22 April 2012
Yes, the impossible is still possible. Jaco, another church friend, expressed interest to learn Gibbing. I called on him and on Tuesday he came over and we got most of the Gib up. I just completed the last few bits. Now the room is done. The previous room took more than two months. Next will be Gib stopping, but if it turns cold, we might move in without that. Curtains will be our next priority. I am thinking of having a tube bent to fit the bay, but we will have to go window shopping.
Our tenant in Cambridge moved out, so most of our next week will be spent on minor repairs there.
Sunday
15 April 2012
What a week!
We finished painting the posts for the veranda. I also bought some timber for the horizontal beams and cut it to length. It is cut at an angle for better strength on the joint. We also cut the joist that goes against the wall. Those are all under our work veranda and clamped together so as not to warp.
We heard a rumour that our church group would be coming again on Saturday to do some work. So we decided, if it was raining on Saturday, we would find inside work. So I bought the plasterboard and insulation to do a full room, and we cleared the room and removed the skirting and architraves. That is the North Western room, the original lounge with the bay window. We will make that our bedroom for the time being. We have decided we don't want to experience another seriously cold winter in a drafty room.
Saturday turned up, a nice sunny day, as did our volunteers at 8:30. They even caught me before I was fully dressed! I decided on the spur of the moment that a warm bedroom is more important than a veranda, so we tackled the room. For those who don't know old New Zealand houses, the house is timber framed, with weatherboards outside. Efficient against rain, but with large gaps allowing wind to blow in and through the whole house. Large gaps in the flooring under the framing. The inside is lined with boards, (sarking) spaced about 10 mm apart, then there used to be scrim (hessian) and wall paper. That has been long removed. No insulation at all. We all pitched in and removed the sarking on the outside walls and most of the inside as well. I have decided to insulate the inside walls as well for sound proofing. First we made inserts to cover the gaps in the floor between the framing studs. Then we installed insulation (pink batts). All of these were big jobs. Then we proceeded to install the plasterboard. In some places 3,6 m long. Remember the ceiling height is 3.4 m. We managed to get all of the long boards up, except for one where the framework is rotten. That will need repair before the board can go up. By 6:30 we had a bunch of very tired volunteers, and two very happy residents. We don't see ourselves as owners, we are the current custodians of this old house.!!
We cannot begin to express our gratitude towards those families from our church group who so tirelessly and with good spirit worked so hard for our sake. Well done guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In this room we have the loveliest cast iron fireplace, with tile surround. We will have to make sure the chimney is on good repair before we start making a fire. I also did a temperature check, the "new" room is a full two and a half degrees warmer than the rest of the house. I must admit the sun is shining outside and there are no curtains.
Have a nice week.
What a week!
We finished painting the posts for the veranda. I also bought some timber for the horizontal beams and cut it to length. It is cut at an angle for better strength on the joint. We also cut the joist that goes against the wall. Those are all under our work veranda and clamped together so as not to warp.
We heard a rumour that our church group would be coming again on Saturday to do some work. So we decided, if it was raining on Saturday, we would find inside work. So I bought the plasterboard and insulation to do a full room, and we cleared the room and removed the skirting and architraves. That is the North Western room, the original lounge with the bay window. We will make that our bedroom for the time being. We have decided we don't want to experience another seriously cold winter in a drafty room.
Saturday turned up, a nice sunny day, as did our volunteers at 8:30. They even caught me before I was fully dressed! I decided on the spur of the moment that a warm bedroom is more important than a veranda, so we tackled the room. For those who don't know old New Zealand houses, the house is timber framed, with weatherboards outside. Efficient against rain, but with large gaps allowing wind to blow in and through the whole house. Large gaps in the flooring under the framing. The inside is lined with boards, (sarking) spaced about 10 mm apart, then there used to be scrim (hessian) and wall paper. That has been long removed. No insulation at all. We all pitched in and removed the sarking on the outside walls and most of the inside as well. I have decided to insulate the inside walls as well for sound proofing. First we made inserts to cover the gaps in the floor between the framing studs. Then we installed insulation (pink batts). All of these were big jobs. Then we proceeded to install the plasterboard. In some places 3,6 m long. Remember the ceiling height is 3.4 m. We managed to get all of the long boards up, except for one where the framework is rotten. That will need repair before the board can go up. By 6:30 we had a bunch of very tired volunteers, and two very happy residents. We don't see ourselves as owners, we are the current custodians of this old house.!!
We cannot begin to express our gratitude towards those families from our church group who so tirelessly and with good spirit worked so hard for our sake. Well done guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In this room we have the loveliest cast iron fireplace, with tile surround. We will have to make sure the chimney is on good repair before we start making a fire. I also did a temperature check, the "new" room is a full two and a half degrees warmer than the rest of the house. I must admit the sun is shining outside and there are no curtains.
Have a nice week.
8 April 2012
We had rain forecast for the last week, so I pushed for the joists for the deck. In the end we had a lovely sunny week and I kept on working on the deck. The decision was made to extend the deck for the full southern side. This is the side visible from Grey Street. Previously we wanted to do it only partially. We also had to decide on the width, because where we stopped in December, the deck went wider by 300 mm. We decided to do all of the new deck on the narrower width. There was a problem though. The height of the old deck would be 50 mm higher than the new one. After much deliberation, I cut the outer edge of the old deck off, and went past it. I removed two thirds of the joists we put up in December, and replaced it with a stronger joist, 100*100 as opposed to 100* 75 laid flat. I had to notch some of the bearers and gradually changed the height. Now we have all the joists on the outer side up, as well as the joists against the wall. That done, now at last we can continue on the posts. No decking boards though, we have not got money for that now. Once we have the veranda posts all finished, we can put the posts and lintol up. only held in place by a few ties.
Remember we have two lambs. One of them got attacked by blowfly (brommers). The wool was quite long and they burrowed into the wool to lay their eggs on the skin. I have never seen this before, normally it happens at the back end where it is wet and clogged. First one side, so we cut the wool and treated it, then the other, but they kept at it. We tried to get a shearer to shear them, with no luck. It is shearing season and everybody is busy. On Saturday Barco (Barry) and Jeamien offered to help. He has got a pair of hand shears for the garden, and we sharpened that and fired away. The ladies started from the front end with kitchen scissors. In all it took us about 3 hours to shear two sheep, but now the job is done and the infestation is treated and the lamb feels much better. I built a platform from scaffolds to put the sheep on. My job was to hold the sheep down, very important, Yes? We also used purple disinfectant, now Snowy has become purply.
Have a blessed Easter
We had rain forecast for the last week, so I pushed for the joists for the deck. In the end we had a lovely sunny week and I kept on working on the deck. The decision was made to extend the deck for the full southern side. This is the side visible from Grey Street. Previously we wanted to do it only partially. We also had to decide on the width, because where we stopped in December, the deck went wider by 300 mm. We decided to do all of the new deck on the narrower width. There was a problem though. The height of the old deck would be 50 mm higher than the new one. After much deliberation, I cut the outer edge of the old deck off, and went past it. I removed two thirds of the joists we put up in December, and replaced it with a stronger joist, 100*100 as opposed to 100* 75 laid flat. I had to notch some of the bearers and gradually changed the height. Now we have all the joists on the outer side up, as well as the joists against the wall. That done, now at last we can continue on the posts. No decking boards though, we have not got money for that now. Once we have the veranda posts all finished, we can put the posts and lintol up. only held in place by a few ties.
Remember we have two lambs. One of them got attacked by blowfly (brommers). The wool was quite long and they burrowed into the wool to lay their eggs on the skin. I have never seen this before, normally it happens at the back end where it is wet and clogged. First one side, so we cut the wool and treated it, then the other, but they kept at it. We tried to get a shearer to shear them, with no luck. It is shearing season and everybody is busy. On Saturday Barco (Barry) and Jeamien offered to help. He has got a pair of hand shears for the garden, and we sharpened that and fired away. The ladies started from the front end with kitchen scissors. In all it took us about 3 hours to shear two sheep, but now the job is done and the infestation is treated and the lamb feels much better. I built a platform from scaffolds to put the sheep on. My job was to hold the sheep down, very important, Yes? We also used purple disinfectant, now Snowy has become purply.
Have a blessed Easter
1 April 2012
We became world famous in Kihikihi this week! The local paper, the Courier, ran a front page article about us and the house. It was very accurate and sympathetic. All the townspeople we saw commented on it. Let us hope we will not disappoint them.
The idea is not that you should try reading the article, just to prove I am not lying! There is a continuation on page 5 and more photos.
The kitchen shelves were finished. In the end I spent about two days on them and it makes a big difference for Elna. Why haven't I done them long ago?
I managed to repair all the old veranda posts, and on Saturday (Anneke and Matt were here) Matt pushed me a bit and I managed to finish sanding 15 of the 27 posts, and Matt graciously painted them for me. Hopefully we can finish the posts this coming week. Then we will tackle the deck.
Until next week
We became world famous in Kihikihi this week! The local paper, the Courier, ran a front page article about us and the house. It was very accurate and sympathetic. All the townspeople we saw commented on it. Let us hope we will not disappoint them.
The idea is not that you should try reading the article, just to prove I am not lying! There is a continuation on page 5 and more photos.
The kitchen shelves were finished. In the end I spent about two days on them and it makes a big difference for Elna. Why haven't I done them long ago?
I managed to repair all the old veranda posts, and on Saturday (Anneke and Matt were here) Matt pushed me a bit and I managed to finish sanding 15 of the 27 posts, and Matt graciously painted them for me. Hopefully we can finish the posts this coming week. Then we will tackle the deck.
Until next week
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