Greetings from Tasmania

[ajaffa1]

Hi Guys, it`s been a while. I`ve been a bit busy since we got burned out in the 2019 bush fires. I spent 12 months fixing chainsaws, water pumps, generators and any other piece of equipment needed by the local community to help with the recovery, all for free. I got an award from the New South Wales government for my efforts, shame they didn`t invite me to the awards ceremony. I guess they thought I was a loose canon after I got in the Governor Generals face twelve months earlier. I got my award several months later after they mailed it to a place I was no longer living in. Shameless b*stards the lot of them! Pleased to say that most of them lost their jobs in the recent elections. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Two years ago we bought a 3 bedroom property in Tasmania, if I climb on the roof I can see the sea. Sadly, having got ourselves somewhere to live, Covid struck. My Wife eventually (6 months later) got permission to travel to our new home. I had to wait a further 18 months before I was allowed to travel. Two years living in a caravan changes ones perspective enormously, I now realise how lucky I am to have lost all the sh1t that I had accumulated over the previous 60+ years. Most of it I didn`t need or want, I was just storing it because I couldn`t part with it.

So, what does the future hold? Our new home is beautiful and has a double garage but no man space! I have put in an application, to the local council, to build an 13m x 12m shed. We recently got approval for the shed and are now progressing the final designs and hope to start construction in the next few months. I would like to share the shed design/construction and fit out with the LEF. I will do my best to share photos of the build along with costs and pitfalls. I hope this will be helpful to others planning to do something similar

Thank you all for the support you have given my Wife and me over the last few years.
Bob

[broncodriver99]

Welcome back Bob! Good to hear things are looking up. Looking forward to seeing your shed build and what the next chapter holds for you guys.

I completely understand what you mean about storing things just because you won't let them go. I recently came to that conclusion myself and am starting the process of getting rid of some stuff,  much of it needs to go. It really is amazing how much it weighs on one to have tons of stuff accumulated that serves little or no purpose.

Best of luck!

[mikenash]

Hi Guys, it`s been a while. I`ve been a bit busy since we got burned out in the 2019 bush fires. I spent 12 months fixing chainsaws, water pumps, generators and any other piece of equipment needed by the local community to help with the recovery, all for free. I got an award from the New South Wales government for my efforts, shame they didn`t invite me to the awards ceremony. I guess they thought I was a loose canon after I got in the Governor Generals face twelve months earlier. I got my award several months later after they mailed it to a place I was no longer living in. Shameless b*stards the lot of them! Pleased to say that most of them lost their jobs in the recent elections. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Two years ago we bought a 3 bedroom property in Tasmania, if I climb on the roof I can see the sea. Sadly, having got ourselves somewhere to live, Covid struck. My Wife eventually (6 months later) got permission to travel to our new home. I had to wait a further 18 months before I was allowed to travel. Two years living in a caravan changes ones perspective enormously, I now realise how lucky I am to have lost all the sh1t that I had accumulated over the previous 60+ years. Most of it I didn`t need or want, I was just storing it because I couldn`t part with it.

So, what does the future hold? Our new home is beautiful and has a double garage but no man space! I have put in an application, to the local council, to build an 13m x 12m shed. We recently got approval for the shed and are now progressing the final designs and hope to start construction in the next few months. I would like to share the shed design/construction and fit out with the LEF. I will do my best to share photos of the build along with costs and pitfalls. I hope this will be helpful to others planning to do something similar

Thank you all for the support you have given my Wife and me over the last few years.
Bob

Good on you, Bob

I had a forced down-size recently - having to very sudddenly leave the Valley where I had lived for over 40 years

Man, did I throw out some stuff.  Got the biggest skip-bin they would deliver parked in the drive, and took a ruthless approach . . .

The more stuff I lost - the free-er I felt tbh

I need to spend a couple of years living where I am now - a very small place, but an ideal situation - before retiring and moving to my country block

To be honest, it has been good for me to get rid of a lot of stuff i think i was just keeping because it "might come in handy one day"

Good luck for the next phase of your life - a new adventure!

[dieselspanner]

Hi Bob

Welcome back from me as well.

Don't worry about the new medal, they're a thing of the past at out age. honest!!

Looking forward to the shed rep.....

Cheers
Stef

[ajaffa1]

Hi Guys, thanks for the support.
I paid the local council $400 for the building permit this morning, this allows me to order the steel structure, roof and cladding which should take a couple of months to be delivered. The price for this will be around $27,000. While this is being manufactured we will have to pour the concrete for it to stand on, this should cost around $20,000. On top of this there is the cost for the shed erectors and two new 25,000 litre water tanks. All done I am looking at between 60 and 70 thousand Australian dollars. I wish I could give you more precise figures but in Australia each local council has it`s own way of doing things.

Where I lived before the council would inspect shed construction and sign off that it met the required code at a cost of around $400. Here in Tasmania we have to pay the council $400 and then employ our own inspector at a cost of around $1500, any problems and guess what it costs a lot more! I don`t know what problems we will face but I will keep you updated.

Bob

[ajaffa1]

Well, here we go guys, the new shed is being delivered in kit form at the end of the month. The local concreting company has come in and leveled the site by tipping and compacting about 200 tons of road base (not cheap!). They have put up the form work for a 100mm slab with 450 mm wide piles under each steel stanchion.
The local building surveyor is coming tomorrow to inspect the work, I am hoping that I will have concrete poured on Monday, weather permitting. I will have to let the concrete cure for a couple of weeks before we erect the shed.
All up, this is going to cost me around 80,000 Australian dollars, that includes water tanks. Money I really don`t have to spare but you only live once! If my bank don`t like it they can go and swivel!
So, a couple of plan views of the shed and a couple of pics of the works in progress.
Bob

[ajaffa1]

Hi Guys, we finally got the new shed slab poured today. It was going to be poured yesterday but the weather was inclement. We had to do the job with wheel barrows because the concrete pump we were going to use on Monday, wasn`t available today! I`ve never seen so many old guys pushing barrows in my life!  The upside is I saved A$1500 on the pump hire, the downside is there are a lot of tired old guys around here tonight.
I`ve got to keep the slab damp for a couple of weeks, while it cures. I should be able to start erecting the shed after that.
A big thanks to the guys at East Coast Concreting Tasmania, They will be back on site on Thursday to tidy up the site and do some landscaping around the slab.

A couple of photos of the slab.
Bob

[ajaffa1]

Hi Folks, the shed frame, cladding and roller doors have been delivered, the insulation, windows/doors, skylights and ancillaries are being delivered on Monday. The local shed assembly company are good to go. I hope they will start in about a week, I don`t like having all this expensive stuff lying around waiting to be stolen. I have locks on all the gates, a large dog and I am still worried sick. Sign of the times I guess, police unwilling or unable to protect us and courts more interested in the human rights of the accused than their victims.
Lets just hope this is erected soon so I can get some sleep.

Bob

[ajaffa1]

Good Day Guys, the last of the shed bits arrived today. A few bits got left in the delivery yard and are being delivered on Wednesday.
The shed erectors will be here in the morning to start assembly. I will try to photograph the process and post some pics.

Bob

[mikenash]

Good Day Guys, the last of the shed bits arrived today. A few bits got left in the delivery yard and are being delivered on Wednesday.
The shed erectors will be here in the morning to start assembly. I will try to photograph the process and post some pics.

Bob

It's exciting isn't it.  Nothing like a build project that you can make your own - as opposed to what some designer, architect or council says you have to have

[ajaffa1]

Hi Mike, I wish it were true that this shed was entirely my design. The shed I wanted was 4 meters longer! The council intervened so what we have now is a smaller compromise. I wasn`t allowed any plumbing for a toilet or running water, the council even dictated where and how big the water tanks should be.
I love living under a dictatorship. 

Bob

[ajaffa1]

Hi Guys, the shed erectors arrived today and have had a fun day playing with big boys Meccano. They have assembled all the stanchions and roof trusses and are going to try lifting them into place in the morning.
A couple of pics attached.

Bob

[mikenash]

Hi Mike, I wish it were true that this shed was entirely my design. The shed I wanted was 4 meters longer! The council intervened so what we have now is a smaller compromise. I wasn`t allowed any plumbing for a toilet or running water, the council even dictated where and how big the water tanks should be.
I love living under a dictatorship. 

Bob

I had a "shed" built on my bare-land block a few years ago - just 12M X 7M - and had it 'signed off" with a Code Compliance as a farm building.

Since then I have enclosed the open front, worked on lining & insulating it, put in two toilets, a shower, a kitchen  . . . so now it's somewhere between a shed & a house. 

I'm gonna retire up there in a couple of years.  At that point I won't have anywhere else to live and I'll be 67.  Rightly or wrongly i take a "what are they going to actually do" approach to dealing with the Council - if I ever have to

To be fair, I live on the rural fringe of an area where there is a great deal of rural poverty - folks living up dead-end dirt roads with no facilities & not much in the way of prospects, folks living any way they can because rents are way too expensive . . .

So will the Council actually care about some old bloke living in his "shed" , getting on with his neighbours & community & not causing anyone any problems?

I guess we'll see.  Good on you there

[ajaffa1]

Hi Mike, a 12 x 7 shed is luxury, I spent two years living in a caravan, after the bush fires. The local council and state/federal politicians all made a lot of promises of help. All just hot air, so I`m with you f**k them! Any officials comes knocking keep your head down and don`t open the door. If they don`t like it that`s tough luck, point out it`s just a shed and no one lives there.
My shed has planning permission but is not allowed to become any sort of residence. Once the surveyor has signed off that it meets construction codes, I will be fitting a toilet/shower and small kitchen area. Bicheno, Tasmania is a very popular tourist destination but there is no accommodation available for the workers. So a couple of bunk beds should net us a nice little income during the summer.
A couple of pics of todays progress.

Bob

[ajaffa1]

Hi Guys, the shed is now nearly completed, there is still an internal partition wall missing. The shed is now connected to two new water tanks (25,000 liters each) I`ve still got a lot of landscaping, plumbing, electrical work to do but I can see it all being done by the end of the year.
A couple of photos: