20 November 2011

We finished the gibbing in the living room. It makes a big difference. It feels like a room now, and the draughts will be much less. But, and there is always a but, I have not done the gib stopping (polyfilla) or any of the painting yet. I was too eager to start work outside.

We did get a relpy from NZHPT  (Historical people) about our request to demolish the second bathroom and install large French doors. They have no problem with that, provided we do not dig any trenches for the sewer lines for the new bathroom. I told them that the new pipes will be suspended from the floor joists. All approved, but first things first.

Next on the agenda is securing the outside. We got the scaffolding pipes from the neighbour, but it is 6 m lengths and very awkward to handle. In the end I removed it all and put a sheet of ply over the bay window roof. It works. Yesterday I got up there and started scraping at the old paint. No luck. It is too hard. Then I got my baby angle grinder with a sanding disc. Perfect. I can grind through the flaking paint until I get to good timber. I removed about 80% of the old paint. It will need smoothing out, but for that I will use the belt sander. It will now give us a solid base to start painting on. We were given two cans of wall paint, in any odd colour. That will be good enough for a base coat. Once we have the western and southern walls done, and if we have the money, we will start painting the final colour. First of all, our big priority is to make it secure and rebuild the verandah.