The master plan!

Materials delivered last week - and survived

Ordering all the materials and getting them to the site was a challenge in itself. First, the promised logs (builders posts) were not available until a day after the original planned delivery date, so everything was put back a day; orders from each H&G department, the barge and truck operator, my day off.

So the new D day was Thursday 22 Jan. The day before that I happened to find out that H&G had got their dates wrong and had, several days before, dropped all of the sheet materials to cargo wharf. So, by this time there was a large heap of contorted and rain marked gyprock and weathertex boards sitting at cargo. The roofing and guttering were also delivered a couple of days early but there was no weather damage. Things weren't looking good - so far two departments out of two got it wrong.

On the actual delivery date there were still some fun and games to happen. The barge operator thought that the new delivery time had shifted back from noon to 9am (I don't know why he thought that). The timber delivery truck dropped the logs, treated pine and bracing ply. For most of this the driver used the crane, but as he'd packed everything down before he realised that he hadn't yet unloaded the ply, we tried taking the 6 packed sheets off by hand. It looked simpler than it really was. Halfway down it slipped. A bit of damage to the ply, and a small but freely flowing gash to the hand of the driver. He proceeded to bleed over the ply while completing the unload. I haven't got the stuff up to the island yet and already blood has been spilt.

To add to the test of the driver's patience, and mine, he drove off without unloading the seperately packed hardwood. After he left I had a chance to check the delivery docket more thoroughly, realised the mistake and called H&G. They got the driver to turn around and come back.

The roofing and guttering (which had been returned to H&G the day before) was still laying forgotten at the depot, so fortunately another call got H&G to get into gear and do a special run back up the beaches. The gyprock delivery was thankfully uneventful. They replaced what had been damaged earlier.

The barge operator had some issues of his own, including the recent onset of the need for a knee reconstruction. The load was bigger than he expected, and couple that with the mix up over the delivery time, it meant that the job was spread over two days rather than 3 hours. The bill is still to come in. He and his boys did do a valiant job. The site is difficult and is about a 50m hand-carry from the vehicle, and it was a hot muggy Sydney day.

So, all in, only a little damage, and stocktake shows its pretty much all there. A few things to sort out - they've sent me mismatching bearers, so some sit about 7mm higher than others. Also, their measurements of dimensions are definitely maximums - so if an order was for 140mm of whatever, chances are it will be closer to 130mm. Do I accept some shrinkage in the timber drying process or am I being ripped off - I don't know!

The room is strung out!

Got the gear, lets get started

Another before shot

No relevance - just cute

Previous experience

The sandpit construction was for practice!

To use recycled materials, or not to use recycled

We tried so hard, we really did. With a limited time frame, and a very limited budget, we looked into all sorts of options to use greener, reused and recycled materials. Some things have been successful, but alas, most have not. Most of the timber will be plantation sourced and treated. We looked into the possibility of milling the fallen timber on the property. Its expensive, the results are unreliable (in that we couldn't know what would be usable and in what size and quantities), and our block is very steep which makes it very hard for bringing in milling equipment no matter how portable.

Buying recycled and leftover timber takes a lot of time, and the luxury of being able to bring it on site as each small batch is found. Thats almost impossible for an offshore building site like ours, where every delivery adds several hundred dollars.

So, we'll do our best. We're presently waiting for the one big delivery of new materials, then I hope it will be a more earth-friendly process for any remaining bits that dad and I can trolley up the hill.

Before!!!

Yes we can

Bill of materials

Click on this image to see the gory detail. Whewwww, it is scary.

Delivery debacle

I'm hoping that this will be the only blog post with the word debacle in it! The hardware wallas managed to send to of the four orders (there is a seperate order for each department), on the wrong days. The sheet materials (gyprock and weatherboards) arrived on Friday 16 January at Cargo wharf. The barge is not picking them up until Thursday 22nd Jan. I didn't find out that it had been delivered until yesterday - so they've been sitting there uncovered, unsecured, and leaning at an angle against a wall. I checked it out yesterday afternoon and a lot of it was badly bowed. A few urgent calls to H&G and (so far so good), they have accepted that it was their stuff up. They'll pick it all up again today and re-deliver a new batch tomorrow (I'll be checking closely!!). The other shipment they got wrong was the gutter and roofing. That arrived yesterday. It looked to be in good condition and complete. I grabbed the small box of guttering brackets, ends and nozzles as well as the roof insulation because I could carry it home (with the help of the community vehicle). The rest would stay until H&G could pick it up today. Major disaster averted (I hope)!

Dig dig dig like a wombat!

Dad helped me measure up, then it was dig, dig, dig. Seven post holes (plus a bracket to be bolted onto cut rock for the eighth pier). Each hole about 700mm deep and 400mm diameter. Most work done by a 2m crow bar and removal by hand. Some had large sandstone rock to cut through, others were soil and clay.

Design

A big thanks to John next door! He has given us great help to work out what we can do, how to do it, and what we need. We now have a room and deck design, and a bill of materials (50 lines long) that we've used to get the best quote.

The journey begins

Hi, I'm Joel and I'm embarking on a home building project (with a little help from the family). This blog is intended to record our progress. I hope it can also be a resource for other under-threes!

The Spec
1 room with deck
room 3.6m x 2.7m, sloping roof
Location: Sydney

Site
Gently sloping, north-east facing

Work beginning
January 2009