Happy new year

Only 2 weeks to go to handover and the house is almost there!

Despite temperatures outside the house soaring to 36 degrees today in Brisbane, the inside of the house, particularly the parts with concrete floors, were refreshingly cool. Higher rooms, warmed through the glass and natural thermal air movement, cooled down quickly once windows and louvres were opened to admit breezes.The study has been happily taken over by foreman Jean-Yves - a place to enjoy river glimpses, the courtyard outlook and a view to the building team.
Bedroom cabinetry is almost complete and ceiling fans and lightshades are in. Desktops await a linoleum finish.

Bedrooms to the front of the house not only have fanlights over doorways but also high openings to release hot air and to offer sky views through the even higher glass louvres beyond.

Thermal sensors are one part of the Ecovision information gathering system. These are scattered around the house and feed information on temperature variations into the central computer to add to the information on water tank levels and use, gas and electricity consumption and energy generation.

Living Room

Gallery view towards front door

Kitchen - almost complete

Open stairs to allow breezes and light.

Ensuite is almost complete. The window to the east is a source of considerable heat gain (reflected off the galvanised roof just below the sill) so may be upgraded to more insulating timber louvres.
External venetians, adjustable in height and angle provide flexible shade to the River Terrace.

Christmas Eve Eve

Everything is looking sparkly and almost nearly finished. Timber floors are being polished today and the concrete floors were revealed from under their protective plastic sheeting - beautiful and cooling on a hot summer's morning.

The building team has been working flat out and will continue until the end of today when they collapse in a big heap.
Living RoomKitchen - not yet finished! Clear and stained hoop pine solid ply joinery with reconstituted stone benchtops.Sunny central courtyard. There will be grass between the pavers to filter rainwater into the tank below.All limewash rendering is now finished to the blockwork.
Blackbutt stairs on painted steel stringers are now almost complete - just waiting for the decorative screen and handrail.

At the 11th hour

Although the whole house and landscaping won't be complete for Christmas as hoped, the inside should be sufficiently there to appreciate how the finished house will look. Here are photos from this morning - 2 days before the team has a rest after working 6 day weeks.
All concrete polishing is now complete. Entry pavers and slab show the difference between the internal concrete (and pavers, below architect's feet) and standard Portland cement with bluestone and hand-scattered coloured aggregate.
Stairs are going in today - no more ladders and steps made of salvaged ply and timber.
The floor and wall tiles (recycled content, glass and glazed porcelain) are complete.

Nearly there!

Narrow chamferboards salvaged from the previous house have new life as fence palings.
Daniel, fitting the translucent roof over the Plant Room
The Entry has a outer, battened enclosure to allow for secure airflow through the house from or to the north.

Solar power and other trimmings

The 3.2kW bank of photovoltaics is now on the roof and supplying power to the construction team during the day. This will provide all of the household energy needs and hopefully a surplus to sell back to the grid.Rainwater tanks have some water in them and a few of the stormwater gullies take the diverted, not-quite-warm-enough hot water back to the rainwater tanks for reuse (see the small black pipe behind the downpipe).
Ceiling fans are now installed and some of the compact fluorescent recessed downlights.Doors in solid hoop pine have been hung.

Grinding

The first pass of concrete grinding is underway, with the floors and sitting ledges transformed with the white aggregate (chosen to improve light reflection) exposed. The stair screen in the Entry and Gallery is now being lined with the original house hoop pine flooring and small bands of hardwood.
Some splashes of colour...

Screens and joinery

The locally produced planatation hoop pine doors and windows to the exterior have now been hung, giving a better sense of the spaces.
The Entry area is almost complete with recycled hoop pine flooring to the ceiling, sustainably source ironbark batten screen to the garage and soft finish of the natural limewash render to the blockwork.

Limewash paint to blockwork is now finished.
Fences are almost complete, all constructed from parts of the original house. The rear, west boundary uses the hardwood t&g flooring from a more recent addition and the courtyard screen featuring the original verandah posts is now complete. The front feature fence will reuse the narrow chamferboard cladding.

Hardwood flooring before...
After...
Hardwood verandah posts before...After...
Chamferboards before...Stay tuned for next week's entry for "after"