Strawbale – Page 3 – Cooinda's Nest

Supermoon November and the first wall frame is up

Posted on November 14, 2016August 11, 2020 by oneflewovercooindasnest in The Nest

It’s exciting times at Cooinda. The timber required for the framing arrived exactly a week after the slab pour, and Matty has been analysing the specs to make sure he has enough timber, the right lengths, cuts, types etc.

He’s been sawing, chiseling and hammering away, like a carpenter….. I’m sure his father will be proud :)

After a weekend of hard yakka, the internal walls for the bedrooms are done, this includes the walk in robe walls in each bedroom (laid down in the pics) as well as the wall that separates the two bedrooms.

Yesterday, with the help of our friend Bart(os), the first internal wall frame was put up, now neatly braced and supported. Can’t wait for all of them to be up and get a real sense of space!

First internal wall frame up, separating the two bedrooms

No one else will find these angle shots as sexy as we do!

Quite so, this is the angle from behind the house

Enough about the wall frame, here’s hoping that all family and friends are safe in New Zealand after the quakes, and that we all get to see the supermoon tonight!

….and then there was a slab

Posted on November 2, 2016August 11, 2020 by oneflewovercooindasnest in The Nest

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 of the day, so here are some vids and pics to do the talking.

Half way mark, waiting for the next concrete truck to arrive

The estimated 36 – 40 cubic metres of concrete was underestimated as 51 cubic metres was used in the end. Sounds like we have a solid, sturdy base :) This is the first big milestone to complete, the next one is the roof going up.

No rest for Mattukta; onwards and upwards, literally.

Fish tank setup and pre pour jitters

Posted on November 1, 2016August 11, 2020 by oneflewovercooindasnest in The Nest

Less than 12 hours to go till the concrete truck arrives and the pour begins. Matty and I are feeling excited, nervous, worried, exuberant all at the same time. A minor (major) crisis was averted today as Matt found out that the formwork was 40 mm shy of the expected height. A somewhat cruisy day turned out to be a full on day fixing other people’s stuff ups.

Despite the frustrations, Matty managed to get everything done for the 7am start tomorrow morning (along with extending the height of the formwork to the required 100mm). Here are some pics to commemorate the day:

Full underslab ready to go, with bracing, fish-way channel and other bits

Underslab ready to go with electrical conduits and pipes

This house has a few little quirks, but the most extravagant is probably the in-ground fish tank. Matt got the fish-way channel set up so that the fish can swim within the house (initially), and then outside when we open up the channel to connect to the outside fish pond.

Fish-way channel secured on the underslab

Now all that remains is all things to go smoothly tomorrow. The rain has eased, hopefully so will our anxious trepidations.

It’s All Hallow’s Eve and still no slab….

Posted on October 31, 2016August 11, 2020 by oneflewovercooindasnest in The Nest

The past month has been frustrating with unnatural amounts of rain being the main culprit. Despite the delay, progress has been made on other fronts, like building a chook pen, getting some chooks, setting up the veggie patch and picking up other building materials such as tiles and windows.

The rain finally eased off about two weeks ago, and Matt hired Rob to come in and dig the slab footings.

Once those were in place, Matt was busy pumping water out of them two days later (thanks to the glorious rain), then finally started putting the clinka fill in (more about clinka here).

Getting clinka'd up — Getting clinka’d up

Two labourers assisted with doing the form work and putting up the mesh, finally getting the foundation ready for the pour.

Labourers helping out for the slab preparation, looks like Matt is playing boss

We got final approval for the slab pour, now all that remains is for the concrete mob to arrive and do the deed. Fingers crossed there is no more unpredictable rain!

And so it begins… on the day of Spring Equinox

Posted on September 23, 2016August 12, 2020 by oneflewovercooindasnest in The Nest

The journey begins with a simple site leveling and draining task; a friend of friend who is affectionately known as ‘Bert who loves dirt’ has come to assist us with this process.

As underwhelming as it may seem, this simple foundation task has Matty and I feeling excited as new parents to be…. our currently fugly looking, muddy baby will bring us loads of joy and tears I am sure :)

Bert doing his thing

Too much water on the site

Water drainage