concrete trough and a sash window

My Dad is brilliant at scavenging useful materials. Here's some more things he found that we'll be able to use:

An old cement trough, from a neighbor:



A sash window:



Dad thinks this will do well for the kitchen windowbox window. The dimensions are: 860x860mm. It would need a casing so it could be opened with a winder so the dimensions would run to approximately 900x900mm.

Update from Dad's visit

Dad has been focusing on the renovations at his own place recently, so things slowed down. He did manage to make a quick trip up though recently... Here's his report:

I got up there for work at 1000 after taking time to talk to the man at the tank place with a hope of getting a tank delivered while there. Not possible. Will need to order it later and arrange for delivery. Will discuss this in another email. And the underground tank up on the hill with the shelter beside it.

I found that the green timber used for the ledgers that we bolted onto the stumps for storage had shrunk and settled. I had to remove all the timber stored and reset these with additional supporting droppers. I moved about half of the lining boards, then ran out of time.

I need to mow the grass again in the orchard so may go up on the 10th and also paint the verandah posts and beam as they are not happy in the full sun and are beginning to get splits in the length. Not a problem if we were using them as fencing, but they are destined for greater things. I will not get another chance to go until after Christmas.

I pumped 3/4 of a tank of water into the big blue tank, and it is absolutely full now. I used my pump and hose and it was very quick indeed compared to the very slow septic pump. My pump had not been used for nearly a year and it was okay.

All is brown there now, the dam is very full. Will need to get an overflow pipe installed at the appropriate point so the water level doesn't flood the damhouse. Not that so much rain will ever come.

new sash window

So this one sadly wasn't for free - Dad spotted it in a salvage yard. But I couldn't resist as it is such a lovely big size.

It's the one in the left of the photo:



Dad says it is in great condition and he thought it could fit well in the laundry extension. It is authentic rope and weight double hung window.

new rules in bushfire building regs

We got some great news on the bushfire zoning requirements from Eric recently... They introduced a lot of new rules after the horrible fires in 2009 which we thought might cause us problems. It turns out it will be a bit restrictive but nowhere as bad as we feared.

Here's Eric's notes:

According to the site diagram that you sent, the bushfire attack level would be 12.5 which is pretty easy to manage. I can itemize compliance issues with a table on the "general notes" page.

Most of the items can be covered with simple detailing. Several will require a bit more thought.

Cladding needs to be either:
- 6mm cement sheet, or
- a timber species listed in appendix E1 which includes Silvertop Ash that I often use.
http://www.radialtimbers.com.au/zproducts.htm

Windows that are less than 400mm from ground or deck level need to have toughened glass. Also they need to have either:
- bushfire shutters, or
- metal window/door frames, or
- timber frames made with wood from table E2.
You may need to check timber species from window suppliers, or else use the hybrid metal outside and timber inside windows.

Miglas does a nice window, and the timber species might comply. They don't do traditional double hung windows, though. http://www.miglas.com.au/top/home/

Decking needs to be either:
- non-combustable
- a timber species listed in appendix E1 which includes Silvertop Ash

In a nut shell, it all looks manageable to me without any drastic changes. You might need a few slightly more "modern" finishes than we've been thinking of, but not many.

Ebay wins: lamp and planters

I'm a sucker for stained glass and oak... so when I saw this lantern I couldn't resist.



From the description:
A very attractive and ornate 1930's Arts and craft or Art Deco hall or porch ceiling lamp... The lamp is in very good original condition no broken glass, can do with a little light restoration, a number of woodworm holes to the top square the widest point (unknown if treated) one joint is a bit loose and a couple of beading strips missing, easily replaced, Size; 53cm height (without the chain & gallery) 10.9cm square at the at the widest point.

I also recently got a bunch of old planters. They were billed as being stone but I'm pretty sure they are just concrete. But, they were nearby so easy to collect, and I quite liked the designs, especially of the square-ish ones. They also have the aged-look to them already. For now they will do great service in our garden here, and we'll decide closer to the date whether its worth sending back to Amherst.

There are 6 of the square type, and 2 each of the others:

Talbot Farmers Market

Talbot is a little town of great charm, about 10 minutes drive from Amherst, and only 15 minutes outside of Maryborough. Once a month it stages a Farmers Market which is among the best I've ever seen.

It's been going for around 5 years now and proved so popular that ABC Radio (the biggest radio broadcaster in Australia, like the BBC in the UK) did a special segment on it.

You can hear it in the video below accompanied by photos taken at the markets.

If you ever get a chance to visit Talbot Farmers Market I highly recommend it; and if not this video will give you a little taster of what you're missing. :-)

tweak needed to veranda ceiling

So... while working on the verandah, Dave and Dad ran into another little hiccup, relating to the ceiling lining.

The problem is that the top of the eave, where the ceiling lining level occurs naturally, is 2300mm and approximately 300mm lower than the top of the old window in the lounge.

So, if we are to make the verandah ceiling flat, where it joined the wall would knock out part of the window.

Dad's recommended solution was to have a sloped lining on the front part of the verandah, so we don't have to change the window there. And then change it for the long part of the verandah to be flat, and just use a shorter window on the side (given there is no window there at the moment). He suggested we use the bay window for this.

I had a play with the layout and think moving the bay window there will be fabulous. So that's changing regardless of the ceiling.

After some deliberation though, we decided to abandon the idea of having a flat ceiling and just go with the easier approach of letting the lining boards follow the verandah rafters on an angle.

Partly this is because I think it will look wrong to have one section of the verandah with a different shaped ceiling to the other. It is a relatively small area and I want the space to feel like it flows from one to the other, which it won't do if the ceiling isn't the same.

Most persuasive of all, after a closer look at the photos, Dave persuaded me that the other house that I really liked that I thought had a flat verandah ceiling - actually didn't! So now I'm happy that we will be able to get the right effect going with them on an angle. With the added bonus that it's less work. Yay!

sketchup model of divider shelving

I spent some time today playing around with SketchUp again. This time, doing a mock-up of the divider shelving between the kitchen and lounge in the old house (see plan here) to make sure that it works.



This is meant to be indicative only - I haven't thought in detail about the precise layout of shelving - but it illustrates how it might work.

The unit in this mock-up is measured at 2.6m by 0.5m, which I think should fit? I'm guessing because of the height and weight of this, we will want to have a support beam somewhere, going to the roof perhaps. We can figure that out later...

possible doors

Dad spotted these doors a while back being thrown away, so nabbed them thinking they'd come in handy.



They're really solid old doors. I'm not a fan of the yellow 70's glass, but that could be easily replaced.

They are apparently normal door width, which should mean that they could possibly be used for the doors from the kitchen to the verandah in the old house.

I haven't decided for certain yet, as I had originally been envisaging something less fancy and simpler (more like these).

But, the curvy bits could work well with the curve of the bay window now it is being moved, and they would lend a slightly more formal touch as befits being framed by the stairs that will lead up to them. So I am almost convinced... just need to think on it some more. :-)

You can see them in context of the house (albeit not quite in the accurate position) here, which gives you an idea of the scale the steps will be.

tweaking old house plans

Dad came up with the idea to move the bay window that was previously planned to go in the bedroom to the lounge, and build in a little window seat.

In order to see whether this would work, I needed to revisit the old house layout plans. The previous version was out-dated as we had moved the location of the kitchen doors so they lined up better between verandah posts.

The final architectural drawings for the old house are here. Using them, I played around with moving the window and overlaying furniture, and think I have come up with a layout that will work well:



We'll have to be careful how we position the window, to make sure it is nicely lined up between the verandah posts outside, while still leaving enough space for the divider wall. Also, we will need to plan carefully to get the window seat at a comfortable level without looking out of place relative to the existing front window. But in principle, they're different enough that I think it will work.

Another side-benefit to this is that it gives us more flexibility in the layout of the bedroom. By not putting in the bay window and just leaving it as solid wall (as it is currently), we would save ourselves a job as well as gain more space for furniture.

Next door's sheep come to visit

I am a big fan of sheep, so delighted that next door have a flock. I am even happier that they let them come to visit and graze... not only is it cool to have them around, it means that Dave doesn't have an even bigger mowing job!

Here's some footage Dave took of them wandering up the driveway:

work on the verandah

Dave and Dad made great progress while they were up there on the verandah foundation, pausing only when the ran into a hiccup with the ceiling height.

They got all the stumps in for the verandah on the long side of the house. This was a big job apparently as not only did they have to dig out the holes, it was a pain getting everything lined up perfectly. Even worse - the tractor got a flat tire, so after all the effort to get the augre, they had to do a lot of it by hand!

Here's the beginning...


They dug out each hole ...


Then filled with cement.



Repeat many times and you have a forest of stumps...



A quick tangent to dig out a flat area for the under-verandah tank...



Then it's time for some framing...




They even got the posts up (with temporary supports until Dad gets the roof frame up) and voila, the verandah starts to take shape.

scavenged finds: doors

Dad found these lovely solid-wood doors being thrown away, and rescued them from the side of the road.



Dad suggested to cut out the wood and install glass at the top, then use them as doors from the kitchen to verandah in the old house.

But I think that seems a shame, and would rather hang onto them as they are. Eg: they'd be great to use as doors from the library to the tower section, if we went back to the idea of having a big centrally open part (which I'm leaning towards doing).

Also, earlier Dad found these other somewhat shabbier door and window set, which I think he wants to use for the external side entrance to the laundry


I'm not in love with them, but they should scrub up OK. They are solid wood, which is the important thing (not plastic).

mowing the orchard

One of the tasks Dave did while back was to mow the grass in the orchard. Clearly the fence was working well to keep the sheep and kangaroos out, as although everything else was nibbled flat, this had just gone crazy.

To help with the task, Dad bought Dave an early Xmas present: a lawnmower!

Here's a short video showing what it looked like before mowing. The trees might look dead from a distance but when you get close up you can see that they've got buds on.



Here's what it looked like midway and after...

why are tractors so expensive?

So, in advance of Dave's visit, we decided to buy the posthole digger attachment for the tractor, to help in digging the stump holes.

Then Dad decided to get three differently sized augres for it (8 inch, 12 inch, 18 inch) which he said we need for different jobs.

Then when Dave got there, it turned out the tractor annoyingly was missing the bit that you needed to attach the attachment to! So we had to buy that bit as well.

And when they were in the shop they spotted a Ripper attachment supposedly going cheap, so they got that too.

I swear, this tractor is turning into a money pit. :-(

When they finally got it all connected, they couldn't resist doing some practice digging, so proceeded to dig potholes near the shed. Dave assures me he filled them in again though...

Sunrise mist

While Dave and Dad were camping out at the block, it was unfortunately pretty cold. Not a surprise given it was the middle of winter, but still not pleasant.

The only positive was that it meant Dave was able to take some lovely misty sunrise photos. This is my favourite:

Mum's update on Amherst

Dave is back in Australia now. After a few days catching up with his family in Melbourne, Mum drove him up to Amherst to work with Dad. Here's her report of the day:

I got Dave at about 6.15am and we set off to Amherst. It was VERY windy and dark and there was rain on and off – I dropped Dave at your place (Dad was there from Friday afternoon) and went to the Talbot farmers market. I went back out to the block to take stuff out and see them again but Dave was asleep. I had got him so early and I guess he had been so late.

The dam is as full as I have ever seen it, and from the top of the hill by the house it looks like the floor of the landing is only a foot or two above the surface – and it is almost up to the bottom row of reeds.

It was raining so much I had a bit of trouble getting up the hill, slipping and sliding but not daring to stop. I gave the stuff to Dad and let him go over the caravans with his four wheel drive. Everything is green and there were some puddles along the road.

Your two separate fruit / nut trees are in blossom. Did not see anything in the orchard but you have to understand it was raining so I did not go down on foot and when driving I was sliding about and not looking at trees.

trees doing well

The trees continue to thrive...

The lemongums along the driveway are beautiful. Hard to believe that only a few years ago they were the size of pencils!



The new trees that we put in last trip survived the transplant shock and have put on some growth. A big relief as it's very different for them to be in the ground vs cosseted in their pots.

The dam is full, and the damhouse is perfect

Wow, the dam is fuller than it has ever been. And the dam house (really a glorified shed) looks wonderful, like it's in the middle of a lake when viewed from the front. Just the effect I was hoping for... :-)

Here's what it looks like now:




Just to put that in context, here's what it looked like when we built it in April. The water would be lapping at your feet if you were to take that photo again today.

Green green green

Dad took some photos for us on his last visit, showing Amherst as wonderfully lush and green... Oh how I wish it was like this all the time.