Ladies and gentlemen, before we begin...

Before the construction of our next house (replacing our first house) could begin in earnest, a few important, but not very pretty things had to happen first.


Clearing the block...

Then of course our El Cheapo Retaining Wall had to go in (see here).

Tom then dug a very professional-looking drainage trench (by hand might I add), laid an ag-pipe in it to drain the retaining wall, and then poured rocks over the top.

 

Then it rained steadily for about a month while we sat anxiously watching each day go by, and then we finally had some good weather and the builder took over for the next stage! It was time for the all-important step of concreting in the footings for the house. It doesn't look like much, but each of those little concrete circles goes about 2 metres down into the ground! This house isn't going anywhere!

 

Half the bricks arrived, which seemed a little strange since the house wasn't anywhere near being ready for bricklaying. But the ever-logical (and experienced) builders explained that they had to get some of the bricks delivered before the slab went down, so the truck could actually drive all the way to the back of the block to drop them off. A bit difficult once there's a house in the way!

 

And then the pros came in with their machinery (wimps) and installed the drainage for the house itself.

You can see the little white pipes sticking up from the ground - they're the plumbing for the bathrooms, laundry etc. And a whole bunch of rocks were delivered to prevent trucks from getting bogged in our driveway.

 

 Then the under-slab termite protection went down.

 The next stage of the process was where it got exciting - the slab!