Spur Wing Shed House

After a long wait, waiting for manufacture, the first half of the second half of the windows arrived this morning. Scott and Andrew were tracked down to help, and of course Paul is as always ready and willing to take the rudder from me. Yesterday Paul and Scott went to inspect the machine that I hired for an eye watering fee to help lift the windows. A few snaps of it here: First we had to thread a couple of "little" windows for the study which we will have to manhandled into place because the machine cannot reach. So of the six windows that came today, only one was put into place. The wind picked up, so although we had time we erred on the side of caution and decided to defer the three biggest windows until tomorrow. We did however pop in the motorised gas lift servery window, which had arrived from the first order. The three monster windows of around 4m x 2m and 260kg each await their fate tomorrow, weather permitting... I go to bed tonight feeling both relieved ...

I know it is a while since I last posted, but there has not been a lot happening with the build. I am awaiting delivery of the final windows, which are not expected until later in the month. Meanwhile I have received the news that my landlord has decided he wants to sell the house I am renting in town. I am not too happy about it. This means I can be asked to leave within 30 days of a sale. Fortunately I was already in the process of de-cluttering and moving stuff to the shed on the block, so that when the time comes I can move with as a little drama as possible. Fortunatly I was already well advanced on a project to install a mezzanine floor in the shed for storage, and in the last few days I built a staircase for easy access. See the pictures below. If, when I am asked to move, I cannot find a suitable place to rent, I could camp in the shed until something comes up.

I've taken some time off to give a little momentum towards getting the windows "done", as I am currently without help. My current task is to plug the gap between the window reveals and the frames. Plugging air gaps is the goal. I remember with my 1974 built Brisbane house, I could look straight through to the outside between the window reveal, and the adjacent fireplace. Here is the north-east attic window after my handy work. Hmmm, I can see a little daylight on the right hand side... While plugging away, in all senses of the word, at the windows, I also had to re-construct the frame for the en-suite window and the pantry door, which were both undersized, due to my aforementioned error. It took me a couple of days of fiddly work to sort, but sort I did. Here is some pics of work in progress for the en-suite window. Finally, I needed some help to lift the window and door in place, now that there was room. Fortunately Cody was able to pop over and help. There was...

I finally found some guys with time to help me put the other windows in. All was going well until we found one window and one door too tall by 100mm and 70mm respectively! I checked the original order, and realised I had approved the manufacture of the wrong size. In my rush to get the order underway I had not carefully checked all of the sizes the supplier put down on their order with my new master list I produced after carefully checking the frame opening sizes. Fortunately it should be relatively straightforward to adjust the wooden framing to make room. In the case of the window, it is the one for the en-suite, and it could be a blessing in disguise as I think the larger window will not be a bad thing. The trickiest window to insert was for the mezzanine attic level. The windows are SO heavy being double glazed, that my two strong men were not able, or willing to carry up two flights of stairs, so it was decided to winch it up the side, all 7 metres from the ground. It was s...

Yes, I know it is off topic... But I again went Aurora chasing on 21 Jan. This time was even better because a) I had a tripod this time, and b) I stayed long enough to capture some rays! It is a pity that I did not properly focus the camera on the stars... Anyway here are some pics: Now you do not see that too often as far north as Tamworth! Nothing much happening at the house I am afraid. It has been quote hot of late. I am sorting out the remainder of the window order.

I've been quite busy this week with Astronomy Club and our openings for the TCMF. Nevertheless I had one of my builders, Will, back to fix a problem with the 12 windows Scott and I put in. As a result of our rookieness, we forgot to take out the weather flap at the bottom of the window. Once we did that, we then had to adjust every window to ensure they were plumb and that the opening portions opened without scraping, which many were. A fiddly operation, and I still have a couple to correct. He are some windows with the flaps out. Another seven windows and glass doors arrived today, including the front door. They were the remainder of the batch I had hoped would arrive before the Yule festival. I now have to find a couple of guys to help put them in, and in a couple of cases, carry upstairs. "Fun" times are ahead...