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Welcome to the blog

We're converting our old shoe box 3 bedroom house into a large, technology enabled, modern family home!

Feel free to hang out, check out our plans and stop back to see the progress in the blog!

17 October 2022

So far...

Good day today. We may have a supplier for frames, trusses and floor system! The phone call today started with... G'day mate, sorry we didn't get back to you straight away, it's the first time we've seen a .io email address and thought it may have been a scam, had to get our IT guy to look over it before we'd open the attached plans!... hahaha

Most won't care but a little tech talk.. In Australia .com.au domains are only available to Australian businesses with an ABN so we couldn't legally get a .au domain... OK, no more tech talk for a few weeks, I promise. We still have a lot to organise before we can get frames on order though, but at least it's starting to feel like we can get it done!

As far as scheduling goes, I think it'll be well into Q1 of 2023 by the time we're standing walls but we're heading in the right direction. Wasn't looking forward to the prospect of stick building from scratch.

Backyard is a complete mess but it feels like progress.

I'm finding it quite interesting analysing my own emotional rollercoaster and response to pressure from multiple sources. New position at work has on occassion felt overwhelming and while I've only been writing about a week, this home build project started 6 months ago and there has been more than one occasion I was concerned we wouldn't get it off the ground and may have burned the thousands of dollars we've tipped in for plans, surveying, engineering, certification etc etc.

We wouldn't be where we are, in fact, we wouldn't be past the architects drawings without the consistent support, guidance and a shit load of hard work by my best mate Damo. Huge shout out for my brother from another mother. I can't even begin to express our thanks.

We're really lucky actually, there are a number of really switched on people who have offered to assist us in their area of expertise. The support and help of those around us will have a massive impact down the track.

Inside my head feels like a bee hive at the moment, so much going on. I'm utilising some project management software and have what I think is a pretty good method sorted for tracking quotes and budgeting.

I'm done for the day. Family time and a good nights sleep ahead.

16 October 2022

Productive!

Great day, managed to get a tip run done, lawns mowed (payed the neighbour to mow with beer) and a bucket load of whipper snipping done, ripped up 2 garden beds saving the plants. Then began on the beers (with the neighbour I payed in beer).

Thats almost where the productivity ended but after 20 odd beers, tequila and a few other little treats, managed to off load some non-exercise equipment (you know, the stationary bike and eliptical trainer no one has ever used) to my youngest sister and her husband.... never to be used again but at least its not being not used at my place :).

Good times. Tried too sell the patio roof to the new neighbour across the road... Cost me a beer to have the guy over for a chat, am I happy about giving beers away? Never. But I'm undecided if this was worth it yet. Surely, the worst case scenario he now owes me a beer.. right?

With Gus next door planning on fucking off, I'm working on getting a piglet to spit and have a cul-de-sac shindig to see him off.

Turns out it's actually quite diificult to type drunk. Thank the gods I have nothing to do tomorrow but go to work....

15 October 2022

Not productive

Completely in character, didn't achieve half of what I set out to achieve today... What DID I achieve you ask? I went to four different car shops trying to find a battery for the only car we have with a tow ball so I could tow the trailer to the dump. Turns out, this particular battery is not common in Australia. Managed to find an alternative, near $300 later!

I went and had a hair cut and had my beard trimmed early with grand plans of fitting the battery in the car and going to the dump. The battery is smaller and the battery clamps don't hold it in place, stuff around for a while and make it fit, TADAAA I'm a friggen genius....

Loaded up the trailer and D'Oh, lent my rachet straps to my sister (who promised to return them last night). No dump run today... All good, I'll mow the lawn! Think again, lent the jerry can with the mower fuel to... my sister (who promised to return it last night).

So I did what any reasonable bloke would do, drank a couple beers and had a kip on the lounge. Picked up some awesome burgers from the local butcher for tea and cracked a bottle of Jose Cuerva Especial Blue Agave and nailed a few Margaritas.

As I said, not quite as productive as I had hoped. On a positive note, I picked up my fuel can and the ratchet straps this afternoon so I plan to do the dump run and mow the lawn tomorrow...

Why do today what you can put off till tomorrow right? Seems a fine rule to live by until you plan to build a house... Anyway, we'll see if tomorrow is any more productive!

14 October 2022

End of an era

Well, chatting with old Gus next door, he's been the neighbour here since 1998. We get along great, he's always had some sort of half baked renovation going on, I've lost count how many kitchens he's done.

Anyway, today he told me he's listed his place for sale and is off to north Queensland. He plans to have it under contract in the next 30 days! Not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, good on him! I understand his reasons. On the other hand, mad anxiety, will it be bought by an investor, will there be dero tenants in there in a couple of months? Hopefully it's bought by a young family with kids around the same age as ours.... No point stressing.

Sent off another few quotes today for framing, trusses and floor system. Have a window and door suplpier who seems keen to work with us, 3 month lead time and indicative pricing is a little more than I expected but I think we can can work with it (not that we have a choice I guess!).

Friday night... What to do... Girls have netball presentations, probably means Maccas for dinner on the way home. I might continue my experiments with css and creating a photo gallery. It's been suggested an adults only section be provided but I'm not keen on having this server store any personal info

Tomorrow I plan to get stuck in to clearing the last of our belongings and the drinks fridge out of the entertainment area and pulling up the retaining wall. Sounds easy on paper... watch this space, there are garden beds and a bee hive I need to move...

If you were checking in daily waiting with baited breath for my blog post yesterday (unlikely) I apologise for my tartiness. Life got in the way. I promise I'll provide an update tomorrow!

12 October 2022

Tough slog

Another day, another 3 refusals to quote.. With the collapse of all these massive builders all over the news one would think there would be trades screaming for work all over the place... right?.....

I have to remind myself, this is day 3 of trying to get the building ball rolling. Rome wasn't built in a day and this palace is not going to pop up over night. I think in an age of technology everyone (me included) has come to expect instantaneous service, having every aspect of building a house take weeks to months is infuriating.

I have decided to crack a cold beer while I write today. Take the egde off.

Might have to email the certifier this evening and see what I need to do to satisfy them if I change the plan from timber to steel frame. I'm hoping it's as simple as a thermal break between the steel frame and external cladding, maybe a layer of 4mm bracing ply or something... It's no wonder most builders smoke and drink. Can you imagine going through this AND having to put up with a whinging customer...

Dinner tonight should prove to be a real treat, after last nights lamb spag bog... Oven fried chips n chicken nuggets will taste like it was served up by a chef in a 5 star restraunt. Clearly the food budget has subsided for the building budget. Stay tuned for 2 minute noodle night one day this week I reckon.

Looking forward to the weekend, the plan is to get up early and start work... The entrtainment area needs emptying and the entire rataining wall needs pulling up. The plan is to re-use the blocks for the new retaining wall, well, the visible part of it anyway.

Before I start having a big spit and moan I'm going to go get another beer....

11 October 2022

The mission

So not a single response from concreters today... Made a few more enquiries and may have found a bloke who can get the slab poured befor Christmas. Fingers crossed

Sent out copies of the plans to 3 different pre-fab timber framing and truss manufacturers, had a chat with a guy from one manufacturer, his advice was that wall frames and roof trusses should be no problem but we'd be pushing our luck to get the flooring system by the end of January...

Regardless, I'm starting to get a reasonable idea on lead times and it looks like I can have the site set out, earth works, footings and slab ready for wall frames by the end of January.

A bonus, I may have found some free storage to put a great deal of our stuff while we build, stacking all our belongings in the crawl space under the house was never a suitable option really.

Do I feel like I've made any ground today? Not really. But a week ago I wasn't even sure if we'd get approval to build at all. The sheer size of this project is starting to hit home.

I have no concerns about my ability to do it, it's still daunting. I just want to be hooking in and hands on building! Feels like I'm going flat out and not achieving much at the moment.

Dinner tonight was particularly interesting, someone accidentally purchased lamb mince instead of beef mince for spaghetti bog and didn't realise until it was in the pan. I'm not a big fan of lamb at the best of times but a lamb spag bog.... Blurgh hahaha, I guess I'll find out if anyone is actually reading the blog soon enough :)

Work is flat out, feeling the pressure. Talk about time management with conflicting high priorities and tight deadlines. Now feel like I'm doing the same at home! (more than usual anyway). I'm enjoying spewing my thoughts out on this page, kinda feels like therapy hahaha. I laugh but I may actually need therapy by the end of this!

10 October 2022

Rough day

Today was a bit rough, I didn't sleep well last night, I felt like a zombie all day struggling to keep my eyes open. Made it through the day to get home and start working on our project.

Sent out quote requests this evening for the concreting, well... the footings and slab anyway. Would be awesome to have that poured before Christmas. The carport, pool and decerative shit will be towards the end of the project.

I also got onto the owner of the neighbouring property, the cadastral survey I had done showed when they replaced the fence between our properties it ended up 3 feet on my side of the bounday.

So the plan tomorrow after work is to come up with a plan (feels like all I'm doing is planning) to support the back of the house when we rip the footings out, rather important the existing house doesn't fall down.

Need to get into gear and send off quote requests for the new posts, framing and joists.

As usual I managed to fit a little procrastination in and started researching what sort of image gallery I want to display on the website.... Then I realised how terrible the my formatting is for the blog...

Oh well, I don't intend on taking up professional web development... we'll get there but right now it's time to put the kids to bed.

9 October 2022

What a ride!

No time to start the blog like the present! It's bee a crazy 6 months, to say the least. Our construction plans were finally certified and we obtained approval to commence work on the house only Friday! Pretty excited.

It's been tough, chomping at the bit to get into it for the last 6 months and not being able to do anything incase something goes wrong, risk was too high.

We're taking this build on predominantly by ourselves, both with full time jobs and 8 year old twins...... I'm under no illusion this is going to be a particularly tough and stressful 18-24 months.

What little spare time I've had I set up a web server to host this website... Kind of procastinating really. There's a hell of a lot to do, we've already demolished the shed and started on the entertainment area, even if I send out for quotes tomorrow we'd be lucky to get someone to pour the house slab before Christmas let alone get timber framing this year.

I'll get to putting some photo's together and loading them up over the next week or so. For the record, I have never even read a blog let alone authored one.

Unsure how often I'll get to type something up but I'm going to try for atleast a couple of times a week. Dear diary style I guess haha. Early start tomorrow so I'm hitting the sack.