Driveway and weekend jobs

The last of our concrete was poured on Wednesday so we now have a new spanking driveway to the street. It's an expansive sea of hard lines though I'm sure the car port roof and strategic landscaping will soften things up nicely.



Aside from that there haven't been too many changes. Beams were painted and put up in preparation for the roofs next week and our window holes in the old garage have been filled with weatherboard from the side of the house where our sliding door will be installed. Our hardwood battens were supposed to be here for us to oil and seal but that can wait till next weekend.

Oh, I did have a little man-moment on the weekend. The insulation guys had knocked off a heap of lead nail heads to lift the roof and most of the pieces rolled into out gutters. Apparently lead and gutters don't get along too well, something about a galvanic response that results in rust, which meant that I'd have to brave the roof for the first time to clean them out.

I'd love to say that it was a cinch once I got up there but if anything my anxiety only grew the longer I was away from Terra Firma. I scaled the ladder pretty early to avoid the sun but I hadn't factored in the dew on our iron sheets adding to slip factor. I ended up scooting around on my butt all over the roof to avoid slipping and breaking my neck, a far from efficient means of locomotion but it was all my nerves could take.

We also bought a barbeque today and decided to assemble it to give our builder something to work off when cutting the bench and cavity. Shame we underestimated the amount of work involved and only started putting it together at 5:30. Two hours later we downed tools after struggling for a good hour in the dark with three torchlights and the tiniest screws known to man. The doors aren't on yet but at least the cabinet is up and wheels are on.

Reckon it'll just be another three odd weeks before the renovations are complete. Had a chance to show John and Sheena our progress and everyone's excited about what the final product will look like. I know I can't wait.

Comes out in the wash

Today was going to be another milestone to look forward to. We left the house in the morning with our builder starting to pour concrete for our next big slab for the carport. Everything was going fine and dandy.



Over the last six months we've had water seeping through from a tap on the neighbours fence near the garage. As they've been renovating for over a year, our driveway and yard has been treated to everything from plaster run off to green paint. Fair enough, we can take a little mess as understanding neighbours. I warned them that we'd be pouring the carport this week, and even so we came back home to see this.



To give him credit, he drove over immediately to see what could be done and offered to work something out with our builder. I'm sure it'll come out in the end but it's still annoying as all heck.

Slabs and a lot of dirt

Week 1 of building is finished and I'm amazed at how quickly work has progressed. There are silly small things in life that you just assume are permanent, and when they change it takes you a while to adjust mentally. The bits of earth and concrete in our backyard for instance, I still can't get over how the house we've known for the past year has changed in such a short time. It's wonderful to see the difference although strangely draining emotionally.

Concrete was poured for our patio slab on Thursday after the mesh, reinforcements and posts were put in. Alison and I found ourselves transfixed that morning, watching them pour and smooth the grey sludge about with rakes and levellers. Fascinating work really and we could have happily stayed to observe all day if we didn't have to go to work to pay for this renovation.



By the time we came back from the office our slab was complete, if a bit green and soft. We were careful not to step or fall onto it of course, though there was a temptation to shove our hands in and write our names. The area is looking nice and big which should make room for all the outdoor furniture we want to get (table tennis table included). That pipe on the right next to the down pipe is where the outdoor sink will be installed along with the bench and a narrow lock up area behind it to keep the bathroom and loo away from the cooking area.



The main focus on Friday was to get the side path, car port and driveway dug up. The excavator was back and lowered the levels around the side of the house so that our earth is below our garage ant capping. You could almost climb onto the roof without a ladder back when we bought the house and now I can't even see the roof unless I jump. Trenches were dug and pipes laid down to take water from the garage down pipe and the new down pipes from the car port out to the gravel pit in the back yard.



The front of the house has also seen some changes this week. Our footings and levels are done for the car port, the driveway has been sculpted out and some of our plants removed. We had initially planned on saving the azalea in the front yard as Alison has been nursing it back to health. In the end we figured it would be best to start from scratch with a long garden bed in front to give the house some shade and shelter from the street.



The car port roof will be pretty close to our boundary line so one of the conditions of our building approval was to have a surveyor out to peg markers and inspect the finished car port. It's yet more money that we didn't expect to have to spend but I guess it's still cheaper than getting into a fight with the neighbours later on. Next week should see some more concrete and the retaining wall put in along the fence line. The builder has also cut an outline of the door between the garage and our entry hall so I suppose that's going to be done soon. Progress is good but all this dust is a pain to clean up... boo...

Fluffy! Muddy!

Here's a bit of an image dump to show how we've progressed with the renovations. I took an annual leave day on Monday to be home to give some direction (read that as get in the way and ask annoying questions) to the insulation people and the electricians. Our insulation guys arrived pretty early in the morning to get started before the roof got too hot. Can't say I envy the job they had to do, it would have been scorching on a tin roof and it didn't sound like easy work.



While they were up on the roof banging our sheets away I was indoors pointing out where we wanted our fans, lights and new GPOs installed. The ceiling fan in the bedroom is an absolute treat and we're excited about getting some extra power points for use. Especially in the bathroom as we bought a new electric toothbrush on the weekend. :)

Most of the roof had to be lifted to stuff our glasswool batts in, though they just strung them up in the garage. They'll stay that way until our builder gets around to sheeting the room.



Our other big delivery was a huge skip for the concrete and earth to be ripped up on Tuesday. We made good use of it ourselves of course in the mean time, getting rid of some spare boxes and a huge mound of tree cuttings.



Tuesday morning was a very early start for the builders. So early in fact that I actually had to wave at one out the window when I woke up at 5:20am. Won't see me at work that early nosiree, but great for us. We just need to remember that the windows into the bathroom and toilet aren't nearly as opaque as we think.

I was biting my nails at work all day as the weather radar showed huge storms across Brisbane in the afternoon. I was fully expecting a mud pit in the yard and a flooded lounge room from misplaced roof sheets. It did turn out to be pretty muddy when we got home but not as bad as it could have been. Grateful that we bought a spare change of shoes to get through that slop though.



The backyard has had all the levels dropped and holes dug for reinforcing and posts. You can actually see on the left how far they've dug down to drop our ground level below the ant capping and for the slab to come. They also obviously got a start on the new utility room, starting to cut out the door frame. If all goes well then this whole area will be concrete by the weekend.



The other bonus we have from removing the earth is we got our ground levelled off in the back. A bunch of trees that we didn't want also fell victim to the digger and it's bizzare looking over so much space. There'll be heaps of room for the clothes line and garden beds to come.



Very exciting and not bad for Day 1. Expect more photos to follow.

Fan of Games

Phew, we've had a quite a productive weekend. Firstly I'm pleased to say that we've officially signed the contract with our builder so there's no turning back now. One would argue I suppose that turning our backyard upside down would have been the point of no return but there's something final about putting your mark to paper. Unfortunately the job won't actually start until the week after (officially on the 13th of October) so we have to put up with unworked ground for a little while more.



The fans and lights that we ordered also came in this weekend, so we dumped all that in the garage we just cleared last week. Great timing as we have a sparky coming through on the 12th to install some of the lights, fans and GPOs inside the house. This will all be happening on the same day that we're having insulation batts installed in the roof to help deal with the upcoming summer heat. Rather nice as the insulation is largely subsidised by the Australian government, score!

Not content with the amount of money we're already throwing into the house, I somehow thought it would be appropriate to pick up something I've been eyeing for a while... a Playstation 3. One of the new discounted Slim versions that is. To be fair, I've been saving up my pocket money for this for months now (or some other lust worthy gadget) so this shouldn't affect our renovation coffers.



We got a reasonable deal on it and picked up Little Big Planet as well as Metal Gear Solid 4 to play. We had a taste of LBP at Kath and Andrew's one night so we knew it would be wicked fun. It's been a while since I've played an MGS game so I'm a little pathetic for now but hope to improve with practice. At least I have a full collection now of consoles and can look forward to great stuff like God of War 3 and Final Fantasy XIII.

Speaking of Final Fantasy, I stumbled across this little video the other day and was extremely impressed. It's basically a mashup with the Dead or Alive and Final Fantasy girls having a big melee. Great choreography for a fan made video and certainly epic in scale. I'm a bit of a sucker for these things.



This is actually the second in a series (the first can be seen here) but it's the longest with the largest cast. Oh and of course Tifa kicks butt once more so I'm obviously pleased, although I was a little torn between cheering for her and Hitomi. The others in the series are certainly worth watching as well and I'm eager to see more.

Just one more game related video. I've somehow managed to miss the announcement of a little game called Torchlight. It's by the same people who did Hellgate London, which I thought was a disappointment. This on the other hand looks quite promising and I shouldn't have too long to wait before finding out for myself as it'll be released on the 27th of this month. Something to tie me over till Diablo 3 comes out.



Alright, now back to playing games. :)