Raymond Luxury Yacht

Monty Python rocks.

Week....10?

It's been a long time between drinks on the weekly updates, what with there not being much process since the first part of the foundation was laid.

However, that all changed last week! There are now bricks piled around the foot print of the house, which have hopefully now been laid onto the concrete that was poured like 6 weeks ago. Hopefully I'll manage to pop up and check it out tonight after work. To tide things over until then, I've got some pictures of the different steps that will happen before the slab gets poured.

This is our lot, resplendent with piles of bricks around it.

The next step involves putting up these pole things, which presumably aid in the brick laying. I hope they're not being used as a guide, because half of them are wonky. Maybe they're actually temporary clotheslines for more domestically inclined brickies. Who knows? Certainly not me.

After the "pole" stage, the bricks that were previously sitting around the footprint are..(drum roll please)...laid onto the footprint. My understanding is that the final floor level of the unit will be level with the top of the bricks you can see in the picture below.

Bonus brick laying shot!

The next step is for all the plumbing lines and I think the first bits and bobs of the electrical lines to be sunk into the earth that will be under the slab. My guess is that the bit with all the pipes sticking up in the picture below will be where the kitchen, laundry and at least one of the bathrooms will be.

After all the pipes are in, the ground inside is levelled off and topped with this grey gravel (I think it might be called gun metal or something). The units below have been finished to this stage for a while now while they wait for the rest of the units (including mine) to be completed so they can pour the concrete. I don't know how they stop the concrete from pouring straight off the edge of the unit as the gunmetal is flush with the top of the brick line, but I'm sure those zany builders have an answer for that.

So that's it. Hopefully there will be some more progress this week!

In other more interesting news, I'm going to Sydney for an extended long weekend next week, and catching Them Crooked Vultures play on Australia Day. I'm really looking forward to it, will be good to catch up with some Sydney peeps, hit the beach and play drink the beer (I'm going for the high score!).

To close, here's my fave TCV tune at the moment:

Plasma

It completely slipped my mind, but we also had a few little events at home before Christmas that are probably blog worth. The first is that I picked up a new TV in the pre-chrissie sales, for a bit of a bargain too.


With a little help from a friend in the brash bargaining department, I picked up a Panasonic 46inch 1080p Plasma (TH-P46G10A) for $1,850, around $650 off the ticket price, and $350 cheaper than I'd seen anywhere else. Pretty sweet deal! Here's Panasonic's website photo of the bad boy:

It seemed so big when we got it that I almost second guessed the purchase - it seemed to dominate the room and it was so much bigger than it seemed in the show room! That wore off in seconds and the size doesn't look too big at all. I'm very happy with the purchase, although at first, it was painfully obvious how low resolution the SD digital channels are.

As a bonus, the TV came with a free camera (via redemption, which is taking forever). The camera is a Pana Lumix DMC-FT1, which is all kinds of rugged, shock proof, water proof etc. It can even do HD video underwater! I'm pretty excited about it, I have never had a camera quite so fancy before, and am very much looking forward to it.

The other big thing is that our housemate moved out, which is most excellent! We now have some additional room in the living room, a spare bedroom and less clutter generally. There's also one less person to consider when we have people over, or want to stay up late etc.

The spare room has already come in handy a couple of times over the Christmas break.

Good times.

On a more sombre note, I leave you with a warning - Don't watch Terminator: Salvation. It's really terrible.

No updates...

...because there has been no progress, on our bit of the site at least. There is still stuff going on at the other town houses at the site. Mostly ground work things like plumbing and building up the little bits of wall at the base to the floor level and squishing out the dirt in the middle to put the slab on top.

This is not very good descriptive language, but I'm not sure what it is all called. I've been learning a lot about how houses are put together. I'll make sure I put up pictures when they're doing it to our place, but I probably won't bother while they're just doing it to other ones.

Until next time, here is a classic interwebs video where a nerdy looking dude in an orange jumper breakdances with mad skills (yo):

Week 4 - Nothing to report

Checked out the site yesterday, and there's sweet FA going on for our lot. There was some brick laying going on other the other side of the site for the two story townhouses, which surprised me, because there's still no slab down, and there are big piles of dirt still in the middle of the sites where the brick work is going on.

But then, what the hell do I know about construction? Maybe that's how it's done.

In other news, have decided that I'm going to see the Prodigy next year up in Sydney with my man Rob. Time for some raver nostalgia! This does, of course, run the risk that they'll just play shite off their last two albums (which I have not bothered with, but have it on good authority from my man T-ford that they're a bit naff), but I'm crossing my fingers. Fat of the Land was the first CD I ever bought as a spotty teenager, and it's still a ripper listen to this day. Listening to the Scratch Perverts drop Outer Space at Digital 2001 (at the Entertainment Centre!), which was the first dance gig I ever went to, has to be one one of my best raver memories ever.

I can't miss the possibility of re-living some of that, exorbitant price ($101!) or not.

It's not the same without a room full of sweaty ravers singing along, but here's a taste:

Week 3 - foundations!

I made it up to the site last night to check out the progress, and the change was quite dramatic compared to previous visits. The foundations have been poured on most of the townhouses (including ours!) and there's building supplies, big earth moving equipment, site offices and multiple portaloos!

I took quite a few pictures, but unfortunately, due to the late hour and my poor excuse for a camera, they're not all that great. Here are the best of them, starting with our townhouse. Note the bloody great earth mover sitting in what will be our courtyard.

The view from across the road (sticklers for continuity may spot that the portaloo has been moved away from our plot - I consider this a victory for the general smell of the area):

And across another townhouse from the south side. To give you some indication of where things will lie, think back to the plans. In the right hand side of the picture below will be the master bedroom. If you follow the line of the foundation to the left, there will be the ensuite and bathroom, followed by the kitchen and the lounge/dining just about where the earth mover is. As noted earlier, the earth mover is actually sitting in what will be our courtyard. I'm not exactly sure why there are so many big piles of dirt in the house, but I'm sure it will all become clear in the end.

You can also see from this shot that we're going to be quite close to our neighbours. I maintain that it's still a step up from an apartment building.

Elsewhere around the site, you can see the site office (which is a new addition this week) and more big equipment!

Bricks! Their colour doesn't really show up very well here, but it's all fairly neutral anyway.

Things are slightly more advanced at the southern end of the complex. These are mostly multi-story units from memory.

Foundations are still being dug and poured on the north west corner of the site.

Didn't make it up to the site this weekend...

...will try and make it up tonight to do today's progress report. Until then, enjoy this excellent advert for the NZ Book Council: