Verandah Joists

     The verandah joists have been put in, looking very nice.

     The merbah decking has also started being cut to size, leaving some cute little short bits to make castles with.

First Verandah Posts

     The first two verandah posts have been put up, along with the connecting beams.

     The tops haven't been cut to the correct height yet, so don't freak out that one looks higher than the other. There is going to be a third post between these two.

     Next step is to add more beams and what-not. I haven't been very involved with these steps as I have been at a paying job, and by the time I get home it's too dark for photos!

Verandah Started

     Work on the verandahs has started. Brackets have been screwed on the supporting bits and pieces.

     They are bearers or joists or roof supporting things - not too sure!

Gutters Joined

      A few more days work and the gutters are now ready to put up onto the house.
First the end stops were put on the bottom ends of the gutters. This involved drilling holes, adding silicone and putting rivets through the holes. The kit home company have given us spiffy rivets which exactly match the colour of the gutters - Slate Grey.

     Then the end stops were put on the top ends of the gutters.

        Then we cut the gutters to length. After lots of measuring of the various bits and pieces that will go onto the side of the house at each end, taking into account the length of the fascia board, the downspouts and what-not, we came up with some measurements. Then we did it all over again to try and make sure it was right. Then I put the pieces in roughly the right spot and measured it - yep Josh's measurements were spot on. So he measured and started cutting the gutter - then I wandered along and said (just to be silly) 'Remember to always measure twice and cut once!' Then I measured it and - oh no - it was 10 cm short as the overlap of the two gutters pieces had not been taken into account. Luckily it was just a tiny millimetre cut which was easily patched with silicone. So it turns out that the old adage 'measure twice and cut once' is actually true. Anyway, then the gutters were cut to length without too many further dramas, leaving us two short offcuts.

     A test run of joining the two pieces by sliding them together proved to be impossible, even though all the gutter guides we had read simply said 'Just join the two pieces together and carry on with the rest of the job,' implying that it was simple and easy. A quick google showed that in fact there are a couple of things you do actually need to know - you have to cut a bit of the top edges of the gutter, and you have to TWIST the pieces together, instead of sliding. I wish that instructions would give a bit more detail for things like that. Anyway after knowing that it was much easier to join the pieces together.

        Now we have these annoying long gutters getting in the way. Next step is to figure out how we can put these gutters up!

Fascia and Gutters

     Today we finished the fascia board, by drilling holes and riveting the piece that attaches the two sides.

     Here is a picture of the whole house with the fascia board on.

     Then we started playing with gutters. We had to cut the holes for the gutter outlets to sit into. For this Josh marked the rectangles, drilled holes at the corners, put the nibbler attachment into one of the holes and cut out the rectangle. Of course there was lots of swearing and finicky readjusting before it was the right size.

     We have now done the outlets for the gutter on each side of the house. Next the gutter stops for the ends need to be attached with silicone, holes drilled and rivets put through. Also we need to cut the other ends of the gutters to length, we were given 4 pieces each 5.6 metres long which is ridiculously long. I think we have figured out that after taking into consideration the barge boards, the colourbond cladding and the sarking how much we need to cut the other pieces to. We want the downpipes to be as close to the house as possible in order to be able to attach it to the house for support. This measurement may change when we realise other factors which need considering. Anyway we can't start to silicone until we know that it will stay dry for 24 hours, and we have lots of rain forecast!

Fascia Boards

     Today the fascia boards were put up on their brackets. Here is the first one up. The installation instructions were 'Just clip them on' but in real life it was much more difficult. It ended up being easier to slide them in from the end.

     And then the second fascia board had to be cut to size, as for some reason they have given the pieces to us at 5.4m long each, even though the house is only 10m long - not 10.8m. We used our wonderful new cordless drill with our new nibbler attachment. It was a bit fiddley to get around the multiple bent corners on each side, requiring some fiddling with tin snips, a hack saw and some vice grips, but got there in the end. Those nibblers are fantastic! - easy to cut through the metal and giving quite a clean edge. Just required a little clean-up with a file.

     Then the two pieces needed to be joined with a special joining piece, with some holes screwed through and then the pieces riveted together. Today it was almost finished, hopefully it will be fully finished tomorrow.

     Then the next step will be the gutters, which need to be pre-assembled and then clipped onto the fascia board. And this is only one side of the house - all of this will need to be repeated on the other side.

Fascia Board Brackets

          Today Josh screwed on all the fascia board brackets for one side of the house.

          We bought a new cordless drill since the battery had died on the old one, and so we didn't need to have the generator running to do some screwing, which was nice. The other side of the house is on the downhill, so not sure how the ladder is going to reach in order to screw those ones on!

          Meanwhile I was doing some gardening and planting tomatoes, and also collecting clay to use to build my rocket oven. Always something to do!