Oakwood 2

Tropical just when you find something to get your teeth into
it b****y rains top thread cant wait for it to
stop b****y raining for another installment

youngy73

you think correctly but the figures just didnt add up. sometimes you have to roll with the punches and bite the bullet.we will just have to ensure that we have sufficient drainage which will not be a problem.

youngy73

we looked at this but we also wanted to keep our land the same level as its going to have a wall all the way around. by raising the house and not the land it would have looked funny.

Timber Floor Au

Case of buggered if you do, and buggered if you dont huh !

steve`o

arhh
its the sydney mardi gras all over again

youngy73

well we have had a week or so without rain so we decided to start the earthworks. in the end we decided to use what dirt we had on site which meant cutting into the hill a fair bit. nothing a bit of landscaping wont tart up. we will have to build a couple of retaining walls but nothing to major. more for aesthetics. the dirt will quite happily sit there without any retention but it wouldnt look that pretty. have not had the bill yet. but they are charging an hourly rate so $6000 to $8000 should cover us. the photos are pre land clearing. then the land cleared. then the land benched. we are ready to start the build now but may leave it for a couple of months now as im going into hospital in a couple of weeks and then we are off to blighty for a month.

youngy73

oops, forgot the photos.

Geelong Gent

My thoughts.....








did ya get a chance to drive it

But seriously, its great to see the build progressing, good luck with the hospital visit and have a great holiday.

youngy73

i was going to ask for a go but at $600 an hour i thought it best to let them get on with it. we also had the kitchen plans come back today. i think im gonna get into the kitchen business. how can a few bits of chip board cost $40000.

stu:0

Bloody hell mate your neighbors are gona love you! I cant belive how much slope there must have been. Looks like your gona be the king of the castle. Good job you started first me thinks! Saved me havin a drive up anyway with you putting the photo's on!

youngy73

had a pleasant surprise today. i was expecting a hefty bill for the earthworks but it turned out to be far better than i ever imagined. the bill for the heavy machines was just over $3000. still got to get a bill off the bobcat driver who came today to tweak all the levels and get it ready for the piers (concrete pillars) which are under the slab and the footing for the retaining wall down the right hand boundary. piers and footing hopefully getting dug this week. the developer has told me one neighbour has cracked the shits over my earthworks because the excavator pushed over a few trees on his block. ideally it would be nice to keep all the trees but it aint possible so not worth stressing. if the tight arse developer had benched or even cleared building pads on the blocks there would not be any dramas.

youngy73

just thought i would put this on. shows our old house and our new block of land

wanderingwombat

Treeless blocks dont sell as well as lightly treed blocks. The reality is most suburban blocks are cleared by the owner anyway due to the risk of falling branches, especially up here for some reason????

WW

youngy73

i think i would rather have a blank canvas everytime. although mature trees can be a feature i would prefer bare dirt especially on a subrban block. i would look at it differently if i had 5 acres.

snappy

I was gobsmacked at the $6000 to $8000 cost as that is a huge amount for what they have done. $3000 is much more like it. It is a shame as the OH is a really good excavator driver and could have done it for you for the cost of your skills down here at our place....never mind.

Hope the hospital thing isn't anything too serious and have a good time in the UK.