Cladding is go!

They have started cladding the house :) It is clad in 'Colourbond - Surfmist'
It is very exciting, we can now stand in the house out of the breeze!

They should have the cladding finished within the next day or two, then the first fix electrical starts.

They have also finished the limstone walls inside, will post pictures of them later on :)

We...almost...have a full roof! Oh and we added verandahs!

And it's about bloody time!

This is the roof that should have been on at least 6 weeks ago.......not happy jan!
It still isn't finished though. Today was too windy to work on a roof, so hopefully tomorrow they will get onto it and finish.

We decided to add verandahs to each end of the house. These were on the original plan but due to cost we took them out. Then due to selling a couple of tractors we put them back on again. They will help by shading the house in summer as they are the east and west sides.
The one on the west side will house our outdoor kitchen/bbq area......the east side will have a couple of lift up clothes lines for winter.

We have doors and windows!

Don't they look fantastic!

The upper windows in this shot don't have the glass as these windows are electronically controlled to open and close as they are too high to reach.
These windows are to allow hot air out in summer, as you all know hot air rises so it needs somewhere to escape out of. The windows down the bottom will bring in cooler air all of it creating a circulation of air through the room and house.
The study and our bedroom both have verandahs on the front now. The verandahs are angled to allow the winter sun in but will exclude the summer sun and make sure that it does not drop down right outside the window, keeping the house cooler.

This is the wonderful view out of our main doors. I can't wait to be sitting in there soaking it all up!The back of the house. To the left is our ensuite bathroom, then our WIR that is almost a bedroom in itself LOL, then the kids 3 bedrooms, the main bathroom then laundry.
The windows in the kids rooms are full length to take in the view. They also have no glass in them at the moment due to the size of them. Each window has a casment window to the side which opens and allows air in top and bottom at the same time, helping create air flow and allowing hot air to escape in summer.

The bulkhead to our kitchen has gone in too! Due to the height of the ceiling we needed to do this so that the lighting is brought down to a good height and so that we can install our rangehood over the cooking aea in the centre of the room.

The roof trusses!

The roof trusses went on next, and wow what a difference it makes!
We are having a skillion roof, so it starts of lower at the back coming up high at the front.

It rained..........and the house got soggy

Yes it rained, and the house got very soggy.
Bloody rain!
This is the main bathroom, full as a goog!






BUT...look how green it got!

The Limestone Wall

The centre wall of our house is a Limestone feature wall. Not only will it look good, but it also acts as a thermal mass, absorbing heat in the winter (from the combustion heater we will put right in the middle of that big bit up there) and releasing it at night, keeping the house warm.
It works the same way as the cement will, absorbing heat in winter and releasing it.

In summer, there will be no direct sun into the house as we face true north, therefore in summer the cement and the limestone wall will stay cool, in return cooling the house.

The septic tank

They dug the hole at the same time as the wall frames were going up, the plumber did it though not the carpenters!
The hole is 3.3 metres deep, 3 metres square.



The tank itself went in a couple of week later.
It is a Ri- Treat anerobic system, so it's a nice eco friendly alternative which will end up pumping out beautiful clean water onto our garden :)