Back door

Today the back door went in and it was the best day we have had for building for a long time. Sean was here to help today. The last side(red) also went on the garage/study.

Gales

Today, Sunday, proved a challenging day putting up the yellow on the kitchen wall zigzagging up the steps and putting up and the last gigantic sheet on one of the lougeroom walls. It seems to reach out to the sky. It was Alan, Travis and me today. We also fitted the emperor leadlight into the study door. The wind was unrelenting and our zincalume was hard to hold onto!

Rob on the Job

Today we had Rob on the job. It was a rain-plagued day but nevertheless Alan and Rob managed to take out the old kitchen wondow and fit the new one. They also put one piece of yellow up. The kitchen window has been down-sized but still gives a great view of the bay.

Glass blocks

Not much one in the last few days as we have been helping our daughter Nicola move into her new home in Launceston. The glass blocks are in the bathroom window and today I made some apricot jam. Batch two is on the stove cooking as I type this. Our tree has produced a bumper crop this year. At the moment it is pouring down and not a lot can be done outside.

Emperors ready to go in the door

Well basically the emperors are ready to go in the door. Max wants them for his cricket club but that is not going to happen. This panel took me twice as long as I expected to piece. What I initially planned had to be changed...I will have to start looking for a door closer so the door won't slam. Maybe we will frame the leadlight behind glass on the outside wall like we did the fish series in the lounge room. I would really like to design and make a really big series to go in the hallway ceiling as a feature skylight. Probably think on this for a while!

Fred and the penguins

Today, Fred, our neighbour came around and moved the hot water cylinder and rearranged the kitchen plumbing so we can get on with another wall of the house. I spent the day cutting out and piecing a leadlight depicting two emperor penguins ready for the shed door after we paint it black. It nearly drove me mad and I ended up cutting the sky pieces into five which I had ever so carefully managed to cut as two pieces (SIGH!)to make them easier to piece into the lead. I ran a copper filled leadline through the diaganol curve to support it as it is a large door window. Tomorrow I will solder it and maybe put on the putty. We'll see what else crops up.

The "Shed"

Today Max, Alan and I started on the front of the "shed". Travis put in an appearance near the end to help with the fascia. Max was worried about getting a smack on the head! Great weather for building. What is white will soon be black and a emperor penguin leadlight I am working on will go in the door.

No Max!

Max couldn't make it today so Alan, Travis and I did the back of the garage/art area. It was no easy task as nothing was square or level on the old existing "shed" which we have turned into an art studio and garage area. Half the day was preparation time so everything would line up and be done properly. Putting sheets over the ugly grey concrete brings a lot of satisfaction. It was a great day even though a tad hot. No wind ripping the sheets of iron from our hands though! The existing white window framing will later be painted black to match all the others in the reno.

Large slice of yellow

Today it was the first pleasant day we have had for ages, not too windy, no rain and no scorching sun; just right. Max turned up early and surprised us all. We can always hear his big, black beast of a ute coming. Anyway they finished off cladding the external bathroom wall and started on another smaller wall of the house, smaller but quite high. The eaves had to come off, a window needed to be removed and then the wall framed up. They managed to get one of sheet of yellow on. I was on clean up as usual.

Bathroom window

Today Max turned up so Alan and he set about framing up the external bathroom wall and putting in the new window frame; the glass blocks will go in later. For now we have a rollerdoor window! They also put on a few concrete sheets. Travis and I managed to finish cutting up the wood and did general clean up. John took some more white boards away and delivered us a load of firewood as promised.

More rain

Well today was another day of heavy rain so the boys couldn't do a great deal of outside work. Travis and I will also have to remask off the front windows as all the card and tape protecting them became drenched and fell off. This wall still needs a second coat of texture coat. Sean and Alan finished removing the lino off the kitchen/dining floor and the boards in the dining area are much better condition than the ones running through the kitchen area. They also put up some plasterboard around the new black doors. The rain stopped for half an hour so one side of the laundry is finished.

The heavens opened

January 5th. Today Sean was assisting with the reno again. It wasn't dry enough to put on the second layer of texture coating so the boys decided to start on the laundry/art area which is adjoined to a garage; an outbuilding. Travis and I did another trip to Mitre 10 to buy a Drill Hammer Kit to make life a bit easier. Travis had his second driving lesson. John popped in and made and offer to take away the weatherboards we had piled in the driveway. He is coming back for more on Monday. His son can apparently use the boards in his rennovation. In exchange he is bringing us a load of firewood. It sounded like a good exchange to me since I am the one cutting all the old wood up and it really doesn't burn that well anyway. The pile was getting higher and higher! Anyway when Alan and Sean were half way through putting up some blue zincalume down came the rain so they moved into the kitchen/dining area to rip up the lino as we are going to hopefully sand back the existing floorboards and polish them up to match what is already in the living room. This was underlaid with a lot of small pieces of burnieboard which was nailed to the flooring with copious amounts of nails, not making it an easy task. They have managed to remove half of it. Pud, our cat, was not very impressed with the changes when she came out looking for a meal.

Sealant and texture coating Jan 3rd and 4th

The last two days have been boiling hot and not pleasant to work in considering that the area currently under renovation virtually receives full-day sun. Anyway the first coat of texture coating is on the concrete sheeting out the front. It's a wonder Alan didn't get heat stroke. Travis and I made another visit to Mitre 10 to buy some addition buckets of Dulux Full Cover Texture. We need this around the upcoming side. Travis had his first driving lesson on the way. All of the iron has been painted except for a few sheets of the red. Some of the zincalume was higher than our house. We had it propped up all over the place to dry. Rob and Jilly came for a BBQ and liked the colours.

A zillion sheets later

It's January 2nd and the whole day has been filled with more washing and painting of the Zincalume. Travis and I bought four more tins of paint(yellow, blue, green and red) from our local Mitre 10 store. The guy tinting the paints said, "These are very bright colours, what are you painting?" Here are a few shots of the longer lengths and one of Alan spraying them yellow. If you are holding one upright and a gust of wind comes along you nearly become airborne or it blows down on your toes. There weren't as many flying bugs around today. We now have a huge stack of painted Zincalume ready to continue the reno with.