Ok so we all know you have to have the patience of a saint to self build .... Nobody said that saint was a Saint Bernard so you have to have MASSIVE patience... (Got to get a doggy joke in here every now and then!) So yes we started the dig out.

Here is a pic of the digger breaking ground...



We had our first inspection and the engineers along with the Chris Webb our digger man decided lots of rock needed and lots of rock came, then lots of sand came, as planned, it went well till the weather packed in... we only have a  tiny bit left to go on this stage before builder Gav can get stuck into building the boxing for the Maxraft insulation, which we have delayed them delivering as not to have it floating around the site  along with the piping which we have asked them to hold of delivering for a bit longer.

Good news is we have passed the first inspection, YAY! The first of many.



So just as a heads up for any newby home builders out there... Inspections from the engineers are not cheap and you will need at least two to get your PS4 for council. Well we needed two of them and that fee was  $575. Eek...I thought I had that covered in the engineering costs but apparently not, its extra!So now we have paid the bill we should get our PS4.

We have set the camera up but not quite nailed the set up so we will have a play around with it as I want to get it perfect for pipe layout day to do a timelapse of the day to show you all.

This is the camera I have decided to go with.The  Brinno BCC100


So by for now and next step the plumber will come and do his bit!! I feel like we are on our way!




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Its a wrap!

Image
We opted to use FPS, Frame Protection Systems to wrap the house, we chose this system as its watertight and breathable.  Frame Protection System, FPS® Weathertight®™ system is a comprehensive roof and wall underlay system for timber and steel frame, panel and prefab building elements, providing both interim and permanent weather protection plus moisture control within the wall or roof structure. FPS® Weathertight™ is certified to allow internal work to proceed to completion before the roof and wall cladding are installed. You can purchase the products from ITM and possible other similar companies. We dealt directly with FPS as we want to make the house airtight and they were really keen to give us the training needed so we apply the products correctly. (I believe FPS is Passive House certified.) FPS is  weathertight and UV guaranteed for 3 months. So we have to have the house clad within the 3 month window but at least it is weathertight to work on! This pic below, the roof is...
Read more
Image
 Yay we have gone to council with our house plans ...finally!! It will be worth the wait as the design stage of a high performance home is really important to get right but we are finally in council! But lets talk windows today... Exciting stuff, I am hoping to catch up with our window supplier (Fabian) and our energy efficiency consultant (Claudia Kaltenstadler) this week as they are both up from the South Island. So seen as Fabian is up this week seems like a good idea to go over why we picked his windows. I knew  we had to get thermally brocken windows but I had to do a fair bit of research to look into what that meant and in laymen's terms... thermally brocken window frames are insulated aginst cold and heat conduction. This is done by seperating the outside metal parts from the inside with a product/ material which reduces the amount of cold or heat transfered through the frames. This is know as the  " thermal break" . We also wanted to have really good airtight wind...
Read more
Image
 Good morning to my wee group of blog followers...  I don't think I have gone into why we chose MAXRaft for our foundation... I chose it because as far as I am aware it is the only fully insulated thermally brocken slab design available in NZ. It has a super high R value (4 to 4.5 R value) and it will save us shed loads in heating bills. It is not the cheapest way to do your concrete floor slab but for the extra cost (aprox 10% more) in my view its a no brainer. I did not want heat escaping out of my floor in my warm healthy energy efficient home so it was an obviouse choice. The way I look at it... compare it to yourself in winter, would you wear warm thermals and a jacket then go out in bare feet or jandals, no no no well I would not, I would be putting my wooley socks and boots on, so why would you insulate and watertight your walls and roof and not fully insulate your floor!  The pic below is a drone shot (thanks Gary) of the site with the freshly delivered MAXRaft in...
Read more