Concrete Sample

Our concrete guy has been in to grind & polish some sample areas for us, so we can decide how deep we want to go (we did the bedrooms, which will be carpeted anyway). 

This means that the colour has finally been revealed!  You might remember that we put a black dye through the concrete.  As you can see, it hasn't actually turned out that dark!

This first photo is of the floor on the upper level (ie the one with the two bedrooms on it).  As you can see, the stones are quite large, as we had to grind down a bit on this level because on the day the concrete was poured it rained (meaning the floor could not be "floated") and consequently the concrete is quite bumpy.  We can actually see the outline of the underfloor heating pipes!  But the grind will deal to that.

 The second photo is the main floor (the living floor & third bedroom).  This floor was "floated" and you can see that the stones are much smaller.  This level is essentially just going to be polished, not ground.  So the two floor won't quite match, but given the cost of grinding...

Slight amendment

When Regan said "they're doing the roof today", he just meant that they were doing the butynol on the gutters.  But it was done by the roofing guys.  Still counts, right?

NEWSFLASH: Roofing has started!

That is all.

Gutter Clad

The gutter has now been clad with plywood, and we're waiting for the butynol to be put on top of it for water-tightness.  And then, I guess, the actual gutter will have to be put on top of that.

It is only this section that will have the plywood over it - as you can see from the second photo, they have done a lot of work on the rest of the roof!

Even having this small section of covering on the roof section gives an idea of what it will be like having an actual roof.  Bring it on...

More of the roof

Regan has vented his pathological hatred of white, plastic downpipes with the solution of one two-metre wide gutter down the centre of the house (above the stairwell).  I'm not entirely sure how it's all going to come off the roof, but I do know that you don't get a plastic downpipe that big.

Purlins

One of the last pieces of framing has gone in along the dining room side of the house - the bit that will form the side of the patio.  So you can see now how that corner of the house will look.

In the next photo, you can see what will become the patio, once it has been backfilled (we hadn't anticipated needing to backfill).  And you can see how busy Mr Wong has been, putting in purlins to keep that big roof straight.  There's also been some cross-bracing put in over the top of the roof, so it is all shaping up.  The roofing material has been ordered, so we're maybe about 3 weeks away from getting that sucker on.  And because the roofing will wrap down some of the walls, we'll also get some exterior walls then.

Everyone who was building was down on the subdivision on Sunday, which was quite cool.  And the people at the bottom (who are building a three storey house) have got a little fox terrier-cross friend for Zaha.  Nobody's going to be able to afford fences, so this could spell doggy heaven!

Rafters

So apparently it was "rafters" that I was meant to talk about in the last post, not trusses.  Whatever.  They were part of the roof bit. 

Just for that, here's a photograph of the architect, contemplating What He Has Done.  He's in the en-suite, with the shower being the indentation in the floor to his right.  The bedroom is behind him.  And technically he is looking through a window.

As you can see from the earth to Regan's right, the neighbours are well underway with their excavation.  They haven't dug in nearly as much as us and the neighbours on the other side of them, so they are going to tower over us.  It's on our south side, so it's not a big deal, but it will change the profile of the subdivision.

The builder has been continuing with a lot of detailed work on the roof for the last couple of weeks, and Regan was able to measure up the windows last week.  Woohoo!  Apparently the windows are about five weeks away.