Bon fire at the block!

 It's been awhile since I last posted, and look! it's about trees again! Well, it's about burning all the leaves and branches scattered all over. We (mostly Hub haha) cleared lots and piled them into 3 big bon fires.
Our wonderful friends came to help again with chainsaws and man and woman power.


This is the biggest fire, near the front of the block. This is seconds after being lit.

 About 20 seconds later. What a difference hey!

5 minutes later, almost all gone. This shows just how dry it all was. 

View to the left side, about a 1/4 way down the block. You can just see the little picnic area the kids set up. They had chairs, food and drinks. They would go off exploring, then come back to refuel.
Beside them you can also see the trees that came down. Hub and our friends have put in a lot of work here.
And of course there is still plenty more to go.

This weekend we are heading out there again to mark the other trees that have to come down. Our awesome tree guy will come out and bring them down for us. They are on the fence line so need the professionals for these ones.


I'll make the next post tree free, or very little anyway :)

Pics of Trees!

More Tree Talk

Firstly I should apologise for the lack of posts. Its not like nothing has been happening. Life is just very busy, work & commuting swallows up 50-60 hours a week for me and Clare is busy being a shuttle service for 7 children. Between work, school, kinder, playgroup, netball, swimming, basketball and many more things we have been "chipping" away at things (pun intended).

We started removing trees in the lead up to winter. Ben, one of our friends has been more than eager to help out. My chainsaw is a POS so we've been lucky in that Ben has several. I'm happy to see his wood pile stocked up so its win win.

We removed some of the larger trees from the front of the block before winter. One tree in particular had been ring barked by the previous owners and was dry and cracked and had 2 houses in its drop radius so it had to go.

Winter proved to be impossible to get any work done, its rained so much. Our original plan was to place the barn down the back of the block, there were 5 trees in close proximity that were all close to the fence and our neighbors tanks so we called in experts for those.

The trees came down last week, so Ben and I spent Saturday with chainsaws in hand and made a decent dent in clearing the fallen trees. There are 3 separate bon fires now with plenty of wood for both families (though I'd prefer Ben take as much as possible).

I've had a change of mind on the barn, I was originally going for a steel framed timber clad job towards the back of the block, now we are looking into a Strawbale barn to match the house. Stay tuned on that.

Anyhoo here are some pics of how the block is starting to clear up a little more. there is so much more light now too.

We have another wood chopping session this Saturday, then there are 2 more groups of trees to come down then its soil samples and planning permits and with a bit of luck we should start gearing up for some real house stuff in the new year.

Tree pics to come!

Timberrrrr

Trees are coming down!
The Tree feller (Fellow, haha) called yesterday to say he would try to get out today to fell the trees on the property line between us and out neighbour.
A few of them were ring barked so they needed to come down and the other few would land on our neighbours house and/or water tanks if they came down in a storm. We only have tank water out here so that is not something I want happening.

We were given two quotes to bring down the trees. The first was $4000. Yup Four thousand smackers!
So when I heard that I thought I would start googling and see what I could find. There is a LOT of difference out there when it comes to chopping down a tree. There are quite a few variables when it comes to quotes.
You need to write down exactly what you want done and be clear.
Sometimes it can come down to the size of the company/people you hire. They can be doing the same thing yet have  price difference of up to a grand or more. One post I came across said when he had two quotes, the guy who quoted him the higher amount told him to go with the cheaper guy. He said his overheads were higher, hence the higher quote.

So I figured we would get another quote and see what happens. I was resigned with the fact that it may be that we would be handing over four grand.
So imagine my excitement when our second quote was so much cheaper. It wasn't just cheaper either. The guy came out to meet Hub at our land and chatted about what needed to be done. The quote also included adding in an extra tree further along the fence that is in line with our neighbours front water tank.
So $1200, and with another tree added on the list!

We will be going to the land tomorrow to see how it's going, and take some pics :)

Stay Tuned!

Barns and bridges

With the floor plan back with the drafts person and a new baby in the house and 4 children starting school progress has been slow.

But last week I did manage to get an indicative estimate for my "One garage to rule them all" garage, my barn, my man shed & blokes retreat a.k.a. the "barnjmahal"

The barnjmahal has a decent list of requirements to meet here are some

• Has to fit our bus (at least 2.4m clearance)
• Has to fit my car
• Has to Fit multiple Motorcycles
  
• Has Pot belly stove for garage sessions in winter
  
• Has to fit a decent workshop (incl. Welder, drill press, bench grinder, vice, compressor, bike lift, work bench wall mounted tools, tool chest & more)
• Sufficient storage space (short term and long term)
• Small Corner Bar with fridge
• 2 Lounge chairs
  

At first I was really liking the Quaker style barns, essentially a double garage with a second floor, however they do have quite a low roof (from the ground to the first floor), so catering for the bus would see it looking a little awkward not to mention my workshop would probably go upstairs, its hard to get motorcycles up stairs.


Then I started swaying more towards the "American Style" barns with pitched roof.
Commonly built as 1, 2 or 3 bay they have the benefit of storage in the roof and access to the separate bays for separate doors.


I certainly prefer the timber clad barns, they have so much character especially as they age and weather.

The kicker though is that I want to build the "Barnjmahal" mostly myself so a full timber framed and clad barn would be complicated and from the select number of Victorian companies that produce them - rather pricey.

So I started looking at American style barns clad in colorbond, not exactly the look I wanted but steel construction (read easily assembled).

I then came across a company that offers barns and sheds that you can option up or down. Essentially you get the style of barns frame, roof & guttering with things like doors and cladding omitted.

Meaning I basically get this with no walls. For about $7500
Inside there is mezzanine storage (full or half length) that I can adjust to suit the 2.4m height required for the bus.

The cost doesn't include a slab which for the size I'd be looking at around 5k. I'm still uming and ahing as to whether I'll go slab or some other form of flooring. I've often pined over poured mud brick/cobbled floor but I don't know what this would age like in a workshop environment.

I also hope to clad the barn not just in timber, but radially cut timber, or wonky boards as they are sometimes called.


I love the lines and contours which while completely uneven have a sort of harmony about them.

We plan on using radially sawed timber for the cladding on the sides of our pitched roof:

This timber mill has the office clad with these boards, I drool over building when I see it.

So that's where I'm at with the barn

So on to bridges...............I've been dreaming of bridges lately, we will have to put a bridge in for crossing the creek to the high side rear of our land, I want to use the space up there so perhaps a suspended bridge could work.




I can dream.

I found a bathtub I like

Been awhile!

We've had a crazy few months here.
Our latest and last baby was born early December. The 9th member to complete our family, a gorgeous little girl.
Throw in a 2nd birthday, Christmas, New Year, holidays, Hub off work for a few weeks while I had a blissful babymoon, and of course lets not forget the general craziness of our lives!

2012 is here and I have declared it the year of the house. It WILL be finished this year. We had lots happening in 2011 and it was a great year. But thankfully this year we can focus on the house only.

First stop is meeting with our lovely draftswoman to talk about changes, adding in anything we forgot/didn't think of etc.

I also need to call and get a copy of the Land Title sent out.

I have a quote for the tests we need done on the land. We will be putting money aside each pay and then when we hit the amount I will book the tests in. We want to pay as much out of our own pocket which means less to borrow later.

'til next time!