Ahhh, its good to kick back with a good foot massage at the end of the day. By the way, mum and dad have been busy too since the last post. That good looking bloke on the left is my new brother and building associate, Emile. He's two months into his apprenticeship already, and he's doing extremely well. Another couple of months and he'll up on that roof swinging a hammer with the best of them.


You may have noticed that the usual food fare that accompanies my foot massages has been somewhat downgraded to apples and bananas in this shot. The management can be very tough around here. It was something to do with incorrect use of the flushing facility. Go figure.

And here's a bit of short focal length action!

And here it is - in the blink of an eye, the new guttering up in one day! Well done everyone!

Its been a long time coming, but here it is - the J team has reconvened! This time to finish off the guttering on the main house. We're all a bit older and a bit wiser (I'm 3 1/2 now, can you believe it???).

So, here I am, pictured with Uncle Guy. I've taken on the tricky and sometimes dangerous task of bending the old guttering to a size that can be carried away easily. Its risky but I wouldn't ask my men to do anything that I wasn't prepared to do myself.

Its invisible!

Now that its painted, its magically disappeared into the undergrowth. Just try and find it Council!

High roller

Even dad got in on the act.

oh crap

Look what happens when we tell them that they're painting the wrong door. Sorry sistas, gotta laugh......

Paint day

Here are the sistas! And master painters they were today. Thanks Asha, thanks Ishbel.

Nice benches

Ok, they're not in the room, but they're just too good not to blog!

Remember, most of this bench was one big grey/brown stain at the start of the weekend.

Down there for dancing

This weekend I took a well earned rest with mum to the sunnier climes of Byron Bay. Dad was no slacker though! He spent a long day on saturday finishing off the cupboards and closet, then a huge day on sunday installing the dance floor - 10 square metres of Readyflor. Oh, he also tells me that he limed the closet drawers and sanded and varnished the kitchen benches in the main house. Good one dad.

Don't blink!

There's lots of painting to do, so I need to go SO FAST!

Ooh lah lah, those French doors took sis lots of careful masking, but don't they look stunning. Not bad for $20 per door at Kimbriki.

Ready to paint

Here's big sis. All of the top coat on the gyprock has been finished and sanded, so here we go with a splash of Tinker Light!

A beautiful pathetic fallacy

The work day ended with a beautiful double rainbow. We're learning lots at Kindy (now that mum is the director), so I happen to know that occasionally, a second, dimmer, and thicker secondary rainbow is seen outside the primary bow. Secondary rainbows are caused by a double reflection of sunlight inside the raindrops, and appear at an angle of 50°–53°. As a result of the second reflection, the colours of a secondary rainbow are inverted compared to the primary bow, with blue on the outside and red on the inside. The dark area of unlit sky lying between the primary and secondary bows is called Alexander's band, after Alexander of Aphrodisias who first described it. There's probably a bit more to it than that but I'm only two.

Gyprock and cornice cement

Biggest gaps were filled today so that we can have a full day to top coat on thursday.

Just for the record

Here is a shot of the high cupboard on the south wall. Dad thought it important to record this before the gyprock covered it - just to show that the 1.8 metre gap is bridged by a very sturdy ex-table top that we found in a throw out AND which is supported by two lengths of 3 by 2 (70 x 45mm). So, we can happily stack it with stuff, sleep on it, party on it, and it should all stay fairly flat.

We have light!!!

Roy finished his work today - so we're connected to power.

The room is clad and the gyprocking is underway. We might even have a cupboard or two very soon. There was much debate over the question; to built-in or not to built, but a compromise has been reached. Stay tuned to see how we do a quick up-skill on cabinet-making.

Look at those doors! To think that they were in the Kimbriki yards a month ago, and now they're sanded, buffed and swinging at our place. You can also see our first go at cladding. We might even have most of the cladding done by the time the electrician gets here.

Note the timber on each wall edge. We're using 4 pieces of 70 x 35mm treated pine, planed flat and nailed vertically to each edge so that 35mm overhangs. This is what each sheet of cladding is butting up against.

The weathertex is particle board thats very easy to cut and nail. Its 10mm thick (in case you were wondering).

The spaceship has landed! The delightful foil cover you see here is the sarking to keep out the rain and wind. And notice too we now have windows and doors.

Dad flew solo for the single door. Well, it opens and shuts. For the double-door he had help from Rick who is a professional woodworker and lives a few doors down.

Uncle Guy got back from Thailand just in time to help install the windows. Dad finished off the bracing ply and sarking, so we're ready for the weathertex cladding. Oh, we've also booked the sparky for next Thursday.