Final Approval

The final inspection on the house took place in late January and the Final Occupation Certificate came through in February. The Council inspector had no issue with the hemp walls or their finish. The final only outstanding issues following the inspection were providing a certificate in relation to the waterproofing and the confirmation that the drainage was carried out in accordance with the relevant standards. The certificates for these were easily provided and final approval came through.

The Occupation Certificate

On the same day as the final inspection, the measure up for the shower screen took place and a month later Alpine Glass came back and installed the semi frameless shower screen in the wave mosaic shower.

Shower with screen

Mosaic during construction

Although the house took longer to build than expected, it always seems to do so when you are owner building, I am pleased to have finished in the reasonable time frame of 2 1/2 years, considering that we were building on weekends 3 hours away from where we were living.

There are still a few minor things to finish, such as installing a piece of door trim I lost, putting the draft stopper on under the front door, a second coat of paint on the downpipes and installing the lawn edging, but these will get done slowly.

Meanwhile I get to keep building. I have made the fit out for the wardrobes from the recycled packing crate timber that had been sitting in the backyard for 2 1/2 years. I bought this timber for the formwork, from e-bay I got a semi trailer load of timber for $130 (including transport). The OSB was used for the formwork and the pine was stacked for later use.

Pine waiting to be reused

Thinner boards stacked

The timber had greyed and discoloured from being in the backyard. But a planer and a belt sander and a lot of time, brought it back to blond. The fit out is simple, but cost nothing but time and a box of batten screws, and it reused what would otherwise have been a waste product.

Wardrobe fit out

Third wardrobe fit out

The house was finished inside but with the front yard, which operates more like a back yard, covered in boards it still looked like a building site. Over Easter we prepared the yard for the turf by removing all the boards, removing the remaining weeds, levelling the yard and adding a layer of turf underlay (a mix of sand and composted chicken poo). The boards and plastic had been put down of the area we wanted to turf to kill the weeds.

The yard covered in boards

The week after Easter Sir Walter soft buffalo the turf arrived from Turfco in 1.5m long slabs. We installed a watering system under the lawn, linked up to the water tank, the lay out the lawn

Beautiful new lawn

In the instructions I have read turf needs to be rolled to flatten it to the ground and get rid of air gaps. I did not have a roller so improvised with some large pieces of hardwood attached to my feet. It was awkward, but walking back and forward I achieved the same result as if the lawn had been rolled. Rain over the previous week and a half had meant that the yard was waterlogged, stepping in certain places you would sink into the mud, but the hardwood rolling shoes got rid of these dips and flattened the lawn nicely. 

Lawn flattening shoes

Some finishing touches have been adding pictures to the wall. The pictures are Tenugi fabric and posters we got from our trip to Japan. I made the picture frames from Tassie Oak to match the door and window timber.

Gallery in the main room

Totoro and Koi pictures