Now let me bring you up to date with what's happening on my owner build project since 2012 dawned ....

We started the new year with our complete set of house stumps (steel) standing tall in their concrete, which had been curing nicely over the christmas/new year period.  Our most important task during that time was to keep water out of the hollow posts.  Water because we were now running into what we had planned to avoid...the onset of the wet season.  With all the hiccups during our planning and approval stage we lost a valuable 3-4 weeks at least in our planned schedule.  My hope had always been that I would have the build progressed at least to having the frame up and roof on before the wet season got underway.  Given the household will be totally dependent on rain water I needed to harvest this season's rain to set the house up nicely for its first year.    

Meanwhile, with fingers crossed that the rains would not start yet, we taped plastic bags over the top of each stump.  Annoyingly, the magpies and crows just kept pecking holes in the plastic so after many re-tapes we gave up and put rocks on top of each stump.  The birds came to perch anyway.  

I was also feeling on top of my project management task as I was going into the build having already chosen, from among the requisite three quotes I'd collected, both my roofing contractor and my plumber.  I had been collecting quotes for the supply of floor sheeting, timber decking boards and internal and external cladding materials and decided on the best deal.  I had also been liasing with an extremely helpful guy at a glass company in Brisbane about reglazing my second-hand windows and doors.  By the end of 2011, that dilemma had been resolved and I was happy with the solution and the cost.  And, very importantly, my projected budget was looking good.   

January 10th was the big day!  The framing gang arrived, Mark (the foreman) along with Tony and Brad.  Their first task was to 'level' the stumps, which meant using a laser to project the floor height across all the stumps and then....











.... cut the stumps to their appropriate size allowing for the changing levels of the ground.   The plans specified adjustable stumps were to be used because of the highly reactive soil on site. 










One of the most longed-for sights was the house frame being delivered.  I could hear the truck engine as it laboured up the last bit of our mountain and I'm sure the drivers did not expect a photographer to be waiting around the bend.  

 The first of many loads to come....






























My flat pack house ready to assemble!













During the excitement of all this activity, I was not idle.  I had decided to try a long shot and get a fourth quote for the supply of floor sheeting, external and internal cladding materials and timber decking boards.  It paid off and the deal was better than any I had got to date.  I locked that in.  I was also getting quotes from suppliers of rain water and septic tanks and making a decision on that front.  Importantly, I was also mindful of keeping the roofing contractor, plumber and excavator operator for the drainage updated on the build progress to ensure no time would be wasted in having each of them come in at the right time.

Meanwhile, it's still dry and early January when Mark, Tony and Brad very carefully laid the ground floor bearers and joists ensuring the floor would be level, a very exact and critical feat.  I have a lot of respect for the professionalism and competence of these particular guys. 







 

 
Satisfied they had the subfloor just right, the guys then sheeted the floor with Green Tongue Termiflor.  The sheets must be in place in order to erect the walls although other floor surfaces can be laid on top.  Something I am planning to do provided the budget doesn't blow out on other fronts.   


It was amazing to be able, finally, to get a feel for the height of the ground floor, which was at its minimum 400mm from the ground.  I was also concerned that the 'space' was adequate although a real test would come when the walls were up.  And there wasn't long to wait...

 
 At this stage, the third week of January, the weather is great and the guys are going great guns.  With the first section of wall going up, I am starting to see the suggestion of a house....











....and, more than a suggestion, a house with rooms....














....and then a house that has the beginning sections of the upper floor - my studio! 














My favourite times during these couple of weeks are early morning and evening when the builders haven't arrived or have just left and I explore the build.  I take up countless positions throughout the space appreciating the framing of the landscape through the design.  I am so very pleased with my design - it's exactly as I had imagined and painstakingly worked over on paper.  When I stand in that frame I see exactly what I dreamed and planned I would.  It's perfect.  

 
The bracing goes on and, unusually, on the inside as specified by the engineer.  








 





There is so much bracing in this house (over 100 sheets) that the guys reckon nothing will move the building.  Uh oh....look at that sky, not looking too good. 
 
It's the third week of January and we were exceptionally lucky to date in terms of the rain.  So optimistic was I that nothing would impede our progress I informed the roofing contractor that the time line looked okay for them to start the middle of the fourth week of January.  I also ordered the delivery of the rain water tanks for the fourth week.     


I was too optimistic given that, in that third week, each day the clouds would build up all morning and at around mid-afternoon right on knock off time we could see the rain coming in over the valley.   So far so good because the guys were still getting in a day's work. 

I must admit that, increasingly, the sky was looking decidedly ominous and, while luck had been on our side, the wet season was on our tail. 


And then....


















....this!  The rains came.  Everything came to a halt.  

Each day this fourth week, we would talk with Mark by phone about the weather forecasts and the possibility of a change.  The delivery of the rain water tanks had to be postponed and phones calls to the plumber and roofing contractor had to be made.  Thursday 26th seemed to fine up a bit and Friday the 27th looked good so Mark, Tony and Brad got back to work.  But....lunchtime down it came again.  And that's where it's at!  


It rained solidly for two days and Sunday afternoon started to clear up again.  Fingers crossed for this week!  I want the rain to hold off just until I get my roof on (second week of February) and then it can pour down as much as it likes because I'll have 104,000 litres of rain water capacity waiting to be filled! 
 

 

  





 
   

 

Finally making my Polbre dream real...

For 18 years since I bought my piece of mountain top I have dreamed of building a home there in which I could live the creative life.  Over the years I have produced a veritable stack of house designs, always trying to create the perfect one.  As much as I wanted this dream, all the necessary elements to make it a reality were yet to converge.  

I came close to making the commitment to build about five years ago when I got my owner builder certificate.  But again other aspects of life intervened and the dream was again on the back burner.  I guess it was the mounting birthday milestones that made me realise if I didn't stop dreaming and do something I would be visiting Polbre for a far longer time than I would ever have to live there. A not insignificant factor in encouraging me to take the bold step was my partner Paul's support and readiness to support me through the project. 

Fortunately, I had about one month to go before the currency of my owner builder certificate would expire when I finally made the first real steps towards making my dream a reality and turned the certificate into a permit.  That was just the beginning of the 'planning' stage of making the dream real.  The next momentous step was to stop endlessly designing and settle on one design that ticked most of my boxes.  In August 2010 I took that design to a draughtsperson.  

And so into the planning and approval process and all its unexpected little surprises........council restrictions on development that changed part way through, refinements to the design, glazing issues associated with using recycled windows and doors, engineering challenges, some early false starts in the certification process and so on. 

The less said about the 18 months spent in the planning and approval stage the better.  Suffice to say that, at times, I was so frustrated and disappointed that I almost regretted starting the venture.   Then, I would need to be therapist to myself and reframe these setbacks as a test of my commitment to living my dream and a normal part of the rollercoaster ride of building, particularly as an owner builder.   

While we navigated our way through this stage we actually achieved a lot of progress on more tangible fronts.  As the owner builder I had a lot of research, planning and preparation to undertake so that when the plans were approved the build could get underway without delay.  I spent countless hours drawing up a project chart with materials, labour and costs for each stage, researching products and suppliers, getting quotes for subcontracting out the big tasks and reworking the budget over and over again.  

Some of the very immediate and tangible tasks, which were satisfying for being so, included giving the last part of the dirt track up the mountain a make over so that it provided good access for the many trucks and utes that would be coming up over the life of the build.  First we had an excavator in to shape the road for camber and drainage...

and then truck loads of gravel and road base to seal the road at least to last this rain season.  

Next we needed to get a site survey, which means having the house site surveyed in relation to the property boundaries.  Apparently, a couple of the boundaries, including the front boundary nearest the house site, had not been surveyed since 1902, which meant the surveying task involved more (and cost more) than anticipated.  My first experience of what everyone is so very keen to tell you when you about to build but you don't want to hear - it always costs more than you plan! 

We planned to be on site as much as possible throughout the build, particularly being the owner builder, so we figured we had better upgrade our amenities.  We found a nice homely wooden thunderbox that fitted the bill.  We have since surrendered it to the workers for their amenity further up the paddock and ours is a more interesting arrangement now - made out of steel offcuts off the job!

And still we waited...and waited...for the holy grail, the approval to build.  Needless to say we anticipated that eventually it would be a favourable outcome so figured we may as well start the "set out".  One of the most critical tasks of a build, we were fortunate that serendipity delivered us Nick, a retired builder who loves to mentor and assist owner builders in practical ways.  Nick, with Paul working as offsider, did our "set out" and his accuracy was phenomenal.  Our house would be plumb.  

Not to forget the equally important task of raising the builder's sign. 

And finally...finally, on the 9th December 2011 we got our approval (development permit) to build!

I should back up and say that I had been more than a bit impulsive (or over confident of my design) and sub-contracted a steel framing company to fabricate the house frame months before approval to build was granted.  The frame had been completed and was sitting in the framing company's yard waiting...and waiting...to be delivered.  So we knew there would be no hold ups on that score!

Another critical and exciting task was the excavation for the footings.  Critical because the holes for the stumps have to be exact, there is no room for error.  Exciting because it is breaking the soil to take the first part of the building - the stumps.  The first one had us riveted....

by the 50th hole we had become blase and the site looked like a rabbit's paradise.      

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By this stage the Christmas break was looming and, given most businesses would shut down until early January, we desperately wanted to see something a tad more substantial (suggestive of a house) than holes before 2011 closed and to show for a year and a half of planning.  Our steel framing company, which was also contracted to erect the frame, were very cooperative (if not puzzled by our desperation) in agreeing to concrete in our stumps in the week before Christmas.  

So the week of Christmas, Mark (the building foreman), Nick and Paul raise the stumps.  While I had dared to dream (again) that I would be sitting in, at least, a house frame for Christmas after all the turmoil in the planning stage I was more than happy to be wandering amongst my stumps!  I was a happy woman. 

Polbre ...  

A sunrise from the mountaintop ...

View to the south-east on a cloudy morning ...

...and looking through the front gate














Bulbs that come out in the rain ....