Owner Build in Southern Flinders Ranges- Cert of Occupancy

On day 30 of the Bangor fire there was a severe thunder storm. I received 70mm of rain in 90 minutes.
Because most of the ground had been burnt there was nothing to slow the run off and all the normally dry creeks were inundated with black water. The local creeks burst their banks and all local roads were cut & impassable.
Ash on roofs washed into rainwater tanks turning the water black.
The good news is that the rain cooled the fire allowing it to be brought under control.

The house was not yet water tight so I was running around installing temp storm water pipes and emptying buckets under leaks in the incomplete roof.






Yes, I am working on the house by myself doing most of the work. I only build on weekends as I have a salaried job during the week (which is paying for materials for the build)
This way I do not have to wait on others. I did use local labour for the concrete slab, roof & bricks.

Oh my Gosh! A land of drought and flooding rains indeed....

Beautiful area nonetheless and very interested in following your build.

Fire ! , Flood ! , all you need is famine and a plague of locusts.

Stewie

After the fire & flood came flowers.
Within one week of the fire these flowers came up on my neighbour's property. Isn't nature amazing!
I won't mention the snakes that now have nowhere to hide nor the deer, goats & kangaroos that have moved onto my property as it was not burnt.

House now at lock up. All I need is a lock.
At least this door will now stop the kangaroos from sleeping in my bedroom & leaving their scats in my bathroom.
It has not stopped the local reptiles from hibernating in my house though.

You don't dilly-dally around! Sounds like a lovely wildlife refuge there ... I can understand the attractiveness to the roos and lizards, bless them -- they too think the place is awesome

congrats, I think the wildlife make great neighbours

I don't know about the snakes but along with those beautiful flowers and wildlife it sounds like a wonderful place.

Stewie

Not this weekend.
I only get to build every alternate weekend.
For the first time since I started building the weather gods have been unkind to me.
I have had horizontal rain & single digit temperatures.
I have tried working indoors but I have to always keep the doors closed or the kangaroos follow me inside (they don't like horizontal rain either).

Its too cold - The flushing compound won't go off, nor will the water-proofing membrane.

Hit a water pipe with the nail gun. Not a very happy chappy.

I did manage to install some window sill tiles, but cutting them to size with an angle grinder outside in the rain does raise some OH&S issues. On the positive side, the rain cools the diamond blade & keeps the dust down.

Also I am camping on site (sleeping on the floor in my shed), - not really an idyllic way to spend the weekend mid winter.

My productivity this weekend is almost zero.

Looking forward to spring though, when the reptiles wake up and move out of my builders toilet.

Too cold, windy & wet to work this afternoon so roast chicken is on the menu tonight, cooked in the weber (inside my shed) with all the trimmings and a bottle of wine. That should cheer me up.

love the way you are sharing your build and the stories!!



Thankyou

Me too, very entertaining!

What a lovely spot Beetaloo. I've just found your thread--thank you for all the photos and commentary. A long time ago I lived for a short time at Napperby, just down the road. The CFS do a fantastic job.

Chicken and wine in the shed sounds like great compensation for a cold, wet weekend.

Your place looks amazing and it is very inspiring to see you doing all this on your own!
I would love to see a timeline, and also to hear who you got your house through (it looks like a kit?)
I am surprised that you are BAL 29 as surely the house site is more than 33 metres away from vegetation? Anyway obviously there is a fire danger and you are super lucky to have that wind change when you did!
Please keep us all updated with more details!

So am I. I was a bit annoyed with the BAL 29 rating but there was nothing I could do about it.



I designed and drew up the plans myself.
I bought the studs in pack lots of 6m lengths. This was the cheapest was to buy timber.
I cut them to length on site.
I actually drew up each and every wall frame and printed them out really big as I have poor eyesight.
I dimensioned every stud.
I have raking ceilings and the sloping top plates fitted perfectly.

Today I have water to the house.
I ordered the rainwater tank early this year but had to cancel deliveries as I needed to be on site to help off load and I was working interstate (in Queensland).
Eventually the delivery to my district coincided with my site visit.



It started raining as the truck was leaving, so I was running around installing temporary flying drain pipes held in place with bits of fencing wire.
I am glad I did, because that night there were several heavy thunder storms. The tank is now already half full.

The rain water will taste like wine.

What a great read!

Looking forward to hearing more

Certainly a lot better than that swimming pool water you drink in suburbia !

After being on tank water for so long, you can smell the chlorine in town water in some suburbs.

Bit of an update. With the wild weather we have had the last 2 days, the rain water tank has only 2 more rungs to go before it is full. I had better connect an over flow tomorrow morning.

I did taste the water after your suggestion. It is sweet and clear but I think I will stick to the wine in my cellar.
Today was a write off as far as building goes. I got up early this morning and before breakfast applied tape and base coat of flushing compound to my bathroom walls.
I checked it after lunch to see if I could apply the waterproofing membrane but it was too cold and the flushing compound had not gone off.

No more building work to do today, so I spent this afternoon planting trees in the rain. Once you are wet, you cannot yet much wetter. The baby trees did not seem to mind the rain.

Roast pork with cracking and wine & roast potatoes for dinner tonight, or should I say wine with crackling and a bit of pork & a token vegetable, eaten in front of the fire.

The joys of camping in the country mid winter.

Hi Beetaloo.
Great looking house and location for the weekender.
I have just read the post from the beginning again and it dawned on me that your scissor trusses are raked and will be nearly the fall i will have under my skillion roof extension rafters.
So a couple of questions come to mind, where a top plate connected to the truss what method did you use, also your strapping of the bottom plates to studs did the strap go under the bottom plate and up the studs?
Maybe if you have not lined inside yet would you could get some closer pics of the straps, fixings and wall junction klusters And what size framing nails did you ? as i'm still vague on the regs thier for the various pine species supplied commercially.
Ty
wobbly

ps bet that tank landed with a thud

I am in terrain category N3, which is more onerous than most suburban blocks.

I downloaded a PRYDA installation manual "Pryda Timber Connections Bracing Guide". This has some useful information and diagrams.
My trusses span 12 metres so I used a double top plate 2x90x45 MGP10 H2 Pine. The double top plate meant that a stud was not required directly under each truss.

The trusses were initially fixed with 75mm Paslode nail gun.
Once all the trusses were up and straightened, Pryda triple grips were fixed using a coil nail gun.
2 connecters (one left handed & one right handed) per truss connection, one each side of the truss.
Where there was diagonal roof bracing this was hammed flat and brought down and nailed to outside of wall plate of stud.
Where there was not a roof brace, a length of Pryda strap was installed over the top truss chord and down under the top wall plate.

Pryda strapping was installed under the bottom plate and up the studs on both sides and hand fixed with 6 off Pryda connector nails (not clouts), (only 4 connector nails are required in terrain category N1 & N2) .
This was done as I made the frames. This strapping was fitted at all Jack studs and near where the diagonal wall bracing landed on the bottom plate. A galv dyna bolt through the bottom wall plate into the slab was installed adjacent to all strapping.
One issue was that the strapping became loose as the timber shrank & I had to re-nail some strapping.

The (double) top plate was similar with strapping up and over the top wall plate.
Where there is internal cross walls joining external walls, one length of strapping goes up external stud, over the top plate and is then fixed to the top plate of the internal wall.
All strapping was hand fixed using 35x3.15mm galvanised Pryda connector nails.

I had the council inspector come out to have a look at the roof tie downs. He seemed to think I may have overdone it a bit but for about a $100 for nails & strapping and a days work I think it is cheap insurance to prevent the roof blowing away.