1 March 2015

I have managed to cut and trim some melamine doors, but then the priority on getting the kitchen floor done became bigger. I started sanding the new kitchen floor. It turned out to be quite a job. I have been using the small orbital sander. That means that I don't cut grooves in the floorboards with the  belt sander. Only problem is this machine vibrates a lot. My wrists could not take more than about an hour at a time. That meant that I spent all week sanding. I have not removed all blemishes, that is what gives the building it's character. On Tuesday I contacted our Woodoc rep in NZ, in Tauranga. Thursday morning I  received the required two cans of Woodoc 25. And the price is 66% of the local product. All the units have now been removed, sitting in the dining room, and tomorrow I am planning to tidy up and start applying the varnish. Sorry, I am having finger trouble with the pictures, but is you use your imagination, you will see a room with a bare floor and a corner pantry in one corner.

22 February 2015

After some discussion, Elna admitted that she really preferred the White Melamine. So the decision was made to go for white. Barry/Barco offered to trim the edge tape that I have to put on the edges, I am too shaky to trim it properly. This week was spent on cutting up the boards to nearly the right size. After that I cut the edges accurately with the router. I have not gotten very far yet, maybe the coming week will show more progress.

We also started positioning the units against the walls. That works fine, we will only have a filler of about 50 mm on one side. The next problem is that I will have to move a unit that we have in the old kitchen over, and it is full of pots and pans! That will become a centre cabinet. We have not yet started thinking about the counter tops, maybe Rimu.

I think I have mentioned long ago that we fitted vinyl on the floor. When Ben was here, he gave it one look and told me that he thinks we should remove the vinyl and clean the floor and varnish it. I appreciate his advice and started removing the vinyl, but could not yet get myself so far as to tackle the floor It will take a lot of sanding and scraping. I must say it will be easier to do while I can still move the units around. That is a problem for another day,  Let's first get the doors sorted.

15 February 2015

I found high gloss white melamine sheets from a dealer, and bought four sheets. now my problems started. I have an old table saw which has not been used in nearly four years. The it has stopped working because of a blunt cutting blade, and I left it in storage in one of the sheds. My newer and smaller table saw has developed a"wobble"in the blade. It will require replacing the bearings. Only tested it last week and found it was only the overload trip that has popped. Now I had to move the saw. Firstly I had to move the roofing iron that has been there for two years. Then I had to move my pile of usable scrap timber to the back of the shed. Next came the spare weatherboard in the shed. Only then could I move the table saw to where I used to have my workbench under the lean to. In the meantime the melamine sheetswere on the trailer under the  new car port. With help that was done.With everything set up, Me and Elna moved the first sheet over, Quite a task for two oldies. We set a guide and cut it ti form a side  panel for the corner pantry. Then I had to put edge strip on the edge  and trim it down. It worked, but is not secured yet. Then followed the second panel and a filler at the top. From the off cuts I made the two doors required, and edged them as well.

Today we had visitors, and the  general consensus was that we should retain the original wood grain doors with black edging. I will need to make 7 new doors and drawer faces out of the spare wood grain sheets and panels that I have. What I will do about the edging I don't know yet. I have got 100 meters of white  edging! It will mean less work for  me, and I would prefer to remove the black and have brown edging done by a joiner, but I don't know if he will be interested in such a small job. Time will tell.

Well folks, that has been my week.

8 February 2015

It took a while to get into "work mode". And then I must admit I do not achieve as much as I used to when I am doing tasks.

I did manage to build a carport at tie back of my sheds for Marike's car. That has been standing parked under a tree ever since we moved in. I had some left over curved roofing sheets left over from the build of the Veranda. I used those and steel channeling similar to our existing carport. In the end I spent no money on it at all. And I have managed to park  the car there for one night!!!

We had to decide on our next priority, and we decided to tackle the kitchen next.We decided to remake all the doors of the kitchen units in white melamine. I went to town and bought four sheets of melamine board. Now that has to be kept under cover, so Marike's car was expelled. I have a feeling that I have previously built two carports with the intention of storing the car, and the same thing has happened (twice) I will also need to use the large table saw, so I cleared some boards and moved it out of storage. The place seems too small and I decided to get rid of my workbench under the lean to and move the saw table there. That implied moving the pile of usable timber to the back of the shed  to enable me to move the saw bench around. I am making good progress, but it will still take a while. So that was our week, with the trailer with a load of melamine boards still under the carport.

29 January 2015

A whole month has passed, and nothing has been done on the house. We hav been on an extended tour of the lower part of the country and have enjoyed it immensely

I used the opportunity to study other period houses, primarily to decide what we are going to do with our front door. Will sleep on it for a while.

I also started work on an extra car port to get Mieke's car out of sight. I must say progress is very slow.

28 December 2014

I hope you all had a Blessed Christmas, and while I am at it, we wish you a very happy and fulfilling New Year..

With all the family and friends around, nothing has happened to the house in the last month.

We will be touring South Island for nearly three weeks after new year's, so there will be no updates for another month.

Have happy holidays!!!

30 November 2014

The booster pump turned out to be Mickey Mouse, the pressure drops away as soon as you increase the flow, so it turned out to be a waste of time. The only proper solution will be to install a gas flow through heater, which will not happen before Christmas.

I sold some scrap metal, and dumped some scrap. I try to combine the two, the proceeds from one covers the cost of the other.

Apart from mowing the grass, it was a very restful week.