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.

The right tin to do

We've long liked the idea of a pressed tin ceiling for our bathroom and loo.  In fact, we had planned for it from the start, or at least we thought we had.  The hiccough we hadn't anticipated was the cost of freight - which brought the cost of materials to well over $1,500 before installation and finishing.  We really couldn't bring ourselves to spend that much and there didn't seem to be any viable second hand alternatives around.

 

We'd resigned ourselves to a garden variety plaster ceiling when I mentioned it to my brother.  Stagger me if it didn't turn out that he had a house worth of pressed tin that he had picked up 30 years ago from a demolition in our home town, Grenfell.  Not only did it have provenance (last century the owner had been my pre-school teacher) the price was right.  All he wanted was a set of white rear louvers for a 1956 FC Holden sedan.  How hard could that be?

 

With hindsight, the price was very much higher (and I still haven't found those louvers) .  Each sheet had three coats of enamel paint which needed removing along with 80 years of dust on the upper side.  All rust had to be treated, edges radiused and dents panel beaten.  Then followed an undercoat of red oxide primer and 3 top coats of white gloss.  Total time per sheet - don't even ask, but suffice to say that's two weeks of my life I won't get back!

Pressed tin in the bathroom

 

Installing it brought its own challenges, particularly for two vertically challenged builders like Jeanette and I.  But I have to say the end result is just what we were after.

 

We still have the cornice to go - I'm wondering about carving an egg and dart design into Tassie Oak. But I hope I talk myself out of it!

 

 

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.

Plumbing 101

A consistent design theme for the house has been to give the impression of an old place that’s been “modernised”. That’s why, for example, the electrical wiring runs through visible copper piping attached to the exposed beams. So when it came to the plumbing we wanted to continue the paradigm by making it look like running water had been added long after the house was built. 

 

The first plumber we spoke couldn’t get past that we wanted to see all the ugly pipes. But the second bloke, Phil, understood exactly where we were coming from. As a result, the loo wall is a work of art with a wonderful array of copper water pipes, bends and connections show.  Everything needed for the shower, basin and bath in the bathroom on the other side of the wall is on view when you spend a penny. 

 

After all, Phil’s workmanship is brilliant and far to good to be hidden in a wall.

 

Next job – a really big water tank.

A red letter day

It was truly a red letter day.  A day that will be recorded in the family annals and celebrated at each and every anniversary until He returns.  A fixed point in time that cannot be altered and from which all other events will now be referenced.  From here forward history will fall into one of two categories: pre-ISL and post-ISL.

 

Yes, it's true.  We have joined the hoi polloi of the hamlet.  After 6 years of portaloos and lemon trees we can finally revel in the luxury of an inside loo (ISL)!  Phil the plumber has connect the water closet to our worm powered treatment plant resulting in a flushing indoor lav.  There is just one remaining wrinkle to iron out - we don't have running water.  So "the flush" is bucket powered - but flush it does all the same.

 

We're particularly pleased with the loo light.  Perhaps a little OTT for some (aren't all ceiling lights?) it is somewhat of a memorial to my childhood home where it hung over the kitchen table for decades.  We had plans to put the family's Austrian crystal chandelier there, but Mum reckons she's still using it.  Oh well.