set up a most extraordinary method of construction and one the builder hasn't struck in ten years of business. Why the structural engineer has designed it so complex is anyones guess, perhaps it's a British method as I believe the engineer is English (and of course he's not the one paying). End result is there will be at least another weeks delay at least, while the steel work is fabricated and set up.
I'll keep you posted.

Nigel

16th Jan 2012

All's quiet on the Western Front, the old saying goes. Well I don't know about that but there's nothing happening here on our Eastern Front either. Last week the concreter's didn't appear as we had expected so we put that down to the very hot days forecasted for the week. This week commencing 16th Jan is when Casey Jackson's work force were all returning from their Xmas break so once again we expected the concrete contractor to turn up today. But laying in bed listening to the heavy rain rattle down in the early hours of this morning I knew not to get my hopes up. Maybe tomorrow

Sunday 8th January 2012

8^th January 2012

The Concreter didn’t start last Tuesday as expected, I’m led to believe that the concrete companies were closed during the Xmas break and weren’t opening until the 9^th (tomorrow) so he would have to pay an opening fee to get concrete during last week. I guess it wouldn’t have been worth his while to call his gang in just for a couple of days of setting up. With a bit of luck tomorrow will be all go.

Since my last posting on the 2^nd, we have enjoyed great weather albeit a bit hot and humid thank goodness for that wonderful “Bay” breeze, but I don’t envy the concreter and his workers, this coming week is forecast to be hot in the mid 30’s and perhaps a shower or storm early in the week adding to the humidity. Mid 30’s with our humidity is a killer, can you imagine bending and tying steel reinforcing and laying concrete, straight off a couple of weeks break. Just as well some people can do it.

Daughter Lisa has got back into her studies after a couple of weeks unwinding, I think it took some starting but once underway she was right into it, poor girl we hardly see her from daylight to late at night, only about 4 more years to go! I’m expecting a 2000 word assignment to be emailed through for proof reading at any time, I guess that’s what dad’s do.

Lisa said to me this morning that she had slept better last night than she had for ages, purely and simply because she had finally got her head around the topic she was researching and could see the light at the end of the tunnel as they say. When I asked her when the next one starts the answer was “tomorrow”.  I hope after all the effort it’s eventually worthwhile for her.

Still giving the bike a good work out each day, so far I’ve managed to do my 20 – 30 kls before breakfast each day. I have been riding an average speed of between 20 and 24 kls per hour depending upon how I feel, plenty fast enough for me and it’s keeping me fit, as it turns out I’m not nominated for the Tour De France this year. I must admit though it is nice being able to pull in on somebodies wheel sometimes and coast along having a rest for a spell. Needless to say it doesn’t happen too often, the majority are normally going considerably faster than me.

Nancy has started into her walking routine again, she walks to Manly and back each afternoon about 5:00/5:30pm once it has started to cool down, it’s not that far but at least it’s a start and as she feels the benefit no doubt she will increase the distance accordingly.

Well that will do for now.