30 November 2013

Am I very late, or am I early? You decide.

The builders did not turn up on Monday as promised, they only came on Thursday. They finished it all off, and we are very happy. Now I could take pictures of the finished product. It is amazing what a difference it makes to the house. It is like a lady with only her slip on, and now wearing a nice dress.

View from the east, the door we use as a front entrance.

View from the street. Unfinished deck showing.

The last picture is of the "new deck"  on the northern side. The one Clearlite  (polycarbonate) sheet we had was put over the window. It surely helps with the light in the dining room. I spent some time today to put boards over the last open framing of the new deck. This is only temporary. We will rebuild the whole deck in time to come. We will submit a proposal for funding to Council by end of December, and fingers crossed...........

Elna wanted to start painting the kitchen wall,showing in the picture. I stalled. That would be another two week's sanding and painting.

I continued work on the scrolls. I had some "swamp Kauri" boards stashed away that I have bought about 8 years ago. It seemed a good time to put them to use. I ran them through the thicknesser, and glued them together to make up the required thickness. Next I marked the profile and cut it out. That was not too bad, the Kauri is a soft timber. The board was not wide enough, so I will have yo join a piece on. I managed 8 so far, but I will need plenty more. Most of the original scrolls were made from Kauri, and there is only two that is beyond repair. So I decided tofollow that. Rimu would be more difficult to cut and sand, as it is much harder.

We also decided it is well time to do some maintenance on the drop saw. It is a Ryobi. I stripped it down and bought a bearing for the blade shaft, but the other side fits into a bush. After a lot of hassle, we identified the part, and I was forced to buy a whole motor end plate. In the meantime the saw was reassembled. I hope to strip it down again on Monday to fit the part. At least, now I have learnt of the website of the importers and can identify any part in advance.

The last picture is of the flyer from the estate agents. Just a reminder of where we came from.

17 November 2013

Well, the roof and spouting is coming on very well. There are small hiccups: The builder did not order enough flashings to go around the house, so work was delayed. The other day the roofing screws were in another vehicle, and they had to keep themselves busy.

In general, most if the iron is fitted, with the exception of the eastern side. Spouting is fitted no the south and western side. They still have to put the ridging on the two corners, but at least, that has been ordered. David, the boss, came around yesterday to have a look. he said that they might not be coming this next week. Amazing, the guy stands to get a lot of money, and he is in no hurry. Well, I will make sure that I am completely satisfied with the work before I get the lady from the Council to have a look.

In the meantime, I worked on the scrolls that will go between the posts. The local enthusiasts collected all the scrolls lying around when the house was vacant, and put it under the floor. I calculated, I would need roughly 56. Checking the good ones, I counted 20, that is enough for the street side. There are some 15 more, in varying grades of disrepair.

As you can see, it was laid out with scrap pieces of timber, just to show what it is supposed to look like. The good ones are partially sanded, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

I also made a jig to glue new pieces of timber on the broken ones. It seems to work. One per day.

We have also been busy painting the patio doors. Four doors, two sides, two coats of paint. When that is done, the joy of glazing will start.

10 November 2013

Reading last week's post, I realized it was not a week wasted. (The memory is a little bit short at times)

The beginning of the week was rainy and the roofers could not work. That gave me the opportunity to finish the work on the gable ends. All of the old veranda roofing was removed. Then I replaced some rotten weatherboards. The barge boards and the gable ends all got painted. I also bought some timber to replace the beam against the wall, cut it to the right angle and painted it.

Previously I have bought timber to cut to profile for the corners of the veranda. I have taken a template off the only surviving beam when I did that corner, and marked it off on the new beam. Then I realized that I was not up to cutting it, so I left is to the roofers. They picked it up, took it to their workshop and cut it and then I could paint it.
They turned up in earnest on Thursday and leveled the beam on the perimeter and set all the posts vertical.

Friday they had other work to do and we expect them back on Monday to start in earnest.

I used the gap to start painting the patio doors, but that is a mammoth task ahead of me.
Saturday I mowed the lawns and removed some weeds, and then I just got lazy.

3 November 2013

Thursday was a no work day, we went to Hamilton and also visited friends.

David said he will be coming over in the coming week to do the veranda. I realized that I would need to prepare the eastern wall for the new veranda as well.

Between the two gable roofs is a trough, discharging the water on the end. They have cut a hole in the trough and put a downpipe in. Problem is the ridge of the downpipe is higher than the trough, and water drips down on the veranda roof and causes an irritating drip. I blocked the hole, cut the end of the trough and fitted a short piece of spouting at the end. Now the water can be routed away. I also tried repairing the fascia boards. They are original and not in a very good condition. I put doublers on where necessary.

I also bought beams to fit to the wall where the iron gets attached to the wall. They got cut at the right angle and painted.

The last row of weatherboards above the veranda roof is also in a sad state. All of that is being replaced.

The next job will be to paint the gable ends. The plywood on my scaffold board will need replacing, so no ladder on the scaffold any more. I concocted a long ladder that will hopefully be long enough. I will remove the last of the old iron.

This picture was taken this morning, so it is clear that it is a "work in progress" at this stage.

Hopefully the next report will have more to tell