Drilling, Digging, Concreting - footage!

Thanks to our wonderful iphones (guess who is dreaming of the iphone 4 already) I have some footage of the digging / concreting work on site...

The Slab Work

Drilling and digging the trenches...



Concreting the trenches...


So awesome to watch this work happening... I don't expect everyone to find it riveting viewing - but for us it is such a relief that tangible progress is being made on this dream of building our home!  No longer is it "yet more delays" that had us watching our block of land sitting untouched while we waited and waited for action...

Looking ahead, the actual build may have more delays yet. (hmmm do I be realistic or optimistic!?) However, at least WE CAN FINALLY SEE PROGRESS!!!! Horray!!!!  Its hard to believe that its actually happening - the ground floor of the house is nearly in place and we can walk around the slab perimeter and start to get a perspective of the space... 

Lets hope for things to keep on moving ahead... 

Full steam! Woo Woot

A Firm Foundation...

Hello to all the wonderful friends, family and visitors who are stopping by to read this blog... I want to start by saying how much it means to me to have your presence beside me (in the virtual world :) on this journey.
Building Sanctuary


The past week has seen the Building Sanctuary facebook page reach over 100 'fans'.  This is so encouraging.  Now I don't expect everyone to understand my facination with Social Media lol - but it goes hand-in-hand with gratitude for those who support me.   That said - a big THANK YOU to HG for officially being the momentus '100th fan' on facebook.

I've had quite a busy week.  Work and family commitments has meant that I am only just now uploading and sharing the exciting construction photos of the past several days.
So posts from here will be a 'feast of photos' to catch up... YAY!

To catch up -  
1st June 2010 was DAY 33 on the construction timeline. 

Up to then, our site had been continually rained on... The extremely wet soil and pooling of water around the plumbing meant that the construction work completely stalled. There were ditches of water everywhere...

By Day 33, our wonderful builders stepped in and dug trenches to help drain out the crazy pooling of water...  I think a pump was even involved to get rid of the water...

The result was the soil drying out enough for the next stage of the slab to happen...  What a relief!

DAY 36 (4th June 2010)
This Friday was one of the most exciting for a while.  I turned up early to visit the site and what do I see but trucks and men on site working away... Soooo good to see.  I walked around taking photo after photo - who knows what they thought? But I was not going to miss capturing this wonderful wonderful step :) Here is a few of the many I took...

They were digging the 2m deep holes for the piering and also trenches all across the house site.  The drilling machines were awesome to watch...



The other part they were digging out was the trenches. These trenches ran around the edge of the house plot and also across the site.  The long mesh pieces (that had been delivered to site way back on DAY 11) were placed in these trenches.



I will continue this story soon... can only do this post in bits and pieces ahhh...

Forgive this brief interlude :)))

Ok just one more photo :)))

Rain Rain Stay Away... Construction Men Come & Play...

It is Day 18 - The weather the past several days has been all clear YAY! 

Today, however, we are expecting some light showers mid morning :(  And tomorrows forcast is for showers in the afternoon.... Will this impact on the site works??? We don't know... I really really hope slab construction will keep moving this week... Oh pleeeease....

To share one increasing struggle - our kids are having trouble to get enough sleep due to the "fun" adventure that is 3 sharing a room :P  (see pic of triple bunked beds - I still can't believe they all fit in that small room!)

My 7 yr old son tried to get up at 3am the other morning... and came in to me asking if he "could get up now?" I mumbled "what time is it?" His reply - "5.30am" so I said "ok" and rolled over... It was only when my husband woke up enough to look at the clock - that he realised the 3am reality.... hmmmm so we had an interesting time telling the boy that he needed to sleep for at least 2 more hours.. (oh pleeeeease!).... The "conversation" woke everyone else in the vicinity (so sorry to the other unit dwellers in our block!)...

Needless to say, our other two children are often extra tired due to the boy's waking habits... I mean when he is asleep, he's fast asleep... but when he is awake, he is rarely "quietly awake" hehe... so full of life! We love him!  and yes he is also very tired.... sigh...

Here is thus an example of our strong reasons to need some sort of decent space / rooms to help with adequate sleep for all :)))  Yes, a new house is a luxury - but a separate room for the boy - this is becoming like a survival need (lol - I know that sounds more dramatic than it probably is - I feel that way right now).... I want to target some stratergies for the boy's sleeping habits without the other two getting affected also...
Add these logical reasons to my emotional impatience for our new home... and you have one "eager to be in the new place" woman!


So... pleeeease rain rain stay away.... 
and construction men come and play... 
(yes am reduced to begging while blogging haha)

On a colourful note - here is a photo of one of the many amazing sunsets we see from our unit's patio... Nature's beauty keeps me in awe and just that little bit more sane during this building process!


Yes the dark clouds are the ones responsible for the week(+) delay... but they are amazing to look at :)))  What a paintbrush the creator has.... Cheers

Slab Preparation has finally Begun!!!

So it finally happened - Driving towards our block of land today and for the first time ever we saw construction workers complete with a 'digger' (is this what they are called?) on site - yes working on our land! OMG I have to admit I was unsure if this would ever actually happen.... Horray!!!!!!

The day had been sunny but as we drove towards the estate, it began to rain... I was unsure how problematic this was for the workers but when I asked them, they shrugged it off as a little shower :)

Well it definitely made for muddy walking. I took off my shoes (it was muddy enough to maybe lose a shoe) and walked bare feet out onto site... My excitement combined with the unusual feeling of squishy mud between my toes (too long since mud play as a kid :) This will forever create a lasting memory of today for me :)

No photo of the squishy toe mud (doh!) however here's the very convenient washing off in the rain water still running past in the gutter.  

The sand they brought onsite is obviously used in the process of laying the pipes...

This is looking from the back fence line / site corner. We think that the cluster of pipes in the lower right corner is for our ensuite :)  

We are so new to all this...

This gives a better overall picture from as near as I could get to the back fence (due to fill piled up at the back of the block).

Close ups of the trenches / pipes...

and more plumbing...

I was expecting more pegging and string but did see pink painted spots that obviously marked specific places on site...

Bottom line is - I am sooo happy to see a 'digger' on our land :)))

 

I have a definite appreciation for digger tracks in the squishy mud all over our block...

It means the slab preparation is underway :)

Thank You God!

During a chat, one of the guys told us he was booked to come back in two weeks - around the time the roof will be on!!! That sent me into a spin - is it possible? that after waiting months (and months and months and months) - that we may see a roof put on so soon?!!!  

:) Happy sigh :)

So, there's one more texture photo I thought I'd share with you all before signing off tonight 

(my friends might laugh at this).

It is a pile of bark I saw beside our 'future neighbours' driveway 

(T and M - can't wait to street party with you :)... 

The colour was so vibrant and rich - I couldn't resist a photo :) 

Isn't nature wonderful!  Enjoy :)