Gib bracing has commenced

Ensuite on left, gibbed masterbed on right

The builder has been busy on the interior this week.  He has put up the gib board over the pink batt-filled walls in the master bedroom to act as the bracing.  We are not lining the walls with gib - we are lining them with MDF (gib is "too obvious").  So the MDF will go on top of the bracing gib. 

The plumber has also dropped all sorts of things off.  Our bath is now on site!  It is being stored in the en-suite for the moment, but it will eventually go into the main bathroom.  From the looks of things, the plumber had to have two goes at cutting the plug hole into the concrete in the main bathroom...  The en-suite seems to be being used as a general storage area at the moment!  The plumber has also delivered the taps, so they are being stored in the garage.  The toilets and basins are still in our garage at home!  We're feeling rather overwhelmed with house bits at home at the moment.  The hallway at home, for example, is piled high with light fittings.

Gib stored in the lounge

All of the bracing gib has been delivered, and it is piled up in the lounge.  It is pretty thick stuff, and the weight of it all in one place is so great that they have had to prop the garage again so that our concrete floor doesn't crack or bow.

The metal ceiling battens have also been delivered, and they are stored in the dining room/kitchen.  So the lining is starting to happen, which is pretty exciting.  I understand that the gib bracing will go up first, then the ceilings, and then the MDF.  And somewhere in all of this, Regan needs to sort out some acoustic panels for the ceiling....  

Macrocarpa outside the kitchen

The builder has also continued work on the cladding, and has put up the macrocarpa cladding outside the kitchen.  That big framed window is a huge picture window in the kitchen.  The dining area is to the right, and the outside area will eventually be a courtyard.

 That macrocarpa wall is a continuation of the wall that you can see outside next to the master bedroom in the exterior shots from the last post.  It continues all the way through the house along the same line, and finishes here outside the kitchen.  The interior bits of it haven't been done yet.

Ray, Regan, Scott and ceiling battens 

Scott is visiting from Brisbane, so we took advantage of the situation to put him to work as another electrician's apprentice, and he, Ray and Regan did some wiring on Saturday.  Exactly how much was done is questionable, as I had a long telephone conversation with my mother, did the groceries, brought them a late lunch and then got home at 4 pm and they hadn't done anything yet...

The scaffolding is down!

Despite it being a long week-end, the scaffolders arrived at around lunchtime on Saturday to take the scaffolding down.  One of them was wearing a black singlet that said "Trust me, I'm a doctor"!  Actually, the German neighbours' builders were working too.

The scaffolding coming down was pretty damn exciting for us, as it means that we can finally see what the house looks like properly.  It's pretty cool to be able to see the whole profile now, and to be able to see that the idea of the car port "floating" (at the left) does work.  In the photo, we've got the master bedroom door open.

Regan outside the master bedroom

During the week, the builder also finished the macrocarpa cladding next to the master bedroom, and all of the glazing has now FINALLY gone in!  As you can see, there is still some building wrap up that needs to be clad over.  All the areas of building wrap that you can see will be clad in plywood (to be stained black).  I understand that the builder will be concentrating on finishing the exterior before moving to the interior.

We brought some beers down for the builders on Friday night, to start the long week-end out on a good note.  The builder's apprentice has got a five month old pug puppy named Daisy!  She is pretty excited about being the site dog.  We asked what our mission was for the week-end, and Laurence said it was to paint the soffits.  So we did.  Well, we managed to prime the area around the master bedroom and got half way through the second coat at the back.  We had a mobile scaffold to work off, which made work easier.  It is threatening to rain today, so we are not going to paint today.

Morning tea in the dining room

I say "we" as I was Allowed (the momentousness of the event justfies the use of the capital letter) to assist in the painting (priming counts as painting).  I also carried out other important jobs, like Passing Things To Regan.  The most frightening bit for me was moving the scaffolding, as I was terrified of letting it swing into the house!  I did spend a fair amount of time sitting on the bank, reading "Dwell" and Providing Regan With Moral Support (another important job).  I limited my attempts to be chief scone maker to driving to the local cafe to retrieve coffees and lunches.

As the weather was gorgeous, we had lots of visitors.  The neighbours even brought over a couple of beers for us!  Regan was most impressed when Alex showed up in the white Porsche that he has done up.  He has now decided that it would look great under the car port (purely for aesthetic purposes only, of course).  I'm trying to persuade him that our white Legnum adequately performs the same function.

Zaha worked hard too

This week-end was the first time that I have spent a whole day at the house, so it was really interesting to see how the sun moved and to play with doors to open up the house, and also to get the air moving without being too breezy.  The house performed fabulously!  The sunny week-end also lead to Regan making the important discovery that the closest beer shop is expensive.  So he now has a cheap beer fridge in his sights.  To keep the builder happy, of course.  When I pointed out that the added bonus was that he would be able to keep it in the garage after we moved in, he almost managed to look as though that was a brilliant idea that had not occurred to him.

Macrocarpa cladding starts

The macrocarpa cladding on the house has begun!  You can see it on the front of the house, between the dining/kitchen (on the left) and the lounge (on the right).  (You can just see the bedroom wing sticking out behind the lounge.)  And you can see that the garage door has gone in (underneath the lounge).  The front door is just next to that.

Some of the window soffits have also got macrocarpa cladding around them - like the big picture window on the east side of the kitchen, so some of that has started too.

Some more plywood cladding has also gone on the bit of the house that extends out into the outdoor courtyard.  You can see some plywood, and then black beneath it.  We are going to have to bring in some more fill to bring the ground level up so that the ground starts at the bottom of the plywood area.  It turns out that the level is a little lower than anticipated!  In the photo on the right, Regan is standing in the north east corner of the dining room.

And the sparkies haven't been idle either.  As you can see, there are now acres and acres of wire lying around...  

Rocking' it by night

It's a poor quality photo, but it still looks pretty cool (at least to us).  It's a shot of Regan working with his 500 watt spotlights at night, trying to do the wiring.

Sparkies on the job

Jeromy (stairwell behind him), between kitchen and lounge)

After Regan spent most evenings this week down on site doing the apprentice-type jobs (like putting in the rest of the flush boxes), he, the electrical engineer (his dad, Ray) and the authorised electrician (his brother, Jeromy) descended on site this week-end to wire the place up.  It's looking like a proper site now - chip packets, takeaway coffee cups, empty insulation bags and sawdust all lying on the floor, and wires lying everywhere.  They're putting in phone jacks, data cables and normal electricity wires too.  Reams of wires.  We've got a cupboard in the library/lounge that most wires will run from.  Regan assures me that a PS3 will be the most appropriate operating system for all of these things.  I, naturally, remain unconvinced.  They're also wiring the place for the future, for things like speakers outside.  The very, very distant future.

 After spending the whole day wiring the place, they realised in the evening that some of the lights were halogen and some are fluorescent, and have different voltages.  This all lead to spirited dinner table conversation about transformers (not of the Megatron/Optimus Prime variety).  Some amended plans were made this morning, and work continued.

Regan (with foot on tv cavity)

I was meant to facilitate all of this by doing my very best Desperate Housewives act by turning up with morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner.  As it turns out, I had a (totally undeserved) killer hangover, and managed to stumble down at around 4.30 pm with salt & vinegar crisps and some Coke.  If only the road down there wasn't so windy...  I attempted to make up some lost ground by delivering fresh muffins for morning tea this morning, but I'm not convinced that it worked.

Ray in the hallway

The Builder has started putting in the pink batts (insulation) on the walls in the lounge and master suite - before the wiring went in.  We have taken this as a sign that he is dissatisfied with the amount of time taken by the sparkies...  The ceiling batts have also arrived, and the Builder has made good use of the stairwell cavity, storing them all down that hole.  It is very tempting just to jump onto them!  The dog has certainly been eyeing them up.  She tried to have a nap on a piece of pink batt this morning, but may come to regret that if any of those fibres stuck to her.  We are also happy to report that she has figured out how to deal with the glass now, and is no longer refusing to enter the house.  She is also making good use of the windows, barking at every car of rubberneckers that comes into the subdivision.

The garage door has gone in now, so downstairs is finally weathertight (we're still awaiting some small windows and two doors upstairs).   Another nasty cold front has come in this week-end and there were lots of cars parked outside the house, so we haven't taken any photos of the garage door.

Ceiling batts in the stairwell

The Builder has also finished the plywood cladding on the back of the house, and the roofers have finished the flashings and canterbury prickles on the crest of the roof, so that is looking more finished.  Now some painters' apprentices just need to start staining the plywood black.

The back (east) side, awaiting staining

We have a front door

The front door!

We have a front door!  I think that The Architect had thought that the glass and door would be exactly equal in size, but they're not.  Thankfully the client does not give a toss and so it is staying.

And 95% of the glass is now in, which has made an amazing difference to the volumes.  You wouldn't think so, as you could see through it anyway.  It has, however, fooled the dog.  We were hanging out on the scaffolding, checking out the soffits and she clearly thought we were inside.  So she took her usual leap up from the ground through the library door...  SMACK!  She wouldn't go through any other doors after that unless we gave much coaxing.

Zaha investigates strange pipes in the kitchen

The builder has also boarded up the garage door for some reason, which means that we can now really get an idea of what the house looks like.  The plumbers have been busy and the water is now connected.  They've also put the pipes for the water up through the kitchen floor, which looks amusing.  The electrician (Regan's dad, Ray) has been around and has put in the switchboard and fuse box.  The builder is starting to get a little antsy about the electrical situation and so the whip is being cracked this week and electrician's apprentice #1 (Regan) will be going straight down to site every night this week after work.  At least he won't be whipped by the wind anymore!

The builder also told us this week that the scaffolding is coming down very shortly so that he can put up the macrocarpa cladding (not sure how he will do it without the scaffolding, but I'm going to presume that he has thought that through).  That means that (a) we'll get to do an unveiling of the front of the house soon, and, more boringly (b) we needed to get the soffits painted ASAP. 

You can sort of see the soffit.  And the TV spot, far left!

Regan had a competition due this week and was frantic, and I'm not allowed to do anything that might be screwed up.  Painting appears to be in that category.  So Ray stepped into the breach.  70 years old and clambering over the scaffolding!  The soffits are going to be painted the same colour as the interior, so that the walls are just interrupted by the window frames.  And as to Which Shade of White:  the winner is Half Ricecake.  Ricecake was on my list, but I'm not actually sure that The Architect even looked at it!