IMPORTANT DATES!

"THE STORY IS MY FIRST POST" (click on July 11)

"PLEASE SIGN UP AND FOLLOW TO GET ALERTS AS THEY ARRISE"

13/07/10 "RECIEVED HOUSE PLANS"
22/07/10 "AWAITING MINERS CERTIFICATE THEN TO COUNCIL"

29/07/10 "WE ARE IN COUNCIL"

"IMPORTANT NOTICE"
01/08/10 - "MY GRAND FATHER PASSED AWAY"!

29/09/10 "COUNCIL APPROVED"
14/10/10 "MY LITTLE PRINCESS WAS BORN" (MYAH)
28/10/10 WATERBOARDS "ZONE OF INFLUENCE"
29/10/10 "PEG OUT OF SITE"
10/11/10 "SITE SCRAPE" WOOOHOOOO
18/11/10 "FORM WORK FINISHED"!
19/11/10 " CONSLABULATIONS"! WOOOHOOO
28/11/10 "FRAME DELIVERED"
07/12/10 "BOTTOM LEVEL FRAME ERECTED"!
08/12/10 "TOP LEVEL FRAME ERECTED"!
09/12/10 "TRUSSES BEING ERECTED"!

"IMPORTANT NOTICE"
08/12/10 - "MY UNCLE TOM PASSED AWAY"!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

THE BALL IS ROLLING!

"Finally" we have all the certificates required and have submitted our "D.A."(developement application)
Camden Council are usually pretty quick with DA assessment. Turn around can be a month with complications but if none alot earlier. So i am hoping to get this out as quick as possible so the builder can start "scraping" (thats site preparation) by the end of August.
After "Site Scrape", it's "Form Work" (form work is where they ready for slab) and then "Slab" (application of concrete to form the base of my home) I will get back to this in a moment.

The only thing now that may hold things up a little is the Waterboard. The Waterboard are the organisation that install and service all sewer and fresh water mains to residential property in NSW.
Now because of the size of my house it appears that there might be a small problem of the distance between the main sewer pipes and my house. This is whats called "ZONE OF INFLUENCE" with zone of influence your developement cant be less than a 3mt  distance from the pipeline. The reason for this regulation is basically this. If your home would collapse then there pipeline would be free from damage. (dont forget there submerged in Australia). Now if it is within the zone of influence what that means to me is i would then have to pier down to the level of the pipeline and build more piering than the usual number needed. A very expensive excercise if needed as we cant ascertain how deep we need to go until their assessment, so fingers crossed im out of range.

SITE SCRAPE:
This is where the builder levels out your land to required specifications as per the developement plan (blueprints). To do this heavy duty machinery and earth moving equipement is required.

FORM WORK:
This is where the builder makes ready for the slab.
this includes Piering - piering is where they dig down till they hit solid ground and brick back up to surface. Obviously this is to form a strong foundation to reduce slab movement. Very labour intensive job to complete. 
Then lay all the waffle pods, membrain and board up ready to pour slab.

SLAB:
Obviously the slab is concrete (not beer you numb nuts) and there are different classes of slabs here.
Your classes are M class, H class and P class... well these are the main ones anyway. the reason for the different classes is due to the amount of salt that rises through the slab. This obviously isnt good and is ascertained by surveyers as to what class you need. The classes of slab are rated by its thickness. I need a "H" class slab which means everything is a little more expensive and more piering required to hold the weight. More expensive Waffle pods and thicker membrain required because of thickness of the slab. 


i hope this has been educational for you...lol. For you that have built before remember this is also to help educate the new builder and our family overseas....hahahahaha. (like im an expert)

This part of the building process IS the longest once this has been dont then it is relatively quick from there.
SO HURRY ON UP SLAB AS I WANT MY "CONSLABULATIONS" DRINK WITH ME MATES!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Pictures Of The Block!!!

A "MASSIVE MASSIVE" THANK YOU TO LORRETTA AND JOHNNY D. MY NEW FRIENDS & NEIGHBOURS AT CAMDEN ACRES WHO WERE KIND ENOUGH TO TAKE THESE PICTURES FOR ME!

Lorretta and Johnny have been a massive help since my first post on H1. They have made themselves available to me when ever i needed advice which has been invaluable. For this I thank you and it is now in writing "THE FIRST BBQ IS YOURS" but first i gotta buy one LOL.

I hope you all like the pictures.

"VIEWS FROM THE BLOCK"

PLEASE CLICK PICTURE FOR FULL SIZE











PICTURES OF THE BLOCK!

PLEASE CLICK PICTURES FOR FULL SIZE




Yep there are weeds needing trimming but builder said he would do it.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

HAVE THE PLANS YEEEE HAAAAAAA

Ok i got the plans and exchanged on land today.

Plans are already approved with Crown Land and going to council..

Get This..... Had a call from the guy at council cause i enquired about something else. He was very nice and through our conversation told me HE is the one accessing my Plans as he is in charge of that area (Camden Acres). and he said if im using the Draft person that i told him i am THERE WILL BE NO PROBLEM AS HE HAS NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WITH HIS DRAWINGS. I ASKED SO IF THATS THE CASE HOW LONG. HE REPLIED........"2 WEEKS TOPS".  He also knows my builder and when i rang my builder he told me he wants to be scraping by early latest mid August.. I was flabbergasted he told me his target is to get me IN the house by x-mas.... my goodness here we go the best news ive had since i started my journey.

woooooooooooohoooooooooooooo

here are the plans


Main Floor

CLICK PLAN FOR FULL SIZE



1ST Floor
CLICK PLAN FOR FULL SIZE








Sunday, July 11, 2010

"THE STORY"

INSPIRED BEAUTY is actually a deal that I made with my wife when we found out she was Pregnant. To understand this deal you need to know why a deal, so I will do my best to explain.

Previously to the success of this pregnancy, 2009 proved to be "THE" hardest year to endure since we were married.

My wife had to live through not 1 but 2 failed pregnancies. Needless to say watching her go through this was worse than heart breaking with a domineering feeling of absolute "HOPELESSNESS" and this happened twice. For more than half a year our home was filled with anger, depression, bitterness and feelings of worthlessness. I can honestly say, the only thing that kept us fighting and very slowly moving forward was the love we shared and very openly expressed for each other in this difficult time. Our little boy who couldn’t possibly know what was going on but sensed it was always trying to make us smile or laugh and he is only 2. For him and the sake of our family we pushed on to move on, and in early March we had the news of another pregnancy. We both were at the time showing happiness and joy but inside cringing with absolute fear and when we looked at each other it never had to be said, just that blank look of acknowledgement with each other as to what we were truly feeling it was so transparent to us both, but to everyone else, even the ones closest to us just thought we were over the last 2 devastations.

The Deal

In the time of this news we were trying to find a house to buy. Now not only were we NOT in the mood for this everything we looked at was CRAP and overpriced CRAP. To be honest I just think we needed to get our minds off the “what if” So I had a thought to try and lift our spirits and give us something to look forward to. I asked my wife if she would like to not have to work. She replied yeah I would but with these prices it’s never gonna happen. By this stage I had already done loads of research and said ok, ill make you a deal.

If you just concentrate on getting us past this 1st trimester, then I "Promise" I will show you then and only then how I can make your dreams come true in every way and Balance your life out with more family time. Well of course she thought I was nuts but went along with me anyway.

The time was up and believe it or not it managed to help keep her mind off what happened previously and give her something to look forward to. My plan had worked. We both felt the world come off our shoulders when we passed the danger period and in the first time in over a year had a sense of optimism and finally felt we could celebrate the coming of our new family member.

I finally got to sit her down to explain what I meant so she asked me how I was going to achieve less income and pay the mortgage. So I told her we are going to build, we are going to build “THE HOUSE” and after showing her the figures she was very, very excited. So I told her there is ONE catch...lol (in multiple parts cause I know what women are like).

I said YOU BUILD THE BABY! LOL and I'LL build the house!

She is not allowed to ask me about the house, she is however allowed to help me pick the block.

She does not get to see the plans; she gets no input as to colours, style NOTHING and I mean NOTHING.

SHE DONT EVEN GET TO SEE THE PROGRESS UNTILL THE BABY IS BORN and even then it’s a look from the outside.

This was our deal and she is all too happy about it. All she has to do is make sure she gets herself lots of rest and do baby things and once again give her something to look forward to and my way of keeping the stress of building away from her and she gets a lovely surprise when she see's it as she has no idea what I have in mind.

So that’s the story and how we come to building our home.

I have called this home Inspired Beauty because everything I choose, everything I design and everything that makes an idea mesh for this home is inspired from my wife’s beauty, personality, love and strength she has shown and taught me along our journey together. This is my way of showing her I do pay attention and a MASSIVE test to see how much I know her. The thing about this is it’s a 2 way street as she has to be absolutely trusting and confident in what I will do and how it will end up. The pressure is all on me and I’m all too happy to put to test our compatibility as a couple cause I know WE win every time.

I can’t wait for her to see it finished and I can’t wait to see the look on her face when she realizes that this house I have in mind, I designed myself. I can’t wait for her to realize that once she steps in that doorway, our new life starts. Although I know she will, she doesn’t have to work if she doesn’t want to. She will definitely have more time with our children which has been very hard for her watching Josh grow mainly with other people due to full time work being essential. I get to come home to a wife that isn’t someone going through a routine every night then going to bed and being constantly tired all the time.

When I get to see that look then my heart will be filled and when I get to see my wife playing with my boy and YES I FOUND OUT THE OTHER DAY WE ARE HAVING A GIRL...... her name will be Miyah... in the house I designed, well, man does it get any better than that.

This in itself will make all the stress I’m going through now well worth it. In fact its that very thought that gets me over most the crap I’ve had to deal with trying to get things started. The hardest part right now is hiding my stress from her and telling her everything is all right when in fact I just wanna knock someone out sometimes, but at least progress is under way and I know I will achieve my goal.

So I hope you can now see why I called it Inspired Beauty and I hope you can join me on my journey to a new life. My journey won’t always be smooth sailing but I promise you this. Everything will be documented on here so that you can learn from it and try to avoid some of the hiccups I go through. There are always hiccups when building; you would be silly not to expect them.

I will keep dates of when things have happened and post plenty of pics.

I look forward to your company, advice and help as my journey progresses.

Speak soon

Pedro

08/07/2010