20th May 2012

20^th 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, 1^st 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 

7th May 2012

7^th May 2012

The weather is behaving itself and lately has been absolutely beautiful, considering it’s a long weekend here in Aus that’s amazing. Having said that night time winter temps have hit with a vengeance as a cold front sneaked in from down south, as low as 13, 14 degrees C at night which is four or five degrees lower than normal for this time of the year and feels really cold, but hey the day time temps are still up around 24,25,26 degrees and perfect days at that.

We have got our caravan back, repairs took a couple of weeks but it looks like they have done a really good job. According to the owner of the factory (Otto Tuza), an area near the front window had never been sealed correctly and water had been getting in from day one so they basically replaced and upgraded the whole front section of the van and they replaced the damaged inner lining and everything looks brand new. The original front had a large section of padded vinyl to protect from flying stones, the panelling behind this was apparently a fibreglass coated sheet of thin ply. They have removed all of this and replaced it with aluminium checker-plate and then attached a removable black vinyl skirt to reduce reflection, they even touched up the stainless steel screws with black paint to blend in with the vinyl. While they carried out the repairs they made some improvements such as changing the doors on the front storage compartment and BBQ door. These originally opened downwards like the tailgate on a ute, Otto suggested the hinge side of these external doors always seals against water whereas the lock side cannot be adjusted and you can’t guarantee they are waterproof. So by reversing the whole assembly and putting the hinges to the top it ensures rainwater won’t get into the compartment. On the roof of the caravan they checked every seal and joint and ensured they were all satisfactorily sealed, on inspection they claimed a couple of joints were suspect and have now been secured, one can only accept it has all been done thoroughly and we have no further problems. They also carried out a substantial improvement on the front “A” frame that required cutting, welding and re-spraying, these improvements were all carried out professionally and without any charge. When we picked up the van Nancy asked them to install a couple of towel rails, a toilet roll holder and a hand towel ring that we paid for wholesale and they installed for nothing. So all in all I guess I should say we are very impressed with the service we received and how willing Otto Tuza was to admit fault and address our problem without question, and so far all I can do at this stage is sing their praises.

We ended up having a couple of groups of friends and old neighbours visit us today so we cooked a couple of chooks in the BBQ and some veges in the oven and had a late lunch after a house inspection, sitting in the back garden enjoying a good feed and a glass of wine, the sun was that hot the ladies ended up shifting their chairs into the shade – winter!

As I write this the sky in the west is a dark purple and salmon pink just beautiful, what a magic weekend.

2nd may 2012

2^nd May 2012

How time fly’s when your having fun here it is May already and a couple of weeks since my last entry.  In the interim we have honoured ANZAC day, quietly celebrated my birthday and now we are coming up to another long weekend with Labour Day Monday. Note I said quietly celebrated my birthday which is quite true, we had decided that with the caravan going in for repairs, us either staying at Nancy’s sister’s place or sleeping on the floor here in this little rented cottage and building a house next door wasn’t exactly conducive to having a big birthday celebration and then on top of that we had both been sick as dogs for quite some time. Beside with the uncertainties of unforeseen costs when building a new house while trying to maintain some resemblance of a budget becomes a bloody nightmare. When we can eventually move next door into our new home, hopefully by the end of July, we will have a house warming and birthday bash then. So on my birthday Nancy and I drove up from the Gold Coast where we were staying and went out to dinner with David, Lisa and a close friend of Lisa’s who has been like part of our family since their school days and had an enjoyable but quiet evening.

In the past couple of weeks while down the coast I managed to catch up on a bit of reading. “Monsoon” my first Wilbur Smith novel of Bryce Courtenay proportions and not a bad tale, easy reading set around the 1600’s involving seafaring, family feuding, anger and passion, action and romance.

Peter FitzSimons novelised account of the “Batavia”, a chronological account of that famous historical shipwreck just off the west Australian coast, the events leading up to the disaster and subsequent murderous tyranny driven by power and greed of miscreant crew inflicted on other innocent survivors until their eventual rescue.  Using well documented and extensive historical records of the shipwreck, FitzSimons has pulled together a great yarn of a dark past that although is part of Australia’s history was well before settlement, well worth reading.

 “The Ghost” Robert Harris, a novel featuring a successful author contracted to ghost write an ex British Prime Minister’s autobiography with plenty of mystery and intrigue and food for thought.

“Hornet Flight”, Ken Follett. Set in Scandinavia throughout the 2^nd World War through German occupation it centres mainly around a particular young man and his escapades it encompasses the lives of various people that eventually have a common link, British MI6, Danish resistance, espionage and over zealous national police under German control. Very easy reading to fill in a few hours including a few known facts enhanced with a degree of poetic licence.

“The Last Pearling Lugger”, Mark Dodd. Dodd is currently a journalist with The Australian news paper based in Canberra, this book is basically an autobiography of his early adulthood recounting the halcyon days of pot and wild drinking sprees and a five year stint in Broome working on pearling luggers in the late 70’s to early 80’s. As Dodd recounts his past it’s obvious he was a fairly loose cannon, unsettled, irresponsible and a smart arse with the lip it would appear, living rough and spending any earnings in the local watering hole and wild drinking parties, but they worked hard. One assumes after eventually embarking into a long held ambition of journalism he straightened himself out. It’s an interesting read depicting some colourful characters, draws a pretty good picture of what was once a remote frontier town with a multi cultural population and a good insight to the harsh life and conditions in the world of pearling luggers. Not bad reading.

And I’ve just started another epic by Ken Follett (that I purloined from my sister in law) called “Fall of Giants”.

We pick up the caravan tomorrow Thursday 3^rd, let’s hope it has been repaired satisfactorily and they have eliminated any leaks, they admitted on the phone there was a problem around the front window somewhere that was their fault so it doesn’t sound as if we are going to have any drama with them.

House is coming on well, all of the downstairs windows are now in, a temporary front door and cladding to the lower section. Scaffolding will be put up next to access the top section and on Friday a contractor is coming to raise the sewer inspection manhole at long last.   

All wrapped up 

External foam cladding ready for installation

Cladding installed on the bottom section

Up close of cladding held in place by long screws and large washers the joints are then sealed
later it will be rendered including two layers of fibreglass cloth in sandwich form and then later still it will be painted. 

Wednesday 18th April 2012

18^th April 2012

At long last we have a lid on the house and considering the amount of rain we have experienced in the last week it’s a wonder they managed to get it done. Plumbers and electricians have been hard at it and the chippies have finished for a week or two until the windows arrive and following that the cladding will be attached. As I write this a team of scaffolder’s are removing the main structure from the front of the house as can be seen from the photos and are in the process of setting up other scaffolding around the house to facilitate window installation and cladding. I believe stairs will be installed on Thursday, hence the blue building paper to keep the area as dry as possible. Lock up should take another couple of weeks and the builder consider it will take approximately 3 ½ months to completion.

Returned our caravan to the manufacturer yesterday to address damage caused by water ingress and eliminate the leaks, lets hope they do a proper job where it can’t be seen. In the meantime Nancy and I have to sleep on the lounge room floor.

Nancy had a flu and whooping cough injection a couple of week ago and has been quite sick ever since. Son David had his needle last week and has been sick ever since and I had my flu injection Monday and have been quite ill ever since. Dr said there wouldn’t be any reaction !!!! Guess it must have been something else that struck us all down – coincidentally we had all been to the same Dr.

I even fell asleep in an armchair mid-morning, I don’t know if that’s old age catching up or the fact I feel like dying.

They can’t get rid of me that easily.

cheers

Putting the roof on

Scaffolding removal shows the profile better

Temporary blue tarps protect the stairwell from rain

sparky stringing wires everywhere

11th April 2012

11^th April 2012

Weather wise we had the best Easter I can remember for many years, the days have been quite warm and sunny with very little wind really good for picnickers and campers and judging by the TV reports beaches have been getting a hammering from people enjoying the beautiful spell, it is certainly different from the usual Easter full moon weather of either rain or strong winds or both, let’s hope it lasts.

Re: the house we didn’t get a roof on by Easter I’m not sure why but I believe there is still a little preparation to complete. Scaffolding has been erected all around the house for safety and no doubt a crane will arrive sometime next week to unload and lift roof sheeting into place.

            Plumbing is currently being installed so we now have a network of different coloured and sizes of pipes running through the place and once again the workmanship is neat and tidy.  Rainwater from our underground tank is fed to the toilets and laundry, this pipework is green whereas the rest is a dark coloured synthetic pipe made in Germany, not poly pipe.

Chippies are currently drilling holes every where and threading massive long bolts through the walls and down to the concrete where it is drilled and the bolts glued in.

The window rep came on Tuesday morning and we spent a couple of hours doing the final location and selection of windows (there goes the budget again) and the roofers arrived this afternoon and started preparing for the roof installation. Colourbond battens have now been fixed in place and specially made oversized facias are being fixed also so roofing this week looks like a reality at this stage.

Winter came this morning in the guise of a westerly wind, I think it was a few degrees below average all day although nice and sunny, yesterday it was a few degrees above average, no wonder we all get colds this time of the year.

Catcha.

Nice neat plumbing note the green rainwater supply

Rafters in place

Treated pine to beat the termites

Safety scaffolding everywhere

From the back next door