Boarding up the back wall

When the weather turned worse we had to ditch the side wall weatherboarding and move undercover to the back wall. Here is the before.

How does Dave always squeeze his way into all the shots?

 First we put on the stop ends which the weatherboards butt into on the edges. Then took some levels and run some string lines.

Before.

We had to start a few boards up from the bottom because we still need to allow some access to the subfloor to put some more steel stuff in.

 

Didn't get much done before we had to stop and go out for a while. By the time we got back it was getting dark and late and so Dave just chopped up boards to length ready to go when he came home from work today.

 

Boards cut and ready to go

 Then today we got some more up. I say we but all I did was paint some ends and hold a board or two in place. Oh I did drill one hole! Go me!

Looks like this now

Oh and we were having trouble keeping the heat in the house due to the massive hole in the ceiling so Dave covered it up with some foil insulation and now it is keeping the heat in a lot better.

 

It is 9:15pm now and Dave is heading out to cut up more weatherboards. Crazy cat!

Cheers,

Nat

xx

Another wall almost done

On Friday, after work we got a delivery of weatherboards, and pending clear weather, we planned to get some more on the walls on the weekend. I still get excited when we get things delivered.

Weatherboard delivery

 So we began with the east wall today.

Before

 First few boards going on. We had to paint the exposed ends as we cut them, and I got bloody paint on my jeans. Should know better by now that to wear my good clothes.

Getting fussy with the string lines

 Some more...

 Started to get too high for to to reach at this point.

 

Dave did get some more on, but Heidi woke up and I had to go mind her inside out of the cold.  I may have sat on my arse and watched Frozen with her and cried like a baby at the sad scene, whilst Dave worked out in the actual freezing cold (13 degrees but "felt like" 6 apparently). I did feel a bit bad about that but hey, he loves the cold weather! 

Cheers,

Nat

Getting a start on the weatherboards

Tonight after work, my incredibly hard working husband got to work on weatherboarding the lower level of the house.

This is the before:

There is that big dork again.  He sure hangs around the house a lot.

 Dave straightening the walls with packers.

 The start before it got dark.

 Had this much done by 7:30pm.

 Progress!! I love it.

Also the quote came in today for the windows. There is a few measurement mistakes so will need to get that fixed. The quote came in at $9200 incl GST. Wow! They'd better look awesome.

Cheers,
Nat

Skylight is getting closer

After we got the main part of the roof on, our next main priority was to get the skylight in the kitchen installed. So this weekend it was time to cut open our kitchen ceiling. This was definitely going to make a dusty mess so we needed to cover up the important kitchen things.

Here's Dave being a smart arse about to make the first cut.

The window will pretty much be in line with the bench and to the left of the window. Good news is that because we had to put it close to the external wall, we can still put pendants above the bench as planned. Yippee!

We started with a small square and it got bigger. No idea why, he works in mysterious.

Proud of his hole!

 By the end of Saturday, about 8pm, it was looking like this with the hard part of the framing done.

We had some keen kids who loved having the ladder inside. Heidi was "riding a plane" and Sammy was trying out his new work boots.

After some more framing up on Sunday morning, it is ready for the skylight to go in.

Makes me dizzy looking at this photo

Unfortunately, the weather this week is terrible. Windy and rainy all week long. So I guess the plumber wont be able to finish the roof and skylight this week. We have the roof material waiting in the front yard so just need good weather.

Meanwhile, we are putting out window plans in for quoting. That will be a "you'd better sit down" moment I am sure.

Dave will try to start the weatherboarding on this small wall if the weather permits.

Just packing it out. Very particular with the straightness of everything.

So that is where we are at. The house is very cold right now so we are snuggling in the front temporary lounge room around the little electric radiator. Brrr....

Cheers,
Nat

Designing the timber windows

My job for today is to design all the new windows so that we can order them soon. It is a bit scarey to think that this is one of the biggest expenses so I really want to get it right and not just order something that I think will be cheaper but not look as good. I don't want any regrets as they will be too hard to change.

I really wanted them to be in keeping with the style of the house so based them on the existing front windows. Minus the leadlight.

 While Heidi had her nap, I got planning.

In the new living area there are two windows to go in. One above the bifold doors and the big one on the back wall. For the highlight above the bifold doors we actually have to have 3 small individual ones (I forgot about that when I drew it)

 They will go here!

Then the big window is next to that on the same wall.

I would like awning windows split into three with the two side panels to be opening and the middle one fixed. They will also have the colonial (is that what they are called) bars above which will be fixed too.

So kinda like this, but without the panel down the bottom and the top bars fixed.



So upstairs we have two long highlight windows that will face the city.

 These are W/10 and W/11 on the schedule and I want them to look like smaller windows so have bars between the panels with the two end ones opening and the two middle fixed.

 

Something like this.

 

For the two windows at the front that overlook the city (one can be seen on the left in this bedroom), they can only be openable from 1700mm high.

 I want then to be like W/08 and W/09. The bottom panel has to be obscured.

That just leaves 3 times the window above that looks out over the new house next door. They also must be obscured to 1700mm. I think just having the centre top panel to be the opening one should be enough.

So that is it!

Also, the plumber came back to measure up for the lower level roof today but said they are too busy to install this week so maybe next or the week after depending on the weather. Dave has been straightening the internal walls upstairs so they will be good to plaster when the time comes.

The roadworks are also getting closer to our house now, so I am nervous that we will have issues accessing the house soon.

Cheers,
Nat

My bin died

Unfortunately the roofers didn't turn up today :( So I had another task in mind.

For ages now, my poor old rubbish bin has been on struggle street. The foot pedal was the first to die and that was early on its life. Next the bin insert somehow broke and got wedged inside the outer white shell and couldn't come out despite my best effort, so was very hard to clean. Then two days ago the lid snapped completely off.

Poor old bin

So, I found a great bin that I wanted but sadly was out of my bin budget.

It is from West Elm and retails at $249. But how cool is that magnetic dustpan and broom. No way I was going to pay that though.

It is actually pretty hard to find a nice looking bin. Ours has no place to be hidden away in a cupboard so it is always on display.

Anyway, I picked up this cheapy from good old Kmart for $39. 

I can use one for my general rubbish and one for my recyclables. So of course I got my label maker out and gave each a label so we have no confusion.

Even if it isn't pretty at least I feel a bit more organised. It will be interesting to see if it can cope with my rough kids. I'd like to get at least 12 months with it falling apart at least.

Cheers,

Preparing for the lower roof

This long weekend, we have been enjoying the new roof and preparing to get the lower roof on. This involved removing the scaffolding on the sides, battening out the roof and putting on the lining boards.

Top roof finished with scaffolding still up

Scaffolding down

Internal scaffolding down on the west side

Internal scaffolding down on the east side

 We also lowered the rear scaffold to be at the same level a the upper level much like a long balcony. This is so we can do the weatherboarding and such later on.

Add caption

West side battening done

The lining boards on the east side (there aren't any for the est side)

More lining boards. The rafter tails need to be painted green yet.

So, we are hoping that tomorrow the roofers will come back to do the east and west side lower roofs.

That took the best part of 3 days. But so happy it is done ready for the roofs.Let's see what tomorrow brings. At least there is no rain forecast for the next 2 days.

Cheers,