20th May 2012
We have had a couple more weeks of perfect
weather and looking across the bay is just beautiful, you wouldn’t live
anywhere else. Getting older with a short memory it’s so easy to forget that horrible
humidity I never cease to complain about in summer.
Progress on the house appears to have
slowed down but in reality it is going well. Roofing and guttering has been
completed, external foam cladding is well advanced and all but finished, the
renderer has started and is well advanced on the northern wall, he feels there
is about seven days work ahead of him and the plasterers have just started
fixing the internal plasterboard linings (walls & ceilings). The “Goop Guys”
man did his thing before the rendering started, Goop Guys is a company name, it’s
a process of taping up window frames and applying a solution to the glass
protecting them from scratching while the house is under construction
particularly the renderers who apparently have a habit of splashing their
cement mix everywhere and wiping it off with the sponge they use on the render,
you can imagine what that does to fresh glass.
According to the building manager, chippies
will be back this coming week to start putting up soffits, for the uninitiated
that’s the covered section under the eaves between the gutter and house. I
guess then they will make a start on the inside doing skirtings etc. I’m led to
believe the upstairs timber flooring will be laid in a couple of weeks,
external glass balustrade and then the scaffolding will be taken down in
approximately 3 weeks time. I don’t know if that means the external painting
will have been completed or whether they put up different scaffold for that,
maybe they abseil off the gutters.
After several days of trades cutting foam
and plasterboard, upstairs of the house looks a shambles, downstairs is just as
bad if not worse with cement render and mud traipsed everywhere as the
offsiders mix and deliver their brews to the renderers, why they have to walk
in and out of the house has got me beat as all of their work is external.
However I mustn’t forget the old cliché I used for many years “Only children
and fools criticise half finished work”.
After straining my back a few weeks ago I
have finally been able to get back on my bike at long last, it’s been one thing
after another, 1st we had rain that seems to be ages ago, then both
Nancy and I were sick as dogs for a spell and then I strained my back so all in
all bike riding and exercise has been a bit light on of late, fortunately it is
coming right and at the same time Nancy has decided to go on a health kick so
I’ve managed to get her on Lisa’s bike, slowly slowly but she is improving and
gaining confidence, we actually covered 18kls on Friday and her average speed
is improving as well (and she didn’t fall off this time). It’s great if she
keeps it up we will buy a bike for her birthday in August and take them with us
when we travel. That’s both Nancy and the bike.
I will try and get some meaningful house photos
for my next post, in the meantime I’ll just keep doing little jobs on the van
and gradually putting things back that we took out when we had it repaired,
only not so many duplicated items this time, Nancy has finally accepted there
are supermarkets outside of Brisbane and butchers shops. Last time we carted a
60lt freezer full of frozen meat from her favourite 83 year old butcher and
then we had to stop at every country butcher’s shop we came across just to
peruse and sample country meat, I don’t know if Nancy has a thing about meat or
just fancies butchers generally, I guess I’m lucky I caught her when I did 47
years ago, or did she catch me hmm, I’ll have to think about that one it was a
long time ago.
Anyway enough dribble
Stay loose
Nigel
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