Well yesterday I received the call from the builder I was dreading….
The shed building is on hold until September unless I can put a driveway in.
The concreter visited the block on Wednesday to complete the pouring of the slab, but the driveway was still too wet and boggy so the concrete truck refused to even enter the property! Worse yet, the concreter got his smaller truck bogged and had to get towed out!
Understandably he is now refusing to return until September when the ground has had a chance to dry.
Not good, and I was so pissed off when I got the call. My only option is to build a gravel driveway from the front gate to the shed location. Shouldn’t be too hard, it is only about 300 metres!!!!
So I spent a few hours yesterday and last night researching how to build a road. While Fi laughed when I told her what I had been doing, I actually found it really interesting, and learned a lot about what is involved.
So the plan now is to find a free weekend where I can head up, hire a bobcat and spend some time preparing the path. I’ll need to bring some dirt/clay from around the dams to build up the path a little and fill in the holes. Will also need to run some drainage channels to take the excess water away. I would expect this to be a full weekends worth of work, but I am actually looking forward to mucking around with a bobcat (yes as my wife points out I am really a frustrated tradie stuck in an IT job!!!!!)
Anyway, once the path is ready, I’ll need to order a truckload of gravel. I rang around yesterday and discovered there is a Quarry just 5km south of Violet Town 🙂
When I rang them for a rough quote, I was pleasently surprised!! From my estimation using google maps to measure, basing it on a 2.5m wide driveway, roughly 300m long I think I will need just under 7 cubic metres of gravel. Expecting a quote of about $800-$1200, I was shocked when Janet from Violet Town Quarry explained she could deliver 13 tonnes (about 8-9 cubic metres) for about $220-$250!!!! Fantastic!!! She even said it might be a little cheaper!!!
We had a good chat about it and I will need two truck loads delivered, the first one 60mm crushed rock to give a good solid base and help with drainage, then a second delivery of 20mm stone to finish the driving surface. The rock is delivered in a tip truck, and essentially they drive the road with the tailgate open and spread the gravel along the path. In between each load I will need to smooth the rock and press it once again using the bobcat.
The key to ensuring the road stays where it was put though is vegetation. From what I have learnt, the sooner you plant grass to the edge of the road, the sooner there is a good root system in place to absorb/slow the water and prevent erosion.
So all up it should cost me around $1000 including machine hire and gravel, an unplanned expense at this time, but a worthy investment that we would have to do before too long anyway.
So I expect I will be spending a few weekends at the block in the coming weeks to get the driveway in place so building can recommence sooner rather than later. I am actually looking forward to the project and will try to remember to take lots of photos and videos of the process to post up here.
In other news, shortly we will have a new kids bedroom/guest house at Little Duna!! That’s right, last weekend we purchased an old caravan on ebay. The van is very basic with no kitchen etc, but essentially what we are after is beds, so we have somewhere for friends to come up and stay, or for if the kids want to bring their friends up.
I have had to do some minor repairs to the van, such as more slats on the beds (was a pretty sloppy rebuild job), and we will need a new mattress, but it is almost ready to tow to its new home.
Below are some photos from Ebay…
So anyway that is my quick lunchtime update on what’s going on. I’m sure there will be a lot more updates in the coming week as the road building project begins and we get the guesthouse to its new location 🙂
PS – still pissed about the shed!!!
