26 April 2014

Today we can officially announce that we have finished the decks!! We started work four months ago!

With Easter and Anzac day, we lost two working days, but we have put the skirt on the old lady. All the gaps under the decks are closed now. Today was spent to fit the last of the posts, and secure the doubler over the extended deck. Sorry, we haven't painted that part of the wall yet, but that will have to wait fir the long awaited patio door to be installed. We also removed all our scrap and surplus material, an I even managed to mow the grass. We have had lovely rain since the beginning of April, and everything is green again.

20 April 2014

The deck has been sealed, but there is a lot of work still to be done. Sorry, it is not a very good picture, it is a rainy day today. We have had 40 mm over the last week alone, and about that much again the previous week.

At the last section, towards the north, we initially put the veranda up over the original deck. When we rebuilt the deck, it did not end up at the same height, that means that the veranda height was out.. When I got up the ladder to work there, I found that we had a dip in the spouting, water was collecting there and did not run off properly. That meant that I had to cut the posts on that side to allow proper runoff. The last one, on the corner by the down pipe, was cut three times. Remember, although the posts are only bolted to the top beam, each of them has got an 8 mm rod inserted at the bottom to strengthen the original repair and also to locate them securely to the deck. That makes the cutting a bit tricky. After all is in place, I drill an additional 6 mm hole through the post into the bottom beam at an angle. Then a 6 mm rod gets hammered in. The combination of the two pins secures the post against wind  It is looking good now.

We are planning to put a double beam over the extended deck, with only two heavy duty posts at the ends. Those are not finished yet. We are also planning to build a wind break to the western side, but that will be much later. That will replicate the original wind break. We also still need to cover the sides of the deck with fibre board.

We did receive the expected letter from Council. There were a lot of applications, but we were given 80% of our actual cost. Thank you Lord. Now we can breathe again.

13 April 2014

After some prompting, the lady at Council told me that we were given a partial grant, but we have to wait until the letters has been written and signed. Fingers crossed.

We finished the deck, it is all good for sealing now. It took some planning to get the trapdoor right. We did have some rain in the week, so everything is wet, but we are thankful for the farmer's part. Having grown up in western Transvaal, I will never complain about rain.

The forecast is for a sunny Tuesday, so we hope to do the sealing then. We still want to do an extension on the larger deck at a lower level, but the plans are not clear in my head yet, so I might start with something else.

The trapdoor over the cellar works fine, but I still have to finish off handles to open it that I started yesterday. It involves welding, and with me being so shaky, it takes a lot of time.

Pictures to follow when the sealing is done!!

On Friday I did some necessary maintenance on our little car. I got some parts from a metal recycler and changed the RF seat covers, the RH sideshaft and the front wheels. The agreement is that I will only return the old parts, no cost involved. Thanks Michelle!!!!!!!!!

6 April 2014

We made good progress this past week. We managed to seal the deck on the western side, and replaced most of the posts. We also had the 150th commemoration of the last battle of the Maori Land wars (when the whole of the Waikato region was confiscated from the Maori) That commemoration took place on Tuesday. We were surprised when a person turned up and asked if he could take pictures of us sealing the deck. Turned out he has written a lot of books on the local history. He said his next book will be on Major Jackson. We could not stop work, so he left quite soon.

We finished off the last framing for the northern deck, and started fitting boards. To make sure we would not have an odd board or an odd angle, I put the first board on the end of the extended deck, and worked back to the corner. It did mean that I ended up with a narrow filler, but it is very short and not very obvious. Yesterday I continued on the extended deck, and managed to fit 10 boards, which is just under half of that part. The next part will be more difficult, because I will need to cut in to allow for the trap door. Remember there is a food storage cellar down there, and we must keep it accessible. I am still not clear on how to make the trap door to open. Hopefully it will clarify itself as we go along. That ugly post is just a temporary prop until we have rounded the ends and sealed the whole side, then all the posts go back. Thinking of it, I still have not decided what posts to use on the extended deck. At the time when I repaired the original posts, there was no deck there.

Some time in the week, we fitted the scrolls for the eastern side. It looks very original, (maybe it is because it is original) There are still "collars" around the posts that need to be fitted, but that can come at a later date.

You must appreciate these pictures, I got up early, very early to take them. We went off daylight saving last night, that means I was up before seven, a big achievement for me.

I also had an email from the lady at Council, they will decide on Monday on our application for a grant for the decks. I might be given an opportunity to explain the application. I might even take these three photographs along.