Well lots have things have changed since last blog. Firstly I must tell you that I have left “undawadda” and have moved into Nundle village - oh what joy I can now have a HOT shower and mains power 24/7.
My house construction is planned to commence on Saturday January 16, 2010.
Nundle had a flood! Photos following. The flood caused me some dramas - we have had rain since Christmas day and early last week there was a big mud slide at the back of the place I am renting which resulted in two days of barrowing the mud etc away from steps, pathways and carport. However just as I was congratulating myself on a job well done down came the rain which eventuated in the flood, and guess what ANOTHER MUD SLIDE, this time worse than the first. Oh well no rest for the wicked.
Now for the Nundle Flood Photos including pics of mudslide at my rented place
I have not time to lable each one so have lumped them all together for the time being, but they include those taken of the main bridge as the water was still rising, of the oval after the water went down including one of the wrecked toilet block and washed away boundary fence, photos taken on drive toward Crawney after the water started to go down and road was open (Pearly Gates Bridge, Wombramurra Sales Complex, and cattle on dam bank), also is a pic of cattle stranded in floodwaters on Hemming Street South (these poor things were washed away, with some ending up in the caravan park further down river)……..you will also see two photos of a potato farm which was washed away, for weeks I saw this poor fellow watering the crop with a bucket during the hot dry pre christmas weather, so sad he lost the crop in a flood. Finally I have included a photo which was taken a couple of weeks pre christmas showing the town oval pre-flood when it had a lovely white boundary fence. The helicopter in the photo was using the oval to refuel during all the bushfires which were raging in the area at the time.
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Pre Flood at the Oval
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mudslide take one also
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mudslide take one
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January 3rd, 2010 in
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Spent overnight in Tamworth for WIRES meeting and came back to Nundle to see block - what a pretty picture - a Christmas Cake on a stick….. special thanks to Steve C, Steve 2, Nat, Desiel, Rory, Paul and Cowboy, could not have done it without you all. Job well done boys.
October 2nd, 2009 in
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It hit the news all over the world - our little blow! Awoke to an orange glow through the curtain, but as I have the radio on all night I knew the expected dust storm had arrived. Tried to shut the two high narrow windows above the front door but had no luck so ended up with a layer of dust right through the cabin, and just after I had done a spring clean ready for the arrival home of the landlord. Did not worry about cleaning up too much as a second blow was forecast for Saturday. Well it did arrive Saturday when we were pouring my house slab, but thankfully it was not as bad as Wednesday. Following are just a couple of photos of how it looked here at “UndaWadda” at various times during the day. Did not take to many as I was worried about the fine dust getting into the camera. Photos are as they came out of the camera with no post production done.
Looking down the paddock. Note the stray cow which blew in with the storm.
September 26th, 2009 in
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Saturday 26th September 2009 saw the pouring of the slab. 7:30am start and there were plenty of willing hands ready to go, although it was quite cold, windy with another dust storm, although not as bad as a few days ago.
Half way. Getting the truck down the side was thanks to a bit of good driving and a lot of good luck. Photo below shows how tight the fit was.
All had been clean sailing up until last (4th) truck failed to show. Steve was on the phone quick smart, but it was more than 1/2 hour before it arrived. The weather had turned really nasty with icy winds freezing the poor fellas.
The boys have smoko while Steve puts the helicopter over the slab.
The apprentice watches the drinks while the rest of the workers get back to the job
Thankfully hardly any concrete overs, but what was left Diesel used to start off my fish pond.
The finished slab 3:00pm. Poor Steve 2, was kept busy all day putting in braces all the way around, as you can see.
TOTAL COST: $13,891.24 including original excavation for pad and driveway.
Finally received permission to install a Reed Bed to treat grey water, however the council man Elliot wants me to put in absorption trenches 600mmx600mm x 45m! From my reserch all other councils e.g. Byron, Lismore, Mid North Coast, allow shallow dripper irrigation of treated grey water. Will prepare another submission to council early next week. In the mean time here are some pictures of what Byron Bay Council allows.
Sorry only small photo but that was all available. But you can see it is a big difference to what Tamworth Regional Council wants!
September 19th, 2009 in
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August 20, 2009
Went into block 11:30 this morning and saw that the waffle pods were in place. However I noted a few problems:
1. No bars in pier holes - spec. said for that depth 4 rods had to go in NOTE: Steve fixed before concrete pour 
2. Most rafts are 110mm wide and only need 1 rod down the centre, however there are two rafts about 220mm to 250mm wide, one at the rear of the slab and one where the verandah joins the main living area. If the width of these two rafts is under 220mm then two rods have to be layed down the channel and if they are over 220mm then there have to be three - there was only one placed down each raft! No wonder there was so many steel rods left over (see later picture). NOTE: Extra rods down by pouring day.
3. Sounds picky but all the pod overs were just left in a pile! They could blow around and away in the wind and there is a fine if this happens. Had to purchase a massive “rubbish bag” for this purpose so went down to Steve’s to retreve it and put the rubbish in.
Steve said he was going back up to the block to finish up a few things this afternoon after a bbq at his daughters. When I discovered that he did not realisee rods were missing (see above) I went back to the block and checked the plan. Chased him up at daughters (easy to find people in Nundle ) Made his day, NOT, letting him know omissions, had to show him the plan and read it out to convince him. NOTE: ALL DONE AND READY FOR POUR ON SATURDAY.
Inspection is tomorrow at 9:30am so hope he is ready! Hope Annette, the inspector, keeps being as cooperative as she has been if he isn’t.
Also noticed while preparing photos for this blog that the raft on the western side is over 110mm is should have 2 rods in if that is the case, and from the photo seems there are none.
Oh the joys of owner buildering. I remember a day more than 2 years ago when son Marc and I went out to industrial estate in Tamworth to check out “moveable houses”. The cheapest one was then around $65,000 but was over my budget. As time goes on it seems that it would have been cheaper to get that house than build my “cheaper” one. Plus it was bigger than the one I am building now.
Showing steel “overs” and pod rubbish
Showing steel “overs” and pod spacer overs. Spacers over about $50 value, will talk to Neumanns steel about a refund.
Pods in slab - may have some slight problems but WHAT A VIEW Have to think positivly don’t I?
Showing bar in horizontal raft and lack thereof in side raft!
Bill for labour on formation of slab $2800 - $200 over original quote for raft slab. Can understand increase has to cover grey hair caused and besides Steve was thousands less in quote than other people. Plus he is local and it has been easy to contact and communicate with eg. above: chacing him to daughters bbq…….. Also slab unded up twice and deep and formwork was more complicated ie. higher.
Also have added my solution to putting rods in pier holes - Steve was bit troubled by this and was talking about “shoving” rods down as we poring concrete (…….don’t know how building inspector would regard that) or getting other Steve to weld something up,
September 19th, 2009 in
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Last weekend Joe the digger man came and drilled the pier holes at the back corner of the proposed slab. We had to go down to rock, thinking it would not be too far down, considering how much rock we hit at the front of the slab pad.
WRONG! The very corner pier hole went down almost 2 metres! The other two almost as deep. I fear there will be almost 1 cubic metre of concrete in the holes alone.I took a photo of the deepest one and did a bit of shadow removal to try to show how deep it really is. Joe also spread out and compacted the crusher dust. Four hours work and all up $320.
Yesterday August 17 Neumann’s delivered all the “stuff” for the slab foundation or what ever it is call.
Accessories: tie wire, 20 one way spacers, 120 four way spacers, 70 waffle pods, plastic bag for rubbish off waffles, duck tape and roll of black plastic.
Other: 45 12mm x 6m D bars rods, 9 sheets robmesh D82 standard, 3 bags of bar chairs @ 100/bag. T
Total cost including $120 cartage = $2858.83 ($1500 was for the steel)
The wind was blowing like crazy when the truck arrived and it was quite a job unloading and stacking the pods (light, and made of styrofoam). I don’t know how the driver would have managed if I was not there to help. In the end he put the mesh on top of the pile so that even in the strongest gale it would not blow away. It is amazing how something so light can be so strong. I stood on one to test it and it took me no trouble.
I went into the block early this morning as Steve 1, Steve 2 and the other fellow are working there today. I had taken home all the small stuff yesterday and wanted to deliver it to them so there would not be any holdups. By tomorrow afternoon I expect the formation of the slab will be complete ready for Council inspection next week (yah made it before September 30!). Then all going well the concrete can be poured next weekend weather permitting. Bit worried about the driveway if we get forecasted rain next week, maybe will have to see fellow I know about getting some gravel on it, we’ll see.
Pod spacers and other accessories in Steve’s trailer
The boys sorting themselves out ready to start. Stack of waffle pods on the left of photo
Ready setty go!
Steve and his mate marked out the slab yesterday and the crusher dust arrived today. Joe the trench man is coming on Saturday to bore 3 piers holes at the back of the slab and to spread the crusher dust.
While I was at the block today I planted some trees, mainly bottlebrush.
Crusher Dust delivered Friday Sept 11, 2009
Slab marked out Thursday 10, 2009 (I just added the red infill so you could see where house goes)
Some shrubs planted along driveway
Red markes where I planted some trees
Astrid and Frejya are getting naughtier and naughtier. For a while I managed to stop them ) from jumping up on the car by parking it under the balcony and throwing a bucket of water over the culprit. But Frejya, the devil that she is, decided she was going to make a game of it…..grrrrrrrrrrrrr
So in desperation I built a “garage” to try to protect what is left of my car’s duco. It’s pretty rough but is working for the moment.
With the car out of harm’s way now all I have to do is figure how to keep them out of what few things are in the garden. I made a cover for the garlic but the girls have started to get into that. Astrid got in the other day and before I could get down the stairs and get her out she had systematically gone along the trough and neatly nipped back ALL the garlic tops, at the same time toughing none of the weeds.
Very shortly the water chestnuts and the jerusalem artichoke will be shooting; heaven knows how I am going to be able to protect them. The lower vege garden is a right off this season – without a descent goat barrier e.g. electric fence gardening will be impossible this season which is a pity as I had such a fun and productive time last year.
On top of all that they have broken several glass panes in the windows for my house! People think I am mad for staying here, and sometimes I really wonder.
The “garage”.
In the background you will see the greenhouse I started building earlier in the year, but had to give up as I could see there was no way it would withstand a goat attack.
Butter would not melt in their mouth! If I didn ‘t love ‘em so much I would shoot them.
September 4th, 2009 in
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Yep there was movement aplenty at my block on Wednesday 2nd September and there was no shortage of earthmoving equipment. The fella’s worked all day digging, pushing and bashing. I ended up with a lovely new driveway and a big flat pad ready for the slab to go in. However because so much earthworks had to be done to get a flat pad we hit solid rock and looks like I might now have to have a different type of slab i.e. one with less trenching, else hire a bloke on a jackhammer from now until Christmas! One thing though if we move from a Class H slab to maybe an S or M it will work out cheaper - way to go something going my way at last.
Anyway here are some of the earthmoving photos which show a job well done!
No shortage of machinery
We've only just begunA real mechanical ballet
Not sure if I really like this blogging thing - four times I have tried to add further photos but no pictures get updated only the captions end up being uploaded and they into the second photo!!!!! (see above) will try to again upload mechanical ballet photo without caption and see what happens…….
OK! that’s the way it want’s to upload who am I to fight it….
Action on the driveway
Rock, Rock and more Rock!
Looking down the driveway, across the finished pad toward the East
Two photos joined together looking toward the West. Note the erosion control barrier I put up yesterday
Heaps of work ahead of me trying to stabilise and landscape this bank
