As Promised

The picture of the new front door, still a bit to do to complete the construction but it works...

Front Door

The work goes on, the front door project is now almost complete, we have fitted the door and now it's in place.
You will have to wait for a picture of the 'masterpiece' as I havn't had time to take a picture, so as soon as it stops raining...

It was a bit of a mission, as the door is 1400 x 2200 and very heavy, with only a tolerance of 2mm all around.

Mrs DIY came up with the cunning plan of how we could move it with small rollers (cutdown steel waterpipe)and a big piece of carpet.

The fitting went well as soon as we got it in position the door dropped ito it's pivot points - perfect, the door doesn't have hinges but pivots on 2 stainless steel bearings, top and bottom, I must say the design works beautifully (mine!).

The next stage is to complete the entry porch, this should be this done this weekend.

Bad Bad Week

Lets start with the tractor mower, the head gasket blew in a cloud of blue smoke and oil, then Mrs DIY's Citroen C4 had punchure, that was bad enough to require a new tyre, (not a stock item) so until they get a replacement we are driving on a 'spare'.
Then the hot water jug turned it's toes up so we are reduced to using a kettle on the cook-top, following on, my computer's hard drive took a dive and had to be replaced with the result all the software needed to be reloaded - cannot find the Microsoft activation key so needed to purchase a new version (bum!*/! and other stuff!).
Then to cap it all off on Saturday had a call from my mother to tell me a very dear friend of the family had died...

The Artist...

I've started painting again, it's all very difficult, the initial efforts looking very beginners guide to colouring in. (1st effort attached)

If you don't know what it is, it's water flowing over some rocks in the river, I like trying to create the illusion of looking into water

Still I must persevere? as this is one of the reasons that we built the gallery (garage), at this point in time I feel that the cars would be better off having somewhere to live!

Mini Then and Mini Now

From Mini to Mini, my car ownership has done a complete circle, and 4 mini's later plus 40 years!
I am now the owner of the latest version of the Mini, it's still a fun car to drive, just a bit bigger, and the driver a little grayer!
The dog (Oscar) has adjusted to the change of now having to get in through the back hatch back.
This transition was the most difficult as the dog felt that it wasn't very dignified to be seen jumping into the boot, like other dogs.

Dont you 'luv' the cardy!

Water Water

The little job of sealing around the the top of the water tank has become very important. It hasn't stopped raining since I connected the water tank to the roof, with the result of now being the owners of 22,500litres of fresh rain water!

It only took 4 days to fill!

The excess is spilling out the gaps around the water entry point, so sealing the pipe at this point has become very important.

The gizmo's that are supposed to collect stray leaves on a leaf slide and eject them from the system before they go into the tank, are so effective that any stray bits of dust makes them redirect the water out the top of the pipe, so I have had to disconnect them.

Even the water couldn't get through the fine mesh that was installed.

A big waste of $$'s, I think I will just put a inspection point at the bottom of the pipe to clear out any junk that gets into the watering system.

The water is only going to be used for our trees and plants so we don't need to be super careful with what goes into the tank.

Storm Water

Spent a happy day connecting the pipes to the water collection system that I have designed. The rainwater is now being collected in a 22,500l tank.

I have fitted a pressure pump so now all we need to do is wait for the rain to fill the tank and then we will be free of water restrictions that we have during the summer.

The only thing left to do is fit an overflow in the event that the watering usage doesn't keep up with the collection (rain!)

This means we will be able to water the garden without having to resort to using the town water system which is now metered.
We are only have a 500 cubic meter allowance for the year, it's quite a lot of water but we have still used our allowance this year, so from now on we will have to pay.

Back to Work

It's now back to work after 5 weeks holiday, Mr and Mrs DIY have spent the last 5 weeks visiting our children and new grandchild on the other side of the world, one in Montpelier S/France and the other in London.

Good holiday, rented houses in France and Wales and used these as bases together with family to explore these bits of Europe.

The weather was good with lots of heat in France, the only problem we had was I had my pocket picked while getting on the train from Montpelier to Paris, leaving me with no cash, credit cards or drivers licence.

Luckily Mrs DIY and family were able to come to the rescue, I have now have a new wallet (empty) waiting for the replacement cards and licence to arrive in the post.

Yesterday I spent the day nailing down the deck which was waiting for my return to finish, I had hoped that some little elves might have been busy but no, it was still in the same condition that I left it.

The dog had been well looked after by one of our friends who had been house sitting our place while we were away, she is currently waiting for her new house to be finished, so it worked well for all.

Once I sort out my photo's I will post some 'happy snaps' on the blog.

Moved

We moved all our furniture, plus opened the shipping container, the general comment was why do we need all this stuff?

A few pieces of furniture and a few books were removed and then locked the container up until we get back from our holiday, when we can decide what we will keep, dump or sell.

I think everyone should move regularly even if it's only to clear out all the detritus that we all collect.

Moving Day

At last we have been able to move our furniture from the barn to the house, including some of the paintings which have now found a home.

We are pleased with the old french doors they add a interesting contrast to the minimalist look.

The sound still echo around but that will improve once we have the curtains, which once again we have just found have been rejected due to a fault in the fabric, this is the second time, maybe we are not supposed to have these ones.

So it's back to the selection process.

The deck material should arrive tomorrow, bad timing, the winter has really started and now it's very cold and raining, we should be grateful that we don't get snow but we can and do get some very severe frosts.

The only benefits when this happens is we usually get a beautiful clear day.

Progress - More

The painting is now finished all that needs to be done on the interior is the cupboards and shelves in the pantry, plus curtains and refit all the doors now we have the carpet down in the bedrooms and library area.
We should be able to move into the house finally on Sunday!
I would have put a couple of pictures of the progress in here but I cannot find the correct files in my computer, which seems to have hidden my latest pictures somewhere.

Getting There, Really!

This is the first time during the past few weeks that I have had time to post this progress report.
The build is really nearly finished (the internals) painting is almost completed with only one more coat of wall paint in the kitchen and the sitting room, and painting of the doors.
This week the carpet will be laid in the bedrooms and library/nursery...
The plumber is booked to connect the en suites, the heat pump/air conditioner man will be fitting the unit on Monday next.
So all we will need to do is fit the entry door and start on the outside projects, we will be transferring our furniture from the barn to the house, plus unpacking the shipping container and getting all our other bits back were they belong.
I'm still amazed how much stuff you don't need, if we didn't see any of the things we have in storage it wouldn't be a great loss, with the exception of a few of our books.

More Progress

The painting has started with the kitchen, dinning room, sitting room and entry hall have now had at least 1 coat of paint.
What a change we are at last 'getting there', the No.1 bedroom and en suite will be finished plastering today, so it will be only one more bedroom and en suite to go.
The electrician is due today so we may have some light switches going by the end of the day.

Awake!

Last night, no, at 2.41am we were awoken in an adrenaline heart pumping second when the burglar alarm was activated!!!!!

Stumbled down the stairs, my eyesight is not great if I don't have my glasses and it took 2 attempts at hitting the correct code numbers, silence.................................... false alarm.

Now that I have now recovered after my interrupted sleep and had my breakfast, I called the alarm man, who suggested that our 'incident' may have been caused by a bug, or spider that likes living in the corners were the sensors are.
Yes there was, (est décédé) and have now sprayed huge amounts of bug repellent in and around all devices, if the spray didn't get them they will probably will have drowned.

Plastered

At last we are on the last stages of the completing the inside of the build.

Today I have been sanding smooth the drywall plastering and putting a sealing coat on the dinning room, so I have been alternatively been coated in fine plaster dust and paint spots.

Not an attractive sight, the fine coating of dust make me look like a very white old man!

It's very difficult to dodge the paint spay, when you are using an extension pole attached to a roller to reach the ceiling that's 3 metres away.

Oscar(dog) has managed to paint his tail as well as a number of large white spots on his coat, the black sets the white paint off very well.

Oh the Pressure!

We have just received a letter from the local council suggesting that we need to get the Code Compliance inspection done on the barn, (stage 1) so had to request a extension of time as the compliance is being held up by stage 2 of the build which should be finished within the next 6 weeks  'builders promise'

What a Mess

What a big mess! The digger man has dug a ditch around the house so I can fit the storm-water system and now the house has a changed look, instead of sitting in a nice green lawn, we are now sitting in a land of dirt and trenches. 

I am hoping that it dosn't rain in the next few days or the whole place will turn to a sea of mud.

It had to be done but it is still a bit of a shock to see the piles of dirt and pipes laid everywhere.

I should be able to finish this messy bit off in the next few days.

The 17th

Another step towards completion the dry walling is complete with the exception of the small guest toilet which is waiting for the plumber to fit some extra pipework for a possible extra washing machine.

This will mean we will be able to make the house self sufficient and the barn which houses our bedroom, office and studio locked on its own security system.

A slight overkill but it reduces our insurance premium.

Dave the digger man was working next door so took the opportunity to get him to move a great big mound of topsoil that was collected from the drive and house site.

We are placing it so we will get some slopping ground (small hills) along the the lines of the approach to the 17th at the golf club.

When I mentioned the likeness to Augusta Mrs DIY said "why don't we dig a lake as a water feature". Oh dear why do I make these off the cuff comments.

The digger has decided to take a rest (breakdown) with the hydraulics pump busting an 'o' ring and dropping its entire oil supply over the lawn, looks as if it may be resting there over the Easter weekend...

The Dog Reports

man what a day - i finally caught one of those pesky rabbits. boy, can they move but I can move faster. the 'boss' is really pleased and said i was a good boy or something like that. the '2 legs' don't speak very clearly.
i have been trying to catch one for ages (one of those furry things) as they not only sneak onto my patch, they leave lots of little round poos all over my land plus they dig up the lawn and make holes around the trees, which makes my 'boss' cross.
sorry must go now, as the boss is heading towards the silver thing in the other room - they call it a fridge, it's the place they hide my food.
they think they are very clever but i know were they hide it, one day I will find out how to work the security system and get the goodies they keep in there...
wonder what's for dinner?

Fireplace

The fireplace is now fully installed but not tested yet, the weather has been really good, so have not tried it out yet.
The building inspector is due on Wednesday to do another inspection, after that we will be able to start doing the finishing plastering and interior painting.
As a bit of light relief Oscar (dog) caught a rabbit- who said they instinctively know how to kill.
He caught it, then didn't know what to do with the wriggling frightened little thing, so it was up to yours truly to dispatch it.
It is now skinned etc. and is now sitting in the refrigerator, should be nice with some brown bread and butter. ('family joke').

The Gib Lifter

Here's the contraption in use, a seemingly random collection of lengths of steel poles attached to a winding wheel. (See Reference -4 May 2008 Heath Robinson/Rube Goldberg and you will get the idea )

This what you do: lift the sheet on to the top platform, it's a good idea to have selected someone to help you with this task, preferably someone about the same height and arm length. If not you can end up with some very serious discussion occurring from the 'lower end!'

The next step is to tip the platform sheet so it's flat, then wind the big wheel which moans and groans with the weight and then very carefully move the the 'lifter' in position, be careful, as at this point the whole thing is very unstable a wobbles at the slightest touch, once you get the sheet in the correct position you wind it into place.

Note: At this point you must have applied the adhesive to the ceiling battens or you will need to lower the sheet again, this may cause some 'light' discussion about the the 'work' demarcation and who's job is it anyway!

At this point you may be asking what happens if the contraption breaks and the sheet drops while you are winding, what we do is put the ladder and scaffold beneath the lifter, this will overcome the possible problem of the winding operator suddenly becoming a lot shorter

All things being equal you can then screw the sheet to the ceiling.

As the sheet is still a little floppy you need to be able to hold the sheet with one hand and then put a screw to the end of the drill/driver, a tricky little operation of moving screw which you have in the in the holding hand (done before the sheet holding) then carefully fit the screw in the drill fitting.

At this point it is a good idea to have a spare as sometimes the sharp little devils fall and you need to make some hasty adjustments. once you have at least 3 -4 screws in line the rest of the process is easy.

Repeat process until ceiling is covered.

For those into bits of useless information, we have 1.777tonnes of ceiling Gib now suspended above our heads.

Pictures of Progress

The walls are now covered with plasterboard and next its the ceiling.

I have hired the Mitre 10 gib lifter, this will make this job a lot easier as all you need to do is load the sheet on the lifter, turn the handle and presto the sheet is up on the ceiling (in my dreams!).

As you can see we have already started looking at curtain fabrics, displayed on the ladder and chair.

Drywall

The building inspector has passed the internal framing and plumbing so it's full steam ahead on fixing the Gib (drywall) a tricky little job as some of the sheets are 6 meters long!

We are doing the walls first then its the ceiling (not looking forward to that job).

I have installed my little stereo so I can listen to some music while I work and not the radio which only has wall to wall gloom a doom on the economy - have also stopped watching the TV news.

Maybe I'm sticking my head in the sand but it looks as though the only organisations that are enjoying themselves, is the the media who are wallowing in a sea of bad news.

We are about to help the retail sector, we have now decided on the audio/home theater system we are going to buy.

It's incredible the ammount of cable tha a modern house has excluding the power supply, media, audio, coaxial, hdmi and some very expensive fibre (Mrs DIY dosen't know about the last one!)

Banking Final

At last I have been able to speak to a real person at the bank, a nice lady called Robyn, who was able to resolve the challenges I was having with my stolen card (identity?).
This event has been a real lesson in keeping your card info safe, and making sure you record every contact you have with your bank, mine is now verging on paranoia.

Probably a good thing...

Insulation

The horrible job of installing the fibre glass batts is now underway with Mrs DIY aka the 'bat lady' all covered up to stop the sharp fibre from getting at any exposed skin (itchy!).

When this is completed we can get the building inspector to give the OK to start putting up the drywall, this really means we are at last getting near the finish of the build.

Bankers...

The drama goes on with MasterCard (See Oct 2008) they still cannot answer my letters (5) and phone calls (about 6) on why I'm still being charged for some crook who is using my credit card around the world.
I've just received a dispute form re the disputed items, this is the 3rd time I've done this, maybe 3rd time lucky!
What a bunch of incompetent nits, maybe they need to be awarded the order of the bin liner!

Update

The build is progressing quite well at the moment, with all the external doors and windows fitted, so I can now lock up the building, this means I don't need to put my tools away in the container.
This little exercise usually took about half an hour, which was a real drag at the end of the day.
The roof spouting is fitted so any rain now gets diverted.
We should be able to start the internal lining by the end of next week - this will be another milestone.
Had last Saturday off... my aunts 100th birthday! had a little party at the retirement home, she got her message from the Queen congratulating her on reaching 100, my sister had come over from Perth, it was quite fun with all the residence joinng in (really just sitting there and eating BD cake).
So as well as sis seeing M & F and the Birthday party she was able to check on the building progress personally, great to see her and PJ (husband).

More

The roof is done together with all the doors with the exception of one sliding panel.
This has been promised for Monday, again!
It a relief to know that I don't have to be working high off the ground, I know I will need to do some final touches but they are minor projects compared to the last effort.

The Doors (Not Jim Morrison)

By popular demand I have included the antique french doors, that we have been restoring, they are almost 3 meters tall and weigh a ton.

They still need some more work on them and a lot more wax and elbow grease - wax on, wax off!

The sitting-room area has been turned into a builders workshop, Oscar has just rescued some poor defenceless plastic bag and now expects a biscuit.

Design Feature

As we have gone as far as we can go until the doors are delivered - promised tomorrow which is a local holiday! so don't expect them until the middle of the week.
To fill in time we have been repairing (restoring) our very old antique doors and sanding back the old railway sleeper that we will be using as a mantelpiece.
Dust and more dust the whole site was coated, little red eyes but the doors are now looking great.
I had to make some major repairs to the jambs replacing damaged and termite eaten timber, we have oiled and waxed the timber to get it back it's natural patina.

Slow Progress

Although I have been working full time there doesn't seem to be much visible progress, the cladding has gone as far as it can, until the doors are fitted this task cannot be ticked off.
The cladding gets nailed at 150mm centers so it's a bit of a challenge to make sure you dont stick a nail through a power cable or water pipe.
To date I have managed to spear one water pipe and one cable, luckily no power or water was connected so was able to repair quite easily, I getting a bit paranoid about doing it agian and have drawn a layout of the cables and pipes on the outside walls.

Progress

The roof is now on, we only have a few tidy-up things to have it complete - what a mission.

I would not have been able to do it without Mrs DIY who overcame her fear of heights.

We were able to get the new kitchen working for Xmas Day, so we were able to cook the turkey, it was a little like camping but it was better than cooking on the BBQ.

Although all the windows are in, we have only one of the big doors installed, this was a exciting event, after the joinery company fitted it, we were standing discussing the locking system and the middle section fell out! gulp!!

Luckily no breakage, only a bent steel bracket (the fixers hadn't tightened it correctly)