Swerve house reno

[Swerve]

16th April 13- My morning view and very wet start, plastic saved my job site overnight, pump ready to go, trench was half full of water




16th April 13- First concrete hitting the trenches



16th April 13 - Wet morning after I sheeted the trenches last night and it was pi$$ing down, concreter was pleased as I saved many cave in's




16th April 13 - 2nd load of concrete, ended up with 4 loads, total 18m3


All done

[bosque]

Way to maneuver Steve. That is a big hurdle to clear and the savior was sticking it out and getting those holes covered.
Oh, and those tracks look awesome....imagine those on a Patrol! In my 20's, I had a wheeled bobcat pivoting on one wheel....doing stupid tricks when the boss was gone...oh so fun.

[miller]

Hell yeah Steve, you've been hard at it. Wish we had a video of you running around madly trying to cover the trenches

Hell Patrol looks the part on the job site too.

[Swerve]

29th April 13 - 10 Pallets of bricks, 4ton sand, 40 bags cement arrived for the brickie tomorrow.

Double brick up to floor height, then bearers and joists on main room, slab for garage and rumpus. All walling single stud walls with rendered blueboard exterior.

[azsteve]

I'm really enjoying watching the progress on your renovation! I noticed on your list of expenses there isn't a line for permits... youre doing a serious addition, that would cost a bundle here in the states...

[Swerve]

We pay that up front in the way of council fees etc. Council costs were about $4-5k all up

[bosque]

Looks like you are about ready for me to come over and start framing. Whats a flight to sydney cost these days?

[azsteve]

We pay that up front in the way of council fees etc. Council costs were about $4-5k all up

Holy crap! That's a lot steeper than I would have thought... or would have to pay here... gets me thinking there must be a ton of work done w/o permits down there...

[bosque]

azsteve,
The economy in Australia is different so it's kind of too broad of a comparison. Coupled with that, I think they have a higher safety standard and I would suspect employed inspectors that love to drive around and bust nonpermitted work. Not worth it. Plus, as a homeowner you really need the permit to claim it for a future sale and take some tax deductions.
The thing that erked me was doing upgrades meant the county was going to "upgrade" my taxes too.

[RiverPatrol]

That's a lot of bricks. Whoever lays all of those will have a backache for a very long time. I don't envy that job. But it sure looks like it's going to be amazing when it all done!