Progress on Australia Day

Happy Australia Day

Spent the day listening to Triple J's Hottest 100 and cladding the front of the house. Brett's Mum and Dad joined us for lunch sitting in the big open area and looking out at the view.  The front of the house is the biggest cladding run and getting that done will really set us up to finish the outside of the house and move onto the internal fit out.  

We have got onto a roll on the cladding as you do with most of these jobs.  We have developed a system using custom built spacers and ratchet straps connected to the roof to hold the cladding at the correct heights.We have had a few delays this weekend (snapping two screw bits inside a couple of hours meant an hour lost heading to the hardware) but still managed a respectable amount of work.  

This was helped greatly by the appearance of Uncle Jim who always appears whenever we are building and chips in to help out.  Jim teamed up with Thomas to put the rest of the wall sarking on the west side of the house.  This allowed us to put in all the smaller windows just leaving the glass sliding doors and the big feature windows that I will need to recruit some muscle from work for.  I think its time for a team building exercise guys and I have just the thing.

Anyway now it's back to our rental hell here in suburban  Boganville with 3 separate parties going on around us.  I love Aussie Crawls "Reckless" but if I hear some drunken idiots singing it again I swear I may become violent.  Got to get this house finished.

Roof Finished

We have a roof and it looks amazing. Happy days...

The Finished Product 

The weekend just passed saw the mad rush to be ready for this momentous occasion.  Painting was the primary activity as well as some final remedial actions to veranda  to correct some minor lumps and bumps due to the uneven nature of timber.

Painting was greatly helped by the purchase of a couple of cheap airless electric spray guns but was still a mammoth undertaking.

Painting Progress

Monday saw the gutter installer on site early.  Excitement started to build

Gutter Install

Bright and early Tuesday morning the roof sheeters were on-site.  On a stinking hot 39 degree day they worked like Trojans to make a start and sheet a large part of the roof.

Late Tuesday Afternoon Progress

Wednesday afternoon's visit found the roof finished.  The temperature differential from inside the house under the roof line was really quite amazing.  We should be much more comfortable cladding the rest of the house.  

Inside the Open Area

11th January Update

Lets start with a safety share because safety is no accident. Today's safety share subject is gravity and it's effects on the human body.  So my lesson to you all is when you are at the top of a ladder and you are cutting a veranda batten and you are very unbalanced and the ladder is wonky make sure that you are somehow anchored to something other than the batten you are cutting because falling backwards off a ladder means gravity takes over and it really is quite amazing the velocity you can achieve over a couple of meters.  Anyway bruised ribs and a sore back, nothing broken, moving right along.

 Finished carport

Another busy week and we look back and it is hard to see progress as much of the work has involved small ticket items.  The carport at Nan's end is finished.  All the roof bracing is done.  The eaves battens are done.  The valleys are finished.  All the windows along the front of the house are installed and we have completed the first section of cladding which has given us plenty of insights on how to install the cladding we have chosen ("NuLine" by BGC).

The roof sheeter has been up and measured the roof and hopes to start next Friday (fingers crossed)

Finished Valleys

5th January Update

So with the veranda's finished the main focus switched to building the carport/ alfresco at Nan's end of the house.  This is somewhat challenging because it has to follow the main roof line of the house but has to be formed up with timber.  Getting the main structure in place involved 3 large lengths of timber up into free space and holding them there long enough to secure them.  Once that was done the rest started to come together quickly.  

In the meantime Melinda and Thomas made a start on adding the sarking to the outside of the building.  We picked a section at the front of the house and put in some windows and started putting on some cladding to experiment and determine the most efficient method for cladding.

Unfortunately with temperatures peaking over 40 degrees celcius we have decided to postpone work for a day or so.

 Forming up the carport

 Carport with some rafters

 Little helper checking things are level

Starting Cladding

Happy New Year

How early is too early to make noise on New Years Day?  We arrived on site at 6.40am, probably a bit early for the revelers out there.  Technically our noise restrictions lift at 7am  but again how early is too early to start the saws up on New Years Day.  We figured 9am, we lasted till 8.30am before Brett couldn't wait anymore and started the saws.

With the end it site for the veranda a big day was required and it was a careful juggling act between the neighbors hangovers and progress.  Progress won out and thankfully none of the neighbors were nursing major hangovers.  It's like the U2 song "All is quiet on New Years Day"  unless you live near the block.

All the veranda structure had been completed over the last few days and today was about finishing adding the battens for the roof sheets to screw into.  We started from the back of the house and once we were around the corner and onto the veranda along the front of the house it was like a horse on the final straight in the Melbourne cup racing for the line.

While Brett was walking around on top of the veranda putting on Battens  Melinda and Thomas started putting on the sarking foil (moisture barrier) which is essentially like wrapping a big Christmas present.

The next few days should see more sarking, some windows going in maybe even a bit of cladding going on the walls and the most important job the carport/ alfresco at Nan's end of the house being built (which is part of the main roof line and needs to be in place for the roof sheeters for the 9th of January).

Happy New Year.

Veranda without battens

Veranda with Battens

Forming a Valley (where 2 roof lines meet)

 On the home straight, time to get the whip out

The finished product + some sarking