Thread: Building progress shots

Good to see things are still coming along Jill. How far does the sandstone have to travel or are you in the right type of country?

Hi Kane,

We are buildiing it ourselves - my husband and I, with a little help from our kids on the safer bits that are easy enough - if and when they want to. We have a plumber to do the plumbing work, and we had someone do the pour & finishing of the slab - after we boxed up & did all the preslab work, incl. laying the inslab heating pipework (solar heated water to go through Pexal pipework). Apart from those two things, and some help in the early stages from a brother in law with the heavy bits, it is all our own work...and will be to the finish, all being well.

Are you thinking of owner building also? I'll pm you.

Thanks TTIT - it's actually limestone - I WISH it was sandstone - esp. random stone & I would have been happy to lay it! We're actually really happy with this, though - as it is quite dark in colour, with quite a lot of character in it - like fossil/medium brown limestone - not sure what it is, but I've never seen it before in other limestone. It comes from Perth - so 250 kms or so.

Cheers,

Jill

Hi all,

It's going to be tricky fitting the top pieces of limestone in between the wall and the log frame...! We'll find out HOW tricky this afternoon! We've now laid about 130 blocks...hopefully we can double that by Sat. night!

One of the kids snapped this pic the other night - gives you some idea of the 'warmth' of colour of the blocks & what the walls will look like.

Cheers,

Jill

gonna be a cool house Jill.

Gee, you're quick off the mark, Wongo! I just got back on to edit my post!

I'll soon be able to build the three internal doors (just designing them, now) and also our built-ins...then our vanity unit - and so on as we get the walls up. Should have some timberwork to show you then, as I realize not many of you aren't too interested in limestone work!!!

Thanks for the feedback, Wongo!

Cheers,

Jill

In fact I will upgrade my comment to

"gonna be the house of the year".

Truely inspirational.

Thanks for the ongoing posts Jill, I'm amazed that you are all accomplishing so much so quickly with the house, while still doing lots of other creative things and not coming to blows!

Thanks Wongo - to us it's just 'our home', but it's lovely that others can enjoy seeing our dream come to fruition, and actually like what we're doing!

Thanks too, Alex - it seems to be taking a long time to get the house done, but with all our other commitments, and having to wait for the limestone, it is going up pretty fast I guess! When people ask the big 'when' question, I'm now happy to answer that we are doing it as fast as we possibly can, so there's no benefit in putting time limits on it or we won't enjoy it, and will really burn out. As it is, I am happy to then build the doors, etc., rather than buy them, and so on - so it takes longer, but is more 'ours'.

Our windows are to be ready next Wed. so that's great news, too - then we'll be able to do all the walls.

Thanks for your interest everyone!

Cheers,

Jill

Great work Jill.
It must feel good with the walls going up and windows on the way.
You will be a gun at building doors by the time you get through the whole house.

Thanks Scally - it's a great feeling getting the walls up & once the windows are here there's nothing to hold us up. Even if it rains, we'll work under the veranda to mix mortar. Pretty freezing here today! -6*C this morning, but thankfully no wind. We're glad of all the sleeves, though to protect our arms when lifting the blocks.

We hope to lay 100 blocks today and also Steve finish screwing off the roof, and I'll be planing old sleepers (for lintels) while he's doing the roof.

Cheers,

Jill

Originally Posted by Jill

Pretty freezing here today! -6*C this morning...

Ha !!
That's nothing, come see me when it does get cold.
Actually that's not bad at all, -7 or 8 is about the worst we get

Nice to see the long awaited stone going up, looks good. You need to give that barrow a hiding though, way too neat looking he is

-8, eh, Wayne - lol - typical Aussie - always got to go one better!!! It's too cold here, let alone where you are!

Ahh, that poor barrow sure is copping a hiding - belting all the mortar off all the time! No paint missing yet, but there's sure to be by the time we're finished with it! (And 'neat' isn't bad, okay - it's just...neat!)

We've now laid a couple of hundred blocks! Walls are going up fast and furiously. We have a pretty efficient system going, and so in a couple of hours each afternoon/evening we lay about 25 blocks - and it's a very enjoyable end to the day, working away side by side, and seeing the walls going up, getting to choose which feature blocks go where, etc. It's therapeutic - like a combination of doing a jigsaw puzzle and going to the gym combined, plus fresh air (too fresh!) & blah, blah, blah. Have I converted anyone, yet? I'll post another photo once we get some more done.

We're picking up the windows Friday! In the meantime we should have most of the 'window free' walls done!

'night,

Jill

Hi all,

We stood the door frames today - these are 'don't mess with me' kind of door frames, okay. Not for anyone who is a perfectionist, but those of us who love vernacular buildings and rusticity will love 'em.

I sure gave our old Makita planer yet another decent workout planing these! Blade changes needed after doing only 3 sides of 3, pretty well!

We've also laid a third of the blocks that will do the internal perimeter (we'll have double limestone perimeter walls) & the internal walls.

They got our window order messed up with someone else's - so they won't be here for another couple of weeks. I have about 11 doors to build in that time, plus we have 400+ blocks to lay, so I don't think we'll be waiting around with nothing to do, somehow!

Cheers,

Jill

Originally Posted by Jill

these are 'don't mess with me' kind of door frames, okay.

At least you've got somewhere to stand in an earthquake now!! Looking good Jill.