3 February 2013

Boy, has this been a hectic week!
I started work on a cabinet for the handbasin in the new bathroom. I have got some lovely Kauri timber, and was working on that. After a day I admitted defeat: My work is not up to standard for nice joinery.

On the south eastern corner of the house, there is a small storage area under the veranda. I started cleaning the old paint of those walls. See the right hand end of the second picture. Then I decided that I have loads of Kauri boards that will fit in better with the character of the house than the (1920) Rimu that they have used. So I removed the old boards and started replacing it. In the process, we also extended it a bit. In the meantime Elna got hold of a paintbrush, and started painting the walls that I have already cleaned. The end result is that we (mostly she) has painted most of the outside walls now, including the part where we replaced the boards.(Excluding the kitchen and bathroom extension.)  She also tackled the walls on the rear deck, on the eastern side. Because that has always been under a veranda, the old paint was in a good condition, and didn't require much preparation. The first picture was taken in bright light, but the colour is the same all around.

For a while now, the people from our church group has been talking about another work bee. I decided that I cannot put the rafters for the replacement veranda up myself, and waited for them to choose a day. Saturday they turned up. I had all the rafters pre made and prepainted  many moons ago, I have repaired the posts. Most of them had the bottom end rotten away. The solution was easy, just cut them all a bit shorter. In the meantime, we have decided to replace the veranda on the southern side as well, although the Historical people said we could do without it. When I started work on the storage area, I realised that I will have to keep the roofs at the same level. That means that all 27 of my pre painted posts will need to be extended by about 100 mm.

Well, the team turned up on Saturday morning, and by 11:30 we had all the rafters joined together and in position. I have put rafters from the house to hold it in place. It could also be added to to look like a pergola/prieel. That way it will be months before I am finished and hopefully will draw less attention from the building inspectors. The posts are not in their proper positions, they are just clamped on to the rafter.

We are impressed with the result. Now I have many months of work ahead of me, getting the framing ready and painting the curved iron sheets and cutting them to size. The paint has already been bought, but with the dry season we are experiencing, and the low humidity, the paint would dry too quickly and not adhere to the iron properly.