Monday, January 31, 2011

Two Floors and a Roof!

Upstairs family room
Everyone has been very busy since the delivery of the upstairs frames and roof trusses. It is amazing how quickly they have gone up since 17th January. They fit together almost like a jigsaw puzzle. Brent is amazingly well organised. The carpenters have been working their butts off as have the brickies.

Until this week the weather has been mostly OK. But this week the heat has hit and is predicted to be heatwave conditions till at least Sunday. Poor buggers working in that heat. And they are predicting increases in humidity because of the impact of Cyclone Yasi up  north. YUK!!

Upstairs back bedroom





The colourbond roof  (Surfmist) is now being placed on the roof. Last week the upstairs windows were delivered from Langfords and they are going in this week. Will need to get the guy from ProtectaWindow back to spray the peel-off plastic protective coating on the windows and frames. It is really starting to take shape.

One happy fisherman and one unhappy flathead!






We worked on some things on the house on Saturday but did manage to have a quieter Sunday. Even had a very successful fishing experience at Corlette!! Must be the name association!!!

Mid February
In spite of the hot and humid weather everything is still progressing well. The roof  and eaves are now on, and the panels on the top floor are on on most sides of the house. The rest of the windows are in and have been protected by Protectawindow. I can see why this is needed - saves having to scrape cement off the window and frame and risk scratching the glass.


The tradesman has worked (and sweated) very hard with drilling holes and starting the wiring process with a couple of circuits completed. The apprentice has been of little help - on compo with a bad knee so has been providing moral support only!! I guess the tradesman deserves a week at Adaminaby fly fishing - as long as he returns with some trout!!

The painter should start this week - weather permitting, although not looking great today or forecast for the next few days. Need to get upstairs painted in order to get the scaffolding down!  But at least it is cooler!!! The plumber should start in the next week or so and will have to organise the gas connection.


Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Things are Moving Along

January
Things are really happening now. The weather Gods have been kind to us, helped of course by Brent's organisation. Thank goodness we are not in Queensland and have watched in disbelief as that tragedy has unfolded.

After a break over Christmas the brickies started back about 10th January and made great progress that week. We now have walls and the outline is really starting to take shape. In the week before I acted as apprentice to the tradesman. He could not wait to get in and start drilling holes for the electrical cables. I was allocated the role of measuring and nailing in the metal plates for the light switches, which I mostly performed as per instructions after measuing the height and checking the plans!! All except for a few tricky spots where the experience of the tradesman was needed.

This week, starting 17th January it was all action. Brent had organised the frames and the scaffolding to be delivered. All hands were on deck on Monday morning for the big delivery. My role was to cook muffins for the workers on site while the tradesman swapped his cables for a turn as a stop and go man - (he relished the power!) as the huge crane lifted the frames and trusses to the site. He has threatened to bring the stop and go signs home and hold them up when I am getting too bossy!! Not that that would ever occur! By the afternoon, some of the trusses were on the back part of the roof!
The post Christmas period was also an opportunity to capitalise on sales for needed goods. We now have a fireplace from Home Fires  in Minto Sydney. It was worth the trip to Sydney to get it!  It was the fire we wanted and at the best price. What would we do without the internet to search out best prices! We  have managed a few other purchases at sales prices. And January is not over yet!