Australian Permaculture. More than just organic gardening

Living in Tasmania -5-
Our experiences as "owner builders"
-our new website: Grow Your Own Food

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March 2005
The work cotinues

This will be the kitchen. Torsten is cutting blocking that will go between the loft joists to stiffen them.

Sub-floor bracing: last week we welded 75 x 75 x 3mm RHS diagonally between the posts: the building now sits rock solid on its support.

Plywood bracing sheets stiffen the walls.

M12 bolts connect the roof beams to the floor bearers


March 2nd, 2005	March 5th, 2005	March 6th, 2005

March 17th, 2005:

The wall and roof framing work is finished. Tomorrow the building in spector will pay us a visit and hopefully give us the go-ahead to start sheeting the roof and the walls.

March 18th 2005:

the building inspector approves the framing work and gives us the go-ahead to put the roof on and sheet the walls!

March 19th, 2005:

The weather report predicts two calm days with little rain. Klaas, our rock climbing son with no fear of heights, has returned from work in Western Australia. This is our chance to put the roof sheeting on.

March 20th, 2005:

It rained at dawn, but the clouds cleared and the sun appeared. At three o'clock all seventeen sheets of Colorbond roofing in 'Shale Grey' are securely fixed to the roof beams.

March 21st, 2005:

work on the roof is finished!

March 24th, 2005:

our windows are delivered

March 26th, 2005:

all ground floor windows are installed

March 30th, 2005:

we are cladding the walls with Hardie-plank in Newport profileThe Hardie-planks are a 9mm thick cement fibre product.

Glass wool insulation with a R4.0 rating is fitting behind a condensation barrier foil.

The Hardie-planks are a 9mm thick cement fibre product and are delivered in lengths of 4200mm

March 30th, 2005:

all ground floor windows are installed. The windows are double glazed. Hardie-planks are fitted up to a height of 2.1m.

The weather:
March has almost passed. The weather has become considerably colder. This is autumn and it feels like autumn. Night temperatures can now fall to three degrees Celsius, daytime still has highs of over twenty, occasionally, but mostly around 16 degrees. Rain still hasn't held us up too much. We lost a day or two in February when heavy storms filled our water tanks. Showers pass through, but after we have had a cup of coffee they usually disappear and work continues. After so many years in the tropics we really enjoy this climate. How refreshing it is! Will we have second thoughts in a few months time when winter hits? Let's find out.

March 22nd, 2005:

Autumn in Abels Bay, early morning mist over the sea.

And what will happen next?
The highest parts of our walls are 8.5 metres above ground level. We will rent scaffolding to be able to work safely at those heights.

Tasmania 1	Tasmania 2	Tasmania 3	Tasmania 4	Tasmania 5	Tasmania 6	Tasmania 7
Tasmania 8	Tasmania 9	Tasmania 10	Tasmania 11	Tasmania 12	grow your own food	Permaculture Main Page