Unclejake

A weekend kneeling and screwing isn't as much fun as one may think, but it's still August and the underground deck is pretty much finished! I'm happy.

The deck was an afterthought TBH, and had I put it on the other side of the cabin I'd need to cut down a bunch of trees... which would have mean't that the cabin was visible from the road below... which I'm not keen on. I want it to stay hidden. The 'underground' deck is very sheltered from the wind!

It's taken a while... but the deck frame is almost finished. One more weekend and it'll be ready to accept the decking timber, which will give me enough room to start on the cabin wall frames It's all good fun but bloody hard work! I have 2.8 tons of pavers that need to be carried up to the cabin if anyone is bored...

Hmmmm. This sounds really rather divine.

My phone camera seems to be a bit dodgy, but even blurry photos are probably better than none: Pile holes for deck = dug. Look at my bitch. Ain't he fine? He's 6'4" BTW. I'ma keep him Retaining/deck pile posts = in With luck I can start framing out the deck next weekend. It'll probably take about 6 weeks until the deck is laid, but then there will be enough room to start on the framing for the actual cabin. I also need about a million pavers, and to build two sets of stairs... but that can wait a few weeks/months too

There's not much to show lately gentle readers. The last couple of weekends have been spent digging between raindrops, but I've had a great deal of help with the digging, and also the portage of building materials up to the site. Rightly or wrongly I figured it was a good idea to place some drainage on the uphill side of the cabin floor. That took all day yesterday, but it's pretty much done now. Digging into rock sucks TBH, but there's enough clay to cause a likely problem so the sleeved drain got installed. Sorry about the bad photo. Night time and damp cellphone But the REALLY good news is that the dig out for the deck is done as of tonight. I still need to do lots of digging for the deck plies, retaining wall and roof posts, but the back of this bitch are broke. Two million kisses to the dear friend who did the bulk of the work. It was a good symbiotic relationship

^Just come. I'll bring the crushed salt and vinegar chips. /It's always better when the mechanic weeps

I got a bit of time to mess around doing some landscaping in the weekend. I also managed to get the basement closed in. UJ are happy TBH And there was even time to waterblast all the mud off the floor. Please forgive the poor photo. It was taken tonight under the FUCKING AWESOME lights... but the generator is now playing up so I've hauled it down to the workshop. I'll take a look at it Thursday

The lights were brand new Ha! http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?archive=1&id=1068569181

The lights are 150w Philips Tango 2s 150w sodium is about triple the light output of a 150w incandescent

I'm so happy you're getting coc at last Manu *winkface*

Gabled

What sized banana? The floor is 4.6 x 2.4 (external) so the inside will finish at 9.9sqm

Man oh man these lights are good. They take a while to warm up, but they hardly draw any electricity and are going to make a huge difference

It's too dark to work after 5.15pm and I only get weekends from 1pm so I built a light tower using some bits of wood, some sodium lights I got from TradeMe for $45 each, and extension cord and the generator Errrm. Turn your head. I dunno how to rotate this stz. Sorry

I have a big strong mate who offered to do the digging. He's doing a HUGE job

.

Young Jake'sAE101 is onto it. Smelly stuff stays outside. 10sqm is actually bloody tiny TBH. My current home bedroom is 16sqm... and I can't wait to be away from it and up on that hill

Evidently not. The deck will be 10 sqm too... which is also OK without a permit

I've had a mate help out with digging duties. He's preparing for the deck install and is doing a bloody fine job TBH

LOL. Youse are all mental. It's choice

It's mainly so moisture doesn't get close to the underside of the floor, and also to allow me to fit the clamps (the orange things) to the joists so I could tighten up the T&G My reflective foil isn't perforated so I've cut a slice in every droop to allow water to escape. The foil should reduce rising moisture and will also reflect a tiny bit of temperature and reduce updrafts when the T&G opens up, but it doesn't have significant thermal properties. It was cheap as all hell so I fitted it anyway.

Ewww. Bad interiors are bad. Nice work son.

It's exempt. It's only 10sqm! With the potbelly going the real issue will be keeping it cool enough. The floor is down already

Understood. There'll be no removing this stuff if it falls to bits as there's no crawl space. The drooping reflective foil is only 100mm or so above the ground. The roll was $65 and it seemed a better idea than fitting nothing.