Some wet weather woes

It was decided to pour the bedroom slab on Monday, despite the impending weather bomb and the builder also managed to get up few more frames before the weather set in.  That was good from the builder's perspective as it has rained solidly since Monday and so he's been unable to do anything else.  We have had a small slip on site (on the far side).  It's not serious, but the concerning this is that it was near a drain.  The water might be coming off the paddock behind us and missing the drain.  This does not bode well for the garden...

Not all of the vertical frames that you can see are actually in.  Some are just up and leaning against others, waiting to be put in properly.  We were lucky that the gale force winds didn't hammer us as they did up north!

As it has been so wet, the concrete guys could not "float" the new portion of the slab and it got pock-marked when the rain got heavier (as you can see).  Now we are going to have to spend some extra cash on grinding this portion of the slab and then sealing it.  The main slab we are just going to polish and seal.

And here's the view from the other side.  You can see that the end of the dining room has gone up, with the law wall along it (there will be a big window above).  The back wall of the kitchen/dining area is also up (with some other frame stacked against it for the moment), and are two of the walls around bedroom 3.  That little slip is just on this side, next to the concrete blockwork.

The walls around the staircase hole in the middle have also started going up.  On this side of the hole, they will start forming the kitchen. 

 You might be able to get an idea of that in this last photo.  You can just see the staircase pit behind the vertical framing.  There are two small pieces of framing coming out into the room a little, with passage ways on either side.  Between those two bits of framing and with their backs to the stairwell will be the fridge, oven, etc.  The passageway on the right is the entrance up the stairs and will go through to the lounge.  On the left, you can see the passage with the bathroom, laundry etc coming off it.

 The last photo is a shot of the entrance, with the kitchen to the left and the lounge to the right.  You might also start to get an idea of the winged effect that the roof is going to take, as the slopes in either direction start from that section.  Can you tell that we are getting a little excited now?

The digger in the background is the neighbours'!

First section of framework up

So the last section of slab didn't go in on Friday morning as planned because it was wet.  But you can at least see that it is taking shape.  The en-suite is just visible - the small box in the corner closest to you is the shower, and then the two blue pipes are again the toilet and handbasin.

Of course the far more exciting development is the framework starting to go up!  As you can see, the slab is now loaded up with the framework, waiting for Laurence and Steven to put it all up.  Apparently Laurence has already noticed that two of the pieces have been put together incorrectly by the manufacturer.  I'm sure he'll manage to work around that.

Here you can see that the back wall of bed 3 has been done, as has the back wall of the bathroom next door (the gap is for the external door from the bathroom), then there's the wall between the bathroom and the laundry, and the back wall of the laundry has been done - again with an external door.  This might all go up quite quickly this week - if the weather plays game.  We could get up to 200 mm of rain on Tuesday, but luckily the gales are meant to only go as far south as Canterbury.

Our immediate neighbours (ie. the ones between us and the roof in the distance) are hoping to start this week, so we could be feeling a little more suburban soon!

Blockwork complete

The last section of blockwork has just been completed! It is the section that will hold bedroom 2 and the master bedroom. Regan is walking in front of it in the photograph. So this finally gives a proper idea of how the house will work.

This week the blocks will be filled, the tray deck will go down over that section, the underfloor heating pipes will go down and then the concrete will be poured. Hopefully! At that point, our entire slab will be down.

You can also see that the builder has done a little bit of work on the framing, putting it up in front of the garage and also around the front door/entrance hall area. The handrail up at the edge of the slab is just a temporary one to stop people from falling off the edge!

This last photograph is taken from the dining area looking back towards the bedroom. Regan is technically standing at the edge of the kitchen. The hole behind him is for the staircase. Bedroom 3 is behind that staircase.

You can see two small blue poles next to Bedroom 3 - the tall one is the handbasin, the smaller one is the toilet. And the small rectangular indentation next to them is the shower tray. There's a little bit of framing behind that, which is the step up to Bedroom 2, and the blockwork just beyond that is back to the Master Bedroom again.

First floor (level 1) poured

Some action shots today. Here's our very own concrete mixer, ready to pour our concrete for level 1 of the first floor (there are two levels - the living level and the bedroom level. Our bedroom is on effectively the second floor, although it won't feel like that).

We chickened out of doing the pour yesterday - there were very large, very ominous black clouds over town and it was forecast to rain. But after all that panic, it didn't rain! We only lost a day though.

And here's a nice concrete man "kelly floating" (??) our slab. I actually have no idea what that means. It seems important though.

Also, despite us having to wait until it wasn't raining so that we could do the pour, Regan now has to go down in the evenings and spray the slab with water. I know it does make sense if you think about it further, but it does seem pretty counter-intuitive! If we're lucky, the framing might start going up on this level next week.

And if you think that the slab looks rather dark, you are not imagining things. It has been injected with a black tint.

Underfloor heating - in!

The pipework for the underfloor heating has now been laid. Now we just have to hope that one day we'll be able to afford the boiler or heat pump to run it off... I like to think of it as future-proofing. You can see a gap in the pipe work closest to us - that is for the fitting between the lounge and the library, and also where the fireplace will go.

That big void in the middle is the stairwell. You can also see the steel reinforcing on the tray deck. Since this was taken on Saturday, some more plumbing has been put in and the rebates have been done for all doors in the area. Which means that we're now ready for concrete!

The pour is tentatively scheduled for 9 am tomorrow (Tuesday), but so is the rain.... The combination could spell disaster.

This other photo is just a random, arty one. It looks more arty on the big screen!