The egg carton

A diversion from house building arose with the imminent arrival of 3 wynadotte hens. These classy chicks deserved the best! So, we combined a quad bike shipping crate, the screen door from our old house (these are surprisingly easy to cut down), left over flashing and guttering from the current build and a few sheets of zincalume to produce - the "egg carton".

This was great practice for the Carapark rebuild and the chickens are very happy.

The Egg Carton

Pandemic powered progress

Some of our friends have asked how we've been travelling during the lock-down.  To be honest, the impact has been pretty minimal. In fact, with Church now online (you can binge here - if you're curious I gave the message on April 19, starting around 11 minutes in) and Bible study via Zoom, we've had more time to work at home.

The latest milestone is the completion of our bedroom window.  The design brief required panels across the bottom that would prompt us to be thankful. After some reflective and fun family discussions we decided on the following, from left to right:

1. The gospel (here's a summary)
2. Our love for each other (ie, Jeanette and I) 
3. Family (it's a stylized tree)
4. Friends (it's a ... oh, you can guess)
5. Our life's journey
6. Our home
7. Time to rest
8. God's creation
9. Our hope in Heaven

The other COVID19 related success is the installation of our en-suite window.  After 11 casement windows this is my first venture into a single hung sash configuration.  We had fun picking through our glass stash finding left overs from previous projects.

And finally, COVID19 is responsible for the guest room door.  The cedar door came from Jeanette's, Dad's childhood home (circa 1928). One hundred years later it was missing some bits - which are now, of course, lead light.

Guest room from outside

Guest room door from inside

I'm pleased there aren't many windows to go, only:

• 8 fixed panels,
• 5 sash windows, and
• 2 casement windows.

We're off again...

Well, it's been a busy couple of months. Just before Christmas the Bega Valley Shire Council approved our application to add two ground level bedrooms and a kitchen to our home. Since then we've been sourcing timber, lead and glass for the windows and doing the ground work for the slab.  In fact, all going well, we pour the slab on Feb 11.

Carapark window

Windows.  It didn't initially occur to me, but it's over 12 years since I made the windows for the existing house. Consequently, I've had to revisit my notes to remind myself of just what's involved.  For some practice, I rebuilt the port hole window for our Carapark van in leadlight.

Not dog proof

Bugs.  After enduring the last bug season we decided that we needed fly screens on at least a couple of the downstairs openings.  But instead of building screen doors we decided to try chains.  We ordered the cheapest ones we could find on eBay and, to our surprise, they work pretty well at keeping the bugs out. But as you can see, they are a total fail when it comes to keeping the dog in. 

Bomb site. As I write this the house paddock looks like a bombsite. We have excavated the footings for the new rooms, setup the formwork and roughed in the plumbing. The knock on effect is dust, clay, excavator tracks and "stuff" everywhere. As Napoleon said (though there are some other bidders for the title) "On ne fuit pas d'omette sans casser des oeufs".

Bomb site

How to make it rain

The pipeline runs to the (broken) windmill
in the distance.

I feel somewhat responsible for breaking the dry spell in the Bega Valley.  A week after I finished the weir project it rained - the first measurable fall we've had for months.  And just to prove the point, we've had a little bit more every week since.  Not that we're complaining - the rain is wonderful and already the paddocks are getting a green tinge.

Let me tell you about the pump.  It does an impressive job, pushing around 200 litres of water per minute over a distance of 250 metres and an elevation of 20 metres.  If you ever need to move a lot of water you'd be hard pressed to beat this thing - it's a fire fighting unit consisting of a 5.5hp 4 stroke Honda motor attached to a twin impeller Davey pump. Ours is around 15 years old but they still make the same combo.  You can read more about Davey pumps here if you're that way inclined.

I have to admit though, that after all the work the weir looks pretty unspectacular (photo below).  But it has delivered! We pumped around 10,000 litres out on the first day and the water level didn't drop at all. What a gift.  

Kind of unimpressive really.

Christmas at Pemberley

The 25th of December, 2017 will stand as a red letter day.  It was the day that Christmas came to Pemberley.  The day was spent with trusty watch dog Rolex, 18 month old grandson Callum and significant others, (left to right: me, Georgii, Nette, Simon holding Callum and Sam at front).  It was an absolute blessing to share church, gifts and the day together.

Christmas has also given me a bit of time to rest my broken little finger.  It appears to be healing well, with the last X-ray showing it starting to knit back together.  However, 3 weeks in it still surprises me just how debilitating such a seemingly small injury can be. 

But as I can still use the computer mouse left handed I've started drafting stage two of the croft.  This will be single level and add two bedrooms, a library and a kitchen/living area to the existing, approved building.  It's a bit of a challenge to draw: for two reasons.  Firstly, I'm right handed, so while I can use a mouse in my left hand, my lack of dexterity is frustrating.  Secondly, I'm using SketchUp a free application for drawing 3D models.  It's a great product - but along with the left hand, there's quite a learning curve - though so far, well worth the investment.

It was bound to happen eventually

While building Pemberley I have observed that the probability of incurring an injury increases exponentially as the day progresses. It's that last hour or so around 5:00pm that I seem to push myself to lift just a few more kilos, stretch a extra couple of centimetres or finish those last few rows.

To date I have been fortunate to stave off serious injury - though drilling through my thumb and arguing with the tractor hydraulics were clear near misses. I'd like to be able to say that this great record is due to my wise and considered work practises. But that would be fibbing a little (check out my scaffold). While I try to be mindful of what I'm doing and how I'm tackling it, ultimately I have avoided hospital visits mainly as the result of having a wife who is a nurse (instant, on-site medical attention) and who keeps a wary eye on how tired I'm getting.

But the system let us down yesterday. Around 10:30am I was moving my bandsaw (it wasn't running) in the workshop and it got stuck on the edge of the fatigue mat. So I lifted the castored corner about a centimetre, slid it over the mat and popped it back down. The problem was I dropped it on my finger. Nette's medical advice astounded me – it's the first time that she has said we should go to the hospital.


Seen last night in ED. The sign reads
"Please keep clear! This space is for
the emergency cart only."

We got home around 10:00pm after X-rays, orthopaedics and attempting to realign the bone in my little finger.  (She was right.)

Moral to the story – whilst you can minimise the risk of injury by knocking off before 5:00pm, you can never totally eliminate it.

Some facts
Injuries due to contact with tools and machinery most often result in an open wound (31%) or a fracture (23%)Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Apr 19, 2017.

We're home

Pemberley has been many different things for us over the years: a paddock, a building site, a weekender, a challenge, a money pit, a joy, and even a holiday home.  But the day we handed the keys to our Canberra house to the new owners, Pemberley became our home.



Loading the phone box



Unloading the phone box

After 33 years with the same employer, 31 years in the same suburb, 25 years in the same house, 22 years worshipping at the same church and 12 years of preparing and building at Pemberley it's going to take some adjusting.

 

 

But not just for us.  Pemberley is now also home to our watchdog Rolex, a 330 kilogram pianola, a slightly tired 1991 MX5, 3 cubic meters of Cypress pine milled by my Dad in the 1980s, our red phone box and, most importantly, our adult children and grandson whenever they wish to "come home". 



 

So, what's next?  Well, we have plans for a second phase of house building which will include a larger kitchen, two additional bedrooms and a study.  We also like the idea of a walled garden and planting more trees.  But most of all we pray for many years of sharing our croft and faith with family, friends and the local community.

The big push of April 2015



Rolex supervising the
trench digging

We were blessed with the opportunity to spend a 3 week block of time working on site during April 2015 – and work we did.  Here’s the wrap up.

Water tank, solar tubes and
worm loo

In hot water
Under the supervision of arguably the best plumber in the district, Phil, the hot water system was installed. We opted to put the rack of solar tubes on the ground rather than on the roof mainly to make access safer both during installation and future maintenance. One slight hiccough arose when a huge storm came through between installing the hot water tank and filling it.  Who’d have thought that a 350litre tank like that, sheltered by the house and attached by copper pipes to the wall would blow over? There was no damage, but poor Phil had to redo his copper work which was no longer text book neat. Mental note for next time – fill tank asap.

Plastered 
Long ago I discovered that I did not want to be a ditch digger. I came to this conclusion after hours of ditch digging. I can now add that I do not want to be a plasterer. After 2 weeks of sheeting and mudding I am over it. But it is finished. We did encounter a challenge where the plasterboard wall meets the Rytek ceiling. Because the latter is metal it expands and contracts much differently to the plasterboard which means it’s difficult to achieve a visually pleasing joint. After much discussion the solution we went for was to use "P50 shadowline" which gives a uniform shadow line (hence the name eh?) between the two surfaces. It looks very neat, but took an age to get right.

Painting for pleasure

After all that plastering it was (almost) a pleasure to get on to the painting. I think I spent more time climbing up and down the ladder than I did putting paint on the walls.

 

Fantastic 

Plastered, painted
and fanned

Part of our building approval requires the installation of ceiling fans in the upstairs bedrooms. We’d anticipated this and already had the electrician wire a 3 pin socket on the rafters for us. All I needed to do was plug the fan in or so I thought. I hadn’t realised that the fans came in kit form. Some of the components can be assembled on the ground but several, like the blades, can only be put together once the fan is hung. So there I was, 3 metres up trying to follow some poorly written instructions whilst juggling a 12 kilo fan and 5 large blades. The first fan took 3 hours to install, the second 45 minutes. Proof that I am teachable at least.



Bathroom

Bathroom cabinet

I finally got around to installing the bathroom cabinet as well as the mirror in the loo.  That's both rooms completed now.

 

So what’s left to go?

Well the list is getting shorter:

· Handrails for the staircase.

· Leadlight for 6 doors upstairs.

· Skirting boards (a work in progress).

· A ceiling fan for downstairs.

· Paving the back veranda, and

· 1,853 other things I can’t think of at the moment.

Even better still

Last October is best noted for the red letter day that marked history as pre and post-ISL (inside loo).  True, post-ISL saw a loo resplendent with walls and, most excitingly, a door and ceiling.  But it still required manual intervention of the type not usually associated with inside amenities. Namely, because there was no running water a flush could only be orchestrated by carefully upending a bucket into the bowl.  Effective, yes, but still not the full ISL experience for which we yearned.

 

But with fanfare and brightly coloured bunting I am proud to announce that ISL day has now been overtaken by an even more significant paradigm shifting, life changing occurrence – the first non bucket powered flush!

 

June 28 will now be remembered with reverence and hushed tones as FISL day (flushing inside loo).  Though perhaps I need to reconsider the acronym.

 

What has brokered this shift from 1 star to 1.5 star accommodation?  The installation of our 110,000 litre galvanised water tank and a gift from God, some 150mm of rain.  Next challenge? Well, hot water would be nice.

The Master Returns

In 1996 my wife, Nette, our two girls, Sam (5yrs) and Georgii (3yrs) and I travelled to Gifford, Scotland.  The following 12 months was an adventure in a Scottish village with its small school, 200 year old church and arguably the best antique restoration and fine furniture making school in the world.

We had a ball learning a new language, Sam even won the local Robbie Burns poetry recital competition with her newly acquired near perfect Scottish lilt.  Nette picked up some groovy dance moves at her Scottish country dancing lessons and the local kindergarten named their class budgie after Georgii. As for me, I learnt about shellac and sharpening, mahogany and mortises, veneers, Victoriana and vices – to name just a few things.

Roll forward 16 years and the grand master of the school, Anselm Fraser, asks to visit our construction site near the South Coast.  Would he approve?  Would the student’s skills meet the teacher’s expectations?  Would the design, cabinetry,lead lighting and plain hard work be acceptable?

The answer was an emphatic “yes” as Anslem stepped from the car and declared, “now that’s a piece of furniture”.  What a wonderful lunch we shared as we reminisced about 1996, swapped notes about our local councils’ building regulations, and planned the next stages of our croft and Anselm’s next project, a straw bale castle.

It's a grind

Tidying up Dad's shed unearthed some odd scraps of timber,  bits Dad had kept even though to most folk they were too short to be useful.  He was the typical depression baby - never throw anything away just in case it could be useful.  (Mind you, I'm not sure what he thought anyone would use those 37 old shock absorbers for.)

 

Well, not wanting to disappoint, I took on the challenge of putting these odds and sods together into something useful to me.   As a sawmiller, Dad had spent his working life sharpening saws, so for me the fitting use was a bench for my sharpening equipment.  It took some juggling, but I finally came up with something that provided a shelf for the high speed grinder, another for the baby Tormek and one for my glass grinder.

 

It's not fine furniture and it's not art - but it is a nice reminder of Dad.  If you'd like the plans I have a SketchUp version I can send to you. 

 

I really should get back to building the house.

Two perspectives

Any owner builder will tell you that long weekends are sacrosanct - their sole purpose is to move DIYer's building schedules along by more than a normal two day weekend permits.

Our plan for this June long weekend had been developed weeks ago:

• complete sanding the floor,
• get at least one coat of oil on the boards, 
• caulk the downstair's wall plates, and
• replace some of the dead walnut saplings in the tree plot.

Three days instead of two meant the opportunity to come back 150% more worn out than usual and we had both been looking forward to it since out last trip a couple of weeks ago. 

But things don't always go to plan.  10 minutes from our home the ute gracefully ground to a stop and refused to be revived.  Everything looked fine, in fact I had just picked it up from a service the evening before and filled the tank 15 minutes ago.  An hour later the tow truck turned up and that was the end of the trip.

One view the weekend is as an utter waste of one of the owner builder's prized possessions - a long weekend.

The other perspective is to see it as yet another example of how well God cares for us.  Consider this:

• We broke down beside a grassy verge which was safely off the busy road and perfect for tow truck access. 
• We hadn't left the previous night after work (like 10,000 plus other people had) - which would have meant a long dark wait in sub zero temperatures.
• Our roadside assistance package provides for 20km free towing - exactly the distance the tow truck travelled to our mechanic's workshop.
• The tow truck's next job took him within a 15 minute walk of our place - no need to "phone a friend".
• Saturday night Nette suddenly became very unwell - it would have been much harder to care for her in a cold, unfinished house with no running water and an outside loo.

You know, even from an owner builder's perspective it wasn't a total loss as I spent the unplanned time tiling our ensuite.  A job I'd been putting off for yonks in preference to the house project.

Conclusion - God is good.