House Build Part 8

The house build still underway we ended the past week a little behind where we were hoping to be.

Tasks

• Brickwork to be finished.
• Internal walls to be finished.
• Work on the Septic should begin.
• Backfilling the trenches the electrical and plumbing have been laid in.
• Preparing the orchard site and establishing in our first trees.
• Planning for 2 of the angus to head to the butcher.
• Planning on moving the Murray Greys to our homestead.
• Planning Honeys Paddock.
• Moving the fireplace over to the house site in preparation for installation.

Those were the tasks, unfortunately there were hit with some delays.

Internal walls

The internal walls still had a bit of work to be completed this week, some tidying up and the cornices to be installed.

Monday 2nd

Before the build started, we requested trades didn’t smoke in the house. We had no issue if they smoked around the yard, but we asked them to clean up their cigarette butts and packaging when done. With some of our family having lung issues and our home being non-smoking, it was important to us. Plus, smoking inside goes against OH&S regulations.

We often found ourselves picking up cigarette butts and empty packs in the yard, depending on which trades were working. We let it slide since they at least stepped away from the house to smoke. But after the plasters finished, we found multiple empty packs and a lot of butts scattered throughout the house, with multiple butts in every room. I was ready to ignore it since the job was nearly done, but Lanky didn’t agree.

So come Monday morning he rang the new site supervisor (Sam) and made mention of it. Sam apologized to us, and followed up with a call and email to the company the plasters were from, and was reassured the staff had all been spoken too and it wouldn’t happen again. however about 2 hours later Sam rocked up on site to find all the guys (a team of 5) smoking in the house.

We aren’t entirely sure what happened after this but Sam did say he had some strong words to them and he apologized to us again.

Wednesday 4th

We rocked up on Wednesday as Lanky wanted to talk with the brickies about what time they planned to be finished up that week as he had arranged to have a drink and a BBQ with them. Upon arriving there was a van we hadn’t seen before and a gentleman was installing our Cornices. The house had also been swept clean and all cigarette butts removed even from in the bathtub frames.

So by Wednesday afternoon the internal walls were as complete as they could be till the fireplace is installed.

Brickwork

The aim for the Brickies was the work would be finished by the 4th, however due to the weather they had some delays, and they moved the aim till the 6th which would of been the dead on 4 week mark.

Friday 6th

unfortunately come Friday afternoon there was half of 2 of the pillars that still needed to be completed. We arrived onsite around 5pm and began cooking up some snags and the brickies came over and had a few drinks, they were returning Saturday morning to complete the last of the pillars and tidy up the bricks left laying around the property.

Saturday 7th

Saturday we loaded up the trailer with the heater, and headed out to the property around 9am. After some help from the Brickies the heater was moved into the garage and by 10am the brickwork was all completed.

Incomplete

Unfortunately the things that didn’t get seen to this past week are as follows

• Work on the Septic should begin.
• Backfilling the trenches the electrical and plumbing have been laid in.
• Preparing the orchard site and establishing in our first trees.
• Planning for 2 of the angus to head to the butcher.
• Planning on moving the Murray Greys to our homestead.
• Planning Honeys Paddock.

Backfilling of the trenches cant be done until the plumber has been out and started the septic system, we suspect he is waiting till he can do all his work at the same time.

Establishing our first fruit trees, we have about 6 trees in pots currently waiting for transplanting and 20 more on order which will be shipped soon. unfortunately it rained a lot over the weekend so we had to delay transplanting the 6 we have waiting.

Sending steers off to butcher, we don’t currently have a set of yards and were trying to lease some portables the numbers we were given went to a disconnected line so we are still hunting down someone with some portable yards to lease. This will also be when we move the Murrays over.

Planning Honeys Paddock, Currently we are thinking of putting Honey in the front paddock till we have made a smaller paddock up next to the house site. the front paddock is approximately 6.6 acres in size and the area we want to paddock up for honey near the house is approximately 3.1 acres which should be plenty when she is in calf.

This is where we are up to with our house build and planning the homestead. If you would like to read about the livestock head here. To read more about our house build head here.