External painting and kitchen cabinets

Here come the painters! There were two of them, one holding a sprayer powered by a small electric motor, and the other one a roller. The paint got sprayed first over an area, followed quickly by rolling on it to even out the coating. They worked pretty quickly, the whole upper walls were completed in 2 days.



They have to stand on the scaffolds to work on the upper walls. The scaffolds will have to be removed before they can work on the lower walls.



On the inside, the kitchen cabinets got installed. They were built and installed by Kitchen Connection. My owners have chosen a neutral white colour with cream laminated benchtops. The drawers have anti slam/soft close mechanism. There's a spacious walk-in cupboard on the corner. Not seen on the left is the fridge enclosure, designed to accommodate a double door fridge up to 1 meter wide.

There is a large window in front of the sink with a good view to the front garden, providing plenty of light to make cleaning and preparing food a joyful experience.

Internal walls

I've written about my exterior works in the past 2 posts. Now let's head inside and see what's been going on there. The gyprock/plasterboard walls have been installed! Now I'm feeling like a real house. Above is a view if you stand just after the entrance, looking towards the forest facing deck. On the right is the balustrade of the stairs going down to the lower floor.



Here's a more detailed view of my internal walls. No skirting/architraves just yet. I was told by the builder that the factory that built my internal doors was caught on fire, with my ready-to-ship internal doors in it! :( They've had to re-manufacture the doors for me. Oh well...



Outside again, the soffits have been put in place and the painters (there were 2 of them) have started painting the edges. They probably start with the edges because that area need a bit careful handling, using smaller brush to apply the paint instead of the standard paint roller. My owner's daughter picked my exterior colours. The top part will be dark brown and the lower part will be white. Might as well call me tiramisu!

External cladding completed

Ah, here's my unpainted outer skin. They've added wooden trims to cover corners and the gaps between blueboards, also around the door/window frames. Cute isn't it? :)




Wood deck flooring has been laid out, ready for sealant and coating. This particular corner of the house might become a favorite spot for people to watch the forest and catch the morning sun. A perfect reading spot too!




So yeah, at this stage my colour is blue, until they send in the painters!

External cladding

My outer skin installed, made of Harditex blue board material. It is a strong base sheets that are designed to be acrylic render coated with colour and texture, giving a beautiful rendered look without the need for masonry.



Here's a detail of the cladding, showing how it meets the upper deck beams and the aluminum door frame.



The aluminum door and window frames are white, to allow for more flexible internal and external wall colour choices.



The upper floor was the latest to clad. The blue sheet with Bunnings warehouse marking on it is a reflective sarking (insulation material), which got mounted just before and underneath the external cladding. Reflective foil laminate insulation provide effective thermal insulation when used in conjunction with an airspace (in my case, between the external cladding and the internal gyprock wall). Effective thermal insulation is achieved by the high reflectivity and low emissivity of its aluminium foil surface.

Pipes, cables and Internet

My nervous system is being laid out. First came the electrical cables, followed closely by data cables (yup, I'll be an Internet-ready house!). Each room will have a data port connecting computers in the room to the local area network hub in the living room, which in turn will be connected to the broadband internet. There will be wireless base stations to connect roaming laptops. People can even enjoy internet on the garden, although I'm not sure why anyone would do that, but at least it would be available.



Then came the pipes. Smaller pipes for clean water (hot and cold), bigger pipes for grey water. There will be a water tank to store rainwater too. Not much to talk about here other than they look nicely laid out in-between the steel structure.



Coaxial TV cables are installed in master bedroom, living room upstairs and in the corridor downstairs. My owners subscribe to cable TV. Not that they watch it much, but their children seem to like it, to watch while eating lunch or dinner. They usually record the shows they like in advance, and watch them whenever they feel like it.

Roofing, no solar water heater, and pathway

The roof is looking good. It was quite a tidy job, with insulation underneath and wire nets on the sides to prevent rodents or birds to get into the attic and nested there. The roof's main shape is simple, but the way it covers the car port, front porch and decks makes interesting light and shade around the building.

The original intention was to install a solar water heater on the roof, but when the consultant came they concluded that there's not enough light on the roof due to the dense greenery above. Well, I'd rather have the trees around me get the sun they need and grow healthy, than trimming the foliage just to get solar heated water. My owners can surely figure out a different way to get hot water for their showers. They're humans after all, and are supposedly smart enough to solve simple problems like that.




My owners noticed there's a steep and slippery path between the driveway and where I stand. Some of the workers have commented about the risk of falling if you're not careful. One weekend my owners decided to make a stepped pathway that would make it safer for people to walk up and down into the construction site. Not a bad job for amateurs!

Roof truss and scaffolding

The roof truss and scaffolding are up. This Monday there were 6 people working on the various sections, mostly around the roof area. Some are still finalising the trusses while others have started nailing down the rafters. I'm guessing they want to complete the roof before working on the exterior/interior walls. Makes sense as this will allow them to work even in the rain, although it doesn't look like it's going to rain anytime soon.




Scaffolding is important as it provides a safe platform for workers to go around the construction installing walls, windows/door frames etc. The rent is not cheap I was told. But hey, you don't want people to get hurt while building a house, do you?

From this angle, the scaffold reaches up to 8 meter, covering 3 levels complete with temporary stairs and solid walkways. I like my builder's subcontractors, they work very fast and things look professionally done. It seems like they love their profession too!

Upper floor frame

The speed building continues! Upper floor frame is up, revealing the room layout on that level. My owners are considering re-purposing the carport to a music room, where they will put a grand piano and some other musical instruments they have. The wife is an accomplished piano player and composer. A few years back she won the best keyboard player in a band festival in Sydney. The husband plays guitar but not anywhere close to her calibre :)

If they go ahead with the plan then the carport will be moved up the site on a specially built platform for 2 cars.



This is when builder needs the next progress payment to complete the enclosure stage, so my owners have sent the payment instruction to the mortgage agent to forward to the bank. The home loan is with ANZ Bank, and the mortgage agent is Mortgage Choice at Indooroopilly.

I highly recommend this mortgage agent. Mylene took care of the land purchase loan, and Warren patiently work with my owners through the building approval drama, adjusting the loan amount as the design and construction estimates changed each time the city council rejects a plan. They were very patient and accommodating throughout the 1.5 year process.

There was a funny moment when they've had to submit the latest loan change request, that the date was EXACTLY 1 year after the first loan application was submitted. I was born thanks to these people's persistence!

Upper floor completed

Upper floor frame has been completed, including the front section for kitchen, study, and main entrance porch. There is nothing underneath this front section because of the sloping land. However, they did enough cut and fill to fit a small living room underneath the front porch. This will have to be built later as it's not included in the builder's contract.



They use a different steel structure for the upper floor front section as it has no indoor space underneath. i.e, no need for frames to hang ceiling on or to run pipes and cables between the upper floor and the ceiling below it.



It's quite amazing that most of the sub-floors and the frame installation thus far were done by these two guys. There was a third guy when they worked on the lower sub-floor, but for the past three days the works were apparently done by these two.

Upper flooring

People say that once a construction's sub-structure gets completed then the upper frames will go up relatively quickly. I didn't expect it to be this quick though! Upper flooring is now installed on top of the lower level walls. The upper flooring beams remind me of railway bridges. They must be quite strong to be built that way, and installed in such close rows next to each other. But hey, the stronger they build me the happier I am!



The protruding structure in the middle is the stairwell. It will become one of my defining visual feature, when seen from the conservation park. There will be some pretty big windows there for people to enjoy the green scenery while walking up and down the stairs.

Frame up!

Ooo, my lower floor frame has gone up! Apparently this was completed by two guys only today as we know the frames got delivered yesterday. Look at those blue steel frames. It's probably made of Truecore steel from BlueScope Steel company. Here's their sales pitch that I like:

Treading lightly on the earth

Steel framing made from TRUECORE® steel delivers a range of environmental benefits, both immediate and long term.

The relative light weight of steel framing, combined with its design versatility and flexibility, means a steel-framed house can be built with minimal site impact.

Quite literally, it ‘touches the earth lightly’.

This is especially apparent on sloping and difficult sites where it can be used in conjunction with suspended flooring systems, reducing the need to cut into the site and thus leaving a much smaller imprint.

And because steel frames are fabricated off-site to exact specifications, there is minimal cutting and wastage onsite - making for a cleaner building environment.

A recyclable material

Steel is one of the most recycled materials on the planet.

Not only is TRUECORE® steel 100 per cent recyclable, it is made with a component of recycled steel.

Base stage

The tree cutting permit was issued in March 2009. The construction was finally ready to begin. One last hurdle: the original builder pulled out of the project due to slow economic condition, and has had to pass on the construction to another builder.

Luckily, the replacement builder did not waste time starting the construction, so ground breaking happens late May, starting with the land clearing you've seen in the previous posts. Here's their details if you want to employ their services!



Where are we now? We're close to finishing base stage and I'm hoping this week my frame would go up. Yay!!!



The base stage consists of laying out the foundation and building the retaining wall around the car port. I'm to be a pole house (as opposed to a brick house built on a concrete slab), so the foundations are basically columns of concrete poured into the ground. Pretty easy to make really, they used a drilling tractor to make the holes in the ground about a meter in diameter, put in the reinforcing steel and poured the concrete mix over it. They've had to use concrete pump as the concrete mixing truck couldn't come close enough to the site.



Parallel to this the Electrician started to install the temporary electrical meter cabinet so they can get some electricity supply needed for the next stages of the construction. In the mean time they've had to borrow the electricity from our front neighbor's house (thanks Rob!).



Base frames consisting of steel columns and beams for the flooring were shipped from the frame fabrication factory, clearly marked and labeled to guide the construction crew assemble them on site.

Final design

Today is Queen's birthday holiday in Australia, so there's been no construction work happening. Never mind, I can entertain you with my building approval story.

My third and final design was completed around October 2008, that's one year after my owners bought the land. Squeezed left, right and front by the building regulation, it's amazing that they can still fit a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom and 1 car port design. One advantage of this really compact design is I have plenty of outdoor space around me. My overall dimension is around 12 x 12 meter while the land is approximately 20 x 25 meter.

Ground floor has the combined kitchen/living room, a master bedroom, a guest room and a bathroom. The guest room does double duty as a study. The car port sits on a cut and fill land with retaining walls around it.



Lower floor has the children's bedrooms, a shared bathroom and a small laundry. There will be a door, not shown on the plan, that connects to the outdoor area.



There is a small porch at the entrance, to serve as a welcoming space for visitors. There will be some usable space underneath the porch and kitchen, shielded from the sun and rain, that could be used for clothes hang drying and maybe outdoor barbeque area?



On the left and rear elevations, you can see the decks on both ground and lower floor. These decks are located on the north/east area facing the conservation park. A perfect location to catch the morning sun while enjoying the forest view.



Did this design got approved by the City Council you asked? YES it did! They finally got it approved just before Christmas 2008. There's one more problem though. When my owners told the builder to start construction, there was one tree that had to go as it sits right in the middle of the land. When the tree-lopper came, they told the builder that the land is within a plant protection zone, so they need to get a City Council approval for cutting down the tree. And no, the people who approve the building had nothing to do with the people who approve the tree cutting. Sigh.

More time spent waiting for approvals...

Surveyor's markings

There are orange spots all over the land now, made of square wooden pegs nailed to the ground. I think that's the surveyor's marking where the concrete should be poured to make the pole foundations. You can almost figure out my room layout based on those markings.

Okay, back to my building approval drama. After the first design got declined by the City Council, my owners got a help from an architect who made sure the design satisfies the height restriction, and for added measure put enough distance from the left and right hand side neighbor. The new design was gorgeous. You've got to love this architect's sketches.



The builder and my owners were confident this design will get approved in no time. Not so. After waiting for another 2 month, the City Council sprung a new restriction that they neglected to mention in the first design review. It turned out that I must be built at least 6 meter away from the borderline with the conservation park. The architect's design is such that you can't simply push the whole house back by 6 meter without part of the house going straight into the front neighbor's land.

This is where my owners almost gave up and seriously considered selling the land. They were wondering if I was just not meant to be. They have persisted for 9 months, and to be given a new restriction that forced them to start the design from scratch at this stage was just too much to bear.

But my owners finally decided to have another go. They were both born on the Chinese year of the Ox you know, not easy to give up, a bit stubborn more than they care to admit. The husband happens to have a bachelor's degree in Architecture, although he never practiced that profession as he worked in IT industry as soon as he graduated. Still reeling from the two knock backs from the City Council, my owners made the third design. I will show it to you in the next post...

Land preparation

Whoa, I owe these guys one. They did a really good job at preparing the land using a bobcat and an excavator. Land preparation is important because if you don't do it right, it will affect the whole house structure. I do want to stand on solid, well prepared land and foundation.

The land is now cleared and ready for foundation work. One of my owner, the husband, loves grass. No he doesn't eat it, he just like the colour and finds patches of well mowed grass lawn pleasing to look at. He's already itching to plant grass on the bare, cleared land although fully aware he has to wait until my construction is almost finished. Patience boy...


In the last post I promised you an explanation why it has taken so long for them to start building me. Soon after buying the land, my owners started looking for builder, preferably one who has some experience building on sloped land. They found one that looked really good, have plenty of house designs to choose and modify from. They specialised in steel structured houses, which suits my owners fine as they don't really want to build a wooden house anyway (termite problem and what not). Brick house is a bit of a challenge on sloped land, so pole steel house seemed to be a good choice. Here's what my first design looked like. A massive 7 rooms, 3 bathrooms house.



It took almost 3 months for the City Council to evaluate the plan. At first they told my owners that the planned house (that's me!) was too close to the right hand side neighbor, so they asked them to get a statement from the neighbor that he is okay with the design. After gotten the neighbor's declaration and waited for another 2 months, my owners were told the design wasn't approved because it did not meet height restriction, a maximum of 8.5m from the ground.

Aaaargh!!!

Welcome!

Hello there!

My name is Burbong 25. I'm a house and I'm in the process of being built. This blog will track the building progress, with the hope that people can see how I was built and therefore appreciate my presence on this planet :)

I stand on a fairly sloped land, so I imagine it would be quite a challenge (or perhaps not) to get me standing straight. I just hope my builders know what they're doing!

The land I occupy happens to be right next to a conservation park, which is why my owners (they're a really nice couple btw) bought it in the first place, not knowing that the building regulation around such land would be quite strict. They fell in love with the conservation park and the greeneries surrounding my site, and made an offer to the sales agent right away. It was September 2007 that they finally got it for 10% less than the original price, and were deliriously happy!

You may be wondering why this blog starts today (27 May 2009) if the land was bought in 2007. It's a long story that will be revealed in the next posts. Stay tuned!