Ayres Rocks

We’re now only one set of paperwork away from heading off for final approvals. This process since the planning approval last November has been nothing short of a total disappointment as “professional” after “professional” has stalled, outright lied about or simply never bothered to finish work they had promised for us.

Regardless, we have lots of trees happily reaching for the sky on the block. I’m making an effort to check on them once a week, mainly to learn from how the weather and our planting method has been impacting the trees since planting. For example, not putting enough tension around the base of the tree sleeves (which allows the sleeve to flap in the breeze a bit) has resulted in a dozen or so trees being snapped by the constant wind gusts.

I am also measuring growth rates of trees planted at the block vs those planted in pots and kept in the backyard in town. Interesting to see the difference in how the trees are growing with those in the pots developing leaf density far more obvious than in those on the block.

Interestingly the trees that no guards were placed around where the ground was too hard or rocky to drive in the supporting stakes are fairing as well as those with the sleeves in place. I’m reconsidering the time and money, not to mention back breaking bending, that goes into placing the sleeves around each tree. If these trees survive the winter then I am fairly sure come spring we will not bother with sleeves when we start up planting once again.

Live and learn as they say.

Bunnings sold me the Talon earth auger for a mere $393

Bunnings also provided us with a new 30 metre hose, hose fittings and some hardware for the trailer mods for $64.15

House only spending still stands at $223 250.90

Having learned a lot from how things were done last weekend, this weekend we have a refined approach and a better trailer setup to help us get the most of the time on the block.

I’ve welded support brackets for the pump and hose reel outside of the trailer box, clearing space internally. We also now have important things in easy reach and more importantly clear of trailer and truck wheels. Our neighbour also let us in on a “secret” source of water where we can get the 1000L tank filled in a matter of minutes without having to use the pump.

The skies really opened on the Tuesday after Easter and gave the trees we had planted a very welcome 70mm of rain. As hoped the hole left around the trees as a result of the auger spreading the dirt around the hole somewhat did trap and hold water. I went up to take a look at any damage on Wednesday and many of the trees still had small amounts of water visible from the shower that went through just before I got there.

I have taken some pictures of the plantings, and as you can imagine the scale of things cannot be comprehended from looking at a picture, so instead of posting those I will take photos of the planted area in monthly cycles and post them instead.

With more rain in the long range forecast is seems we got the timing spot on with the plantings. All we need to do now is get as many plants as possible in the ground and established before the winter frosts start setting in.

Things are moving at a frustratingly slow speed. I seem to be spending a lot of time making phone calls to remind people they have work we are waiting for and frankly it’s starting to annoy me greatly. I am still waiting on quotes for roof framing and verandahs, which I need to decide who we are going to use as this will determine who it is we get the required engineering for.

On a more positive note Easter weekend will mark the start of tree planting for the shelter belt around the house. We’ve purchased a cheap Talon brand earth auger to dig the holes the trees will be going into. With a 2 year warranty it was a safe bet at $400 compared to a Stihl or Tanaka powerhead at $1600. With a 200mm diameter and 600mm or so deep hole as a result it should give the trees a good opportunity to get some roots down quickly. It should also give rain water an easy place to seep as it runs off the compacted land around the tree and hopefully this will also encourage roots to head down and establish quickly. We will also mix in a handful of Dynamic Lifter pelletised manure below the root ball of the trees as we plant them.

As a trial there are a few plants we have been running tests on in pots with very poor quality soil and it seems that with the 20-30C days we are likely to have for a month or so to come they should establish quickly with a splash of water and liquid feriliser if needed once a week. Our goal will be to plant 500 trees a day with one drilling and the other fertilising, planting and putting the tree guards in place.

Kym Robinson (08 8563 3937) did all the estimating for the trusses and wall frames – $600

Steel for trailer cage – $162.50

Cut off saw – $219

Kitchen bench top and sink – $90

Pre-wash tap – $120

Books “House Building Manual” by Allan Staines, “Roof Building Manual” by Allan Staines and Lloyd Hiddle and “Deck and Pergola Construction” by Allan Staines – $100.50

This brings the spend so far to $223 250.90

Title says it all really. Waiting for the engineering to come back on the roof trusses and wall frames (1 job) and the pergola and verandahs (1 job) before we can go any further with the application for building consent.

While we’ve been waiting we have tendered out for a concreter to do the slabs, a plumber to do the pre-slab plumbing and install the septic tanks and steel supplier for the roofing, fascias (must be steel under bushfire regulations) and gutters.

I’ve settled on having at least 3 quotes as the minimum for each before I will settle on the winning tender for each. For the steel this is proving to be a winning strategy as one supplier has quoted the entire job at less than another has quoted on the roof sheeting for the house alone. Go figure since they all use the same supplier ultimately for “Colorbond” products.

This process is also letting us ink in figures for the budget and our estimations from when we started planning are so far aound on the mark. I also invested in some more reading materials, “House Building Manual” by Allan Staines, “Roof Building Manual” by Allan Staines and Lloyd Hiddle and “Deck and Pergola Construction” by Allan Staines. I’ll include the cost of those in the next costs update post.

I’ve built a 5mm mesh half cage for the 10×6 trailer so we have a good sturdy place to tie awkward things to inside the trailer. I bought a steel cut off saw to do this job, and I’ll use that to make the mold dividers for the block system as well.

We also grabbed a bargain kitchen bench and sink off eBay which will satisfy the council requirements for a kitchen for the occupancy certificate as well as a very expensive pre-wash tap as used in commercial kitchens that we’ll fix to the laundry and use for washing all sorts of things from veggies to beer brewing tubs.

Click on this image to bring up a larger and somewhat easier to read version. It’s hard to make it fit into the constraints of this blog due to the proportions of the actual building.

I’ll take credit for the floor layout bar the ensuite and bathroom which are Darren’s ideas based on what we described we wanted.

In the elevation you are looking at the “front” of the house, despite this actually facing away from the road. This has the view that I put up as the header image for this blog. All the windows on this side are awnings as it is windy and conventional sliding windows would rattle incessantly.  You’ll notice very few windows to the south and west (top and left of the floorplan) as these are where the predominant winds blow in, bringing dust in summer and driving rain in winter. There is one large expanse of glass to the north wall of the house, and this is intended to help with passive solar heating.

We’ve stepped down the verandah and shed to suit the contour of the housing site, and this will also keep us within the council’s stipulated 1.5 metre maxiumum depth excavation for the housing site. As yet we are undecided on whether to pave or deck this area, paving being non combustible is the smart choice but decking can be so sexy and seductive it may just win out in the end.

Other designed features:
The large amount of solid wall around the entry. We’ll have the fireplace in this corner and the massive amount of thermal mass will mean heat continues to radiate into the room long after that fire has burnt out.  Above this we’ll have a fan that pulls the hot air above the fire and flows it back gently into  the sleeping and wet areas and this will be our heating.

The return verandah. The slope and cut in of the site of the house means this verandah will virtually prevent the sun hitting the westerly wall at all, winter or summer. The eastern side (the view) has poly carbonate offset from the window in angles carefully worked out by Darren so the winter sun will penetrate the house until about 11.30am where I’ve calculated that in summer that verandah will already be shading the house by around 9.30am. On the northern side of the house, the only side without the return, summer sun is excluded all day while in winter the direct sunlight will flood in almost all day to gently heat the slab.

The not so open plan. We’ve lived in a house that was almost completely open excepting the bedrooms and bathrooms. It was very noisy and bloody expensive to heat and cool as well. With this design we have one main living area which can be shut off from the rest of the house. All the rooms beyond this can also be isolated, important for climate control as well as noise.

Big thanks yet again to Darren for his work on this project and for letting me publish the designs.

Darren from Wise Drafting Pty Ltd has sent over the final drafts of the final drawings for our approval before he gets on with spitting out the numerous detail drawings and so on we will need to present to the certifier for final checking. I also have his permission to post the drawings, so there is something for you come back and look for later on this week.

I have 3 more boxes left to tick, then we are finally, FINALLY off to council for the last of the approvals we need to get started on building our dream home. Right at this stage we are technically allowed to do very little on the block within the approved development zone and I can’t wait to get that final approval in hand so we can call in the neighbour and start digging dirty big holes 🙂

Right now we are finishing off details we have for all the internal aspects of the house. I kid you not we have a dozen A5 notebooks full of notes and sketches detailing things such as the shed, the verandahs, plumbing, kitchen, driveway, landscaping and the laundry. Once we have this sorted and that final bloody approval it’ll be trailer on the truck and off to the reclamation yards looking for all the beautiful recycled hardwood and fittings we’ll need to finish off the interior.

I built a solid timber kitchen featuring huge benchtops and doors and drawers in American Oak  in the last house we had that came up an absolute treat, and this time round I’d love to have something like red ironbark, red gum or jarah depending on the availability of suitable wood. Recycled timber has a true beauty of its own due to age and the abuse it gets through its previous life that you just cannot get with new timber. Old kitchen pics can be found here. I’m sure you’ll agree that what I built was a lot more pleasing to the eye than what was there.

Hope you all had a great New Years, and wishing all readers all the best for the coming year.

There is little in the way of news to report, so here are a few updates on where we are and what we are looking forward to over the coming months.

Earthmoving
We’ve struck a deal with a neighbour who owns some fantastic boys toys (he owns a business that provides machinery and operators to major road construction, mines and so on) to get the housing site cut to our specs.

Building Consents
Currently waiting on the final detail drawings, and waiting to hear back from the certifier so we can get the correct tests done on the samples of building material we will be using. The samples are tested for various descriptors of strength to be sure the house will stand in extreme weather events and potential earthquakes.

Trees
Anything that doesn’t require the input of others is flying along. We now have over 2000 saplings ready to go with another 1000 or so in various stages of development. By autumn we will have somewhere around 5000 saplings to plant that will give us an instant landscape.

These will form the wind barrier protecting the house from the gales that whip over the cleared landscape around us. They will also be used as a living barrier to protect the housing site from bushfires. There will be a minimum distance of 40 metres between the house and any trees. The trees will be planted in ascending height in towards the house, essentially creating a lip that wind will sweep up and over. The theory is any fire front and embers will follow the wind pattern and be deflected over the house.

As corny as that sounds, there are many examples from some of the worst firestorms over the past century that houses using these living barriers have a far greater survival rate than those that do not, and for the sake of the $1000 or so it has cost us to raise just these trees, we think it’s an added layer of protection worth having.

We have a variety of plants from groundcovers to lavenders, small to medium shrubs and medium to large trees. Providing we can get them in the ground and established before the frosts of winter set in, by spring the landscape should be taking shape.

Tools
Christmas (and my birthday close by) have been a great opportunity to get family and friends to combine the two and buy me something I can use for the coming build. Some cool new tools and consumables include a 2 handled spade (digs holes like a post hole digger but without needing the space to spin a handle), a tacking hammer (drives staples by striking like a hammer) and a 5 kilos of welding rods to get the mold system welded together.

Expensive update this one.

Purchased a 10×6 heavy duty tandem box trailer off eBay – $1525
RCI for the slab and house engineering – $869
UCSolutions for concrete cylinder molds for Australian Standards testing samples – $103
Plumbing plan for septic application – $240

That brings our total spend to date to $222 340.40