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Well here goes, as suggested by Jason and Isobel, I'm starting a discussion/gallery of our dream home.
I've posted a few photo's of the build process and I'm happy to continue to include photo's of other stages of our build if anyone is interested in a particular process and perhaps how we went about doing it, given the entire home so far has been built by just the brains of the outfit, hubby and the site manager, myself ha-ha
I drew up the plans to scale and then sent them off to be professionally drawn up by an architect.
The home we are building is in Victoria, about 45km west of Geelong. It is approx 30 sqrs including an indoor pool. The cladding is Mt Gambier limestone blocks.
First photo shows the pool hole being dug, something that had to be done well before much else could be done with the construction.
Second photo shows standard clay bricks used to build up the foundations to the required height for both the house and veranda.
We decided early on, that we would not have timber veranda's for maintenence reasons, so the 3rd picture shows 90mm poly pipe at 5mtr intervals for ventilation under the home.
Fourth pic shows the stumps and we used LVL bearers that were 6mtrs long and the 5th photo shows the LVL's that were 12.5 mtrs long.
Last photo shows pool placement.
I'll leave it at that now so as not to bore anyone wih my project but feel free to ask questions and if I can help with answers, I have plenty more photo's.
Cheers,
Barbara
Well thought I'd add a little more to this topic, pretty cold day here today as I think it is almost everywhere with predicted hailstones.
Next photo in the build I have attached, shows completed pool prior to framing with my offsider site manager Pipi checking the process as usual!
Next photo is a notherly view from the pool with framing going up.
Picture above shows framing in full swing and then came the trusses in the picture below. This part of the project was in my opinion the most challenging of anything else we've done on the home thus far.
The trusses were 12.5m wide with only the slightest overhang on the top plates of I think was only about 10cm or so. To pick the trusses up, we fastened two 8" x2" timbers in old measurements, in the main triangle section of the trusses so as not to compromise the gangnails, we then lifted them up with the trusty front end loader and sat the truss on the east end of the house. Then we fastened a rope at either end of the trusses and we dragged the it from the east to the west, some 17 mtrs initially, lifting or jumping it over the odd gangnail that was in the top plate here and there, until it was right up the west end and ready to stand up. Then we used a long board to start to lift the truss and took up the slack with two ropes fastened at the centre or top of the truss, one rope pulling east and the other west. Slowly aand painstakingly, we loosened one rope and tightened the other rope and mostly we succeeded with each truss, although the odd one slipped off the top plate and we had to re lower the truss, lift it back up onto the top plate by hand and start the lift again. To get the truss back up on the top plate, we had to completely skew the truss, even though we only had to gain that small amount of 10cm.
Fourteen trusses later and we had them up and then there were the smaller hip trusses but they seemed rather easy compared to the main trusses!!!
Next photo shows the pool roof. The picture can be a bit hard to make out but we actually have two roofs, the cathedral ceiling sitting under under the main roof of the home thus avoiding valleys. Gosh I hope there's no OHS workshop member analysing our makeshift scaffolding that we were working on ha-ha
If you look at the next photo, you can just make out the cathedral ceiling roof under the main roof.
The photo above shows the colourbond roof finally on and the brickwork on the go on the right hand side of the photo.
Last image below shows the brickwork on the south side almost finished and as I type we are now only about 80 blocks away from completion. Five windows on the east side of the home means lots of cutting, easy with a 9" grinder but very dusty. Limestone is very good to work with being able to fashion it very easily.
Will update again later in the week.
@Baretta11 it's a mega buzz reading your updates, & I acknowledge what you've said about the trials of doing the seemingly trivial stuff. 
You & hubby are taking on the ultimate project, well below your age group, busting butts, yet come across as laughing off the hurdles. Have I ever mentioned here that I love country folk? I've met plenty in my working years, & never met one that I didn't like.
Best wishes to you the Barettas, & Barettaettes, life's good.
Happy new year Barbara (@Baretta11) and many thanks for the update. Glad to see you have survived the busy season. Looking forward to seeing more progress on your house soon - hopefully after a well-earned rest.
Jason
My last post was Oct '16 and so much is now complete but especially the eaves or veranda lining spoken of the last time.
All the plaster and villaboard is finished, including in the pool room, all painting is also pretty much finished in the home, pool room still to go but that's a different type of paint. Final wall choice was Berger Polished Stone, half strength and the trim is Dulux White Exchange, quarter strength having gone through another 4 sample pots making it a total of 15 pots!!
Septic system is done, power is on, down lights are in including all ceiling fans.
Just completed the main bathroom having tiled to the ceiling. Huge job especially using 600 x 300 wall tiles and making sure we matched the grout lines with 300 x 300 floor tiles, very tricky but we got it!!
Still have to finish grouting but I've attached a few pics although they are only progress photo's.
Busy tiling the floors now and managed to lay about 150 tiles myself so very pleased with the progress. A few more weeks and we should have all the floor tiling that can be laid, finished and then we start on the second bathroom and hope to have it completed before we start with our busy silage and hay season that will probably start sometime in Oct again.
All in all, we've had a very busy 10 months with a wonderful hay season hence plenty of money spent since on the home!!
