Progress seems to be crawling at a snail's pace over the last six weeks or so.   I seem to have been caught up in a never ending cycle of window and door preparation while Paul and Nick have been working on building the opening frames.   I guess that's the consequences of deciding to go with recycled timber windows and doors - save on money while doing our bit for recycling but expect to put in many hours of labour.  

 

Nick and Paul have been working on making all the frames for the openings. 

The idea was to fix the windows and doors into the frames and then instal the whole unit as one.  However, it's taking me so long to get the sashes, hoppers and doors ready that we've decided to go ahead and instal the frames and fit in the windows and doors as I complete the sanding, puttying and painting.   Doing it this way means Nick and Paul can get a start on the external cladding.  I've set a time frame for having all external cladding on with doors and windows fitted, in other words achieved lock-up, by the end of June. 

Today, Nick and Paul finished making the last of the frames - the one for the front door!  Then it was time to start fixing the frames permanently in place....

 

 





 

Feels good to get the beginning of the entry door in place.

 
 
Paul will follow up by waterproofing the frames around their edges with silicone and damp-proof material.  

I am making some headway with my job to get the windows and doors ready.  About a week ago, I finished chipping out all old putty that needed to be removed from windows and doors and am now almost half way through re-puttying same.  As the glass in some of the windows and all the doors needs to be replaced to meet current glazing regulations, I have spent many hours throughout April measuring and ordering glass.  I'm multi-tasking at the moment, mainly to ward off frustration, by alternating between puttying, sanding, fitting glass and, hopefully, starting this weekend, painting. 
 



Other significant trades' progress in April included the installation of all the sub-floor pipework.....












.... and all the electrical cabling for lights, fans and power points (which has involved hundreds of metres of cable).







 
 

Paul and I had some fun developing a smooth teamworking method for getting stuck into the decking.

It was nice to have our friend Tim come up and stay for a couple of nights and do some  volunteering on the job .... and chat over a bottle of red or two.













I have been fitting in some other very important jobs such as....


 



getting the edible gardens started with herbs.... 









 





and more herbs and the all important chilli bush...










 


and building a rock retaining wall around the water tanks.  









And not to forget we did our first stint of entertaining in our house at Easter.  Our dear friends Jenny and Al from Warwick and Paul's daughter Gabe and her partner Nathan came up for a long leisurely lunch on the Friday.  It was such a pleasure and one we hope to have over and over again in this house.  

I can't sign off without acknowledging my little shadow who never leaves my side, which does make it difficult for the tradies when they come as he's very protective of me.  He surprised Paul, Tim and I the week before last when he caught quite a sizeable brown snake!  I doubt he could get away with that stunt too often.