Day 39 - Blue steel

I must admit I have been anxious about today for a while.  It was the meeting of the brickwork and the steelwork in our new home and my organisation and communication skills were being tested.  The beams that were to be installed went up to 11m long, the first would be the beam over the entrance.  It was hoisted up and aligned into place, it soon became clear that the gap was not long enough, fortunately the bricklayer, Tony was on hand to chip a few bricks off to make it fit.  The next beam was measured up to discover it was 1m too short! It went back on the truck.  The next beam was the big one, 11m weighing in at 450kg.  It got trimmed to size and hoisted up and welded onto its post - no dramas.  The lintels across the back were next.  These had to be cut to size again and after some measuring the steel supplier, Mark fired up the oxy torch and cut it to fit.  It found its home with no dramas.  The next one was a bit more wild.  The bracket it was resting on while welding dislodged and sent the beam swinging.  It narrowly missed Mark's assistant and then hit the wall, knocking a few bricks off.  Once it was back under control it was welded in.  The dramas were over and the remaining beams were put in their slots.  So even though the steelwork isn't quite finished yet with one beam to go, progress is always a good thing.

Day 38 - Improvised assembly tooling

With steel work to begin tomorrow I had to get the mobile scaffolding ready.  I rang around to see what it would cost to rent compared to buying and they came out better to buy given our timeframe.  The only thing was that I would need to put it together; or should that be we?  I enlisted the help of my dad to meet me onsite and we began working out how this stuff went together.  I unloaded my spanners, socket set and screwdrivers from the car, not knowing what to expect.  When we took a closer look at the scaffold it suddenly looked a lot easier as it held itself together with quick release clips.  We unpacked the poles and looked at the instructions after some trial and error, particularly struggling to get the ladder to work - which we later ditched, it was done.  The only tool we needed was a block of wood which is the tool of choice for all things easy to assemble.

Day 33 - Rainy days

As a consequence of working indoors I use to only care about the weather when the weekend approached as rain meant no flying.  This has changed since we started building our home as it turns into a mud bath after a day or two of steady rain and of course all work stops.  I checked the weather forecast for the week and felt that we would be marginal to get the remaining brickwork finished in time for the steel.  But as what often happens with building is that when one construction is delayed, all get delayed so the steel will be next Tuesday instead of Monday.  What seems minor is a glimmer of hope for me and that is all I need to keep my optimism that everything will be fine.  I really don't think the farmers need rain this much!

Day 17 - The walls inside

Our home continues to take shape and with its double brick exterior getting closer to completion it was time to change my focus to the interior walls.  These will be made of conventional pre-fabricated timber frame with the skillion roofs.  When I was at one place I watched a wall frame fabricated in less than 10 minutes which said a lot for having the right tools and workshop for the job rather than an often muddy building site.  So our order is now in, the walls will be delivered on trucks mid-February.  With the interior walls sorted, my focus can now shift to the next task.