Am I crazy? OB near Port Macquarie

Abd I won’t hold my breath. 😂😂

Enodab - I know who you are and where you live!

NB - that wan't a promise, more a hopeful target. And it should be an achievable one, but there are always challenges when building any house, particularly when doing it yourself. Money, weather, delays in supplies, pandemics, bushfires, injury, who knows what tomorrow holds let alone the next 6 months?

We'll see how it goes. But I am an optimist by nature.

such an inspirational tread!
i brought myself an old gov house in Canberra which positioned awkwardly on my large block; I also have a huge gumtree which makes the building around him challenging.
if you can do it in a regional area at this age then I surely can do it in Canberra as a 35-year-old public servant with 2 kids
keep posting sir

Hi Paul

Great to hear from you. What a great project you are taking on. I have friends in Canberra who did a wonderful extension and reno on an older govvie (wooden) and ended up with a beautiful house which looked traditional from the front but had a lovely modern open plan kitchen and living area on the back. They stripped the boards off the old house, insulated and replaced the wiring etc but retained the original features. A great result.

What are you planning to do? Is yours a brick veneer or older wooden one? Will you be doing most of the work yourself or using trades more? I had a very good designer who is still being helpful to me even though his paid work was long ago - I think he is just interested in the job and the result - it is a bit different to what he usually does, which is much more conventional houses and builds. And the pace up here is a little bit slower too.

Some points about the gum tree. In my place in Fisher we had a a very large gum tree in the crook of the L shape of the house, about 5 metres from the house. It was a beautiful tree (a Victorian Mountain Ash) but leaves were a big problem, even with gutter guard they clogged the downpipes and gutters. It also required a huge amount of water, up to 200l per day in summer according to a tree surgeon. The roots also damaged paving and are a real risk to water piping as they search for water. However, the tree was protected because of its size, despite having been planted in the 70s by the first owner. We reluctantly applied to the government to be able to remove it because of falling branches and risk to our small kids etc. They sent out a tree surgeon, who recommended it be removed as completely unsuitable for a small urban yard and rot risks - common in these. But the department refused permission.

During the bushfires we were very frightened it would lose a big branch on the house or blow over in the extreme winds. A couple in our suburb did just that, as gum trees only have very shallow roots. It didn't but after the fires we spoke to the ACT government who suggested no-one would stop us and a tree surgeon would now be willing to remove it. We called in a surgeon and when removing it, he found it was rotted down through the centre from a split between the trunk and a very big branch, something he saw regularly on these. He was surprised that the branch hadn't fallen on the house during the fires.

I mention this because I love big trees and I am surrounded by bushland - but I would never have a big gumtree near a house again.

Please keep in touch and let me know how your project goes. Perhaps you might start a blog on here? I am happy to post a link.

Things are progressing although a little slower than I would like due to more interruptions. We have been working on putting the Cemintel corners on. Getting them on plumb and true is critical to getting the rest of the wall dead straight - along with the getting the bottom rails correct too.

Here's a pic of Steve putting on the very first corner..

Next we got stuck into getting the corners on. Haivng set up the bottom rails dead level all around with


So some more photos of that process. Note that at the top, a special corner section to hold the corner pieces at the right gap from the frame, with the green backing strip behind (packed out if required) and the blue straight edge (with another on the other side of the corner) helping to set it at plumb. Quite a bit of work goes into preparing the walls in the first place to be as plumb and true as possible,, then to set the corners just right first - allowing for the mounting brackets, which are shorter for corners, longer for the main boards. From then on, setting the main boards is much easier, but still must be plumb and true.

This is not an easy or quick process, but rushing it will lead to significant problems around windows and doors or or at the eaves. You get better and quicker as you go though and learn how the make things fit better. Mind you, Steve and I are pretty fussy - experienced professional Cemintel builders would most likely be faster, but not so fussy about accuracy. Time is money.

I’ll be using Urban Grey on my build. Keep the tips and tricks coming.

Hope you enjoy your build Berek. Happy to help if I can.

Cheers
powerd

Work continues. Althought he rain has been hampering things a bit. It just never seems to stop. Normally we do get a reasonable amount of rain during February around these parts, but this just doesn't seem to have stopped since some time in December. Oh well, at least it is quite green around here. But that brings a constant task of mowing. And this block is reasonably large. At least I now have a ride on even if it is a bit old and can't be rushed. After quite a bit of work on it it is at least now reliable.

This is a fairly typical view in recent months.



The main load of Cemintel arrives. The corners and top and bottom rails with various fittings were ordered and put on first. Then the main panels and related fittings were ordered and delivered. They come from CSR in Sydney, delivered the 400kms to Bunnings Port Macquarie and then to me. Doesn't look much but this load was over 5 tonnes. Each sheet weighs 22kg. Good for building the muscles when lifting above your head!



And so the sheets start going on. We are taking a lot of care to get it just right and that takes a fair bit of time and effort. There are times when I think a kit home with Hardiplank sounds like a great idea!

How many linear metres are there around your house? Looks like a fair amount on the truck.

Hi Berek. Yes quite a lot, partly because of the height of the walls on the high side of the house. Excluding the corners, there were about 300 L/m of Cemintel sheets.

All up, the Cemintel cost for the whole house including all fittings, fixings etc is about $40k. That is probably somewhat more than for say Hardiplank, and it is fairly labour intensive to fit particularly if you want to do it to a high standard. But there is no need for painting or maintenance and I am pleased with the quality and look.

Gosh what a slacker I have been. Oh well, here's an update.

As the weather settled down, work was able to pick up a bit although my key helper Steve is not so available as he has another commitment now.

I have also been a bit unwell, with my cranky againg knees not helping, a reaction tot he COVID vaccine and then a cold. Oh well, these things are sent to try us.

The northern wall (main bedroom and lounge end) gets finished.......



The wing wall of the outdoor area (which will have the outdoor kitchen along it) getting done - with a delightful rear view of a hardworking Steve............



The other side of the wing wall and the eastern berooms wall being completed - note the sophisticated protection of the Cemintel surface at the top of the ladder. The scaffold has proved invaluable..........




The main bedroom wall is done now too.......

Well, bit of a mixed up, frustrating month since my last post (where have I heard that before?).

Work continued for a little while with more cladding being completed, albeit a bit slower due to Steve's limited availability (and much of the panelling required two people for installation), some delays in getting electrical finished, a health issue and some issues with shortages of materials. Even some more rain delaying things!

But both plumbing and electrical fix are completed so insulation and gyprock can now be done.

The front and laundry doors and frames were ordered. The front door has to be BAL29 rated but shortages of Merbau for the frame at Hume Doors in Sydney delayed its build and delivery. It was delivered last week and gosh it is heavy - the front door is 1200mm wide and the delivery driver and myself got a gym workout unloading it!. First thing I will need to do is to stain and then clear finish the door. I want a slightly darker, reddish tinge to the stain and a very smoot medium gloss finish. Then I can soon get onto working out how to fit the door and frame into the entry area and what to do about the window alongside it. It was to be a double hung window (already on site) but the wider door means that it will have to either be cut down or else a fixed glass pane installed.

In the meantime, I got a very strong reaction to the second AZ shot I had a couple of weeks ago and since couple of days after I have been laid low with some very strong flu-like symtoms, although not infectious. So I felt like absolute crap and have done little work. But starting to come good and will probably be on light duties from tomorrow - probably putting in insulation. Mind you, I have never had a reaction to a medicine or vaccine before, but I would rather have the shot to have good immunity than avoid these annoying though temporary symptoms.

So it is back to work and pushing on to lockup.

Some photos of recent work.

The outdoor area wall completed. Still some minor flashing work to do (see the intersection of high roof on right and lower roof - a temporary fix only)




The side which looks out to the bushland more or less complete. The joins at board ends (see the silver backing strip above the main bedroom window on the right) still need to be filled with silastic, a somewhat tedious job.


This shows the completed work to managed the ticky corner above the wing wall on the left. It was quite a detailed task to get right and hats of to Steve for the accurate work he did on it. It aligns beautifully with the bedroom wall on the left and allows for simple flashing to the vertical wall between the lower and higher roofs. The will be a horizontal colorbond flashing on top of the wing wall capping over a vertical flashing at its end.



Eventuall y there will be an outdoor kitchen with gas BBQ, hot and cold water and a sink along the wing wall. Also either a stainless steel or tiled backing to protect the wall and make cleaning easier. The floor will be tiled. There is provision for both power and light and there will be two large fans with lights above.

It looks like I will have plenty of Cemintel left over as we are making best use of cutoff sections wherever possible. But I will keep spares in cas of future damage.

The scaffold has prove abolutely indispensable and allows for reaching the highest spots. Its floor height can reach 3.8m which is just below the 4m height where a scaffold ticket is required for erection and certification.