Spur Wing Shed House

At last some joists go up above the garage, but there is still work to do on the bottom floor. It is all going a bit slower than I expected... :(

After about a week the bottom floor framing begins to take shape. The wooden frames need to be bolted to the steel frame. The steel tubing is strong and thick. The first attempts took an hour to drill each hole by hand drill with standard drill bit, and there are dozens to do! Time is money... Paul and the builders put their heads together and got it down to 5 minutes using a "magnetic" drill press and step drills. Each evening I go to check up on progress, and take "orders" for various bits and pieces that the builders request. These I am able to source from the temple of the big red hammer, after making a suitable offering to the green aproned priests and priestesses that inhabit the sacred hall. This I do at around noon the next day, where with just a few donated gold coins, I am given my midday sustenance in the form of a pastry cloaked protein meal from the temple's refectory.

Yippee! The framing started this week. A bit slow and fiddly as my chippys work out how to build around the numerous steel lugs. I've taken some time off to crunch the numbers and help calculate the length of each member, which I quite like doing. My "cheat sheets" help keep the builders moving along with the tools.

We have added more earth to the shelf to make room for the garden railway. Steep slope planted to grass seed to bind soil and covered in hessian to prevent erosian. Soil has been added to rear gardens behind shed and house. Some natives and herbs planted. Sprinklers added to upper middle and lower garden as well as shelf rim, which you can see in some of these photos. Wood has arrived ready for framing, which is yet to commence.

The first four skylights are being installed at the rear of the house. Two fixed, and two vented. The vented ones are powered by a remote control, and have a solar charged battery and motor. Tiny watches me watching a band of showers approach. She soon scurries for cover when a little thunder rumbles...

We had a heap of rain these last couple of weeks. Some 110 mm or so in all. The countryside is verdant, the air is cooler, the sun is out. Favourite time of year. The big excavator was brought back for one last job. That is to build out the shelf further to make room for John's magnificent garden railway! Search for "big sky rail steamup April 2024" for a youtube video of it. This is the very same railway from the house near Gunnedah I stayed at. See the blog entry from last May. They sold their lovely house, but had nowhere to put the railway, so I offered up the space. I wanted to build one anyway, but John's was pre-designed for a tennis court. Unfortunately the space I had was not the right shape, so we scavanged for some more dirt around the various build sites nearby and brought it back and dumped it over the edge and pack it down. Now with a steeper slope we are in a race against time to get it covered in grass to stabilise the slope. The pile of stones ...

The house itself has not moved forward for quite a while as I had not yet found a builder to erect the frames. Thanks to my project manager Paul a builder, Peter, an old contact of his, has been found and he will start in a few weeks, all being well. Meanwhile we are in the midst of a couple of jobs to improve the landscape around the house. I don't think I have mentioned in this blog, but a garden railway is being planned for the southern area just beyond the house deck!! You may recall a blog entry from May last year where I stayed at the rural homestead of my friends, John and Jan, to look after their dogs. John had built a wonderful railway on the old tennis court. (Search "big sky rail steamup youtube".) Unbeknownst to me (and them) at the time, they sold their idyllic rural abode late last year and moved to a house in Tamworth. Their new place has no room to reconstruct their garden railway, so I offered the space for it at my new house. The only problem was th...

Tiny says "Will it ever end?" because keeping on top if OH&S, chasing away the hopping wildlife and generally sticking her nose into and micro-managing all aspects of the build is very exhausting. She is however, so looking forward to the "Christmas in July" party being planned.

What with the roof done, it will take a few weeks to get the next stage going. That is the wooden framing. In the meantime I've given myself a little roadtrip holiday to mark the occasion. You can read about my trip, if you are so inclined, at this website: https://littlelocaladventures.blogspot.com Here is a preview of the most idyllic of locations I have seen so far...

A few shots from the drone. Roof and gutter installed

I have just taken delivery of 25 tonnes of bovine manure from a local feedlot. Equivalent to 2,000 bags from the local temple of the big red hammer, but only 10% of the price. Paul reckons I'll need three of these loads... The roof is slowly coming together as the roofers can only come a few hours a day as they have other jobs on the go. This time the gutter brackets are attached.

A little more progress on the roof. Still needs trim and gutters.

I have just been away to Melbourne for a very long weekend to witness the occasion of my one and only niece, the delightful Bea, getting married to her dapper archeologist beau, Roly. Meanwhile back at the block, I knew Paul had organised a crane to lift the sheeting on to the roof in preparation for the time when we would at last find a roofing team. I had reason to be pessimistic because we have had many knockbacks by roofers on account of the height and steepness of the roof, let alone their lack of availability before July. With my mind and body completely in another space for five days, you can imagine my surprise and delight to find the roof half done upon my return! Paul cast a wide net to find a team that could do the job and do it now. In addition to the roof work, our trusty excavator operator has carried half of our topsoil stock pile to backfill the low retaining walls behind the paths. Meanwhile a couple of youths were hired to lay irrigation pipe along the length of ...