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Fri 10 May 2024

Another red-letter day, the sheds arrive.

Firstly mine, this pile of materials will soon be a 4-car garage measurug 7x14 meters.

And secondly the smaller garage for our friend up at their house. Some of these materials are actualy for my shed, but it's too difficult for the guy to unload them over there because they are all packed together with one bundle on top of another etc. So he drops some of my stuff here and the construction guys will move them later.

While up there supervising the unloading I look back at the homestead.

Looks good eh?

Sat 11 May 2024

Back onto the house construction.

For years I've liked the idea of internal access to a garden so I can just drop out from the kitchen and pick something for the day's meal.

This idea has been in the house design almost since day one and the doorway has been in place for some time, but so far there's been no easy access. So today I added some steps.

The steps don't lead directly into the kitchen as that was not practical, but into the lounge room and that's close enough.

I currently have plans to increase the size of this garden by about 3x, probably by adding more wicking beds as they are proving to be a success.

Tue 28 May 2024

Work starts on the sheds today, or at least the slab and foundations.

My shed will not have a slab as that was just too expensive, so it only needs holes for piers and here we see the Positrack digging the holes.

And while the machine is here I get it to dig a trench across what will be the garage floor. This will be for the stormwater drain from the roof to the tank, and in the other direction a pressure line from the tank and pump back to the house.

Then he heads off down the drive.

Meanwhile the other guys have been laying out the form work on the slab for the small garage.

And then they do the same for my garage.

Note that there is no slab here, that was just WAY too expensive, so the footings are just piers. What we do for a floor remains to be seen but I'm thinking just gravel

Wed 29 May 2024

It's the next day and time to do a concrete pour.

Firstly the hard one, the slab for my friend's garage. This is a full slab plus an extra 2.5 meters to bridge the gap between the garage and the house.

Some interesting aspects of the concreting game.

A good way to store your shovel when it's not in use and you don't want to lay it down.

And marking a level section with an X so the person doing the screeding knows that that small patch had been set to the final level.

There it is, nearly done.

Now the concrete truck and most of the guys head up to the main house to pour my piers.

Meanwhile the main concreter guy hangs around for some time waiting for the slab to cure to just the right point for finishing.

Thu 06 Jun 2024

Remember that trench the Positrack dug a few days ago? Well it's time to lay the pipes in it and backfill.

This is for the storm water drain from my new roof, it has to go underground because there is no real practical way to run the pipes aerially, but also as a rule I don't like the look of pipes spanning between buildings and tanks.

Technically this job doesn't have to done now but if I don't the guys doing the construction will be tripping over the dirt mound and the trench, so it makes sense to give them as flat a work area as is possible.

Back inside and it's time to remove the large door between the bed and lounge rooms.

That's great but for now we need some sort of barrier between the rooms because it's winter and the lounge room is essentialy outdoors at present. I'd like some isolation between the two rooms so after I remove the door I hang an old tarp over the gap.

The door has to be removed so I can start working on that section of the lounge room floor because the new floor will be higher than the door so the work can not be done while the door is in place.

Tue 11 Jun 2024

The shed guys are back, this time to start the construction of the smaller garage.

They get a lot done in a day eh?

Thu 13 Jun 2024

Just chilling out with my morning coffee in the Zen garden.

With a couple of mates for company.

I bought two of these wheels ages ago and still don't know what to do with them. I'd like to embed them into a fence or maybe make a gate with them. One day it will hit me but until then I've just propped them up in plain view in the hope that will give me some ideas.

The Folley is looking grand this morning I have to say.

As is my new shed/garage.

Fri 14 Jun 2024

The garage is pretty much finished, just the roller door to hang now.

Note the unclad walls, these will be open to the house area so the house and the garage can be merged into one later, connected by the aforementioned al-fresco dining area and the rain forest.

And back inside I've welded in all the floor joists in that area where the large door used to swing.

I just have to add a few more stumps and then I can start to sheet the lounge room floor.

Comments

Date  ::	01 Jan 2025
Name  ::	Rod
Location  ::	Perth
Comment  ::	You'll have to rename the place to "Iron Ridge" soon
Date  ::	02 Jan 2025
Name  ::	Robert
Location  ::	Sydney
Comment  ::	Rob, Thanks for the update.. Definitely getting busy at "The Ridge"!!
Date  ::	03 Jan 2025
Name  ::	joe
Location  ::	sunny uk
Comment  ::	Thanks for taking the time to update - your obviously very busy, and the sheds are looking great ! i’m curious if you plan to ever paint the house to get a uniform color - match with the sheds maybe?
Date  ::	06 Jan 2025
Name  ::	GRAYnomad
Comment  ::	No plans to paint, apart from the work involved I like the rustic look. Maybe I should clad the garage in old corro
Date  ::	06 Jan 2025
Name  ::	Daina
Location  ::	Wollongomg
Comment  ::	Exactly what I was thinking, clad the shed! Wonderful to see ideas and enthusiasm gushing in your life again. Look forward to the view from the folly.
Date  ::	29 Jan 2025
Name  ::	GRAYnomad
Comment  ::	Thanks Daina, and I have a full-time job now so it's going to be harder to get things done for a while.

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