Foundations

You can't have a house without foundations, can you? Well yesterday the piers were drilled down through the house pad onto the rock below, steel rods were inserted and the whole lot was concreted in place. At the front edge of the house the piers go 2.5m down in some places, which is one reason why the front of the house doesn't sit right on the front of the pad: it would be a very long way down to the rock! As it is, we've used 79m of concrete instead of the 43m we'd estimated, which puts us around $3,000 over budget - not the sort of news you want to hear right at the very start of the build, but it isn't exactly optional, is it?














I climbed up the benching at the back of the pad to take a look down onto the whole of the house pad to take this photo. You can see Michael talking to Warren, our builder, and Warren's colleague Josh who was cutting to size the wire cages for the strip footings that will rest on top of the piers. To the right of the photograph is the bedroom end of the house, and the larger rectangle to the left of Josh is the main living space plus pantry. Just out of the photograph to the left of the living space is the TV lounge, which will sit on a concrete slab (unlike the rest of the house): you can see the start of the wooden forms that will form a template for the slab when it's poured next week.



















It's strange seeing the ground peppered with the holes for the piers! Only a week ago it was plain earth and I took up some friends for a visit. Now things are really starting to happen...

Today we suffered slightly from a strange spatial mis-perception that afflicts owners when they go and see their house being built: suddenly everything seems really small. The bedroom end of the house seemed far too small to accommodate three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a walk-in wardrobe, and similarly the living end of the house seemed tiny and cramped. Warren assures us that this isn't so! I think our perceptions will shift around during different phases of the build. I know that I went to see a friend's extensive renovations and quailed at its miniscule size, and yet once it was painted and fitted out it seemed huge. Doubtless our minds will play the same tricks on us as the building goes up. Meanwhile I'm going to carry on feeling really excited about our house!