Construction begins today!!

[Mike17]

Yeah, concrete foundations like this are pretty common here.

We live in the pacific NW so it's raining 9 months of the year lol but we also are right next to a major river, so our soil is really nice

I plan on having a garden and hubby's going to build a greenhouse, so as long as the moles stay away I should be ok!! Lol

I figured your soil must be alluvial- and that there would be a river past the cliff. Rain... what's that ? Where I live now is on the coast, but near-desert, and there's only been 80mm (about 3") of rain so far this year. Luckily it's also a river mouth, but there's no visible river until the tidal bit starts- water is pulled up from below the sand riverbed, and this is a major agricultural area despite the lack of rain. The catchment for the river is possibly bigger than your state, but it rarely flows visibly.

At home, I have an irrigation system for the lawn and veggie patch(es). Not as good as rain though, and the water has a significant salt load.

Do moles tunnel up and eat the veggies? We don't have problems like that, just rabbits... they're bad enough.

 

[getwozzy]

I figured your soil must be alluvial- and that there would be a river past the cliff. Rain... what's that ? Where I live now is on the coast, but near-desert, and there's only been 80mm (about 3") of rain so far this year. Luckily it's also a river mouth, but there's no visible river until the tidal bit starts- water is pulled up from below the sand riverbed, and this is a major agricultural area despite the lack of rain. The catchment for the river is possibly bigger than your state, but it rarely flows visibly.

At home, I have an irrigation system for the lawn and veggie patch(es). Not as good as rain though, and the water has a significant salt load.

Do moles tunnel up and eat the veggies? We don't have problems like that, just rabbits... they're bad enough.

The major river is to our east, and at the bottom of that cliff behind our house is a a creek that comes from the river, and it floods the lower meadow every year about at least 50 ft...it's never come close to the top though.

That sounds very interesting! I wish I could come to oz and see!

Because we have so much rain I would like to build a rain barrel system, but I've heard it's actually illegal to do lol so I'll have to double check that.

Yes!! Moles ruin EVERYTHING!!! Thankfully mishka and apollo are experts at taking care of them but this last summer they kept uprooting my sunflowers hmph!!!!

 

[Mike17]

Rainwater collection is illegal? It's encouraged through most of Oz, given the overstretched water supply especially around the major cities (we have massive immigration levels, so land for building, and infrastructure are always outpaced). We actually filter our town water (no rainwater tank) but if it's available, we prefer rainwater (filtered) for drinking. Most Oz households use it for the garden- but I doubt you'd often have the dry conditions much of this country are prone to.

 

[getwozzy]

Just a few more updates...

A couple days ago they delivered a huge pile of nice, clean fill dirt for our front yard

Yesterday they delivered all of the windows...

And today the lumber will be delivered, but the framers were here bright and early to get started!

At the rate they're going, we should have walls and a roof by the end of this month!

 

[MonicaMc]

I was starting to wonder where the updates were at!!!! Lookin good!

 

[getwozzy]

I know- with the holiday last week and then the weekend, there hasn't been much going on until today.

 

[getwozzy]

These guys move FAST lol

It's only 2pm and they're done with putting all the floor joists in

 

[getwozzy]

Rainwater collection is illegal? It's encouraged through most of Oz, given the overstretched water supply especially around the major cities (we have massive immigration levels, so land for building, and infrastructure are always outpaced). We actually filter our town water (no rainwater tank) but if it's available, we prefer rainwater (filtered) for drinking. Most Oz households use it for the garden- but I doubt you'd often have the dry conditions much of this country are prone to.

So I finally had time to lookup this rainwater collection issue....
Turns out collecting rainwater from an impervious surface (like a roof) is exempt from requiring a permit. so yay! I can do my rain barrel system!!

 

[JerseyWendy]

It's coming along NICELY, Shirre!!!

As soon as my camera is fixed I will take some pictures and show you our rainwater collection thingy. (I may try with my other lens to see if they turn out tomorrow)

 

[getwozzy]

It is!!! EEEEE!!!
I've been looking at different ways to do the kid's room....it'll be a blank canvas for me, the entire house too!! But his room is going to be AWESOME. ridiculously AWESOME.

Oooo goody!!!! I can't wait to see pics!!
I'm thinking 1 system hooked up to my green house with an automatic drip system, and then another hooked up to the house for garden/yard use...yes? No?

 

[JerseyWendy]

I CAN take pictures tomorrow. >THIS< brainiac didn't realize that the only thing that broke on the camera was the UV lens, NOT the actual lens. :54:

Twas a long, loooong day......I go hide under my rock now.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Sorry to be throwing pics into YOUR home, Shirre, just wanted to show you our "rainwater catch basin." It holds around 300 gallons of water.

We have 2 adjoining Pergolas, so THIS is how one gutter is being diverted from one of the roofs:










The actual "basin", LOL


The pipe where the rainwater comes out of:




And an overflow. Now my hubby actually dug up the lawn and put pipes below the grass, so if it flows over, the lawn gets watered.

 

[getwozzy]

Yesterday they came out and smoothed out the giant pile of dirt for our front yard, and also finished the gravel pad inside the garage

Today the plumber was here, and looks like he got all of the piping installed already!!

Walls are supposed to start being framed in this Friday...

 

[getwozzy]

The house is moving right along!!

Yesterday they got the sub-floor down (it was dusk when I took this)

And today they're working on the walls...first wall up was the back wall,
Left to right: master bedroom window, bay window/dining area, sliding glass door/living room, window for the kid's room

Next wall was the front one, left to right: interior garage door, front door, window for office

At the rate their going, I wouldn't be surprised if they finished the other 2 walls today!

 

[getwozzy]

Alright, the end of the day is closing in but they've got all the walls up!

And now they're working on the garage...

These workers probably think I'm nuts constantly popping out and taking pictures; I jokingly asked the one guy "so you'll have a roof on today, right?! " haha

I'm totally amazed that all of these walls have gone up in ONE day! I can't wait till hubby gets home from work so we can walk through it

 

[getwozzy]

Ok, things have progressed really fast this last week, so here are some pictures!

I'll pick up where I left off from my last post...

After they got all the exterior walls up in one day, the next day they put up all the interior walls

The next day they delivered the roof trusses

The garage trusses up

The roof trusses took 2 days, and then putting the OSB on the roof took another full day

The framers will come back Monday and put the windows in, and then the roofers and plumbers will come next...probably not 'till the 30th.

 

[getwozzy]

And now for some interior pictures...

We'll have vaulted ceilings in the living/dining/kitchen area

Standing in the kid's room, looking through his closet..master bedroom on the far side

Master bedroom view

Bay window in the dining area, where Chili's cage will go

Sliding glass door- will open out onto a back deck...there's a cliff right there

Living room window, where the budgie aviary will go

View from the kid's room, there was a squirrel on one of the trees lol can you find him?

It's the middle of winter right now, so in the spring and summer the views here are spectacular!

 

[JerseyWendy]

Wow, so much progress!!!!

You must be loving it. Will you have raised ceilings anywhere???

 

[getwozzy]

I'm excited at how fast they're moving!

We realized we should probably figure out the exterior colors because before we know it the siding guys will be here...and we'll be painting the outside and inside.

The living, dining, and kitchen are all one area so that area will have vaulted ceilings but the pitch isn't very high...
You can see the bottom rungs of the trusses here are vaulted

The kitchen has an island where the sink and dishwasher will be- so when I'm doing dishes I'll be looking at the trees , there's also a skylight that will go above the island so that extra natural light will be awesome

 

[Kinny]

WOW! Lookin' good!