21 October 2012

We did manage to finish the walls and ceiling of the new bathroom. Then I started work on the door. Problem was that I had so much stuff under the lean to that I had no space to work. Well, I did manage to glue the panels of the door that were bashed by a previous tenant.

Last Saturday we had strong wins, an one sheet from the cookhouse roof blew off. Luckily Elna noticed it and I could retrieve it. We refitted it on Monday, and added a rafter where the chimney has been. In the process I learnt that the cookhouse definitely was built with a shingle roof

I decided that my carport and store room were long overdue. We started moving all the stored junk / material out of the way. Then I started measuring the carport. I am allowed a carport of 20 sq meters without a building permit. The store room that I started a wile ago will also get done. The store room may not be more than 10 sq meters.

I am not sure that I have got enough corrugated iron to do both, that is why I started on the carport as well.I will use the beams and rafters from the garage we bought in January. The garage door was fitted in the wall when we built it. Only question remaining is if I will be able to last the job.

6 October 2012

We went to town this morning, and at a flea market bought a plaque: I am retired, I was tired yesterday, I'm tired again today.

That sums up what we have been doing this last two weeks. The bathroom has been painted, walls and ceiling. Next job would be to fit the cornices and battens to the ceiling, and the architraves to the window. Lack of funds means we cannot buy the toilet or the waste pipes we need.

I must admit, there is other work to do. The floor will need scrubbing with lacquer thinners and then a coat or two of varnish.

We had light showers all week, and we are hoping for sunshine in the next week. I should really finish the store room that I started more than a month ago, provided it is nice and sunny, without any wind.

23 Sept 2012

We had a week with plenty of clouds, but no rain. It is the beginning of spring. The Bible says, if the fig trees start to spout, you know summer is here. Well, our fig tree made a mistake, and got its leaves burnt. (from frost)

With Barry's help, we got the last of the Gib board in the new bathroom fitted. I also started Gib stopping. We have a fibre glass mesh tape that is stuck over the joints, and that gets covered with Gib stop (Polyfilla) In the corners we use a metal angle that is covered in paper. That gives a very nice sharp corner. Plenty of sanding is required. I managed to put up some tape, but not all.

We have a close coupled toilet that was bought some years ago, but has never been used. I assembled it outside and connected the water supply. Then I realised that the pan was designed the wrong way around. The water in the pan is in the forward end of it, which means that it will always be a problem to clean after it was used (skid marks and maybe more) This means we will need to use a different toilet. I have also done a layout of the waste pipes under the floor. Only later I realised that I have not taken the concrete piles in account on which the building rest. I will have to put a line in from the toilet point to the connection point.

Elna has been bugging me, she wants to start planting the hedging and flowers that has been in pots since we moved here. Eventually I gave in, and on Saturday I hired a rotary hoe, a small little machine. It was hard going, as the earth has not been dug since about forty years ago. My arms still ache this morning. Well, we got all 20 hedging plants in and Elna now has some area where she can plant flowers.

16 September 2012

Mieke has got some stuff to sell which is in storage in Cambridge. One if the doors of a cabinet fell apart, and we went to retrieve that and glued it back together. It is advertised on Trademe and a potential buyer wants to see it tomorrow. We have to go there puerly for that.

Crawling under floors again!!! I have fitted water pipes under the floor to the bath and shower. I also connected the hot water lines to the cold water line. All of this was to make sure we have no leaks in the cavities where the Gib has to go. All is OK. I can now proceed to install all the insulation and Gib to the walls.

I managed to make a scriber for the window. That is a piece of timber that is cut in a saw tooth pattern to fit the weatherboards. I sealed it properly because we had wind and rain coming in there. We also fitted the sliding door mechanism to the bathroom door ( the original door). It works well. I still need to make a frame around it.

I started getting frustrated with the amount of junk lying everywhere. So I made up a trailer load of junk for the dump.

On Saturday I installed a brace to a post for the veggie garden, using the Recip saw. While I was at it, I thought it a good idea to finally cut up the tree stump that was on the Northern side of the house. After cutting it in smaller sections, I could cut the remaining roots and remove the stump, leaving a hole. Elna was watching through the kitchen window, and came up with the nice suggestion that we should fill the hole. After all the work!!. She won and we managed to cart three barrowloads if dirt in the hole. It was 5 pm when we finished, and I surely felt my age.

Loads of rain last night and today. I am sure glad I managed so many outside tasks this week while the sun was shining.

9 September 2012

If the previous week was slow, you should have seen this one.

On Monday we went to Cambridge to put spacers in behind the oven's door hinges, after replacing the hinges the week before. Works lovely now, and the bad smell is gone.

The battens we have put in between the ceiling boards of the bathroom were not supported on one end, and I had to get in the roof space to fit an extra beam to hold them. On Saturday I got the help of Barry and Shaun, the grandson, to install the Gib for the ceiling. We also did the Gib on the new side wall. Next will be to get the water connected, because I cannot cover the pipes before I have checked for leaks. We had very unsettled weather, rain, wind and sunshine all mixed together. There is a saying in Waikato you get all four seasons in one day1 Well, that was true for this week.

I told you it was a slow week!!!

3 Sept 2012

Sorry, I missed yesterday's deadline. My DVD recorder told me yesterday morning that the hard drive on our DVD recorder was full (150 hours) so I had to copy some to disc. It takes about 10 mins to copy one disc.

The past week was very quiet.

I realised that I am heaping timber in front of my "hoarding wall". I got some nice timber from Ron next door. It is beginning to get so much, I will have to keep the street gate closed to keep it inside. The solution is to build the extra shed and "carport" that I envisaged when we built the wall. (Remember the garage we dismantled in December?) I think we have most of the material.

 Step one was to move the little shed  (2*2m) where I store my bolts and plumbing fittings, etc. I had to take everything out, and with Elna's help, we moved it about three meters backward and half a meter sideways. All on rollers obviously. The shed is freestanding. Next I had to put everything back again.

Step two was to smooth the ground a bit, put a black plastic sheet on the ground and to start repairing and adapting the frames I had and put treated joists on the ground to support a floor. I have some ply sheets to use as flooring.

Then it all turned into custard. The tenant in our Cambridge house called on Wednesday night to complain about a bad smell. We have had this complaint before, but could not trace the source of it, and it was never evident when we got there. When we walked into the house on Thursday, it was clear that we had a problem. I went into the crawlspace under the floor, and this time I found a leak on the waste pipe from the kitchen sink. It became completely disconnected and all the foul water was leaking out. Lucky for us we had a black plastic sheet installed on the ground, so most of the water was contained. I had to leopard crawl under there, fixed the leak and started cleaning up the mess. I got only halfway, as it was getting late, the tenant was due to come home. (And I was dog tired). We went back today and cleared it all up. At a rough guess, it was about 50 liters, crawling with buckets full of mess to the trap door. Of course, the leak was at the furthest point from the trap door. The space was never more than 600 mm. In the end we got the job done. I am recuperating now.

We'll see what the weather holds for tomorrow. If it is rainy, I will work on the new bathroom, otherwisee I will continue with the shed.

26 August 2012

This week belonged to the kitchen. As I have said before, I am no joiner or cabinet maker. The units came together, but it is far from acceptable quality for the final kitchen. All is in and working well. At least ,I have learned to what dimensions I will have to cut the NEW boards for the new kitchen. We also bought new hinges for the oven door, and Elna has tested  the oven and declared it satisfactory.

On Saturday we had a lovely sunny day, and the church group came to work in the veggie patch. The even managed to sow some seeds.

In the week I got some more "firewood" from the builder Ron next door. I have realised, if I don't close the gate, the timber I am storing will spill over into the street!! The result is that I have started clearing some space behind the hoarding wall to build another shed. If the weather holds, that will be the flavour of the week. If it gets rainy again, I will continue the work on the bathroom.

Have a nice week!!