Build Your Own House

My, my, my it has been a while and things have become very quite on here...

I am finally back to building again, having changed jobs, then started a new business, saved some dollars and found the balance of time and money to my favour...... In the last few weeks I set out the next pavilion, dug the pad footing holes, formed them up and poured the concrete. This time round I mixed the concrete on site, as access is rather difficult to this pavilion. I loaded a tonne of premix into my 4 x 4 ute at a time and backed it up to each hole, mixed and poured straight into each hole with the stirrup set on the form. Pretty straight forward but hand shovelling about 8 tonnes of pre mix sand/gravel and bagged cement has its downside...



With all the pads poured and the site cleared of hurdles and forms, I have started prepping the next batch of 150 x 150 hardwood posts. Fortunately we have some French HelpX folks staying with us for a few months, they have been learning some new skills assisting with the timber work, very nice to have a few pairs of helping hands and to share some skills - they are teaching me French




In addition to the building work I have been finishing a few odd jobs like the wood oven platforms (that match the entry steps). We also moved our vegie gardens from down the bottom of the farm to next to the main pavilion, corro tanks for garden beds and some stone walling to retrain the slope.



The next few months will see a fair bit of action, I am hoping to get the bulk of this little bedroom pavilion done but one can never tell

haha...indeed it has become quite on here, thus me not really bothering or going to the effort to post some pics on my house.

I will however get around to it in the next month....- obviously big changes in the past 14 months or so!

Well I'd be keen to see your updates

Steve,

I had practically given up on this forum but just popped back to show my girlfriend some pic's of your place and was pleased to see that you and Newman are still around.
It is great to hear that you have started on the next pavilion and have picked up some helping hands.
Your place still looks great and I look forward to watching it continue to develop.

There has been some progress on my place since I last posted so I will try to get some pic's up soon.

I would also be keen to see what has happened with your build, Newman.

Bluey.

Slow and steady progress as always, we got held up waiting for the 6 large long (up to 7.5m) posts for this pavilion to be milled from telegraph posts but they finally arrived

With help of my neighbour and his fancy fork lift we managed to get them off the semi, through the gate and up the hill. Total weigh of the 6 posts was 1250kgs…. solid ironbark.
With a lot of man handling we sanded, finished (Sikens Cetol 7 again) and pre checked the base for the stirups, it took a bit of time but we finally got them done. With the help of my work group buddies and our French HelpXers, we stood the large heavy posts and bolted them in. Standing the big posts seemed easier and more straight forward this time round, perhaps just experience, I still got quite nervous about it though as if one gets away it will end badly.

As per the last pavillion, the subfloor beams are bolted in, LVL's under and salvaged hardwood to the exterior, lots of long bolts and brackets to join them. I now have one last floor beam to fit and then I am onto sub floor bracing, joists and blocking. I already have slavaged joist timber so there should not be too many hold ups.

Steve,
Nice work on the timber posts. They look great. How is the Sikens finish holding up on the first pavilion?
Bluey.

Thanks Bluey

The Sikens is not going as well as I had hoped, it has needed a recoat on the northern faceswhere the sun hammers it, so much for 10 years!

Steve

Very impressive Steve . Keep up the good work

great to read of your progress ... as they say, rome wasn't built in a day, but your build seems to be going pretty well

we really enjoy the updates .. please keep them coming

regards
A|T

Looking great Steve!!

A little more daylight and encouragable weather conditions may contribute to some further works in the coming months I take it!.

Thanks for the encouragment folks, it is always nice to share my never ending building project, you are all very patient

Not much happening at the moment as the focus is on making a few dollars over the busy summer season and wet weather has really limited work on the few days here and there that I have had to get on the tools. Still...slowly moving ahead, got the bulk of the floor joists in, sub floor cross bracing was cut, galvanised and fitted. I retained and poured a small slab under the floor for the composting toilet (Rotoloo) and have since fitted that.

I sourced some floor boards and purchsed the cement sheet for the flooring so levelling the salvaged joists and fitting the floor is next. I decided to fit the floor and then cover it with plastic and masonite this time so I have a better work platform fot the scafold to fit roof beams.

I also managed to purchase all the major structural timber (posts and beams) for the third and final pavillion. Finding the big posts has been the most difficult and exspensive part of the build so it is a relief to finally have it all on site!! The timber has been stacked and wrapped ready for the final push (which will be next summer hopefully!!)





I have been swapping labour with my buddy and have built a week of credit, so I hope to get a whole week in building soon if the weather is kind. You will be intrested to see his blog, the house is a more economic hybrid of this design, a great read
http://offgridstudiohome.blogspot.ca/

Steve

Ever so slow.... but I have finished the sub floor structure, fitted the bathroom flooring and have started putting up the roof beams and wall frames. I think I need a good 5 day run of fine weather to get the roof structure finished and the roof sheets on.

Steve,
Great to see that you're still ticking along, no matter how slow it seems. Keep it up, it's all looking good.
Bluey.

Keep on posting Steve, we're watching. I pretty much check in every 6 months or so to see how your progress is going. As usual, your updates have impressed.

Thanks Sandman