That looks really nice. It will be a great WIP and with the pic's it should create a great deal of interest.
Ross
That looks really nice. It will be a great WIP and with the pic's it should create a great deal of interest.
Ross
G'day Ricky,
Are you still in the land of the living, or have you finished the build?:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:
Hi Rickey,
A friend long gone, had a small Veggie Garden, & he liked to put netting all over.
His Wooden Pickets to hold the netting, wood catch on the top of the Picket.
So he collected some Allum Drink Cans, stuck them over the top of the picket, & so the Netting never got caught again. You wood think it was running on roller bearings.
I see you had heaps on net to run, & just thought it may help.
Either that or I'm trying to teach you to suck eggs.
Really Works.
Hello again. Sorry but have got sidetracked with the building rather than documenting the build. Still moving forward. Just finished framing the roof on the guest wing this morning and passed inspection. So roof on in a couple of weeks I reckon. I will get back to this on Monday and see if I can get it up to where we are now. Might need to jump ahead a bit.
Rickey
.... We had arranged to meet the agent on site but she was a hour and a half late. The vendor, Howard, showed us around. He asked how we knew the place was for sale and we told him it was on the Internet. He said; 'How much do they have on it?' I told him it was $85,000, to which he replied, 'I don't want that much!' It was starting to look promising.
After a couple of hours having a look around we went down to the tasting room at Howard's winery (Mt Markey). I asked him directly how much did he want and he said he would be happy with $65,000. We went back home to Geelong, where we were living, and rang him the next evening and said we would take it at that price.[/QUOTE]
So who was going pocket the $20,000?
I think what had happened Rod was that it had been on the market that long that Howard had actually forgotten what they had put on it in the first place. Very honest people in the country; ;-)
That is a darn good idea. Another way of recycling. I don't suppose it makes any difference if you mix Coke cans and VB cans on the same netting area?:DQuote:
Originally Posted by issatree
Alan...
Yes, a good idea on the cans. We ending up buying some purpose made caps for the orchard to see how the went. They make putting the nets on a lot easier but are finding that they fall off just as easy. A lot less wear and tear on the nets though. Might have to collect some beer cans and try them in the vineyard.
Rickey
I'll fast-forward a bit to try and get up to date.
In March 2013 we roughly pegged out the site of the guest wing;
Attachment 304217
As you can see it will be nestled into the hill beneath the dam bank. Some relatively major excavations were required;
Attachment 304218
Only a small excavator but he really does know how to use it;
Attachment 304219
The rear wall of the guest wing will be 5 metres high with 3.5 metres of that being below ground level.
Attachment 304220
Now to set out the guest wing. We had a couple goes at it. Due to the irregular shape and the cut into the side of the hill it was difficult to set out using the details supplied by the architect. He had basically laid it out using an exterior rectangle of 'hurdles' and then gave us offset dimensions for the wall. This was fine in theory but we couldn't set out the exterior rectangle with a hill in the way! In the end I remembered an episode on Grand Designs where they actually constructed the foot print of the building using timber. We did this and got an end result that was a bit closer to the plans! The plans are only a guide after all. I wasn't too fussed about getting it millimetre perfect and as there are no right angles in the basic structure we didn't have to worry about getting that right.
Attachment 304221
Next episode: pouring the slab.
Hope you find this interesting.
Rickey
So, we got Brian back with the excavator to dig the trenches for the slab perimeters.
Attachment 304241
Got the local plumber in for the under slab plumbing. I noticed one minor issue the day before the pour. He had the vent coming up through the floor of the entrance! Got him back on the Sunday and fixed it.
Attachment 304242
I met the concretors on site. They insisted they were fine without my help so I left them to it. Photos of the pour are as supplied by them. Did all the prep day 1, Inspected early day 2 and had it finished and the formwork off by the end of the day. They certainly know their stuff. Will get them back for the house slabs.
Attachment 304245Attachment 304246Attachment 304247
Had to get them back the day after the pour. The rebate on the back wall was actually stepped out to match the wider rebate in the foreground. This photo shows what they should have done and after they fixed it. Next time I'm going to hang around while they do the pour.
Attachment 304248
The finished slab - very happy with the standard of work. Notice all the starter bars for the back wall.
Attachment 304250
At this stage I started finishing the doors and windows off. These we made by Neate Windows in Bairnsdale and comply with our BAL29 rating.
Attachment 304243Attachment 304244Attachment 304249
Next episode; The block work.
Rickey
Ricky,
Must feel great getting into it and seeing some results.
Ross
So, I got a quote for the blocks and organised delivery - 2 semi-loads. Drivers were brilliant and made it through the gate and up the drive without any problems
Attachment 304370
The blocks stacked on the slab. Another 4 pallets but we didn't have room on the slab
Attachment 304371
Pretty sure we had a frost overnight
Attachment 304372
Wall bars now in place and braced. 400mm apart at the highest part of the wall and 800mm elsewhere
Attachment 304373
Got the brickie on site in July and we started laying blocks. The back wall is 290mm thick for the first metre and then 190mm thick.
Attachment 304374
Also got a few bags of cement delivered - we will be mixing the concrete to fill the blocks ourselves. We got the brickie to do around a metre high and then we filled with concrete before getting him back to do another metre. The concrete had to be compacted very well so there were no voids. Did investigate getting readymix and a concrete pump but still would have had to do it in stages and worked out to be too costly.
Attachment 304375
Rickey
Some progress shots of the block work.
Attachment 305360Attachment 305361Attachment 305362Attachment 305363
Rickey
Another jump forward to get us nearly up to date. Got a chippy in to help with the roof framing. Front wall is a standard stud wall but will be clad with compressed earth blocks on each side to give a total wall thickness of 300mm. Yes, I know the roof has a twist in it ;-)
Attachment 307620
Rickey
Coming along nicely Rickey :2tsup: