21st - 27th June 2010

Another week and lots going on. Dave continued on his merry way in the garage and put the top two coats on the weekend's 58 battens.

The sparky came back and trimmed some excess from our power cable and attached an earth connection to our slab reinforcing (new regulation that came into force after the slab was laid). This connection was made to some exposed reinforcing iron in the bathroom shower base and was done just in the nick of time because the then tiler turned up...

to concrete the two shower bases ...

We gained the necessary for the television ...

And the concrete man came back to try and find a solution for the floor treatment. At last they found a couple of options that both Dave and I liked ...


Oh yes and the builder and his mate were still going strong with the rondo supports in the ceiling, the loft access and lots of extra woodwork in the walls and ceilings for light fittings, towel rails and all sorts of other accessories ...

... a new cupboard in the laundry for all our fruit and veggies - so it will obviously need to be huge ...

... and the pantry in the kitchen which also needs to be huge to hold my chocolate supplies.

This was all in preparation for .....
the arrival of the gib board and the insulation which will be next week's job.



And while they went off to enjoy the weekend, we were left the task of turning the mess that was everywhere ....


... into a pristine workspace ready for the gibbing.
And before this started, we took the opportunity of photographing all the studwork (and I mean ALL the studwork, each from several different angles) so we would remember exactly (and I mean EXACTLY) what was where. Goodness, I thought I was over the top meticulous but I realise I am not even in Dave's league when it comes to details!

14th - 20th June 2010

Another week started with the builder and his mate back on board and a bit of sun at last, although it was still a bit chilly. They made good progress and installed the last two windows that had just arrived.


And Dave started on his mammoth task of painting the battens. Ten down ...

gazillions to go!

Tuesday was the coldest, wettest day ever but on Wednesday the sun returned, which eased the job of putting the cladding on the gables.



And inside a bath had arrived along with various plumbing fittings.


And at last they replaced the top of the septic tank that had been driven over and smashed.

BUT, I sensed the start of the fourth Great Painting Disaster, although its not strictly painting but most likely a disaster. The concrete men came to try out etch the concrete floor in a test area to confirm what colour we wanted. The first areas they did turned out bright orange so they came back with three new colours, coffee, caramel and ebony. They applied these one day and they looked promising (and sounded yummy) ...

... but when they came back to wash off the excess and polish it, nothing was left of the caramel or coffee and rather too much was left of the ebony.

Round and about, we noticed that the sandhill that is currently being worked had shrunk to a fraction of its former size and we should soon have a much better view of the river.

Thursday and the glaziers came and added the glass to our two new windows - at last I can see out of the soon-to-be-kitchen.

Now doesnt that look nice (apart from the mottly colours on the cladding)!

And preparations were made for the garage door.

Friday and Richard the mate was away and Neil spent most of his time planning the finer details of the rest of the job. Numerous decisions were made about the architraves, the doors, the cupboards, the TV aerial and we had visits from the door woman, the TV man and the concrete men(again), who were rather bemused about the lack of resulting colour last time and did yet more test areas. We're running out of areas for them to use.

Saturday and the real attempt on the battens hotted up. Dave had been doing a batch of up to 40 2.7m battens each day but with a bit of thought, another pair of hands, and full access to the garage, the process was streamlined and we managed to prime 3 faces of a further 58 5m battens in about 3 hours.

7th - 13 June 2010

This was a short week for some, in fact for everyone except Dave.

Monday was a public holiday but we spent it scavenging the 'rubbish' from my colleague's feijoa farm which they were selling. We were offered lots of very useful things like leaky hose, water butts and wood ready to be chopped. When we arrived to collect them, Dave just couldn't resist some of the other things that had been put in the skip. These included some metal posts and lots of plant trays - oh yes and a rather antiquated bike for me.


And of course with firewood to be chopped, we needed something to chop it on.

The builders worked in the morning of the Monday and then for the next two days before Neil disappeared to learn some new skills at a conference for the last days. The plumbers came and went. And Gordy the sparky was there adding this and that - and dragging Dave off for some lunch time runs.

As a result, we gained:
some rondo ceiling battens ...

... some flashings and more wood in preparation for the cladding on the gables ...

... a doorbell ...

... an earth wire attached to the metal in the slab to comply with the newly introduced building regulation...

... the plumbing for the wetback ....

... and the first batch of about 900m of battens for Dave to prime and paint to finish the exterior cladding. Oh dear I can feel some more sums coming on - if there are 900m of battens to be primed on each of their four faces and then topcoated twice on 3 faces, how ever long will it take Dave to complete it all and will he finish it before the builders are ready to put it up? Answers in a few weeks time!!!

31st May - 6th June 2010

Another week and all started well. The builders moved onto the front of the house and began to install the ranch sliders and the surrounding cladding...

... while Dave did another coat on the cladding that was in place ...

... and turned the kitchen into his new paint shop and varnished the reveals on the ranch sliders before they were installed.

It was on the Tuesday that the third Great Paint Disaster struck when strange things started happening when the second coat was applied to some of the sheets that were still to be put up ...

... and some of the sheets that were already up. There were various theories as to the cause - new sheets that hadn't been allowed to 'flash out', old sheets that hadn't been allowed to 'flash out', too cold, too hot in the sun - but at the end of the day it left us with rather a mottley set of walls.

Anyway the builders pressed on and were all ready for the glazers ...


... who came in the rain early one morning and had finished before the clouds disappeared and the sun came out again.


And Gordy the sparky came and, after a whole morning discussing what we wanted, little black boxes started sprouting all over the house.

And then we got a front door, that doesn't open yet ...

... and a laundry door, that does.

And finally, all the windows were secured. During this task, it was noticed that one of the stickers on the windows had mistakenly been applied to the inside of one of the double glazed units - bummer!.
Certainly major progress and we can't wait to move in!