A very productive week

Its Saturday and all the gib board is up in the lounge, one piece is 4m long and will probably be the longest piece in the house there were 2 pieces that could have been almost 6m but I opted to join them and the pieces of batten you see screwed to the ceiling are there to create a hollow for the plasterer and will be removed once the glue has dried, it is so good to have done this as it was a dirty job and have still got the itches from dealing with the fiberglass batts as its the older one that has more itch than the newer batts.

I have decided to employ a professional plasterer as I think a lounge ceiling needs to be well done then its time to get on with a new window and sliding door so I can complete those walls and do the coveing.
I was able to celebrate the ceiling with fresh strawberry from the garden well I have had 2 of them but if I can keep the birds off them there are more to come and if you look closely there are tomatoes growing behind that if I keep watering them should produce, we are having dry weather and most days are warm and sunny so some of the solar water heating tubes have been turned around so we don't produce more hot water than we need and have to waste it.      

Another milestone

Ho how I have been longing to do this, I have looked at this awful ceiling
everyday and wondered how soon I could rip it down.
Now that it is gone I can see what was causing the sag, I had thought it was water damage from the roof leaking and whilst that had done its share of damage the sag was caused by sloppy workmanship, in 1984 the house had 2 extensions put on the back which changed the roof shape a very large wooden beam was put in the roof space to hold up the ceiling as some walls were removed, that beam was never put in the correct place it was not sat on the outer bearing wall but on a ceiling joist and for some strange reason pieces of wood were pushing the ceiling down off the roof, some timbers that had been cut to get the beam in were never nailed to the beam and were floating around loose, there is also a short piece of timber missing from the
roof structure by where the solar water unit sits so I will remedy this problem, all the other problems are now sorted and in the second photo you will see one piece of Rondo ceiling batten in place.
Some time prior to the 1984 alterations the ceiling was insulated with Insulfluff or mashed up newspapers that is blown in on an hit and miss basis that has now all gone along with the old fibrous plaster now I have a pile of pink batts and some of the newer white insulation to put back up once the new battens are in place before the new gib board is fixed.
Our living area is suddenly very small we are hidden behind that blue curtain that is doing a wonderful job of keeping the dust contained. 
I should have a third picture of strawberry or should I say the one the birds got but its dark now and raining, there are lots of green strawberry and some old net curtains are going to come in useful soon.  

A Rush of Enthusiasm

I think it had been brewing for a while, I had to keep moving that huge heavy slab of wood and it took up space in the carport now with the new roof it seemed time to extend the rail between the legs on the little table and fill up the deck, the power planer, 100mm sander and grinder got a good work out cleaning up the top and with it out on the lawn the next time I cut the grass all the mess will be gone, I am thinking the finish is temporary I will see how it weathers with nothing on it and if next year it needs doing again I will re think it then, the slab is 60mm thick so it is viable to give it a sand each year ready for the summer.
If you look closely you will see some of the eaves have been replaced and the rest of it will happen very soon, I removed the old eaves from by the toilet pipe as it was poorly fitted and had been painted so many times it was never going to look good under new paint.
Now I am looking at the decking and wondering where to go with that, a good water blast then decide whether to replace a few boards or to wait till I replace the whole deck.
I am trying to prepare myself for removing the lounge ceiling it would be nice to see it done and out of the way this year, it looks like a big job but having done the bedroom and finding it was not too difficult I can see a week will see it down and back up with just the surrounding areas to contend with next year and that will be a new project.    

Summer ready

I opted for an oil stain on the cedar, the directions on the tin said overnight drying and two coats needed, well overnight the oil soaks into the timber but is not dry with the timber then saturated the second coat is still wet the next day and that is the ho so porous cedar the more dense pine probably needs a week to dry so I decided to get the white painting done and get it all in place where it can dry with plenty of air around it and I will come back one day and give it all another coat of oil.
I think our winter has been dry, we have had rain but I think our spring could be wetter and warmer so I wanted this roof up and doing its job, I think we will get a little rain in the back as there is a gap due to the curve but both the door to the kitchen and the bedroom door will get a lot of shelter so can be left open it it rains.
As with most projects I start it is not complete, there are still eves to sort out and I am looking at the electrical wiring I can see and thinking do I need to get to any of this and if I do now is the time to do it.

The table on the deck is small as the other house had a small deck, I have a large slab of macrocarpa timber its about 2.1m long 1.3m wide and 60mm thick and am thinking of swapping table tops I will use the current legs but make them wider to accommodate the longer top, some day those steps and deck are going to get a make over.

Projects end and start

I have been wanting to make one of the round corners for the skirting and the hall way was my opportunity, I started by gluing a few 20mm pieces together to form a block as a way to give it strength then used a hole saw to cut the internal radius then used the drop saw set on the 45 deg to cut the outer faces with the bench saw set to 10mm I cut the inside faces the outer radius was achieved on a disc sander it then had to be fit to the shop bought skirting and that was the difficult part, the corner has a long leg on it so it was not such a small piece to handle and the shape on the top was put on by hand with a lot of sanding, I had painted the walls first so it was all done very gently then pushed into place on some glue and a final touch of paint, I think I have 7 of these to do and now I have done one I don't want to do any more????
I finally had a window delivered and could get on with laminating the jamb I had to do it in 2 pressings as the long side of the window is 2560mm and my vac bag sheet is 2.4m so it went corner to corner and just fit, I have used a .8mm plastic laminate with a dotty type pattern its nice its easy to clean and no painting required I used biscuits in the corners with epoxy.
It was good to be putting paint on the walls and fixing the wardrobe permanently in place, the totara draws I made so many years ago seemed to be perfect for the space in the middle, then some curtains  and all that remains is the bed needs making, we would like to see more of the wood floor but the carpet is warmer when getting in and out of bed and we see enough to know that it is all real wood.
My mind had been on the outside the roof over the back door it also extends over the ranch slider to the bedroom so on those warm nights we are able to leave the door open and if it rains, well it can, the cedar beam I showed a few posts back I cut into 4 pieces and are fixed to the facing below the gutters I have strengthened the area behind the facing as the wind could do damage lifting this, in the photo the whole roof is in the garage on the floor having the corrugated polycarbonate sheeting fixed and cut to length, since this photo it has been disassembled for painting before it is reassembled in place, I didn't have a firm plan when I started this just an end picture in my head so the details have grown as I have gone along and that I can tell at the moment I am pleased with the look, it has

involved more in the painting, the pieces that are not exposed to the weather are being oiled and will show the grain the pieces that will get the sun and rain are to be white to avoid any heat absorption, its the heat that makes the timber move and the paint to crack then the water gets in, this nice rolled purling end is designed to shed the rain so it won't travel back along it and onto the oiled cedar.
I will endevour to show pictures from underneath when it is in place.

Two weeks ago

Two weeks ago I got out of bed and pulled all the ceiling in the hallway down, I took the rubbish to the tip then bought some Rondo steel ceiling batten, by the end of the day it was all battened out and 2 pieces of gib board in place, the next day I framed out the new roof access hatch and completed the gib boarding, I stopped the ceiling and sanded before I started to do the coving, it took 2 days to fix all the coving, then its been the slow process of painting and going back to stopping when I thought I could see irregularity in my stopping, all the walls have been replaced in this part of the house so apart from my stopping not being to a professional standard but I think its very good all the gib board is new so the paint job is good and that has been the goal and I am so pleased it has come out so well.
These last few days I have been fixing architraves to the door frames and then decided I would put thresholds in 2 of the door frames to the hot water cupboard and the laundry as there is a wooden floor in both rooms, I should have put the threshold in before the frame went in but it will be put down to experience of lack of it, now I wanted to get a perfect fit of the threshold around the door frame and the architrave that is on one side, to do this I taped around the area then cut an m d f pattern roughly allowing about a 5mm gap that I filled with builders bog that is a quick setting filler that will stick to the mdf but not the plastic tape when the filler was well set I pulled out my pattern its a perfect copy of what is there, I had glued up some old oak flooring to make the threshold from, I cramped the pattern to the oak and used a copy cutter in a router to copy my pattern and I have a
perfect fit now I can get all the architraves on.
I came across a curved cedar beam 4.6m long 90mm thick and 250mm deep, cut in half length wise and I will have what you see here, this a a pattern cut roughly to see how it would fit, I think it will be a little lower than this so I can get a fixing into the fascia I will beef up the wood behind the fascia and use bolted steel brackets, I have also experimented and managed to cut one half of the beam in half length wise so I will have 4 at 40mm thick that gives me 4 beams at 800mm spacings over this area, I now need to

find a corrugated plastic sheet that will bend over this curve.
There are the curved beams hidden and I can't wait to get at then and see what becomes of them. 
I was offered some old wood and could not resist it, there was far more than what I show here as I have started putting it away we need the carport for the car, there are about 6 long lengths of hart rimu 100mm X 75mm that was removed from under a house when it was lifted 30 years ago there are nails every 400mm and lots of shakes, I am thinking kitchen cupboard doors I need 11 of them and some draw fronts there will be a lot of rubbish from it?
What is shown here are long lengths of oregon again about 100 X 75 I now realise it has some wood worm and I don't know how much is affected, is an oregon parquet floor too much in the kitchen with rimu doors that is what is going around in my head, in this pile are also some big pieces of douglas fir that may yet get used for that roof they will look good with that cedar.       

Getting fancy

My high light is being able to use the inlays I created so long ago, I also like to take a bit of time to create something a bit special in each area of the house I deal with, this came about partly from what I had done in the previous house, partly from what I was left with after removing the fireplace then some thought about what material I had available as I threw so much away when I made the move to this house, the block at the bottom is made of 5 pieces of wood the piece above is made of 12 pieces and I am not going to count the pieces in the post, the bottom block is repeated at the top.
The bare wood panel and cleat behind the post will eventually be painted the same colour as the walls, the only clear finished wood will be the floor the posts and the pine front edge of the shelves which I hope will make the post prominent, under the two lower shelves will be a hanging rail so each side will be a his and hers and in the center area will be a chest of draws I made some time ago that will fill that space.
I have a little more to do fitting these shelves then it will all be taken out and into the garage for painting to an almost complete stage and during that time I hope to install the window and gib board that wall then I am able to paint the whole room and another coat on the floor.