Ready to Start Building

During the week the Development Consent and Construction Certificate paperwork arrived from council confirming that I really do have approval and  to start the work I faxed my "Notice of Commencement of Building" off to Council giving them the required two days prior notice to commencing building work. I have appointed Council as my Principal Certifying Authority. I was not sure how a private certifier would go with the hemp masonry walls. At least with Council I have already provided them with all the information and reports on the hemp walling.

In the week since I got Council approval, I managed to organise the surveyor, excavator, concreter and plumber. The surveyor will be on site tomorrow to do the building set out. The excavator will arrive Thursday or Friday to cut, level and prepare the site. The concreters will be on site next Monday to start and my plumber is able to work in with the concreters timing.

The only thing I was not able to organise was the trenching for the power and water. My excavator was booked up, but was able to rearrange a job to fit me in so that the site would be ready for the concreters. Since the long trench beside the battle axe driveway to for power and water was not as urgent I will have to organise it to be done another day when my excavator is available and I can hopefully line it up with my plumber and electrician connecting the power.

To add to a busy week I bought two toilets and a bath. This way I can give accurate set out distances to the plumber. I found the products and prices on e-Bay. The products were "Buy it now" and "pick up only." The bath was a better price at another seller, but I phoned up Tiles and Bathroom World at Granville where I was buying the toilets and they agreed to match the price on the bath, saving me a trip to another supplier, and I was able to buy all the items from their shop. All three items only just fitted in the car and I brought them home and added them to my collection of the two bathroom vanity units and sinks and a bathroom mirror that I had purchased from Ikea earlier. The Ikea items are flat packed, but the bath and two wall faced toilet suites are taking up quite a bit of room. 

I have also organised Owner Builder Construction and Liability Insurance with QBE through insurance brokers FD Beck. Their policy was the easiest to read, gave the best cover and best price of the three different owner builder insurance quotes I got.

Over the Easter weekend I secured the site and erected my owner builder sign. Thankfully all I needed to do this was a front gate across the driveway - the solution definitely has the look of a building site. My Easter weekend was also spent cutting back the vegetation that had regrown along the fence line and clearing enough of the vegetation beside the driveway to allow the fence to swing open.

Along with the work we also enjoyed a hot summery beach day at Culburra's Tilbury Cove on Good Friday and a pleasant walk from Honeymoon Bay to the deserted Silica Cove for a picnic lunch on Easter Sunday. Some chocolate eggs were also found amongst the long grass at the block.

Silica Cove, Jervis Bay