25 August 2013

I managed to finish sanding the doors and replacing lost wedges. I also started painting the first door, but that is where it ended.

We want to concentrate on finishing our Cambridge house for sale. So the decision was made to stop work on the doors.

On Thursday Elna asked me to do some finishing touches on the new bathroom. Instead I started demolishing the old bathroom on the deck. The prime mover was to salvage some flooring boards to repair the floor between the dining room and living room. I first demolished the internal walls, but realised the outer walls were hanging only by a few nails, so off they came. That went on until Friday. I also added a beam to secure the roofing iron, temporarily)  Saturday was spent on cutting the scrap timber for firewood. Tomorrow will see the timber stored away, and possibly removing the floor boards. Who knows? What I can state, is that there is much more light in the dining room.

We are having funny weather, warm, with typical spring rain. The farmers are having a problem, too much grass!! It grows too tall for the cattle, and with the rain, it is to wet to make silage. I had to mow our grass twice in the last two weeks. It seems as if we are having an early spring. It normally starts only in late October

18 August 2013

Still battling with the doors. I have sanded all down after the paint stripping. I am now busy filling cracks and gaps with "Builders Bog", something similar to body filler. Three are nearly done.


We went to Cambridge to fit the "new" oven. Works well. I also brought back a load of timber, Rosewood I think. Could make a nice counter top.

I also made some progress cleaning up the section. We moved some of the sarking boards into the timber store, and then moved the roofing sheets we were given for the cookhouse to that spot. We gave Louis an ultimatum to remove his vehicle and stuff we have been storing for the last three months.

Friday I mowed the grass. It is amazing how fast the grass is growing. They had a story on TV about the  farmers having too much green grass. Can you believe that.

Lovely weather. We had storms forecast for the last few days, but it turned out to be nice sunny days with bits of cloud and rain.

Till next week then.

11 August 2013

I did manage to strip all the paint from the doors. First I tried the heat gun, that didn't clean it properly, so I moved on to the sander. Being so shaky, I tended to round the sharp edges of the rails. Eventually I fell back on the old trusted Polystrippa. That took the better part of two days. Next step will be repairing cracks and portions where it has to be filled. I might eventually paint the doors inside and out, but will leave that decision for later.

I also got rid of some scrap steel and a load of rubbish. At my age, that takes time. Since I started clearing up, I spent most of one day cutting scrap timber for firewood. not done yet.

We had some lovely sunshine days in the beginning of the week, but from Thursday it was overcast with slight rain, just enough to justify lighting the open fire in the lounge.

The car I reported on last week got fixed. Jaco managed all his tasks on his list and more. We have been there today and discussed some more tasks for the coming week.

Fingers crossed for nice weather for the coming week.

4 August 2013

Willie came back for a short visit. I had to keep him occupied, so we cut all of the glass for the patio doors.

I did also manage to clean the last door frames from putty, and had to repair one bar that was broken.

I feel it is a privilege to help other people. Well, this week was no exception. We have been to somebody who had car trouble, an over several visits helped remove the offending (broken) pulley. It was too late to find a replacement, so I might spend more time on that on Monday.

The Salon I am helping out on has got it's roof fitted on Saturday as well. I gave Jaco a very explicit "to do" list. Fingers crossed that will be done by the weekend.

Lots of talking and many cups of coffee. That is the advantage of being retired.......... no time schedule.

Next report next week.

28 July 2013

If the previous week was slow, I wonder what I should call this one!

I did manage a little bit of work on the doors, nothing much.

The oven we picked up for the Cambridge house needed a LOT of cleaning and I also had to replace the bottom element. That is good to be installed now.

Remember the dishwasher we bought and fixed? Well, it worked fine for two washes, now it doesn't pump the water out. Still looking for the fault.

We also helped Jaco & Bella with a Beauty Salon they want built in their front garden. The framework for the floor is done, the frames are up, and the iron for the wall is up, although not fully screwed down. I expect it will take another 3 months to finish.

Bette luck next time!!!!!!!!!

21 July 2013

This was a slow and frustrating week.

All of my time was spent on the doors. At one stage I gave up and decided only to remove the cracked putty. Well, it didn't work. I put one door down where I had only part of the putty removed, and the glass broke and partially fell out. This means I will have to remove all the glass.

I also spent time on car maintenance, and on Saturday we drove around picking up ovens we have bought on Trademe for the Cambridge house. The tenant is not satisfied with the current oven.

One ray of light is that I have started oiling Wendy's chest of drawers. Still work to do. I also sanded and oiled another drawer from our yellow wood chest.

We had some sunshine this week, but it seems the coming week will not be so nice.

14 July 2013

The doors!!. I started sanding the doors, and it has come out very nice. Keep in mind they are nearly 100 years old. There are several screw holes that has been filled with putty. The other story is that each door has 8 panes of glass. The putty is cracked and not waterproof nay more. I started removing the putty with my "renovator" tool, it vibrates rather than cut. It worked fine on other glass, but in our case, the glass is very brittle from age, and also only 2 mm thick. Most of it broke. So far I have done only one door, and it is not finished yet.We are playing with the idea to paint the outsides, but leave the insides natural.

Our car gave problems, and we spent more than a day fixing it. Then Elna complained of dizzyness, and we have been to the doctor's twice, to monitor her blood pressure, a computerised cuff that takes readings over 24 hours. Thankfully, all is well.

On Saturday we did the "garden route". When Willie was here, we bought some Pittosorum plants for hedging in two trays.When we started transplanting it into individual pots, we found we had nearly 100 plants.We transplanted only one tray. They will need to get a little bigger before they can be planted. We have also bought Camellia plants and that got planted as well. The last task was to plant Snow bells and Daffodils which were transferred in pots from Cambridge with the move. It is very late in the season, but we went ahead anyway. They were planted in the lawn, and will be mowed when  the grass starts growing again. I read of an estate in the UK where they plant 2000 additional daffodils per year in their paddocks.