29 July 2012

We had some light rain from Monday and therefore the bathroom won the battle over the veranda. Now I have started on the bathroom and will have to finish it.

On Monday we went to Cambridge to collect our frameless shower doors which we had in storage there for about 5 years. That took care of half the day.

We started stripping the saking (cladding). Elna did a great job of assisting me and cleaning after me. You can imagine the amount of dust and debris after 130 years! We also started cutting the insulation, because our stud spacing is different to the new 600mm spacing.We have installed some but then we ran out of useable nails to install some nogs (horizontal timber at 1200 mm spacing). These old  houses did not have any nogs, and the  insulation tends to sag without it.

We did run into a problem. I am using a nailgun to install studs and nogs. I found that my strips of nails came apart. I think it is because of the damp conditions in the coookhouse where it has been stored. So we started re gluing it together again, using one of these tacky adhesives. Monday I will try the ones we have glued, and if that works, I can proceed with the nogs and insulation. If it does not work, I will have to spend $120 towards a new box of nails.

We need to make sure the new wall will allow us to cut holes in the floor that does not fall directly over the floor joists. We also still need a mixer tap for the bath. Then the pipes must be installed prior to fitting the gib on that side.

We are still trying to get rid of the stuff Marike left behind. We made a trip to Cambridge to bring some more stuff over