more rain

it seems like it hasn't stopped raining for the whole month of June. However M has begged and pleaded with the guys to keep going and his persistance has paid off.Retaining walls have now been backfilled with A-grade soil ready for planting -good job too as the place is so barren. Gone are all the beautiful flowerbeds and roses :( Backyard has also been levelled ready for the BBQ area.

Was very glad to see a portaloo in the front garden - yes honestly - it now means no more muddy boots tramping through our 'new' bathroom!

Bricks

Rather a large amount of bricks have been delivered to the house this week.

And even though it has been raining on and off all week,the guys got to work at once. They were at head height after 2 days and have all but finished the two main walls (sides).

The courtyard is also poured and bricked (above), complete with fish pond (apparently!)

Windows upstairs were measured today and air conditioning guy came to inspect. Slight problem with space in ceiling of ground floor so we will probably have to duct the airout via the floor rather than high level. Apparently this is no big deal especially considering the kitchen and the large expanses of glass.

flooring and roofing

It appears the timber floor guys have talked us out of getting the chestnut we had originally decided upon. And so we are opting for spotted gum instead. Apparently going with a non native Aussie wood would cause problems and require a lot of adjusting time where timber has to lie in the house and get used to the humidity.

This picture shows insulation which means roof is on the backpart of the house now.

Washout

Everyone was there and rearing to go on Monday morning this week but the the weather had other ideas. So all we could do is sit back and wait.

However, the gyprocker was able to get the stud walls underway and the window guy came and measured up for the downstairs windows. He gave us some advice about having a serving hatch through the kitchen window to the back. The advice was 'don't do it'. Because there is no planned (at this stage) roof structure for the back patio, the window will be open to the elements and there would undoubtedly be leakage. Fair enough. So three weeks today he'll be ready to install. But will the walls be built? If the rain keeps up, then no! He'll be back next week, or when we have some flooring to measure upstairs.

On Thursday the rain finally cleared so a last minute decision was made to dig extra footings, so that brickie can work all the way around the house. The driveway is also compacted with gravel to allow deliveries and work etc. Next week we'll be getting 20,000 bricks!

We also have both floors laid now (basic boards, not finished ones). which means the structure finally looks like a house! The top picture is the second storey, covered in plastic.

Hoping to get the roof on over this weekend but the weatehr forecast doesn't look good. More rain apparently.