Saturday 3 August 2013

Reno - Week 8

Sunny Days = Happy Days (when it comes to concreting)




I heard the other day that last month was Brisbane's wettest July in forty years! Is this the Year of the Snake doing it's thing? Consequently, progress at the West End Cottage has been off to a very slow start.

The concreters spent most of this week boxing up the suspended slab and the 2.5m wide stairs which will lead down to the back garden. And now that the concrete has been poured, this completes the major structural component of our new terrace. Eventually the floor and stairs will be lined with face brick.

Formwork being constructed for the suspended slab and stairs which will form the new terrace/outdoor room

Model of the rear elevation

The structural timber has also been delivered, so hopefully by the end of next week the subfloor for the extension (ie posts, bearers and joists) will be constructed at which point we should get a good sense of the size of new house and how it will flow. The internal floorspace will end up triple the original amount which sounds huge but there were only four small rooms to begin with - so really quite modest in size for a family of six.

I forgot to mention earlier that a lot of interesting things were uncovered during the excavation of the footings, namely metal objects including horseshoes. I've since discovered that there was once a foundry located over the back fence where a brick and tile house has since been built. It is looking more like a glass recycling plant these days:



The life of Uni Students!
I think it may be time to plant a tall hedge.

9 comments:

  1. great pics Caroline, loving the construction work :) we are only just starting to discuss suspended slabs in our construction / working drawings classes, so this was a very helpful pic...

    omg a beer bottle is on the clothes line lol must be some wild parties in the home at the back !!!

    HLQ

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    1. Hi L, the beer bottle is actually shoved into the top of the fence! The suspended slab is not straightforward as there is a concrete kerb on two sides which has caused a last minute drama on-site. If there are any drafty's or architects reading this, make sure you put HEAPS of notes on the plans! xx

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  2. I just posted your reno blog pics to our Building Design student FB pag... there might be some students with some qsts :)

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  3. It certainly has felt like the wettest July in my life, and you have just confirmed it for me! So good to see you are finally making some decent progress, have been thinking of you with all this dodgy weather. Get that hedge in pronto or your boys could be getting more of an education than you bargained for. mel x

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    1. Ha, as soon as they clear the site (hopefully next week) we just might spend a weekend doing a bit of gardening along our back fence line. xx

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  4. Wow...definiete progress there!
    A house up the street from us was demolished over the course of last week and today a digger was there doing some serious digging. I have no idea what they plan to put in that space but Toddler C watched the digger and the dump trucks for hours!
    The Red Hill Owen and Vokes house near us is for sale...I keep meaning to go in and have a sticky beak!

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    1. You can try checking out http://pdonline.brisbane.qld.gov.au to find out more info about any development applications. My builder actually worked on the Red Hill House - I wonder what it will fetch? xx

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  5. It's coming along! You must be so excited to see progress with all the rain. You could have sent that annoying rain down my way if you liked.

    Love your year of the snake reference. ;)

    I think any major build is going to have a few hiccups along the way even without the snake's input, especially one that is going to be amazing!

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    1. Thanks Jo. I'll try and do a little rain dance for you! xx

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