Solar heating pipes installed

The weather is still against us.

Yesterday Luke and I installed all the electrical flush boxes all ready for the cables.

Today between the showers I installed pipes in the roof.
These pipes will be just under the roofing iron and will transfer heat from the roof to the floor slab. If successful I will install more pipes later.

We are off to Austrailia for a week, weather permitting we should have a roof by the time we get back.

And still more rain......

The builder has managed to set up the trusses over the garage and get things ready for the facia which is booked in for Friday even though it has been raining all day
















The rain has some benefits; the concrete is getting stronger by the day and the water fall was putting on the most impressive display we have seen.

Here comes the rain....

The builders have achieved  a lot in spite of the deteriorating weather.

We are starting to get a feel for the shape of the house. inside and out.

This view is looking across the dining room to the family room, the room beyond is the lounge. the pipes coming out of the floor are where the kitchen island bench will be.

The view looking south west.

Only the roof trusses over the garage to go.

We have a house!

What a difference a day makes.

Finally we can walk around the house and get a real sense of what its going to be like.

We have water again.

Jordan and I tramped up to the water pickup and discovered it was completely buried in gravel. We cleared the gravel, fitted a new filter to the pickup and repaired a joint in the pipe.

In the photo jordan is pointing to the repair joint. Amazing what you can do with duct tape. We'll do a more permanent repair another day.

The framing all ready to go

The floor is all finished, the boxing removed and the prenailed framing has been delivered all ready for our builder to get started next week.

Wouldn't you know it, just when you need the water supply to keep the concrete wet, the feed stops working. Looks like a tramp up into the bush tomorrow to sort out the problem.

We finally have electrical power connected to our temporary box. We had hoped to get one of the new "Smart Meters" but unfortunately they rely on the vodafone mobile coverage for communication and there is insufficient signal strength in our little valley.

We have a floor!

A major milestone today; the floor was laid.


Luckily the forecast thunder storms never eventuated.

Our grandson Jordan is helping us pick up rubbish

The concrete pump in action to distribute the concrete.

A total of nine truck loads of concrete were required.

All ready for the concrete

Finally all the steel has been placed and tied together. My under floor heating pipes are still holding pressure so no serious damage has been done to the pipes.

The building inspector did his inspection this afternoon. Luckily he was more than happy that everything was as it should be so pouring the concrete can proceed as planned.

The concrete pump and concrete trucks start arriving at 7.30 tomorrow morning. I'll hang around for a while to take some photos and be on hand if they damage the heating pipes.

The builder is all ready to start next week.

More plumbing

This time its heating pipes that will end up in the floor slab once it has been poured. These have been laid out in three circuits of about 70m each. They will provide background heating.


Cousin Andy in the foreground is helping roll out pipe, June in the distant background mowing the grass for the first time.











The lawn looks great after its first mow.

Polystyrene and plumbing installed

Polythene has been laid over the sand to provide a waterproof membrane, then 200mm thick solid polystyrene has been laid. Polystyrene has been used for 2 reasons; to provide a high level of insulation and secondly to provide a filler without adding additional weight to the ground.

Plumbing pipes have been laid into the polystyrene.

Boxing set up

Boxing is set up and 100m of pipe is layed in the sand under the floor.
These pipes will be used store excess solar heat under the floor during summer.

Sand and Power

Luke is terminating cables for the temporary power supply while I look on.
Sand has been laid and compacted today over the entire floor.

Pile Driving

Hugh monitoring driving the first pile. All 34 piles were driven in one day. They ranged between 7 and 8 meters long