Building – Off Grid Living – Building the Dream

We spit the dummy….

At last some progress again – but not meeting latest promised completion date, again…

We always knew we’d have a problem getting the internet, and so it’s turned out. Cable is clearly not an option in the bush. The following describes the options that we’ve looked at, and highlights just how bad the NBN is for regional areas (and we’re within an hour of the outskirts of Melbourne, onContinue reading “WI FI”

Will this saga ever end?

Cabinets, BAL

The builders are back

After nothing for the first half of January. the builders are back and things continue to move forward. The external plumbing has been run (our nice landscaping is a bit of a mess around the house again), the air-conditioning ducts have been cut into the plaster, and the wooden floor has been installed and theContinue reading “The builders are back”

A lot has happened (finally). December was HUGE…

So much has happened in December – it’s looking like a house!

Cladding install isn’t bushfire compliant

We were really happy with the way the cladding was looking, but as I’ve mentioned before we were a little worried about having colorbond flashings. Turns out that the plumber didn’t think that was a problem, because he WASN’T ADDING any more. The maxline panels clip onto plates that have a removable foam covering onContinue reading “Cladding install isn’t bushfire compliant”

The cladding has started

It’s been a big week – the plumbers turned up and started cladding on Wednesday! Fantastic – we should absolutely be at lockup by Xmas! And we installed the slab for the backup generator and the poles for the automatic gate system. I can’t believe I’m excited by that. At the beginning of the year,Continue reading “The cladding has started”

The house is (mostly) insulated – pink & fluffy

Despite the cladding and flashing not being installed, the builders went ahead and installed the insulation. R4.1 Pink batts to the ceiling, and R2.7 pink sound shield to the walls. This level of insulation gave us a 7.5 star house, so we decided that spending more money to upgrade it to a higher level justContinue reading “The house is (mostly) insulated – pink & fluffy”

Nexteel vs Colorbond…. More delay!

We chose to clad the house in Maxline using Nexteel, a rival paint system to the ubiquitous Colorbond. We thought Colorbond Night Sky was too harsh against second hand bricks, and while Monument looked good, in some lights it has a real greenish tinge, which we don’t like. We did the shed in night sky,Continue reading “Nexteel vs Colorbond…. More delay!”

And still we wait – our fingers are crossed just a little more tightly

Just been notified that we’re back to the original building supervisor who was swapped out because he was too busy to manage the build. The new building supervisor has just been laid off – financial pressures. Quite worrying when you hear of so many companies going under. We’re assured that it will be all OK,Continue reading “And still we wait – our fingers are crossed just a little more tightly”