Week 6 - Frames

Week Six 22 - 26 Oct

Day 23.  No frames yet although the under-flooring for the floating floor has been delivered - its bright orange!  Definitely not an option for the "raw floor" look.   My builder had asked for them to be delivered last week and they were supposed to arrive today. 

  

Day 24.  The frames have been delivered and the guys were there marking the bottom slab out this morning.   The young guy said they expect to have the bottom section finished by the afternoon and when I went back later in the day it had been done.  Its still hard to get an idea of the size of rooms while they are still open to the air, but it is nice to be able to walk inside a room and be able to visualise how it will be when finished.

Day 25.  Not much done today, they put up the two supports that go under the patio (alfresco).   There is one support post still to be put in but it is a really good visual cue to seeing how big that area will be.

Day 26 - 27.  More progress today.  Most of the steel joists have been put in for the top floor.  We can really start seeing it as a house now.  My site manager is not too happy though, he says the framing guys are not working fast enough and they also did some of the installation by moving some of the ant mat which now has to be fixed up.  Hopefully it won't put things behind and by the end of next week we will be able to walk through the top floor.

Garden Ideas.  We have done a bit of planning and playing with ideas for some of the outside areas.  We are going to continue the retaining wall from the side of the house up around the front and then most likely use something like stacked stone on it to make that side of the house look better and to tie it in with the wall we will have to build out the front.   Given the driveway is fairly steep we are also looking at making an alcove into which the bins can be put up the top end of the driveway so we don't have to drag them up the driveway.  The image to the left is a rough (very rough) composite of the sort of idea we are looking at.  Above where the bins are would be a raised wooden platform / seat and we may go so far as to have a hidden lift lid on it for easy access to the bins. 

The front yard style we are looking at is as per the right side image above with a mix of platforms, garden beds and formed paths.  We think this will suite a narrow front yard particularly given ours will be defined by a front wall to make it level with the front of the house.  Mind you we will not be going with the bright orange feature wall!  

Along the side of the house leading up to the front door I would like something like this one, using some miniature clumping bamboos and clever lighting.  I think we could tie it in nicely with the front yard style.