Lock up stage in a day

Today was a major milestone in the project with not only the 40” containers arriving but they were all to be craned into place. After a 1 week drought in Tully of course it had to rain overnight. The crane guys were not happy and seemed to lack a little confidence. ½ an hour later the containers arrived and after some deliberation it was decided to off load the containers down the road a bit. After this we were going to try to crane them up the hill. Although all of this was a long process and took most of the day it all went relatively smoothly and we made it up the hill fine with all 4 in place.

Now I must say they certainly bolted up nicely and with only one still in need of some minor levelling and adjustment. In fact if you look at the string lines I would be well pleased to see a house built as true.

So many colours to chose from.

All this work really wears you out and I hope I have lost some weight in the 5 days I have been here.
Here are some colour choices we have been toying with and my worm out gloves.

House containers arrive (2 of 4)

Finally the first 2 containers arrive they are pallet width so some extra mm’s inside. I have to cut the 4 doors of these and I hoped that Tina was here to assist. Not really sure what to do here so I left the doors shut and just cut through the hinges. Then open the doors and whammo they just fall down. To easy, next job bring it on.

now for some luxuries

We are building and indoor/outdoor toilet and shower. The toilet is a composting type very environmentally friendly (apparently no smell) and the shower is yet to be confirmed. So we need drains and soakage pits along with some water. We will have n outdoor sink also. So I have built a retaining wall to allow us to level out the area between the workshop containers.

House stumps drilled

Not much has occurred for a couple of weeks while Carol was in town. Planning continues in the background with steel ordered, more quotes obtained and finally the purchase of 4 containers from  Townsville.  I have some additional spare time on my hands now that I find myself without a job. So while Tina is off to Adelaide for 2 weeks I head down to the block for some serious work.

Before Tina left though we marked out all the stump holes for the house, next job was to get Chris to come around and drill them all. This went pretty smooth with all 25 holes dug in an afternoon.

Next job is to put in place 20 sets of concrete blocks to sit the containers on which arrive in a couple of days. This goes relatively smoothly with loads of 10 blocks at a time being carried up the hill in the tractor. The new laser level comes in handy and all blocks are put up over a couple of days. Looks very odd because they seem to all be at different heights.  All done I hope they are level enough and hold up the containers accurately.

I have tidied up the wiring in the workshop and now looks quite tidy with switches for lights and power. I have purchased a 240w Solar panel so I hope to get at least some free power, well until the wet season comes.

I have welded the first workshop container to the stumps and I’m working on drains for the new composting toilet and shower set up.  

New Rainforest trees

This weekend we are on a mission and a list of jobs. We pick up 35 trees all local rainforest ones and plant out and area to revegetate. The tractor comes in handy here as we use the rotary hoe to prepare the soil first. So with this done it is a simple job just to plant these trees.

That evening we start to deck out the guesthouse with light, power and of course sound. It will be a 12 volt system  and we should have everything we need to complete this. It is good to have some inside jobs to do. It goes together quite well and we finally have music.

I have been to Glenfords tools again this time a drill press and bench to put it on. The bench was a bargain at $ 50. We will have so many brackets to drill for the Workshop & house roof a drill press will be well worth the investment.

We have been on a plant buying rampage and out balcony in Cairns looks like a garden centre, with plants being broken up to smaller plants and propagation occurring.

Big boys and little boys

I have been back to the tractor shop about 5 times now and after some further research I put in an offer and we are tractor owners .Next job getting it from Cairns to the block, a car trailer and we are on our way. It is wet so it is not easy to mow or till but I have a good play.

Jesse the excavator guy has down a great job building up the site pad and adding some huge rocks down each side of the driveway. These are needed because in the wet the driveway will just disappear with the volumes of water that will wash down the hill. It looks great and he has even done some work around the driveway drain where all the water will end up.

House plans are off to council

We finally receive our plans and there are only some minor corrections to finalise these. Next step 6 start energy rating and plumbing and sewerage plan. These things all take longer than you hope but finally we have them all the forms are filled out and sent to Council. Not we just sit and wait for the news.

I have the quotes for the steel to build the stumps the workshop roof and main house roof. The stump steel is ordered and we can prefabricate these while we wait for council approval.

We have ordered the workshop roof material as well and this will be delivered soon, only problem is I cannot put it up until the containers have been craned up the hill because the 40” containers need to go past it and there is not enough room up the driveway once this roof is up.

So now the next problem as we are not having much luck finding the containers we need which is a bit of a problem when you are building a container house. Hmm might need to take a trip down to Townsville for this as there are lots there but I need to go and see them.