Ross Squire kit - OB in Parkerville WA - Mood Boards!!!

Ask and ye shall receive

Slab prep and pre-lay


Boys working hard - they did an amazing job on the finish!


The finished product with my wee seat to sit and enjoy the view


We were VERY happy with the service and work provided - happy to provide recommendations if anyone is looking for grano workers in the Perth Hills.

I've picked a great time to put my back out so I'll be supervising Mr Wonky while he marks out the slab - first wall frame expected to be drilled on the 8th July!!

Congrats.
Really looking forward to your build

Congratulations on your slab..and a beautiful looking slab at that!! I had to smile at your chair perched there. When we marked out our build a couple of months ago the OH and I dragged our chairs down and 'sat' on our verandah. Looking forward to watching your frame go up

Thanks..next time..you might want to take a few close ups ie crns ,laps,etc
my eyesight isnt what it use to be ( got Wonky Eyes, no offense).

Looks fantastic! Congratulations.

I would like to know who these guys are, please.

I'll post some mark out pics depending how much we get finished this afternoon - starting moving wall frames into position last night but it's a slow job with a bad back!
Chalky, I'll PM you

So we finished the slab layout on the 5th July. After checking and re-checking the dimensions of the slab, we didn't actually have to mark much out as it was pretty spot on - Big thumbs up to our grano workers


We decided to go with home guard physical termite barrier instead of the secondary chemical spray. 25 year warranty instead of having to re-spray nasty chemicals every 5 years and for only a few hundred dollars extra


We laid all the external frames out to make things easier - although we still ended up double handling the internal frames quite a few times - lesson learnt to write the frame numbers on all sides!


My wonderfully Wonky husband let me drill the first screw!


Then we just worked our way round the North end, before filling in the externals for that section to stiffen it all up



Standing the frames up and bolting them together actually happened quite quickly - about 14 hours work over 3 days. It was amazing to see so much progress so quickly and made us really quite chuffed with ourselves... Mr Wonky has also decided he requires a different hat each day... I managed to snap this without him seeing me


The end result of a weekend's work was quite spectacular


So we attacked last weekend with gusto - we had Friday off and planned to have all rooms squared off on Friday, then bolt all frames to the slab Saturday and start measuring the truss grips for the roof on Sunday. Needless to say that didn't happen

Squaring each room was time consuming and incredibly frustrating. We'd find one small error which would push 4 other rooms out of square But we got it done and spent all day yesterday fixing the frames to the slab. DH got about 20 done while I triple checked all frame connections had the correct amount of teks and angle fixed... only a few hundred left to go A very time consuming and headache inducing process!

So the plan is to finish fixing the frames to the slab during the week and this weekend. We've all got next week off and my dad has also taken a week off to give us a hand to get the roof on. I'm thinking about employing a roofing carpenter to act as supervisor and tell us all what to do - it will get things done a lot quicker than all of us standing over the drawings scratching our heads lol

Stay tuned!

Wow! Your progress is fantastic!

Haven't seen an update in a while. Have been wondering how your build coming along?

Thanks Mellianne5 - I needed a reminder to get some more pics up!

We finished the wall framing by the end of July and then decide to employ some roof carpenters to get the roof framing up. A good decision in the end - even the chippies were saying it was a massive job, particularly with such a huge verandah. They worked mostly of the RSH kit plans but made a few adjustments and changes as they went.



We hand dug 26 verandah post holes at 550x550x550 which was a good workout. The roof chippies hung the posts and then we filled with concrete.

Once the framing was complete, we decided to get all the verandah painted before the tin went on. This was a HUGE job, but we had a run of pretty good weather so we managed to get this done over 2 weekends. For the wooden rafters, we used a spray compressor for the prep coat and then brushed on 1 thick top coat. The steel posts and C-section got 3 coats.



This is our external colour scheme.
Roof is zincalume
Verandah posts, gutters, downpipes and C-section is Colourbond Deep Ocean
Walls will be Tranquil Retreat (chosen as much for the wishful-thinking name as for the colour)
Verandah rafters and trim is Lexicon white.

It still looks a bit bare at the moment but eventually we will add wooden balustrades and fretwork to the verandah which will tie the deep ocean and Lexicon white together. We also decided that we will trim all external windows which adds to the overall finished look (I hope) A bit like this...



A few happy snaps - painting in beautiful weather is actually quite fun - crank the tunes, pop a few beers and away we go!



This is what happens when puppies sit in the shade under my scaffold! oops


The electrician also started running cables at this time so we felt like we were barrelling along and then... nothing...
The weather decided it was no longer on our side and delayed getting the tin on for a few weeks. Very frustrating when we only have 2 days a week to work!

While we were waiting for the tin to go on, we decided to install the windows which all went without a hitch. Then we thought we'd have a go at cladding our practice wall! This is the north wall which no one will ever really see and it bears the brunt of our trial-and-error, second-guessing, stumbling and general arguing.

The sisalation goes on first with construction adhesive and insulation tape. OH does not handle insulation tape well and this job was very quickly handed over to me as it appeals to my OCD control freak nature . Then the thermal break is stuck on all steel frames and a 30mm strip of cladding is cut and attached to the top of the slab.

So far so good right?


Cladding Take 1
Then we tried to get our head around the cladding installation guide and were very confused to find that the fixings were not hidden under the lap as we assumed. It's funny the things you just take for granted and it really stunned us that we would have screw heads showing along every board! We did some more research and decided to try using a stud clip instead of screws. The clips set the lap automatically which also makes installation a bit easier. So I trundle to Masters for the clips ($1.05 EACH are you kidding me James Hardie!?!?!). We marked our base lines and started installing the boards. While the clips helped by setting the lap, they didn't sit flush when screwed into the studs because of the thermal break. This caused the boards to warp and my OH to start to lose his temper. Cue another trip down the hill to find some longer tek screws and we started again. It looked slightly better so we kept going to the top of the windows, stood back and realised... it looks terrible. Even once painted the clips would stand out more than screw heads and the warping of the boards was still visible

Cladding Take 2
After looking at it for a week and still not being happy, we decided to remove the boards and re-install using the screws. This required making lap gauges which took us a couple of trials to get right. Handling the long boards, extra long and very slippery screws and lap gauges with two people is an absolute mission so I called my sister up to help (the other option was probably divorce). We got the new boards on, stood back and realised... we still didn't like it



We couldn't work out if it was the width of the boards or the fact that the screws were pulling back through leaving big holes, but it just wasn't the look we were going for. So last week while our tin was going on, I rolled down the hill to Ross Squire to see what could be done. RSH were fantastic, arranging for the cladding we hadn't used to be collected and organising delivery of our new cladding choice, a flat Primeline chamfer. Being flat, they're easier to install and will also make the window trim easier to fix. It doesn't give the strong shadow line we wanted, but overall the pros outweigh the cons. This is the chamfer boards installed on RSH new display home in Greenmount.



The new cladding should arrive today so we have a cladding-extravaganza planned for this long weekend with breaks only for sleep and footy (GO EAGLES )

We have a roof!
Its amazing the changes in perspective with each new stage. Having a roof over our heads has compressed the house in on itself so it doesn't feel so massive anymore but in a good way!

Last weekend was a whirlwind of activity. The sparky spent a few hours finishing the wiring and then a few more hours complaining about how many power points I have. As I keep saying, I've never walked into a house and thought "gee, I wish there were LESS powerpoints here" There's a few more wires to pull for comms and data but then that's done until after the gyprock is on.

A good friend/retic wiz jumped on a shovel and smashed out the trenches for stormwater while Mr Wonky and cousin finished installing the downpipes. Our stormwater system is now about 80% finished and will be done and hooked into the tank this weekend. Hopefully we still get a few decent rains before summer!


Then we finished wrapping the house in sisalation ready for cladding next weekend.


We've still got a bit of messing around in the bird board area so that's not wrapped yet. Because of the BAL rating, we can't have wooden bird boards and have to clad all the way to the roof. This means we have to cut and fix wood in between the verandah rafters and trusses so we have something to attach the cladding to. The sisalation then needs to wrap over this and be tucked into the roof cavity and taped to the bottom of the roof insulation - fiddly!

We've loving our big entertaining verandah and have already enjoyed many bevvies under it!


Now that the house is almost sealed, I spent some time sweeping inside and then scored some carpet for the door ways so we don't track an entire desert through the house each day.

Welcome to the Wonky Walker's Parky Palace!

Owner Builder - 10 out of 10 for your early progress of the stormwater front.

You put many high volume builders to shame. Just look through the "Building a New House" threads to see how many houses were flooded last winter as their builders stubbornly refused to install down pipes and stormwater pipes until the end of the building process.

Awesome work! This Ob thing certainly can be a bit of trial and error as we are finding out along the way. Looks like your still enjoying the ride though Coming along nicely.

Thanks Beetaloo - we've been jumping around with different jobs but this was one that really couldn't wait since I definitely don't want to be carting water all summer! It's started to dry out over here in the West already but we usually get a few good soakings in October/early November. One good flush through and then we're ready to start storing water.

That being said, we still have some drainage issues to solve. At the moment, we're just trying to send everything that's not caught on the roof 'down the hill' but we'll have to come up with a better solution before next winter. By then we should have driveway, parking and a bit of retaining and landscaping done so we'll have a better idea of where the water will go. We were originally thinking to install an underground tank to collect ground run-off and use as a dedicated fire tank, but I think we'll look at a less expensive option. With a combined roof area (shed + house) of more than 650m2, we have ample opportunity to catch and store water for firefighting, without the expensive of avoiding silt build-up in an underground tank.



Thanks Gandn, we really are having fun with the build. There have been many moments of frustration and I tell ya - if you want to test your marriage, owner building is a good way to do it! There's highs and lows and lots of trial and error but we can't wait for the day we can stand back and say "heck yeah, we built that"

That says it all plus of course all the cash you'll save!

Stewie

Wow you have achieved so much!! It is looking really good and that is great that RSH changed the boards for you. We have found them really good to deal with, nothing is ever a problem. Looking forward to watching your progress, sounds like you are both enjoying the experience

Great progress and great photos

What Cash savings ??? Think I may have spent the savings elsewhere on the house!