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The shack stripped bare
Our first home on the property was loved (and lived in) by many; including mice, rats, huntsman spiders, humans, dogs, and even a micro bat! It was our humble home on the land while we built ‘The Nest’, and beat living in a caravan any day! It was originally a work shed predating three owners before us; the bushfires of Black Saturday in Feb 2009 however changed this. The main house at the time burnt down and this shed was eventually turned into a makeshift home by a latter owner. This ‘man-cave’ boasted a lounge, kitchen and two modest bedrooms when we purchased the property. The bathroom was taken down…
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Permission to occupy
This week has been exhausting, working 15 hours/day on average and even pulling our first midnighter on the build. Thankfully we did work tirelessly as the occupancy inspection got moved 48 hours earlier than expected! It was scheduled for Monday, 9th of October, but we got a call from the inspector this morning asking if he could come today, as he was in the area. He arrived 10 minutes later, did the inspection and….we PASSED!!!! Meaning that we can officially move in! Though we won’t as the house is not yet complete, mainly due to the floor tiles. Before I go into the nitty-gritty of the build, Matty and I…
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Winter is here
Without trying to sound all negative and stuff, but it is winter.. and I can’t shake the cold off. The time has come for when the world slows down and allows you to recuperate and reenergise, just through simple rest; something that I feel we may have forgotten how to do. Thankfully the build stage agrees with this seasonal change, and gives us a chance to slow it down and go with the flow. The last few months have been a whirlwind of major structural work, and the tasks were all BIG! Now, as winter settles in, the attention goes inwards. The open fireplace One new addition of Cooinda’s Nest…
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A roof over our heads
The last day of January marked another milestone on Cooinda, the roof sheets were put up! Three days later, Matty secured the flashing around the edges as well. Tim, the plumber assisted Matty on the day. As the skillion roof is on a 6 degree single pitch, the gutter will only be on the south side of the house, where eventually a downpipe will feed a 10,000 litre rainwater tank. We then started work on the roof battens this weekend; this is the timber on the inside portion of the roof that holds up the ceiling plaster as well as the roof insulation bats. Alongside the roof extravaganza, I managed to finish…
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….and then there was a slab
The concrete truck arrived 20 minutes ahead of schedule, and took just over four hours to complete pouring. One of the concrete trucks hit a power pole at their depot which caused some delays, we had to wait for over an hour till we got the next batch of concrete delivered. This caused some concern as the previous concrete poured was starting to set, but thankfully the delay didn’t cause any issues. Turns out it was a blessing in disguise as the fish tank needed to be secured furthermore before more concrete could be poured around it. No more hurdles were encountered, and not much more can be said about the happenings…
