Half a kitchen!

Spoke to our builder yesterday and as a second thought, after telling me nothing had really happened at the house this week, he remembered the joiners had been in and started installing the kitchen. Despite having a meeting there tomorrow morning, I couldn't wait all that time, so dashed out during lunchtime today to have a squiz.
The breakfast bar is not installed yet - it's piled up in the Walk in pantry. Benchtops are also not on yet, at the moment it's just chipboard.

I'm guessing that's the upstand part of the breakfast bar sitting on the bench

the blue sticker on the drawer is because the rails are missing

The study desk is also in place now, as are the shelving. I think this colour has come up great, I'm really pleased he edged the shelves to match, I hadn't expected that, but it finishes it off nicely.

They have also prepared the boxing for the concreting for the alfresco, front porch and back porch.

Look at all that beautiful winter sun, perfectly sheltered from the wind. Can't wait to use this area!

More winter sun flooding the house and warming up
the concrete brilliantly. Love it.

Now to update on a few things that have been brought up in the past.
The sliding window that had those little beads in it has now been replaced; the cupboard in the powder room has been removed as it was made larger then it should have been which is why there was no space for the toilet; and the big 'X' in the living room will be staying. They think it was caused by the trowelling machine back when the concrete was poured. To get rid of it would mean grinding down the floor so much that it would have a dip in it. Looks like we now have a very special character mark and talking point!
We also managed to finish choosing our lights last weekend, and are currently working out what to do curtain wise. Looks like some compromises will have to be made due to budgetary restrictions. I'm disappointed but not devastated.  The hose is still connected to the septic. I'm hoping that can come off soon and then the rain can start properly and get our tanks filling.

Concrete floor polished at long last!

Yesterday the polishing of the floor was finished. I had assumed that was it for the floor so was all excited to go and see a shiny beautiful floor done. I was so disappointed to turn up and see that it was filthy, and worst of all the cracks are still visible. They aren't 'cracks' any longer as they have been filled, but you can still see where the cracks were. It's probably something that will only stand out to me, well hopefully anyway! Even worse - a new crack has appeared that runs from the outer dining wall all the way across the room to the corner of the living room. Bummer.

I went back this morning to take some photos as yesterday afternoon the polisher was still finishing up, and am much happier with it today. Amazing what a nights sleep can do!

Rumpus room with cupboard on left looking towards passage

Kitchen/Dining standing at hallway door

Kitchen, dining and living standing at WIP door

Kitchen/dining from master bedroom door

Living room to kitchen, air lock door to right

Close up of kitchen floor

crack in hallway

crack near master bedroom

Strange 'X' shape in living room 

The final coating of the sealer will happen when the floor gets buffed, which won't happen until after the professional cleaners go through, so not until just before handover! Such a long time to wait. I was very pleased to hear from the polisher that he has used an eco product to seal the floor though. We had mentioned this to him back when he did the original grinding before frameworks started, and he gave me the impression then that it wasn't really doable, so a very nice surprise to hear that he managed it after all.

Stu met with the septic man to discuss placement and so on today. Works are supposed to start this Thursday. I dread to think of the mess they are going to make to the remainder of the block.

Drainage Done!!

On Monday the plumbers turned up and got heaps done. The downpipes are finished, and there are signs that the drainage has been completed. The tanks are now in place and even appear to be connected! Finally! As we predicted, it hasn't rained much at all since then, just a few odd showers, typical.
As far as I am aware the concrete polisher hasn't shown up yet to complete his job, and of course nothing much can progress now without him doing it.
The photos aren't flash, they are just from my phone.

Winter morning sun lighting up our bedroom

Looks to me like our tanks are connected..

An idea of the numerous track marks

We have been looking into door stops of all things as I noticed a box of horrible ones sitting in the master bedroom. Seems so stupid to upgrade door stops - but likewise seems pretty stupid to spend all this money on a house and put ugly things in there.

Slow progress

This week the bathrooms have been waterproofed, the brickie's returned and completed the back porch and made some adjustments to our garage step, the eaves were lined, the spa bath delivered and a few more internal doors and cupboards were installed.

The plumber of course didn't show. We had another meeting with Glen on Thursday morning, he assured us yet again that the plumber would be there on Monday. Maybe this time he will - third time lucky? Glen also believes that the polishing should get started this week, once again though I won't believe it until I see it. We are so anxious to get our tanks hooked up. We are supposed to be living there in 9 weeks and still have no water collected.

The electrician was out yesterday locating cables in the roof, and Stu will be out there again later today spreading more of the stones which were delivered on Monday. He started some of it during the week, but hasn't had the chance to do any more yet.

Steps from garage to house, will look much better clean!

The spa bath..currently in Paige's room

study nook doors open

study nook doors closed

back porch

back porch and eaves

It's all happening now

Not a lot happened at the house after lock up due to everyone experiencing difficulties in getting equipment to the house. The polisher finally came towards the end of the week, but managed to get bogged and not get his heavy equipment unloaded. The HWS people also turned back. We have ordered another 6 trucks worth of recycled concrete to reinforce the driveway and hopefully this should make things easier. This should be happening at the start of the week, hope it doesn't get put off like it did last time.
We had a meeting with our builder on Saturday, and there is a lot about to happen.
Early this week the plumber is finally going to do some drainage work around the house which should also help a bit, and Glen thinks that the excavator may be used to lift the polishers heavy equipment into the house too. The water tanks should hopefully get connected by the end of this week as well, will be great seeing some of this water collected.
The tiler is ready to start doing some screeding and the painter is ready for everyone else to be done!
Meanwhile Dan the fit out man has been working there all weekend, and has managed to put architrave, skirting and cupboard doors up in the girls bedrooms and laundry, and also do the doors in our section, and the skirting and architrave in our room and the WIR. I am really surprised at how different this makes the rooms look. He won't be able to finish the fit out until the concrete has been finished.
So providing the access issue can get sorted, the next few weeks are set to be pretty busy.
We now have to pick our garage door type, and do up some drawings on how we want our cupboards to be set out.
Managed to get a couple of lights yesterday, and are getting closer to a decision on the remaining lights. This lighting decision is really doing my head in, and so far has been the only thing I haven't enjoyed choosing.
Rather then tracking mud through the house today I walked around with only my socks on. It's a pretty cold day and my feet didn't even feel chilled! Looks like our thermal mass is doing its job :D

House & Shed

The frame is progressing along with some bracing completed as well now. Very happy to see on Friday that the floor polisher had returned and the drying cupboard and the area in the kitchen that had been missed have now been done. They also appear to be coated with something already too.
Found out that we can change our oven selection, so really need to get on to that, and we chose the colour for the fascia - Shoji White. It's a pretty good match to our window frames.
This weekend we had an open day at home so didn't get to the block until the afternoon. We managed together to complete one of the sliding doors, although hanging it will prove a challenge and we will need some extra bodies to help. We have managed to find someone to quote us on the roof completion, and someone else will be getting back to us with a price tomorrow, both can start this week which will be great.
Today Stu spent some time on the kanga finally filling in all the trenches, it looks heaps better. Can't wait to see the remaining dirt piles also spread out.
The roof trusses are supposed to arrive at 7:00am tomorrow morning, and we have a meeting with Glen again on Tuesday.

Overall view from front gate. Looking so much better with the trenches filled in

The next area that needs to be worked on, flattened out so we can get rock
on it to make turning on the driveway easier and provide access to the garage.

Action on site

So good to see something happening out there again. The timber for the frames has been delivered and the pencil marks for the walls is in the process of being completed now. Exciting seeing our rooms take shape and where the walls will be.
Our site foreman who was busy marking all the lines while I was there said they will start forming things tomorrow and the frame itself should start going up on Monday or Tuesday at the very latest.
Stu did manage to get to the block on Sunday and completed the garage door, and the panel next to and above it. He plans to spend a bit of time out there again this weekend.

Taken a couple of days ago before the marking out started.

The polisher hasn't managed to come out yet to fix the red problems, track marks and the two areas he went a little short on and didn't do properly - the airing cupboard floor and the angled wall in the dining room. Hopefully that gets done soon as it will be easier doing that without walls in the way.

Actually polishing NOT finished!!

We had our meeting with Glen from KB last Thursday (oops sorry about the slackness in updating), and I pointed out a few things with the concrete that I wasn't that happy with. Their were several areas that are a dark red looking colour, and also some marks that looked kind of like tracks in the dining room. Glen agreed that it didn't look very good and said he would chase it up with the polisher.
I got a call first thing the next morning. The reason there were red marks is because the grinder wasn't as sharp so wasn't grinding as well, and he needs to come back and fix it. Glen told him to come back at the start of this week and to also do a bit more grinding at the track mark spot. Apparently the polisher said it was one of the best looking concretes he had seen. He also told Glen that the crack hasn't been grouted yet - that won't happen until the final sealing and buffing after plaster is up - and he is confident that once this is done it will barely be seen. Hope so.
The frame is set to get started on Thursday. The delay is due to the site foreman not being available until then.
Meanwhile our house is set to be listed for sale this week! Stu has gotten hold of a generator and had hoped to spend time on the shed today, but hasn't managed to get out there yet due to doing the lawn and so on here.

Polishing is finished!

Yay! We have a floor!! The colour has come up pretty good, but don't just trust me...see for yourself

Part of the kitchen floor

Glen from KB told me that after the plaster is done then the polisher will come back again, but that won't be changing the colour, just giving it a bit more shine I think.
Unfortunately, the crack is still pretty obvious. I looked the other day, and due to the bright sunlight couldn't see it at all, and got so excited thinking it was gone. But nope, still present. At least it is only in the passage. I so hope that no more appear.
We are meeting Glen on Thursday to discuss a few things, and find out when the frame will be starting.

Polished Concrete & Shed Update

The polishing didn't manage to get finished due to all the rain we had. Hopefully we will have a few fine days and then that can be done. I'm really hanging to see my completed floor!
We did have some progress on the shed this weekend though. Stu spent quite a few hours out there yesterday, and today we both spent the day out there. Although visually it doesn't look like we got a lot done, there were a lot of fiddly jobs involved - like getting the door space organised - and some challenges were had due to not having power connected yet.

Stu cleaning up at the end of the day.
We are emptying it out so it can be ground down  tomorrow by the polishers

Speaking of power - SP Ausnet installed the transformer on Friday!!! We are now just waiting for TRU to do their bit and we will be switched on. The paperwork and so on is all done, so hopefully they will get on to the job soon.

Polishing Begins

Concrete polishing finally began today. They had two machines going, and I met Glen from KB there to check out the progress this afternoon. Colour wise it's really hard to see as yet how it's going to turn out, but it was exciting to see some of the stone aggregate.
We have decided to return the air lock entry to polished concrete for a minimal extra charge, we originally had it polished, but had changed it to tiles to save some cash. I'm glad it's back to polished, it will look a lot better. The polishers are hoping to have the job done by the weekend too, so a bit quicker than expected.

Water poured on it to give us some idea of how the colour will look

The machines that do the work with the half finished shed in the background, the second machine actually has someone using it, you just can't see him behind it due to its size!

The electricians came out earlier in the week and did their bit, pretty exciting to see a Meter box there now. Fingers crossed that SP Ausnet do their bit as planned tomorrow.  Stu now has to fill the trench in. Poor shed, wonder when it will ever get done.

Meter box!

Trenching done at last!

What a chore the trenching ended up being. Stuart spent every night this week out there, straight after work until after dark trying to get the job completed. He also took Thursday off, and had some assistance from Matt & Alan one afternoon. With Matt's assistance again this morning, it has finally been finished, and is now waiting for the electrician to do their bit on Tuesday.
I don't want to complain about the weather, as thankfully we didn't get any flooding when so many have, but my goodness has our land absorbed a bit of water. To be blunt it's a boggy mess.  I was out there for a bit on Thursday with Stu - my main job seemed to be driving the Rodeo with the snatch strap attached to the Kanga to pull it out of yet another bog...

Bogged again. We have lost count of how many times this has happened.

Just to give you an idea of the state of the ground...

This afternoon he will be filling in the original trench we decided not to use, and after that it will be back to working on the shed again.
Due to the rain, the concrete polishing has been delayed again. It is now scheduled to begin next Wednesday. It is expected to take about a week and a half to complete.
We have also been advised that the transformer works are scheduled to be done on Friday 16th March, so we should have power organised when the time comes for KB to begin the frame.

Shed progress

The shed is coming along quite well, especially considering the rain we have had over the last few days. Luckily Stu has had Davey helping him out quite a bit, and also had the assistance of Matt and Alan at different stages.

Progress shortly before 11:00am this morning

The pitch of the roof is like that for the solar panels. This way they can go straight on and will be positioned at the optimum angle.

Concrete colour update
The concrete company are certain that the correct colour was supplied for our slab. Apparently the edges of the slab (where I did the colour comparison) is often a different shade to what the slab will look like in the middle and once ground down. So hopefully all will be OK. The concrete polishing is going to occur next week, not sure yet of what day it will actually start.
Our builders have spoken to the polisher and hopefully the crack that is there will not be a problem. Fingers crossed it doesn't get any bigger, or any more happen.

Slab Worries

A crack has appeared in the slab - part that is planned to be polished of course. I am hoping it's just a surface crack that will be removed in the grinding and polishing phase but I really don't know.

This is just part of it, it runs almost the whole way across the house

That's not all either. I have been out several times, in different lights to check, and it looks like the wrong colour has been poured. The tones are just far too yellow, which you can see clearly now it has dried out. Looks to us like we have been given 'Golden Plains' rather than 'Pompeii'. Pretty expensive and irreversible mistake.

Bright light - Golden Plains, then Pompeii sample

Overcast - Golden Plains & Pompeii

The match is so good with Golden Plains, they better not try to fob me off with it just being a 'variation of the tone'. Please let me know which colour you think is the better match.

A little about Thermal Mass

The reason we have decided to use polished concrete for a lot of our flooring is for it’s use as Thermal Mass.

Materials with high thermal mass, like concrete, help to stabilise temperatures within the house. On hot days, our flooring will help to absorb heat, releasing it slowly during the night with the use of cool breezes which should then transport the heat out of the house. On cold days if there is any winter sun available, because the slab is exposed it absorbs what heat it can and releases it in the evening. This should help us to cut down on our energy bills for both heating and cooling. Thermal mass effectively acts as a temperature battery, soaking up the heat when there is a lot of thermal energy available and releasing it slowly later on.

It’s not just the floor which will help with our temperature control, there are several other factors very important to utilise thermal mass effectively.

House design and orientation is a key factor which had to be considered. We had to make sure that our house was oriented  well so that we receive winter sun, yet shaded effectively (with the use of eaves as well as curtains and blinds) so that summer sun is kept out. With design, window placement was very important so that we can catch any available breezes, have them run through our house and exit again. Our design has also incorporated a double layer of windows in the living area, so we can open up both levels of windows at once. The hot air will naturally be drawn out the higher windows, whilst the lower windows draw cooler air in.

Finally, we are required to be active agents in assisting the process. In summer, we need to make sure all blinds are pulled to keep the sun from heating up the floor and absorbing unnecessary heat, and then at night, open all windows to catch any available breezes to assist with removing what heat has been absorbed. In winter the opposite is in effect, we have to ensure our slab is exposed to as much sun as possible during the day in order to gain the warmth needed for the house in the evening.

This is a basic explanation, for more detail check out the Alternative Technology Association website www.ata.org.au

Completed slab

Unfortunately the steady rain we experienced on Tuesday after the slabs were poured has done some damage to our slabs. It is only really an issue for the garage and shed slab, which have gone quite chalky and will need to be ground down.
Our shed parts have arrived and Stu is out there working on getting it up as soon as possible, if you find yourself with a spare hour or two over the next week, please feel free to pop to the block and give him a hand!

Beginning of the shed build

The coloured concrete part of the slab is quite noticeable to the grey, just not quite sure it is the colour we expected. I still have the samples we chose the colour from so will be taking them to the block later on today to compare how well they match.

View from the master bedroom end. The colour division is pretty easy to spot

It's going to look quite interesting once it has been polished up, which will probably be later next week. The rooms we are having polished concrete flooring are the lounge, dining, kitchen, walk in pantry, hallway and rumpus.

The Slab

The builders were there bright and early this morning,  I got a message with a photo shortly before 7am telling me that 3 loads of concrete had already been poured for the shed.

Photo taken by Glen from KB Living. I just love how great our builders are with communication

We called in to the block before school drop off to see the shed, master bedroom and garage had all been done.

The shed

The boys hard at work doing  some of the plain concrete areas

I popped back in about half an hour later after a heads up from Glen that they were pouring the coloured concrete. Currently the colour isn't that exciting, it's called 'Pompeii' and is a pale brown. You can't see the nice stones we have selected to be in it, and it should darken considerably once it is dried and polished, so it's still no real indication yet of what the flooring will look like.

Taken from the garage/girls bathroom corner, doing the coloured  concrete

Luckily the rain didn't start until after they were finished pouring. I've returned a few times today to try and get a picture of the whole house but every time I turn up it starts bucketing down again. I can't wait to have a walk on it!

Ready for the slab

All the preparation work is done, early tomorrow morning KB will start on the slab! Can't wait to see how it will look

Peaceful sunset looking down on the master bedroom...in less than 12 hours this spot will be buzzing with activity