Network cabling

The slab is curing nicely... I suppose.

I am preparing to do the network cabling. I might as well use Cat6 because doesn't cost much more than Cat5e, but Fibre is still too expensive (and so are the LAN cards). Yes I wonder if it's worth the effort, or if it will be overtaken by wireless in the next few years, but it's much easier to put it in now than to put it in later if I change my mind. So I got nearly 100m of Cat6 from Jaycar for $120 then I spent a day searching on Ebay for Cat6 jacks and RJ45 faceplates with shutters (to maybe keep the crayons out).

I bet you didn't know RJ45 jacks came in Cat5 and Cat6 flavours -- I didn't. The theory is that since Cat6 cable has thicker wires the termination in the plug should be engineered to match. I reckon the Cat5 ones would probably work just fine, but I thought I should at least try to get the matching connectors. Oh but you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find faceplates to accept keystone jacks here in Oz for a decent price. Anyway, I certainly wasted a lot of time looking. Tonight I spent some more time looking for mounting brackets to nail to the studs. I'm sure it's worth it.

They should deliver the timber this week and start framing I think.

Not quite in the beginning...

Welcome fellow traveller. If you are reading this you have no doubt got lost, or otherwise redirected in your relentless search for pr0n. But since you're here you might as well look at the pictures just in case eh? You never know your luck.

So what's this all about. Well, after we built the last time we said we'd never build again... uncomfortable silence... yep, and I also wished we'd kept a record of the process (and the pain) we went through so others might learn from our experience. Now that we are building again I wish I had that record so that I could learn from our previous experiences. Who knows, maybe we even would have stuck with our resolve never to build again. I won't bore you with our justifications for building again, but let me just say that I've always thought building a house was somewhat like having a baby: after a while you forget how painful it was and you say, "It wasn't that bad was it?" By the way, we have two kids too.

Well I don't know about you but I'm getting bored so lets look at some pictures.

I don't really have any good pictures of the old house -- getting rid of it was really our focus -- but you can see part of it here. An old brick house, built circa 1950 with no redeeming features.

At the back of the old house looking at the townhouses being built next door. They're occupied now.

One super shed. In fact this was the best thing the place had going for it. Pity we couldn't keep it.
A big pile of rubbish. Unfortunately it stayed like this for about three months.
Finally managed to get George back to clean the site.
George gave the kids a ride on his bulldozer. They really loved it.
Another long delay before, finally action: the footings have been excavated.
All loaded up with reinforcing mesh and rods ready for the pour.
And finally, a brand new wet slab.