The good the bad and the beautiful

 Two look alike windows now grace the front of the house leaving only the far corner one to change. 
When the old sliding door was installed someone put a strip of particle board under it, over the last few years it had been wet and fallen apart I decides to take out a few floorboards and put a piece of tanalised ply down that went under the new door and would one day have tiles on top of it, the sub floor timber is rimu and can be very hard the nail gun often has difficulty driving a nail into such hard wood and will rebound off the timber as the nail refuses to go in, I am very aware of this but with a moments lack of attention I had my finger behind the nail gun and as it rebounded my finger was trapped on the next timber joist the blood was instant as the finger end split and the colour of strawberry and the nail is now the colour of the background and looking bad.
The strawberry's are today's crop and while its not desert for 3 it is one each and beautifully tasty they are, the passion fruit and tomato's have a bigger crop but are a while from being ready. 
Inside those windows I have been busy fixing new gib board mudding the joints, fixing coving, sealing the gib and hopefully will start with some paint tomorrow we have been living with most of the lounge curtained off to stop the spread of dust and I am aiming to have the lounge livable for Christmas and a few days break from my 9 to 5 working days. 

In the kitchen

Whilst waiting for windows to be made I attacked the bedroom ceiling and that was easy now I am so familiar with what to expect and how to go about it, then I had time to consider what will happen to kitchen cupboard doors, I have had a large sheet of blonded oak ply for a long time and thought it would be nice as a panel in kitchen doors, I had gained all this rimu, nice old well dried rimu with plenty of colour it is mostly 100mm X 75mm and nail holes about every 450mm the nails have been cut off and are still in the wood about half way through, so my quandary was will the two look right together and making a sample door was on the cards, the space above the fridge needed filling the ceiling needed sorting before I can proceed with the kitchen ceiling, I figured I had time to build the cupboard
and make the doors before the windows arrived, the blonded oak ply is  only 2mm thick and had to be glued to a thicker ply I chose 3mm so the doors are light weight given that the rimu is a heavy wood, I chose the round top rail for some relief from the squareness the doors are 22mm thick enabling me to have 2 biscuits in each corner creating I hope a strong joint.
I would like to have them sprayed with a lacquer but in the photo it is bare wood, you will need to look closely to see the grain in the oak as the photos do not do it justice.
 

Much of the same, progress.

I was going to take photos of all the rubbish I had collected and was destined for the rubbish dump the carport had gib board and ceiling fibrous plaster stacked along the side and bags of old insulation making it difficult to get a car in the unfinished path at the right was piled up with old timber.
I borrowed a trailer from the lady who likes to take the old wood for her fire and did a run to the tip with the stuff in the carport then loaded the wood onto her trailer it was then I thought of a photo, it was then when it decided to rain and she arrived to take the trailer away, but look how tidy it is now, don't look deep into the carport
it is all wood that I may need one day.
The deck is also looking well dressed with covers on the 2 chairs I made, I have used cable ties to pull the covers tight as the rope that was provided was useless at getting any tension in the fabric.
With all the sun and now a few days rain the garden is growing well with a steady supply of lettuce and the odd strawberry there are courgette almost ready and more to follow a few tomatoes and probably more I don't see, the best part is the abundance of  flowers on the passion fruit and judging by the fruit already formed we are in for some tasty treats so it is best not to complain about our wet spell as this fruit likes its water.
The rubbish I took to the tip was from the corner bedroom it had been the store room, an unused bed, unopened boxes, or things that we just don't need, it is a place to dump stuff as I deal with other rooms but as the ceilings I have replaced are so nice I was itching to get on and do this one too (I am waiting for a window and door for the lounge the two closest in the photo) then I will want to replace that window too as it is the one with the strange looking narrow panel of glass the new one will have a large glass panel and one opening sash then the front of the house will be complete.
I think I can see the end of this whole house upgrade but then I can also see a lot that needs to be done before I get to that stage so maybe its just a feeling of confidence that in a year I have come this far and in another year I think it will be looking a whole lot more finished.
 
 

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.