Deer Me

So I've started thinking about interior design and I'm a bit concerned I might be getting slightly ridiculous. We don't have a lot of wall space and will have a lot of built in shelves so there isn't much room for furniture....but the big question for me today is "can I find room for this guy?"

DEER ME: Would I love this or wonder on a daily basis what was I thinking?

I was hoping to get some deer antlers or something similar and spray paint them white or maybe fluro....but then I found this guy. As I write this I know already I won't be purchasing this book shelf....not this month anyway. But I won't be budging on my outdoor vision. Pink Flamingos, get ready for some Wooloweyah action.
What do you think of the deer? Or even just having a large feature piece like this in a room?
If you can't comment on this page,  email me. Thanks

Views, Glorious Views

Things are really happening now.  The sun is shining, surf's up, the first floor is closed in and the second floor is taking shape.

THE BOSS: The General pretty pleased with progress. Angourie Village in the far distance.

What has been really exciting this week has been the revelation of the view that will be in front of us. So far we've been down in the hole getting the underground floor sorted so it's been all about sand, blocks and about seven concrete pours. But now we've moved up a floor and it's glory glory glorious. With the subfloor going down today we can now walk on the floor that will be our home, and see and feel the views and angles we'll be living with. We can see ocean glimpses of Angourie's Back Beach, Angourie Village, Lover's Point at Yamba and Yamba Hill with the light house flashing us all night long. We are also completely surrounded by Yuraygir National Park, which is quite superb from the glory floor.  How lucky are we!

FLOOR: The floor went down today. The lighter shades are all the wet rooms.

SAFETY FIRST: Specially constructed safety rail so Sailor, our one-year-old won't fall off the side. 

The General has constructed a double railed safety rail around the house so the girls and I will be safe for our daily site visits. What a guy! Safety first round here.

So decisions are flying thick and fast now.

Any thoughts out there about stairs? I'm totally addicted to Pinterest and have honed in on black stairs. I'm also interested in finding out about recycled tyres for stair treads. I did a story on a house at Piha, NZ years ago that had a nice chunky layer of recycled tyre on top of each stair which I loved. Looking to find something similar so any leads would be appreciated.

Speaking of recycled, the General and I have been having a laugh recently about the word recycled being phased out and 'recycled' into 'reclaimed' and lately......'repurposed'. Poor 'recycled' got what was coming to it didn't it. I think we'll stick to the old school for a while longer.

Also, check out our website that has just gone live .....  www.jsconstructions.com.au. Let me know if it's taking too long to load. I'm not very tech savvy, but I might need to make some of the photos smaller.

INSPECTION: Pippi and I are happy with progress today.

A WEEK AGO: This was the pour a week ago when we poured the suspended slab for our inside outdoor room...if you know what I mean.

Thanks xxx

Block on, Block off

Already the block work is well underway. I have to confess I am a big fan of raw blocks. I love them and yes I am using the word 'love' and I mean it. I don't mean the flimsy 'like' love you get after every other comment on Facebook, but the love that you feel when you buy your first CD (mine was Poison) or your first Apple Mac product.

I know most people prefer to render block work but for me I love them grey and basic. There's a lot of block work and so far it's been great watching block after block go up, with nice clean straight lines taking shape. I just hope the General feels the same way.

LOVE BLOCKS: A view of the ground floor block work climbing out of the Yuraygir National Park. 

The General's best mate from his Avalon days, Raoul the bricky, has brought his family up to the North Coast for a working holiday. Along with Turk, our local bricky, the boys have been busy laying blocks for almost three weeks now and things are starting to take shape. The General has been their labourer. They have had him running double time.

I've gone for a stacked block pattern, rather than the usual staggered pattern you see around the place. The brickies are claiming it's taking longer to lay, which budget-wise isn't something you like to hear. But on the positive side, the blocks are not going to be rendered or painted so hopefully we'll gain some money back in the budget there.

So what do you prefer? Feel free to comment.

STACKED

STAGGERED

As is the way, we've had a block drama. A dud delivery showed up of a different sized bock to go above the windows. These blocks turned up from a different distributor and were a much lighter colour (see below). We decided to just push on and use them. The General thought they'd make a bit of a feature and break up the grey pattern a bit. He's happy with the result but I'm not so sure. I'd be happy to hear your thoughts on it, as they are meant to run above the garage door and a feature breezeway window as well. I'm pushing to not use them in those two big openings. But let's see what the majority thinks?  Build By Numbers has put out it's first plea for help. Should we keep going with the feature blocks above windows or just stick to the one shade?
NB Most of upstairs will be timber so only an issue downstairs really. 

COLOUR BLOCK: What do you think of the lighter coloured block above windows? Send me your thoughts.

SAND FOR CRABS

Excuse the lack of posts but the early days of a build, especially ours, are a little underwhelming, yawn yawn.  I mean it's exciting because we've started and something is happening, but really, it's not the sexiest part of the build. Dig a hole, dig some more, stand around with big sticks and fluro string lines, trace out the house site, secure the excavated walls and prepare for the big day the concrete trucks come to pour the foundations.
So instead of boring you with the details, here are some stats and snaps to get you up to speed with what the General and his platoon have been up to over the past few weeks.
Obviously the girls and I have been dipping into the 'hole', as it's been formally named by Pippi, to keep an eye on the progress. Once digging began, this amazing white pure sand was revealed so the kids have been enjoying the company of a giant sandpit in their back yard.

Approximately 600m3 of sand was removed from the hole. As you can see from the plans, the ground floor is basically dug into the ground, hence big dig required.

60 trucks took the sand away.

Four concrete trucks pumped 22m3 of concrete into the footings. 

BEFORE: Our house site just as work started.  

BIG DIG: Scotty, our awesome digger driver gets to work clearing the site which revealed our white sand. Once word got around about the high grade sand pouring out of our site, we were inundated with neighbours asking for a hit. To get an idea of the currency value, we swapped a wheelbarrow full of the white stuff for a big box of mud crabs. My kind of deal.

SANDPIT: We spent many an Autumn arvo enjoying our new sandpit. 

THE A TEAM: The General (R) and Cam working hard to shore up the driveway retaining wall. 

PREPARING FOR THE POUR: A birds eye view of the 'hole', prepped and ready for the foundations to be poured. As you can see, the sand was easy to remove but then became a headache to contain.

INSPECTOR: Pippi inspects the foundations on the eve of the pour. 

SHOW TIME: All hands on deck for the first of the big pours. Pippi dressed for the occasion.

The pour went really well so we're now onto the block work. The walls are going up so stay tuned for the next update. Our house is now officially taking shape and the big questions are starting to be asked. So let the 'Build By Numbers' fun begin. x

The plans revealed

How our house will look...

Floor plans...

 

...this level is almost completely dug into ground.

How our house will sit on the block...

Surrounded by family we have the General's brother's family behind us and his Mum next door. Happy days.

The battle ground has been drawn

AFTER years of planning, unplanning, sketching, scribbling, cutting, pasting, dreaming, scaling back, and eventually committing, today we finally began to build our house.
My husband Jeremy is the builder (let's call him the General from now on) so most of the work will fall to him. My skills, as an ex-journo and full time mum, don't lend themselves entirely to building a house, especially when it's up to the General's standards. But as we all know from watching the Mecca of all shows about houses, Grand Designs (schwing), there is a lot that goes on in the background, so I'm sure I'll be sucked into the vortex that is 'our build' more than enough.
So .... it's begun.

DAY ONE: Scraping back the scrub. The Norfolk is now gone.

Day one we scraped the block clean to reveal what we have to work with. Looks good. Sorry to see the trees go, but happy to see the 'creepy crawly factor' reduced to a safe standard. Snakes, spiders, lizards, bitey bitey ants, mossies..catch you later. I'll put up a few before photos to show you what was.
But from now, what was is gone, and what will be is a long way off. We know it'll be hard, but it's so exciting to think we'll one day see our ideas come to life and hopefully there won't be too many things that annoy me once it's completed.
In fact I know there will be things I will love, love, love. I hope, hope, hope.
See the doubt and nerves creeping in already.
Over the next 'hopefully' six months, we'll build the house to raise our two daughters, Pippi and Sailor, in. I'll post the plans, progress notes, milestones, lots of pics etc but I don't want to bore you all with the day to day details. Hopefully just the juicy bits.
Plus, as this is our second build together, I'm writing this blog with an ulterior motive. I want help making decisions. Build By Numbers is about just that. Every time we have to make a decision about something, I'll post the final two choices and see what you all think out there.

HANDS UP: Pippi wants in.

As much as Id love to say the most votes win, the General has requested final say, so these are the rules. You vote, we take that input and the General makes the final call. Obviously we all know as the wife, I really have the final say, but as wife, I'll let the General think he does.
But I can assure you, majority has a big sway so come on....get involved and help us build this house.
So sit back and let's build this sucker. Hands up if you want in.