Mont Blanc, seen from the site
Computer-generated image of the finished house
2004: Before
2004: Anna breaks ground for the foundations
2004: Extending platform
2005: Forms set for footings
2005: The footings
2005: Building the foundations
2006. Moni in front of the basement wall.
2006 (end): Basement
2007 (end): Basement.
2008 (June)
2008: The Deputy Chief Exacavator takes a well-earned break
18 May 2009. After 5 years of waiting, the house finally arrives.
18 May 2009. There's an awful lot of it.
18 May 2009. The first log goes in: the beam that will support the main floor joists.
18 May 2009. Moni and Anna in front of one of the garage entrances, with the newly-installed beam visible down the centreline of the house.
18 May 2009. Placing the joists and laying sheets of OSB to provide a temporary floor to work from. The joists are yellow because they've been treated against mould.
18 May 2009. Hard at work.
18 May 2009. On bosse comme des malades.
18 May 2009. Looking up from the basement.
18 May 2009. The view from the basement to a deep blue sky.
18 May 2009. Joist a detail.
18 May 2009. The corner of Steve's study takes shape.
18 May 2009. Most of the south-west wall already complete.
18 May 2009. Moving one of the smaller pieces into place.
18 May 2009. After the builders had gone, at the end of the first day's reassembly. Steve's study on the left, the lounge on the right.
20 May 2009. Looking towards Steve's study. The logs are now complete up to the top of the main floor and the builders have started installing the joists that will support the upper floor.
20 May 2009. Anna takes posession of the living room
... but generously agrees to share it with Mummy.
20 May 2009. Looking from the lounge into the kitchen. The tufts poking out from between the logs are pieces of hemp wool, the material used to insulate the long joints between the logs.
20 May 2009. Looking from the kitchen into Moni's study (right) and the main floor toilet/shower (left).
20 May 2009. Moni wonders when her study will get a floor.
20 May 2009. Looking from the kitchen through the lounge into Steve's study.
20 May 2009. The joists for the upper floor are all in place.
20 May 2009. Log ends on the wall between the kitchen and the lounge, showing the labels that enabled the builders to install each log in its rightful place.
25 May 2009. The log walls are complete. The gables will be timber frame structures (see next photo).
25 May 2009. The gables on the truck, waiting to be craned into position.
25 May 2009. The long log on the left will support the eave.
25 May 2009. The lounge doorway/window (foreground) and kitchen doorway (background).
26 May 2009. The gables and purlins are in place, which completes the supporting structure!
26 May 2009. Looking up past the lounge window to Moni and Steve's balcony on a rainy evening.
26 May 2009. The house, the crane truck and the site hut.
26 May 2009. The completed structure, looking towards Moni and Steve's room.
27 May 2009. The first half of the roof sub-structure is on. It consists of a timber-insulation-timber sandwich, which will soon be covered by steel panels.
27 May 2009. The first half of the roof. The green and white packages are the panels for the other half.
28 May 2009. One of the downspouts from the rainwater gutter.
28 May 2009. This side of the roof has received its waterproof sheeting and the laths onto which the steel panels will be fixed that constitute the outer skin of the roof. The hole in the middle of the picture is for a skylight.
28 May 2009. The lounge door/window.
28 May 2009. Steel roof panels awaiting installation.
28 May 2009. Looking towards Moni & Steve's bedroom, with the laths on the roof just visible.
28 May 2009. The south-east side of the roof, ready for the roofing panels.
28 May 2009. What are you doing on MY site?
30 May 2009. Moni and Steve's room (right) and Anna's room (left). Seems almost a shame to put the other half of the roof on.
30 May 2009. One half of the roof almost finished. Just the flashing round the skylights and at the gables to be installed.
30 May 2009. Anna's room. At the bottom of the picture, the glass doors from the kitchen to the terrace.
30 May 2009. Moni and Steve's room, looking towards Anna's room.
30 May 2009. Our shiny new copper guttering. Won't look like this for long.
30 May 2009. A stack of Sapisol, these wood/insulation/wood strips are simply fitted together and nailed onto the purlins to form the load-bearing structure of the roof and the insulation.
2 June 2009. The builders installing the last of the Sapisol strips that form the second half of the roof. The ridge of that roof is about 9 m above the ground, by the way.
2 June 2009. The second half of the roof well under way.
3 June 2009. The door is now in place that leads from Moni and Steve's room out onto the balcony. Likewise the window.
3 June 2009. Roof detail, showing the vapour barrier that lies on the Sapisol (see 30 May) and the laths to which the steel roofing panels will be fixed tomorrow.
3 June 2009. The front door.
3 June 2009. The second half of the roof, all ready to receive the roofing panels.
9 June 2009. This side of the house is almost finished.
9 June 2009. All the windows and outside doors are in!
9 June 2009. The roofer fitting the flashing around one of the skylights.
9 June 2009. Afternoon sunlight shining where Moni and Steve's balcony will be.
9 June 2009. All finished this side.
9 June 2009. If you didn't look too closely, you'd think it was ready to move in to.
