Longridge Madison - lalala

We were hoping for late January too as we have plans to go overseas mid-Feb. However we got a call on Friday saying the handover inspection is scheduled on the same day as we are flying out...So now it has been pushed back 'til late feb/early March.

All the best with your build! I have to say that the quality of the work is pretty good but our house just took longer than we expected. Looks like they are pretty quick with yours, which is good to see

Yay!!! Cabling is being done RIGHT NOW!

We are having insane amounts of additional cabling, so should make for some very interesting photos. Will post heaps over the next couple of days =)

makes me wsh i had taken photos of my biggest job to date ... can't wait to see your pics..

You are having CBUS! YAY!

Can't wait to see more CBUS pics and to hear some tips since you are so much ahead of us

Oh boy are we having CBUS... I can't wait to get back out there after the sparkies finish for today so that I can see how much has been done. This is possibly one of the most exciting parts of this build! We're hooking almost everything up to be automated right up to weather stations inside and out to determine if the automated roof windows should be opened or closed, etc... By the time we're finished, the house should have sensors for all sorts of information and be able to run itself based on that information =)

OH MY GOD!!!!
That's insane!!!
Can't wait to see your house finished!!!

don't be too shocked to not see much done unlike "normal" wiring Cbus needs to be done very carefully and every run is time comsuming

Yes! Have just been out for a quick look sans hubby (going back again when he finishes work). It looks like they have run all the lighting wires, but none of the switches. They've also put the brackets for the faceplates in.

Couple of pics from earlier today:




Should have a lot more over the coming days. I think it will look like more when they start doing the network cabling. The blue (and any other coloured) cables always stand out heaps more in pics!

Have also just been onsite meeting up with someone from Jim's Fencing to organise a quote for about 33m of fences to surround the front yard, slat wood gates for either side of the house, a solid wood gate for the front fence and the "cat airlock" gate to prevent cat lossage if anyone opens the front door for too long!! This "cat airlock" gate will basically be a slat wood frame spanning the 2m across between the garage and front bedroom, and be of a height of 2.6m surrounding a 2.3(ish)m high 1.2(ish)m wide gate in the middle.

We probably won't do the fence immediately upon moving in, but the cat gate is pretty important to be done ASAP as it provides security for our little girl as well as the cats. The rest will happen as we can afford it. I can just tell that I'm going to be stuck with our 10 year old car for another 10 years at this rate

Our ducted vac system was (partially) installed today!!! The brace plates for the normal vac inlets were nailed to the walls, and most of the piping was placed into the ceiling space.

They're working from the back of the house and going forward, so the pipes and plates have been fully installed in the office, and mostly in the kitchen. The vacpans should have the piping in place by tomorrow.

Apparently we need to change the unit that is being installed as we have more than 40m of piping.

For now, a pic of the pipes and plate in the office!

a cat airlock ? your house has EVERYTHING

LOL - we tried!! Will be a LONG time before we ever build again, so we wanted to get as much in as possible

Haven't updated here for a few days, despite lots of work on site. We've had a rather busy/stressful past week, promising not to get any easier for a few weeks yet... One of our cats was just diagnosed with a cancerous tumour in his nose (apparently just bad luck as he's not an outside cat), so we've been running about madly trying to get all our options and are about to start radiation therapy which will involve a whole lot more running around (the only vet in the state who does that treatment is an hour drive away). The other option was to amputate his nose - which may still be necessary... =( So the house has been (and will continue to be) not quite as "up there" in importance for a while... We still visit it each day as it is only around the corner from where we live, but have other priorities right now.

My pretty little man:


As for action, all of the lights, power and CBUS are installed. Most of the data cabling is in. They've started on the sound and security systems, and were planning on doing the intercom prewires today or tomorrow. The vac system is scheduled for completion this thursday. EVERYTHING from the electricians first fit is scheduled for completion this Thursday. According to one of the sparkies they have been given that deadline as the wall insulation has been booked to start on Friday, and the plaster should then start in the next week or so. So we're moving nicely along.

I got the bargain of the century on the weekend when I saw this at an antique shop for $10 - so it's now at the house as her first bit of anti-boredom on site =)


I have posted a few pics of the cabling to our blog - all from about a week ago. I'll add to that with the pics of the data cabling when I get the chance. There's a LOT of cable in this house!!!

Apart from that, have been in touch with the SS about a few issues, and he was actually really quite helpful. Answered all questions that we had and was generally quite ok about it all. The list for today was:
1) The heater duct completely covers the manhole. This could be fixed by moving the manhole from where it has been placed to where the plan shows it is meant to be.
2) The niche in the shower will need to be moved to the opposite wall as the water hoses are right where it was meant to be.
3) The gas point for the second cooktop is missing (the commercial wok burner) - he assures us that a t-intersection can be placed inline and that it will be done inside of the kitchen cabinetry
4) The water pipes to the hot water tank/gas boost look like they head to the wrong location on the roof for the solar heater - he assures us that the solar hot water system will be placed according to our requested location on the roof. Where the pipes lead to now would be badly overshadowed if someone builds a double storey house next door on the north side, and it is a very old house with a very old lady there at present, so it's a good possibility in the not so distant future...

Think that this just about covers us! Keeping everything crossed that progress on house continues, and that the little guy responds well to his therapy.

Awwh, poor little man.
Hope he gets better real soon. I'm sure you will look after him and make sure he gets the best treatment possible.

$10 what a bargain. I'm sure you would never find another one for that price. Your daughter will have fun when you're visiting the house.

somewoman, your house is progressing well and I'm hanging out to see the rest of your build. I'm curious about the cabling and technical things that you are having although it's probably a bit out of my league.

Chin up!!
Jose

Thanks Jose =) Feeling like I could really use the support - been a tad fragile since his diagnosis (although prognosis is excellent - still scary, he's our (other) baby).

And always nice to hear that someone is interested in our build!! We're excited about it, although we both come from an information sharing background - speaking at conferences, educating, etc, so I suspect that I probably share a little too much information in here and bore the #$% out of everyone!!

This still isn't all of the cables! They expect to be finished by tomorrow night.

Wow! That's a lot of cables! Are they using the same colour cables for cbus and cbus audio? My partner works for Clipsal on cbus and they use Pink cable for cbus and green for cbus audio... makes things a lot easier appearently

We don't have cbus audio - ended up going for something a bit simpler and cheaper but yes they're using pink for c-bus and a different coloured cable for the audio runs. I've been pleased to see the cable runs are very neat in the ceiling. And all the cables are labelled - would be a nightmare for them otherwise when it comes to terminating them later on.

evelyng - we need a cat airlock because of relatives who like to stand in doorways to chat. This way we don't need to worry as much about cats escaping (and they can be pretty **).

soooo many cables! Will they be able to put your plaster on?
That's going to be impressive, like the Jetson's house

Sorry to hear about your fur-kid, hope the treatment goes as well as expected.

Perhaps the relatives can stay on the other side of the airlock

Thx - we hope it goes well, too... He's such a lovely thing, and an incredible smoocher. And our other furkid (the mad leopard) loves him...


re. the relatives, that would be a good solution!! They all seem intent on standing on the opposite side of the door and holding it open to chat!! No matter how often you say "come in, we don't want the cats to escape", they all say "oh, no, I can't stay". You don't have to stay, but I want my cats to!! They even block you from stepping out so that you can close the door. I've stood there once with three squirming cats in my arms saying "PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE, come in! OR let me come out. I don't know how long I can hold these guys" and even that didn't work... Thus the cat airlock being an important part of our design - that was part of the spec from the get-go.

We've actually done a bunch of things to the house for the cats - including ensuring the there are specific sections of walls with no wires so that we can cut cat tunnels through There's even a "viewing platform" in the ensuite where they can sit in safety and watch while we shower (in past experience, having only a thin shower frame and an inquisitive cat that can jump REALLY HIGH is not a good combo - I'm sure I still have the scars on my back to this effect).

As well as being obviously mad, we also believe in responsible pet ownership. We understand that there are people around who just don't like cats, and don't want ours roaming to either be a nuisance to these people, or be in danger from these people. Not to mention the roads... No judgement intended on anyone who lets cats roam - to each his own, and this is the choice that we have made.

The reason for the cat airlock, cat-escape-proof courtyard and cat "viewing platform" in the ensuite:

Will the pergola be designed to block out the winter sun and let it in during winter?
You also want to be careful that those rooms don't get TOO sundrenched, I've seen that happen in designs where sure the house works great in a passive heat sense but the rooms are too bright and uncomfortable to be in. In my place I'm specifically limiting the amount of sun that gets into some of the rooms in the house - which seems counterintuitive - to keep the rooms comfortable during the day, and relying on other sources such as metabolic and cooking sources to provide additional heat.


Are the tiles inside the house our outside under the pergola?