Archive for November, 2009

Door

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

Last night  David, Tom and I went out with many of the neighbours from up and down the road with torches and vehicles and tried to round up two stray yearlings.  You don’t get to do that in town!

The two rabbits David has been trying to shoot have not been around - he is frustrated by the sight and the distance limit on the air rifle. A proper weapon is required. But he is not yet old enough for his own license.

And today I finished the hall ( well bar the touch ups).

Door

Door

Many thanks to Jono Inkster of JMI Construction who ‘gets’ what I am trying to do with the old house and who opened the old door.  Jono was introduced to me by Steve Jeff .  It is  truly tragic that we did not know him earlier! And thanks to Bob who crafted new and restored the old glass into it.

I thought I had blogged about this door - it was closed over on the inside but always apparent externally.  Jill Minson remembers when it was closed for good and they got more space.  For me, opening it was part of reclaiming the spirit of the house . I have wanted to do this ever since we arrived.

Jono rebuilt the wall and restored the original hall,  procured new mathcing skirting and made a wonderful job of matching it.   The day Jono pulled off the lining and confimed it was indeed a solid door was more of a milestone for me than anything else in the whole build… and it remains so.  Three new hinges was all it took to hang it.

I have left all the old chipped paint on it and just added more. Layering back some and covering over other coats of time seems the right treatement. The ewindow above it I stripped back with citrus stripper and now the  light comes in.

I breath deeply everytime I step in and out of it.

In process

In process

Deck photos

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

This post is basically for the designers/builders. Excuse the formatting.

However, while I am here a few answers to some FAQ’s.  I have been amazed how many people feel free to challenge the design of things.   Mostly they ask about things that were not done due to compromise ( probably an error is retropsect) .  Maybe they watch too much Grand Designs. But often they are not giving us credit for knowing or thinking about how it would be done.   Whatever, if these don’t answer your queries then come and visit - bring wine. It’s not over yet but I am over it!

( And of course  some of the those who might have   challenged for the sake of improvement during the process unfortunately did not)

FAQ’s the deck:

Why is it so high?  To keep our feel wet in the 1/50 yr flood. ( last year we had one and it didn’t - but it could)

Why is it so big?  Its not that big really - just the height make it seem so.

Will you keep the pebbles ? - No it will be concrete cut to look like pavers.

Will it have garden in it ?  -  Why would you if you have 3 acres of garden?

Steps?  - yes there will be - come back later -  - Kwilla.

Edges ?  They meet council requirments - Murray knows them inside out.

Sleepers -? Yes they are.  Didn’t Murray do well.

The bit in the corner ? Fish pond.

gas

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Good news on gas.   2/3 of a bottle over two weeks. This is a huge saving from teh origial 2 bottles a week. But then : all the thermostats were connected to the wrong room!   Now - solar boosts in the day , only heating the bathroom floor and the rest  come on only when set back falls below 5 degrees.   Radiators boost only when needed. Yes, gas is dearer wer KW/h but efficiency is greater.  Boys shower is now on this system also.    Just need to get the pool onto a self sufficent regime and we are ‘cookin’.

the system

the system

Roosevelt

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

My father raised me on Roosevelt.  I like this  advice. It’s on the fridge now.

We are gearing for the final stage on the code of compliance.

The Irises are magnicent.

Final inspections that wasn’t

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

We had the final inspection last week. The builder was away - the junior builder came.. six pages of reconciling inspection notes not followed through later we await paperwork ….

My questions around this are as follows:

Where is the clear and concise instruction from counil that inspections  are our responsibility - when I asked the builder for a schedule of these he told me they’d look after them…

How does it happen that they can proceed without them being checked .. what to notes like “ok to proceed once… ” really mean?