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

27 October 2013

The spouting has been painted. The curved beams I could not cut, so I left it to David.

We also decided to extend the roof over the new deck area. That meant that I had to fit a beam to the wall where the iron gets attached. I also repaired the weatherboards and cleaned and painted the part of the wall above the roof to be.

On Friday I wanted to start cleaning and repainting the kitchen wall where it will be covered by the new roof.. I realized the platform that I have built is not adequate, so I did some work on that. We also had rain in the afternoon, a good excuse not to work.

Monday is a public holiday, and I can continue on the cleaning and painting without interfering with the professionals.

I also had to cut the grass at Cambridge, Shaun went along and it was a quite nice outing.

Sorry, not a great week to report on, but we have "Great Expectations"!

20 October 2013

I  wrote about the Heritage Fund Application way back in June. Council allow grants to repair and maintain Heritage Buildings or Sites. We have applied for funding to repair the deck and veranda, including labour. A while ago we received a letter informing us that we have been given a grant, not for the full amount we have applied for, but only to cover the cost of repairing the deck and veranda. The catch is that a) We have to do the labour ourselves b) The work has to be completed in six months and c) The money will only be paid out after inspection of the completed work by council inspectors and lastly d) we will have to finance it ourselves until the money has been paid out.(obviously we have not got that sort of money just lying around)

David Peake is the builder who supplied us with a quote. I tried contacting Dave, but he was away on holiday. He returned in the week and I went to see him in order to get a revised quote for the veranda only, including labour. He contacted Council instead and they agreed that the full amount of the grant may be used to repair the veranda, including labour. They also said we must keep in mind that a second round of grants will be made in December, and that we can apply for that to do the deck. David will start work in the following week.

In the meantime we must paint some spouting he has got in stock that is the wrong colour, and I will also have to cut two beams to follow the curvature if the roof, to be installed in the corners.

The "working platform" has got some (scrap) timber fitted, so we can proceed to work on it.

In all, a VERY GOOD WEEK for us!! Thank you Lord!

13 October 2013

We had a mini winter this week, cold and rain and the wind! I decided not to work too hard.

The bearers are new, and the joists are recycled. The biggest job was to set all the piles. we reused old piles that were left here.

We also have to provide access to the cellar. That dictated the positioning of the bearers. We will also need to provide two extra steps, going down.

We are stretched for money right now, and won't be able to fit the decking. We will use scrap timber with ply over it. The main reason for starting work on the deck is to allow us a working platform for installing the patio door. At the rate we are working now, that is still way down the track.

As you can see, the part between the windows is where the door was removed. The new patio door will replace the left hand window in the pic, and some more.

With everything out of level, it was quite a challenge to set it all up, and it is not done yet, there is still a lot to be done.

6 October 2013

It is nice to be back!!

We have finished the work on our Cambridge house. We went there daily from 9 am to 3 pm.
The tenant has also moved out. Let us hope it get sold quickly.

We removed the outside door from the dining room and fitted weatherboard instead. We even managed to apply a primer coat of paint.

Corrie volunteered to do our line trimming on the grass. He came Saturday morning. A while later Jaco and Bella came around, and Jaco started mowing the grass. Bella helped Elna with weeding of the flower beds. Lovely friends!! Now the garden is tidy once more!!