25 May 2014

The most important news is that the people from council has been here on Friday, and they are happy with the work we have done. That implies we will be getting our grant in due time. Thank you Lord for all your mercies!.

Remember our camera failed, and we had to replace it. Some people could not wait for the latest pictures, so they had a sneak preview.

Both pictures were taken from the inside, the first one before all the glass was fitted. The white thing to the right is a light switch. The second picture gives an indication of the amount of light we are getting. Lovely.

The doors are double folding, and works very well. On the left hand from the inside, they fold flat against the wall, thanks to the parliament hinges we have used. On the other side it folds nicely against the opposing wall

Please!!!, don't think the job is done now, there is still a lot of work to be done. Last night we had a rainstorm with wind, and it is amazing the amount of wind that came in between the post on the right of the top picture and the wall. It will certainly need sealing. We also have to fit architraves on the inside and out. Did I mention that the glass was bedded in but not finished from the outside. The Gib stopping also awaits me.

On Friday afternoon we went to Hamilton to look for curtains. We will need them to cover 3.5 m wide and 2.6 m  tall. Quite a hefty bill!! It has to be made on order and the making fee is twice that of the material.

18 May 2014

As suggested, I called in a favor and got the 3.5 m gib up. Then the two smaller pieces on either side followed. The finishing will follow after all the glass is fitted.

The weather was nice, and we decided to fit the doors without glass. That turned out to be a very good call, the doors were easily manhandled. All four doors were fitted with a bit of shimming here and there. And they fold back easily as planned, thank you. I got three "Necked bolts" (bolts with an offset as we have used in Cambridge as well) to be able to open only two doors if required, and obviously secure the inner ones as well.

Eventually I was forced to admit defeat and start glazing the doors. Up to Friday I have managed to finish 12 panes, with 7 more bedded and pinned down. Then we cut one of the hardboard sheets and tied the panels to the remaining doors so it can be opened and closed normally.

We tried taking a picture but the camera has died on me, so no pictures this week either. If we can manage to buy a new camera, I might add a photo during the week

11 May 2014

We were out some time, so it was not a full week's progress.

We had a nice sunny week. That dictated that we do the door frame rather than glazing the doors. It made working outside a lot easier. I assembled the frame out on the deck. Elna happened to be out, so I decided to take the risk of lifting the frame upright by myself. I just managed. Shortly thereafter Elna came back. It took a lot of time to set the frame vertical and level. Eventually we had it all right. Then came the tricky part, to screw it on to the outside framing. That also took a lot of time, making spacers as we went along..

We also removed the jack post holding the lintel between the lounge and dining room, because at the time I used an old post and was not happy with the standard. We fitted a new post there and bolted it onto the outer frame.

Then came the surprise! The building is not true vertical any more, and we have to get the Gib board to fit around the door frame, but also to the house framing, and there were variations of over 10 mm. In the end we decided to use the door frame as reference, and made packers to fit onto the studs. Some turned out to be 1400 mm long, and taper down from 10 mm to 0 mm It was still sunny on Saturday and off I went to buy the Gib. The longest sheet being 3.6 m. That implies that we will need assistance from some friend(s) to put it up. With a ceiling height of 3.4 m, I am not going to take any chances.

We have also decided to fit the doors without glass, to make handling easier, then remove them and glaze them.

Sorry, no pictures this week.

4 May 2014

I was checking back on the blog. We  (Willie and I ) started work on the patio doors in June. Then some other things popped up, and the doors were moved to the back burner. My biggest mistake was removing the glass panes, 4 doors, 10 panes per door, makes it 40 panes. Removing it was not so bad, but then I had to refit or replace the broken ones.

After finishing the veranda and deck, I decided that, if I ever want to have patio doors, I must get started NOW! Monday I started fitting glass, but with me being so shaky, it is a very tedious process. Then we saw the weather forecast for the week, which promised mostly sunshine, but at least no rain.

On Tuesday I started removing the offending window, and blocked the opening overnight. Then the big job started. Over the last 100 years plus, everybody did their piece. I basically had to strip all the studs down from the inside, and fit one jack post from timber I had in stock. Only on Friday I went to buy the lintel and more posts. All went on and we boarded up again overnight.

On Saturday we started work on positioning the thresh hold. Being 220 mm wide, it didn't sit properly on the floor joists, sticking out only 120 mm. In the end we resorted to joining pieces of timber to the joists,so the thresh hold sits properly now.

But wait! There is more! Through time the floor joists sagged, except for the middle one,which sits on the brick wall of the cellar. We have leveled the bed for the thresh hold, but now the height of our floorboards compared to the thresh hold, varies by up to 20 mm.

There is more work to be done, but at least we have got a start. Monday is supposed to be rainy, so we will go to Hamilton for some business.

My biggest worry is to get the glass fitted to the doors, but as they say: All good things come in time.

While working, we also uncovered some weatherboards that was still pained in the original colour, well, about 1920's. It will be good to show critics that the house did not start out as WHITE.