Week 5: Sunbaking Slab (24-31 May)

WEEK 5:  MAY 2015 SUNBAKING SLAB

  (24-31 May)

 

A quiet week at the site,slab basking in beautiful winter sunshine. 

Well, at least it was quiet until this noisy crew visited! 

A week of curing seems to be right on industry standard and we have had perfect not-too-hot days and not too dry nor too wet with just a little shower this morning. Hoping we've cured beautifully for a strong foundation and no cracking in the years ahead.

 A few oddities in the slab that we noted - this funny extra chunk of slab to fit our supersized slim line rain water tanks. Will need some creative planting ideas around this to disguise it with funny little garden spaces each side. It's east side and discreted in behind the facade fortunately.

Here is the rear alfresco (which feels remarkably small in the slab form, but I think it will become more proportionate once we have walls). The far edge is meant to be on the level with the ground, which gives you a sense of how much cutting in has been done. Another landscaping job to neaten that off so no one topples off!

 This is the eye level view from the east side (sunroom, guest room, play room). Our floor level is pretty much the top of the boundary fence! This gives a fair bit of overlook but I imagine we will be getting some nice views from upstairs. Might need some good window coverings for the guest and playroom!

 Here's hoping the week ahead this view from the fence will change dramatically. Next step is external drainage so they needed to wait for the slab to cure before machinery can drive on it. Hoping once that is done the excess fill will also be removed (and the rubbish!! every single snack packet from the concreters in the front yard. Yuck). I would love to think by end of the coming week we would be seeing frames going up. Watch this space!

It feels slow going, but already we have come a long way from an old house, to a field, to this...

Week 4 - Waffle Pod Slab (18-23 May)

WEEK 4:  MAY 2015 WAFFLE POD SLAB

 

Week 1 (18-23 May)

 

 

WAFFLE - POD - SLAB!

So, what is a waffle pod slab?

The benefits of waffle pod technology:

 

Because the waffle pod style concrete slab is made in a grid pattern with interlocking concrete pieces, it is given added strength in every direction that could be stepped or driven on. This is why it is a very popular choice for homes and large car parks or large foot traffic areas as there is very little chance of damage or cracking occurring to the waffle pod style concrete slab. This makes the waffle pod style concrete slab perfect for any type of outdoor area or for the formation of a building in order to serve as the foundation, or for any type of outer formwork for any other type of walkway.

 

Lightweight, Easy to handle

Durable, Strong, flexible and dimensionally stable

Excellent sound insulation and thermal insulation due to the natural air pockets in Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) and the specially designed moulded cells within the Waffle Pod. Makes the floor less cold to walk on.

Long Term R-VALUE (thermal values)

Low water Absorption

Recyclable (sustainable material) and produces no ozone depleting gases

Ideal for reactive soil types

time savings and can continue in adverse weather (as we discovered!)

First we had dirt... then it became high rise dirt on the low side

 

 On Monday 18/5 our plumber lay the pipes for our internal plumbing -

that happy little row of pipes is my laundry and kitchen!

 

On Tuesday 19/5 the site was hive of busy activity

with polystyrene boxes being laid out in a honeycomb design. 

Finally our woes of wet dirt are behind us with a neat little waterproofing sheet set out over the dirt. 

 

On Wednesday 20/5 the metal reinforcing (reo) was set out over the whole slab, black plastic stirrups holding it about 5cm above the waffles so it's neatly midway between the 8.5-10cm thick slab of concrete when it's laid.

 

The wooden formwork ready for pouring is amazingly high on the low side! Thursday looked like a quiet day but I believe engineers and the Private Certifier had to come and sign off on the quality of work before they could pour on Friday... except that Friday was a solid day of rain!

 

 Saturday 23/5 was the big slab day! What a nice surprise after glum rainy Friday that they caught up the delay so quickly by working on a weekend. The guys were up at 5.30am to start early and by the time I got there after bootcamp in the early morning

all but the garage and alfresco had been poured.

It was awesome to see cement trucks lined up the street waiting for their chance to pour.

While the trucks poured, more ginger bearded cement genies scraped it down

and made it neat and tidy for our future wooden floors.

 Fuelled by brownies, they worked on through the day with polishers to get the slab just so,

and to remove the wooden formwork supports.

 Until at last we have this beautiful piece of concrete slab ready to go. We could start to see the forms take shape now. The front rectangle is our wide garage on the right... 

 and the smaller rectangle in the middle is our patio.

 It's a small set back to the fence line here - weekends ahead of hubby digging retaining walls

and a side boundary fence to be replaced as soon as the site is ours again.

 

 Here you can see our laundry (pipes) and the slight drop to the pathway below that will be easy direct access to the clothesline and a walkway to the alfresco alongside our kitchen.

The drop edge beams look higher than ever.

It's going to take a good deal of garden to hide these!

Hoping it means we will get some beautiful district

and maybe National Park views from the upper storey.

 

Now we wait to see how long they let the slab cure before we start to see frames go up.

So excited for our home to have not just a floor but walls!

Week 1-3: Diggers! Site preparation and piering (28 Apr - 15 May)

WEEK 1-3: MAY 2015 SITE PREPARATION

Week 1 (28 April - 4 May) saw us with a muddy puddle as shown in my last post.

Week 2 (5-8 May)

We thought maybe a couple of wet days could be justified with soggy earth 

which basked in beautiful sunshine all week drying out

 but by Thursday 7/5 and Friday 8/5  with still no action on site we thought something was not right... then came the email saying our supervisor had been replaced. 

Fortunately the new site supervisor (SS) was quick to get things moving 

By Saturday 9/5 JD Concreting were back on site doing more leveling. 

 and we could start to see our built up side for the drop edge beams emerge. 

-----------------------------------

Week 3 (11-15 May) 

We could see our SS was a man with a plan, with contractors on site early Tues 12/5 to drill piers. We are yet to find out if we exceeded our 120 lineal metres - surely not! Same to be discovered on the import/export of fill to find out if our allowance of 110 tonnes import/20 tonnes export. 

 Here you can see the rows of piers underpinning the garage (foreground)

And here is our built up wall on the low side 

showing piering underneath where the drop edge beam will go. 

I just couldn't help myself... I snuck into the site after dark, found the pier that goes deep underground and underpins the very core of the entry to our home and wrote our initials J, J, A, C, D into the wet cement. It's trespass and vandalism, sure, but it's mostly sentimental! 

New Site Supervisor

We met our new SS on Wednesday and he seemed like a really reasonable and approachable guy. He's fairly snowed under with 16 builds, but hoping handing over a few of those at completion will free up some time for him to progress ours. 

We would love it if he kept our job until the end, even if he's travelling from the central coast to do it. We asked if we were dreaming to be in by Christmas (current 40 week timeframe more like end of Feb) and he didn't rule it out (although I'm not holding my breath as that is only 34 weeks!). 

Retaining Walls

We also asked about the retaining walls needed on the high side of the block. We have a 1,5m setback and we thought there was a risk hubby would be out there digging the walls outwith a shovel for a year of Sundays after the build if the landscaper couldn't get a machine down such a narrow side. The conclusion after speaking with a couple of landscapers is that the machines can fit down 1.2m and the risk of having to do it manually was better than building the wall now and it being damaged during construction.

What's up next?

We saw some formwork up by Friday, a promise of things to come with the slab going down next Friday 22/5. Before then there is a silt fence and plumbing (external drainage and internal plumbing) to happen. 

December 2014 - Kitchen layout and selections

 

KITCHEN - Brindabella Kitchens

We had our kitchen consultation on 16 December 2014 and these were our selections.

 Angle views of the kitchen - we have allowed noggins and electricity for 3 pendulum lights as a feature above the returned bench where the bar stools will sit.

 Overhead view of cabinetry. I love the clever use of the 'corner' space by opening from the opposite side to allow access to serving dishes etc from the dining room. The return on the bench will be wide enough to seat 3-4 bar stools.

The upper right design shows our fixed glass panel window above the stove with trenched LED strip lighting to highlight it and give ambient lighting at night. You can also see the 1000mm oven and upgraded integrated slide out rangehood which gives some extra storage. We removed the dropped ceiling and add extra bulk head height.

 

The upper left image shows my appliances cabinet which we have ducted to accommodate the kettle, toaster and thermomix safely. We have included LED lighting and matching stone bench top within the cupboard.

 

The lower left image shows the large servery window added with 3 panels that slide left and stack - ideal for passing dishes out to the BBQ and entertaining area. The lower right image shows the oversized bank of drawers for cutlery but also deep and wide enough for baking tins and pans.

Example of fixed glass panel window in kitchen

 Large sample of Caesarstone shitake bench top

 Undermount sink included as standard

 Upgraded Blanco kitchen gooseneck tap

Gloss melamine cabinet sample with Caesarstone Shitake bench top stone sample

April 2015 - Preliminary Flooring Choices

CHOOSING FLOORING

 

Although final tile selection won't be completed until the roof tiles go on (in case options re discontinued) Fowler asked us to make preliminary flooring selections so that window frame heights can be adjusted for the correct flooring thickness.

 

DOWNSTAIRS - TIMBER Engineered Oak

Our tender includes 500 x 500 ceramic tiling, but we really want to use engineered 21mm thick engineered oak flooring for downstairs and most likely the stairwell as a high wear area (upstairs is carpeted). 21mm gives a 6mm oak veneer enabling up to 4-5 sand backs in its lifetime - that should be hardy enough to deal with 3 kids!

 

There were 2 colour treatments of the oak we liked and have not yet made a decision - grey limed (a darker mid brown with a grey tone) and white washed (lighter with white highlights and quite a modern French provincial look). The great thing about the 21mm thickness is that each individual plank is 220mm wide and 2200mm long - which will make the spaces feel wide open.

 

Suppliers we are considering:

1. Wonderful Floors - Grey Limed Supreme Oak (Floating Flooring Direct, Hornsby)

2. Preference Floors - Cannes (Floatign Floors Direct or independent layer)

3. Horimber French Oak - Bianco (Country Timber, Auburn) 

 

Left side is Wonderful Floors Grey Limed vs right side is Horimber Bianco

Wonderful floors - Grey Limed shown with Shitake kitchen stone sample

and Taubmans Martini wall paint sample

Preference Cannes shown with Shitake kitchen stone sample

and Taubmans Martini wall paint sample

 

 Horimber Bianco shown with our samples and laid in the showroom

 

ABRUZZO CERAMICS

 

WET AREAS 

Abruzzo is Fowler's tile supplier. Our included supply price is $33/m2. There is approximately an additional $18m2 to go to rectified tiling for additional laying costs - money well spent!

 

Our preferred rectified floor tile 300x300 in a discrete beige polished concrete look, shown with a gloss rectified 300 x 600 wall tile (the brighter white on left) and the sample of Caesarstone linen for the vanity stone bench tops (vanity doors will be white). This floor tile is an upgraded tile but the floor area is relatively small so a manageable upgrade cost.

Our preferred floor tile shown with our linen bench stone sample.

 

Above is our second choice of floor tile, within the included supply price,

still requires us to pay additional laying cost. Overall we felt this looked more 'fake' stone.

 Our first preference and second preferences next to each other

and shown against our linen bench tops.

 

ALFRESCO, PATIO, WALKWAY OUTDOOR TILES

 This is an upgraded outdoor rated tile in a beige polished concrete look in 500 x 500 size. It is an additional upgrade cost of about $50/m2 and is a rectified tile. We have had feedback that the 'gritty' outdoor tiles in the cheaper ranges (like the Santorini we had as our second choice) can be awful to clean, where this is a finer grade outdoor tile. We still need to see these against the Austral Metropolis Alabaster bricks.

 

UPSTAIRS - CARPETED by Carpet Call

Frontline Acrylic carprt in Sandy Point style and Oaklane colour from the included builders range at Carpet Call (selected in Studio Fowler).  Upgraded to a thick acoustic underlay (as well as acoustic batts in the ceilings) to block noise transfer between upstairs and downstairs.