10 October 2011

I had some enquiries about the blog: When are you writing again? Sorry that you had to ask.

At one stage I decided that I should clear all the rubbish and stuff that moved with us from Cambridge and which was lying on the lawn. We even made a list of all the outside tasks. Then, very conveniently, I lost the list (I put it in the rubbish bin) That allowed me to start work inside the house.

We had a visit from the builder who did the roof for the previous owner. He showed me all the pictures he took whilst working here. He also told me that he still had all the sheeting for the veranda. We can buy it off him. Unfortunately we have no spare cash right now, so that will have to wait. He also asked me where my work area is, and offered that I could use his workshop if needed.
 
Well, eventually I had to work on the storage shed. Prompted by his asking, we decided to move the new sheds further away from the cookhouse. With levers and rollers we managed to move all of them so we have a space of about 4 meters between the buildings now. We had to redo the floor support. I used concrete fencing posts for the base, and on the tool shed, used solid doors for a floor. In the storage shed, we used pallets over the concrete posts. In the end I used all the roofing sheets we had available (been collecting it forever) and had to ask for some from my son. Thanks. On Friday we moved the timber that was stored on  the front lawn under a tarp into the timber shed. We also cleared everything from the lawn. From old trampoline frames, we even made a frame for a tarp shade over the work area. We cannot leave the tarp up all the time, it is too noisy.

Elna has been asking for an area to be cleared for a veggie patch. Last Monday I decided to start on that. We have borrowed a small rotavator from a friend, and I tried that. The engine wouldn't start. On Saturday Hans came to my assistance and we got it going, and I even tried it on a small patch. I stopped the engine to clear the loose grass, but it wouldn't go again. Yesterday I opened it again and decided it needs new points. Will do that tomorrow.

On rainy days, we work inside the house. So, when it was rainy two weeks ago, we installed the beam where we removed the wall inside. It is a heavy beam, 50 by 250 mm, and 3.4 m long. I went into the roof space and fitted a coffin hoist  to the joists. Then I proceeded to drill a hole through the beam, ran the cable from the hoist through that, and hoisted the beam in place. Only  Elna and me. It worked fine and the beam is properly fitted now. Obviously, one needs scaffolding. We had a steel frame from a double decker bed. With reinforcement, it works fine as  base for our scaffold platform.

Yesterday we had a light drizzle, and I spent time on vehicle maintenance. For those non Kiwis, we must do a warrant of fitness every six months. Our car was due for its inspection and I had two tyres fitted, but it failed on wear on the steering links. Another job for me when it is not raining.

We have rain forecast for most of the coming week, and hopefully we can continue on the lining in the "new" living room. We also started looking at paint colours. Inside I want to paint the new Gib lining and the tongue and groove lining of the original dining room part of the room to simulate the Kauri timber colour.

Working outside on the bay window, we discovered a piece of weatherboard that showed all the original paint colours. Based on that, we also decided on the outside colours. It is nice to plan ahead, even if you now there  is no money to buy paint.

On Sunday we had friends over who has not been here for a couple of months. They say they can notice the progress we have made. We have been here for three months now, and even I have to admit that we are getting some things right. Originally we have budgeted to spend six months on each room.