It's now two and a half months since the foundations were laid and, all in all, we are very happy with the progress of the build.  Apart from plumbing and electricity, much of the build is now up to us (Paul and I) with the help of Nick (our mentor and retired builder) and his son Anthony, a builder (when available).  

This week has been very busy on site notwithstanding we have had rain on most days - when I say week I mean Wednesday through Sunday as Paul and I both work at our paid jobs on Monday and Tuesday and, for me, every second Friday.

The first job we got underway was the connection of the four main tanks so that water runs into all of them at the same time.  Paul is a wizard at this kind of thing while I'm best being the TA and doing the grunt work - under the watchful eye of Woolly the poodle of course!   

Connecting these main four tanks to the smaller tank on the northern side of the house can wait wait until Josh the excavator operator comes up to do the trenching for the septic tank and transpiration pit.  In other words, I'm not digging the trench the extra 20 metres or so!  

The end result looks pretty good and, even better, not one leak.  Great job Paul - as always.   Most of this job was done in the rain - we were like drowned rats by the end of the job.  

 

Then Paul decided to cover the eastern side of the building on the upper floor with plastic.  The rain has come from this direction much of the time and Paul was tired of sweeping out the water that was coming in.  He's a fusspot that one.   

The next two big jobs involved Paul and the roof - he had to finish putting screws into some of the roof sheeting and, the big challenge, get the solar hot water tank and collector panels on the roof.  The first job was easy but the second was a challenge as both items are really, really heavy.  Needless to say, being the incredibly practical and talented person he is, Paul rigged up an overhead block and tackle system and managed, after a few hours, to get the lot up on the northern roof section.  It was very hard work and I admire Paul's stamina for sticking at a really difficult task.  I did play a minor part, as directed, to help balance the last lift over the roof overhang.   What an effort - we could stop holding our breaths when that job was complete.  

We had one day that was mostly fine with a good breeze and decided to make hay while the ..... or in our case slash the grass which was going crazy with all this rain.   I'm still a learner driver.  I think the tractor is as old as I am and (like moi?) hard to handle because it's soooo heavy.  When I had my first drive of it last year I couldn't figure out how to stop it and ran over the fence.  I'm happy for the tractor to be Paul's precinct and I stick to the ride-on and push mowers.  

 While Paul was doing his roof tasks I started on my next big job - preparing the recycled windows and doors.  My sister Stancia had kindly helped me do all the preliminary sanding late last year.  Now it was the yukky bit - checking which ones need the old putty taken out and new putty put in.  But first I had to wash them all to see how they shaped up after the sanding.  

Then, it's no escaping the tedium of gently but firmly chipping away at old hardened putty without breaking the glass panes that we can keep as per the current regulations on glazing.  

  

It's going to take me some time to get through the lot but it's worth doing properly as I don't want to have to do running repairs on windows over the next few years.  Once the job of re-puttying is complete then I will get on with painting all windows and doors while Paul (with Nick's guidance) will start building the frames.  

We also had our first meeting with our electrician Alex.  We feel very comfortable with him and work can start pretty much straight away.  Once we get that done and the window frames in we can then start on the external cladding and.....can't wait....achieve lock up stage!  

This coming week I will be organising the glass for the windows that need to be reglazed and continuing with my chip chip chipping while Paul will be liaising with the electrician and organising the hardware as well as ordering our solar power system.  We are going with a 5kw system (9 panels), which should provide power comfortably for our needs.  So exciting.  

I said to Paul today that I'm really enjoying this whole process - while the rain has played havoc with my time frames we are only two and and a half months in and we seem to have come a long way to creating this incredible building.  I find it amazing, almost magical, that you can conjure up this house in such a short period of time.  We are impatient to be living in it. 

A look at the house suggests progress has been very piecemeal since the roof went on 18th February.  Rain in the last week of February meant not much could happen.  Our next steps were to get the plumbing and electrical work underway and start getting windows and doors in.  As our bracing consists of internal sheeting we need to have the plumbing rough in (pipes in the wall) and electrical work done before the external cladding can go on and lock up stage achieved.  

March 1st was a great day of activity.  Our plumber arrived and got down to work straight away.  By the end of the day he had completed the rough in i.e. all pipes were in the wall and through the floors for...

the shower, vanity and toilet (I know pipes may not excite too many people but these ones give me a buzz) ...




























(that's the shower)

... and the kitchen sink as well as the laundry. 
Also, all the pipe work to attach to the solar hot water system were installed.   Now we wait until our plumber has another spare day to come up and do the underhouse pipework and connection to septic tank and transpiration pit.  Of course, the latter two require Josh, our excavator operator, to come back and do some significantly digging.  But at least the plumbing is underway.







Also on the 1st March, Nick arrived to assist Paul with installing the first of the doors.  While we are using recycled timber windows and doors throughout the house there are two exceptions.  I had doors made up for the openings on to the eastern and northern decks.  These doors had been ordered last year and were ready and waiting to be delivered since December.  The steepness of the road proved a bit challenging for the driver but he made it and very carefully four of us unloaded the doors by hand.  Nick then installed them, teaching us as he went so that we are able to instal the rest of the windows and doors.  I'm sure we will need Nick to hold our hands a bit more while doing so.  

Each time another 'bit' of the build is achieved the feeling of the internal space changes.  I was getting quite used to wandering around inside what felt like a big metal tent. While I'm very happy with the doors, just the addition of these two has me feeling like I'm cut off from my surrounds.  I wonder what it will feel like as more windows and doors go in and then external walls.   

On the same day Nick started Paul's first lesson in decking.  They began on the smallest of the areas - the front porch.  Paul felt confident and the following day, while I was at work, he completed the decking for the porch.  What a superb job he did - his meticulous side obviously a real strength here.   Now the challenge is to utilise all the decking boards in the most efficient way.  We have three sizeable decks and the boards need to go around if, and a big if, my estimation of quantity was correct. 

So now to those recycled windows and doors.  I have almost completed sanding the lot, not a pleasant task.  We've soaked all the fittings in caustic soda to bring them back to an acceptable finish.  The big tasks are getting reglazed those items that no longer meet current glazing regulations (about a third of the items), re-puttying those that are deteriorating and then sourcing reasonably priced wood to frame all of them (I say box them although Nick refers to it as reveals?).  And that's before we can begin installation.  Of course, then I need to paint all of them - even the new ones, which seems a pity.  

Since that flurry of activity, this week has been very wet.  Great for us as we've already collected around (we think) 14,000 litres of water with two of the tanks.  A good start now only 90,000 or so to go!   

Meanwhile, in addition to work on windows and doors, I need to find an electrician.  Nick is organising metal fascia for the remaining parts of the roof that do not have guttering.  Paul is repairing mowing equipment - while we focus on the build, the grass is out of control here.