Coffeehouse.co.nz

Apologies again. We’ve been a bit tardy with the updates, but here’s a little run-down for you. Wednesday last week the scaffolding team of five guys arrived and plonked up the scaffolding. Thursday the builder and his mate put on the roof, and also added the interior plywood wall, swept the place out and called it a job well done. Friday the electricians arrived to do the pre-wire at very short notice. They left. Now I guess we’re waiting on either a council inspection, or the batts to go in. Not sure which has to happen first.

But then after that it’s just Gibbing, sparkies adding the sockets and switches, the main garage doors going in, a ramp to be constructed so we can actually drive into the thing and we’re done. Another week should do it, I reckon. Oh. Hang on. There was some sort of interaction with the council in there, wasn’t there. Maybe a month and we’ll be done then!

Yes, there was progress yesterday, but it didn’t get posted. Sorry!

Three walls had most of the cladding installed by the time I got home yesterday.

And then today the rest of the wall cladding and all the windows and access doors were installed. With kitty door in one, of course, just in case the kitties wander in one day and need to get out. You get a picture of the other door though, just in case you were trying to squint to see the kitty door.

Sounds like there’ll be a brief pause tomorrow as scaffolding goes up, then the roof goes on. Then I guess it’s the electrical install, gibbing, and, of course, the garage doors. Can’t see any reason why it can’t be finished by the first frost this year!

And here we have the next stage of the garage. Yep, hard to notice, we know. But they have added a bit of cladding to the front today.

I drove in today after work and wondered what they had managed to do, or thought perhaps they hadn’t come at all. Then I noticed they had applied some ‘boards’ to the front. So we are moving along. It still appears to be going up pretty fast even though I thought they had managed to do nothing today. 🙂 I hope it’s not a sign that when it’s complete it’s going to be invisible!

Hard to believe that it’s just over 5 years since these guys trenched in the line, which since then has been poking up out of the lawn in exactly the wrong place.

But we might now be able to mow the back lawn without having to get off the mower and move the bloody irrigation line!

So two days on from the last update and there’s been a steady rate of progress. Trusses went on, along with all the bracing between them, then various bits of hardware went on in what looked to be strategic places, and then then wrapping went on at the end of the day today. If it had a roof it would almost look like a proper building!

(And no, this isn’t some sort of advertising deal – I guess that’s just why they bother to screenprint building wrap!)

These guys are wasting no time in cracking on with things. As soon as the frames arrived on site they’ve been cracked out of their packaging and pointed skyward. Pretty sure most of the external walls are finished.

The good news is it appears we’ve planned things with immaculate precision, and the pitto hedge-line we randomly threw in the ground a while ago will be in the perfect position to come across right next to the back door. What planning! What finesse! What sheer bloody luck!

A few slices across the surface of the slab. Three cuts to be precise, but I suspect you’ll only spot the one.

Sorry for the slow reporting!

On getting home later than usual last night we found some packages of frames had been delivered, which meant that…

Once again they descended in the early morning mist. The concrete pump and the concrete trucks… Very early! But I guess it wasn’t like we weren’t already up and about. Grudgingly.

There was a fairly long pause in proceeding before the last of the three concrete trucks pulled in. Not sure if they got lost or whether it was down to having to calculate the remaining requirements precisely and phone that in for delivery. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt is was the latter, but…

Didn’t really matter. The kids were pretty much over it by the second truck.

So now we have a big rectangular pad. Just as well there’s no ramp so we can’t drive onto it and crack it before it’s fully set!

After a slight pause in proceedings, presumably for a council inspector to drag themselves out for a look, as well as the long weekend here, we’re back to noting some progress. Today the mesh was lifted onto the little black standoffs ready for the concrete to be poured in tomorrow morning!

Stay tuned.

At this rate I’m not sure how many updates there’s going to be! Yesterday morning another little orange digger arrived on a truck and started to scrape the foundation plot for the garage. By the time I got home after work it looked like this:

Apparently it kept the kids occupied most of the day watching the digger and the gravel trucks come and go.

And of course they left us this. Another pile of dirt to deal with. I’m pretty sure the picture doesn’t present the full scale of the mound. Luckily we’ve got the new raised vege garden beds to decant some into, and a few other bits and pieces that need a top up.

But all that was yesterday. I was just too lazy to tap a bit of a story around it last night.

Today was a whole other day, and when I got home tonight further progress had been made! Now it appears to be fully boxed, just waiting for the concrete truck to arrive.

I guess we’ll see just how good their scheduling is by how quickly it gets filled. I just hope it’s pretty poor so the kids can see the concrete getting poured, but I suspect they might not be so lucky as they are off to school tomorrow.