Biography of a Build CH.18// September & October '22 /  by Owen and Bobbie

Well, the drawing is getting pretty darn full, so it must mean we are getting closer to finishing off this beauty! Look through the layers if you can!

September and October has seen us pick up speed and momentum! And this month Michael weirdly turned into a very muscly puppeteering pirate due to all of his operable and moving creations over the last few months!

These last few months have seen us:

  • Finish the inside plywood wall lining and Wayne and Jen (Owen’s mum & dad) have almost finished white washing

  • Finish the lighting track and have most of the electricals finished and installed.

  • fix the buckled timber floor boards (thank goodness it wasn’t too painful, but we did end up with some pretty tapered ‘feature’ boards)

  • Install cabinetry, contractors installed the gyprock ceiling to the south

  • Weld and install the beautiful big top hung steel and timber sliding doors to the bedrooms and Bobbie started sewing the fabric inlay

  • Finish the twin-wall corflute clerestory windows and vents to above the bedroom doors

  • Install the modular Interclamp balustrade systems to the west and north decks and the south Juliette style balcony

  • …AND WE EVEN PRIMED AND PAINTED THE OUTSIDE OF THE HOUSE (THANKS TO OUR AMAZING PAINTING EXTRODINARE)

And, a very exciting part is that we locked in a ‘soft opening’ party date! This means we have a tangible date we are now working towards to get as much as possible finished, and it is pretty interesting already how this changes your work attitude and progress! Nothing like a good deadline in the Christmas party season!

ALL WELCOME….! (click into blog to see more info)

Check out the cartoon and month of picks….

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Biography of a Build CH.17// August '22 /  by Owen and Bobbie

BOOM BOOM BOOM… It’s August.. and we are smashing along inside!

The interior lining goes in and the electrical track gets hung! With the electrician planned to come at the end of August, we had a short deadline to get the interior ply lining on with string pre-run ready for running cables in the walls and our exposed lighting track @ +2350mm installed... & damn, we did it, and DAMN don’t it look good! Although the Mitch the electrician ended up coming on the day of the snow storm, he braved the closed highway to get us electrified!

THE LIGHTING TRACK - The lighting track is our attempt at not swiss-cheesing a house for thermal improvements and ease of access to services (not totally successful..). It is working well as a few different functions; a lighting track for LED strip up-lighting, anchor point for spotlights on arms extended, essentially a cable tray for all circuits in the house, smoke detector attachment point AND a pelmet for curtains throughout. 17mm formply can do wonders!

THE ELECTRICIAN - We are lucky the electrician is actually Bobbie’s brother and is clever enough and keen enough to think about things a little differently. Although not keen on our inadequate crawl space under the house, or our TINY tolerances for the string we pre-ran behind the sheets for the cabling, or our constant changing minds whilst he was on site… he said he’ll be back.. hurrah!

THE INTERIOR LINING - is a 12mm BD structural hoop pine A-bond plywood - essentially the best we could afford with a ‘B’ face ready for painting. The back was painted to stop warping and the fronts will be white washed. Although serious thought went into our stud and noggin placements to reduce offcuts… it didn’t quite go to plan. We quickly installed some more noggins to the kitchen walls and used up our offcuts there as it will be behind the cupboards anyway… we have some plans for funky cornices to use up the rest!

The bathroom is officially grouted, gorgeous hardwood sills to the bedroom windows are in and the exposed hardwood hallway framing is in, oiled and lined with ply to the bedroom sides.

September will see us keep pushing on with the interior and hopefully not experience too much of a delay on materials or our cupboards order!

Thanks Sam Trembath, Mitch and others for your help this month!

Check out the cartoon and month of picks below….

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Biography of a Build CH.16// May-July '22 /  by Owen and Bobbie

Well, we missed a few months of the BoB.. oops! (At least it looks like we have made heaps of progress!)

Jokes aside from all the red in the cartoon, it has been a busy few months on and off-site.

Off-site, both Bobbie and Owen headed to some warmer country for a few work stints with Healthabitat as a part of the NT Healthy Homes Program… and oh my, wasn’t the sunshine and a chance to defrost nice! It was a privilege for ideals of architecture to be challenged and skills of architectural thinking to be exercised.

On-site, double glazing went into our home baked recycled HWD timber doors, the BAL-FZ shutters were installed over these doors and we finished installing the multi-layered wall system butting into the side of these shutters, vents and glass blocks - 2x13mm layers pf MR Fyrchek, sarking, 35x75mm pine battens and a 9mm Cemintel CFC sheet (yet to be painted).

The two beautiful Flamezone Paarhammer windows went in to the two gable ends to frame the sky (these windows don’t need shutters as they are tested to AS1530.8.2).

The deck welding was finished and the 15mm Cemintel CFC decking sheets (60kg each!!!) were screwed down as the finished deck flooring. A clear sealant with anti-slip coating was applied and it already feels like it has disappeared underfoot which we are so happy about..…. (It took ages to carefully coat the sheets and screw holes!). Anyway, the flush sills from inside to outside look and feel great!

Unfortunately we are also not escaping the price rises and increasing lead times on everything. We luckily did order a lot of products early last year and have been storing them on site, but as an example the flame zone shutters in themself increased in price by over $5k in just 5 months! YIKES!

AND WE ARE OFFICIALLY WORKING INSIDE!

With some great help on site, Bobbie lined the bathroom with the second-hand formply (as per livable housing standards prospective wall reinforcing), installed the sand and cement floor screed, waterproofed, and began tiling! She officially does not want to be a tiler and knows the pro’s and con’s of mosaic tiles!

We will keep pushing throughout August to keep the momentum cracking as interior finishes and electricals start to take shape with MBA Electrical (Bobbie’s brother) and the piggybanks gets closer to empty!

Oh and of course, Michael continues to make wicked jigs - check out the ladder extension leg in pic below!

Check out the cartoon and month of picks below….

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Biography of a Build CH.15// April '22 /  by Owen and Bobbie

Doors, Decks, Wrapping, Vents & PC list….

The last of the doors went in, the front door! We have learnt you always start in the back corner and work out all your mistakes where it won’t be seen very often, so the front door is beautiful!

Our vent flap frames went in and our Steel guy Simon got the order to make the flap frames once we troubleshooted hinge thicknesses, tolerances and swing.

Wrapping the building in sarking and folding and installing flashing continued for waterproofing. We were told with 2 layers of MR Fyrchek we wouldn’t need a sarking layer, but after all this rain it was clear the Fyrchek was starting to break down and so we quickly got to sarking!

We ordered in more steel SHS structure to pack up our decks to enable us to have flush sills from the inside to outside. This makes waterproofing tough but with the accessibility standard of not being allowed to have steps bigger than 5mm and not being able to get stamp ramps to work well enough, we felt this was our only option! This detailing has been tormenting our heads, but… we think we have it worked out!

Our PC list gets finalised thanks to Grant’s ‘Plumbing 101’ lesson on a flight back from working in Alice Springs with Healthabitat with Bobbie. So handy to have an amazing, generous mind to question and challenge, thanks Grant!

Rick the builder continues to do Saturdays with us which is really helping us kick along with progress!

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Biography of a Build CH.14// March '22 /  by Owen and Bobbie

Doors, Doors, Doors… it’s door month!

The doors came out of the workshop after extensive sanding and 3 coats of tinted Cutek in the workshop.. a long anticipated moment, and what a moment it was!

The doors were delivered to site and after some final opening and sill prep, the doors slowly but surely started going in. The jambs were screwed together and stood into the frame, then the doors hung… after going on and off about a billion times to get the sizes right, hinges right, rebates altered and and hardware installed… boy do we know doors now - no one can fool us on that one! The hardware makes the doors feel like they are gliding on air, perfect for frail aged hands! The glass man came and measured all the openings for our double glazing - an easy way to do it so it doesn’t matter if our openings are not perfectly square - cut to fit!

Our vent flap frames got fabricated and were painted by trusty Wayne, their openings were flashed and we detailed the wall system flap… now to build it.

Rick the builder started working with us of a saturday to help us move along on our merry way, Owens sister Jess flew all the way from Berlin to oil the last post and the incredible Brit Andresen visited the site to give her tick of approval!

Check out the cartoon and month of picks below….

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Biography of a Build CH.13// Jan&Feb '22 /  by Owen and Bobbie

What a way to start a new year!

January and February saw us get back into the swing of site life after eating too much christmas cake and catching COVID-19!

Owen continued his door detailing pursuit and working through AS1428.1 and accessibility standards which mandate very flush everything, including the hardware and tolerance trials and tribulations that come with that. Micheal and Bobbie kept plugging away at things on site such as finishing off the 2 x layers of Fyrcheck for the wall fire system, welding and installing a serious door head and best of all, we worked with The Glass Brick Company to install a custom pattern with 5 different blocks in each opening, which look great! (we were skeptical it might look overwhelming but it actually works well and the light patterns when the sun hit them are beautiful and everchanging).

The start of February arrived and we retreated to Micheal’s brilliant workshop to make doors and windows, which would end up being an 8 week process with a lot of learning. Bobbie was on site leveling and flashing openings, glass blocks and door sills ready for their site arrival and Wayne (owen’s dad) began the sanding and oiling of all of the exposed timber in the house (for the second time) due to the damage they received whilst exposed in the rain while we were trying to get the roof up.

We escaped to Tasmania for a week holiday to walk the incredible landscape of The Walls of Jerusalem and see some lovely friends. We snuck in seeing some great work by Rick Leplastrier and the Hobart boat shed he so admires… we now know why!

Flame Zone Glass Blocks
Apparently "very 1984". They are our option to bring light in due to restricted budget and high BAL-FZ bushfire rating. They have a cheap per $/sqm rate compared to windows and doors requiring shutters or expensive (and beautiful) BAL FZ rated windows. Unlike usual glass blocks, these fire rated blocks are quite a process to install -

1. Install frames level and plumb in opening

2. Line frame with fire rated expansion foam

3. Pack bottom frame with cement grout and lay first row of blocks level

4. Add plastic spacers and drill horizontal metal rods into wall frame approx min. 50mm and install vertical metal rods

5. Cover with grout and continue to lay all blocks

6. Let dry and fill exterior surround with LOTS OF fire rated silicon

7. Cover interior and exterior joins with white sand grout, wipe on with SpongeBob and let dry

8. Once grout is dry wipe over all glass blocks


Onwards and structurally upwards!

Love,

Dusty & Thirsty

We are taking note from The Grand Section on the value of documenting the journey whilst you’re in it by hand rather than just the final result by photograph.

At the end of each month we sit down and visually document the build journey of ‘Can’t Break Your Hip House’ up in Blackheath and the people who have been a part of that chapter. A great way to reflect on going-ons, small wins and lots of learnings

You can find further photographs on The Grand Section social media - instagram and facebook!

Biography of a Build CH.12// Nov&Dec /  by Owen and Bobbie

Well that’s a wrap for 2021! One year on from breaking ground and look at us FLYING along…

It’s been a full on year juggling working in Architecture and with Healthabitat, trying to build a house on site 4 days a week and trying to keep up with the washing pile. We can both say it sure has been filled with lots of lessons, headaches, heartaches, splinters, questions, sore thumbs as we learn to use hammers… and cake!

Thankfully we got our roof on just before the torrential and persistent rain November and December brought, and with drenched rain jackets day after day working under the drip line, we managed to get the 2 layers of our Fyrcheck Flame Zone (highest bushfire rating) wall system up! We have learnt that Flame Zone means lots of layers of products and lots of tubes of gunk to make sure there are no gaps bigger than 2mm…crazy!

Having the walls closed in means you really can start to understand the form of the house in its place and what the openings capture. As more bits go on and up, although clunky and chunky in parts… we think we got the important moves pretty spot on.

We are looking forward to the home stretch.. quite literally, 2022 will bring!

 
 

We wish you all a safe and sweaty holiday season full of good company, good vibes, slow days and….REST!!!

Onwards and structurally upwards in 2022!

Love,

Dusty & Thirsty

We are taking note from The Grand Section on the value of documenting the journey whilst you’re in it by hand rather than just the final result by photograph.

At the end of each month we sit down and visually document the build journey of ‘Can’t Break Your Hip House’ up in Blackheath and the people who have been a part of that chapter. A great way to reflect on going-ons, small wins and lots of learnings

You can find further photographs on The Grand Section social media - instagram and facebook!

Escape with The Grand Section Slow TV /  by Owen and Bobbie

The Grand Section Slow TV

Are you dreaming of big skies, open space and lots of breathing room?

Well, do we have your antidote or what (in link at bottom)!

Get lost in slow snippets from east to west of the country from The Grand Section journey. We have uploaded Bobbie's handlebar footage from across the country in 2017 which also featured in our National Exhibition Girthy; with Slim Edges. Journeying from the East to West coast you will get glimpses of our daily life on The Grand Section and the triumph of finally arriving on the West coast and diving into the water before ending with a great Troppo shin-dig in Perth.

If you look closely and you might see yourself in the journey…

Eat your heart out 7-hour Norwegian train journeys!

A Snapshot from Bobbie’s Handlebar Cam on The Grand Section in 2017 - Endless Gibber fun…

A Snapshot from Bobbie’s Handlebar Cam on The Grand Section in 2017 - Endless Gibber fun…