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: