Ayres Rocks

Old faithful the mixer finally gave up the ghost with more of the cast iron parts wearing away. It’s been replaced with a Bianco 3.5 cubic foot capacity mixer which I have not included in the costs as that was purchased by our business for infrastructure work on the farm.

I got caught out by the Easter break with Bianco being closed on the Saturday so I had to get my white cement from Bolzons and boy it was expensive – $10.95 a bag against the $8.50 I usually pay. Entirely my fault for not paying attention to the dates and not being organised enough.

Bianco for white cement – $382.31
Bolzon’s Garden Centre for white cement – $109.50

Total project spend is now at $296,144.65
House only is now $82,192.15
Cost per square metre is now $285.39

Apologies for no recent updates. Last week we passed the 70% mark, currently at 72% of the mud mixed and poured. Just about all sections will be at 7 levels by the end of next week, barring bad weather which has written off this week so far.

Pic 1 above is the smaller windows for (left to right)  the main toilet, ensuite toilet, shower room and walk in robe. Pic 2 shows the kitchen window looking through Elise’s craftroom window opening. The kitchen window is the first major variance from the plans. It was meant to be 1200 wide, but this did not look right when I formed the opening so I’ve cut half a block from each side to widen it to 1800. It now looks “right”.

Pic 3 is the same openings as pic 1 taken further back up the hill. I decided to form across the entire span to assist with keeping the small columns plumb. Pic 4 is the cross bracing being used to keep the columns between the windows at the front of the house upright in the strong breezes we get up here. The timber is crossed at 70 degrees and bolted to the columns using the threaded rod cast into the walls to allow framing to be fixed. Wood screws fix off the cross piece.