Coop progress

Well it's now officially been months, but it's getting closer.

If only we stopped BBQing and worked more we'd be done by now.

Go big or go home (chicken!)

March 2013
Well I never thought that this day was coming. The beginning of the coop!
We leveled the rock wall at the four corners to hold the bearers (150x75 recycled hardwood.)
100x50 recycled hardwood joists made up the subfloor.

Bearers and joist in place

I got a bunch of 100x50 hardwood from the recyclers a few weeks ago, I was planning to use it for the coop as is but when I started cutting it to Length I thought "it's just a chicken shed, not a bomb shelter" so I ripped it to 50x50 and made the frames from this stuff, not only is it strong enough, it now when twice as far.
Being so old and dry, it's been a real dog to nail and I quickly found that I needed to pre drill!

In the photos below I have a shot of the sprit level proving how level the joists are. Now this came about because the day before, as Liza and I were placing the bearers, Liza swore black and blue that it was not level at all! (owing to the slope of the block) even though the water level was spot on, she just didn't believe it... Well Lize, do you like apples?
Low tech baby, Yeah!!

Level?

First Wall frame going up

 May 17 2013
Well, it's been slow going on the coop but there has been some progress, which is good.
Today I braced the frame and filled in a few missing studs, placed the rafters on for the roof and the battens for the iron that we'll pick up during the week.
In addition to this I tied the frame down to the bearers with some uni-ties and the rafters where tied down with triple grips and hobb nailed too.

Yesterday saw our friend Richard and his daughter Julia visit from Sydney. Richi and I tackled a large boulder with wedges and the crow bar... See upcoming post for our success.

Bracing going on and rafters awaiting fixing

Battens and done, bracing done. Ready for iron.

Don't tell me the moon is shining,

Don't tell me the moon is shining, show me the glint of light on broken glass.

Yesterday I took apart the first window to make some repairs and ease the springs in the sash.

Below is a pictorial of each step I went through. 

That was months ago...

Today I reassembled the frame and well, I'll let you be the judge I think it looks, um, the same. That is to say that it looks old.

Not sure if I'm going to bother with the rest or just scrape the back and paint right over the bad bits and be done with it.

There are many things of which

There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant

Like the true weight of my trailer yesterday!

Overloaded you might say?
No, you're never overloaded when you save about 15K.
Well that's the idea any way... 20 hours of scrapping and stripping, repairs and some glazing putty later I might have another idea, but for now we have more than half our windows sorted.
We deem it important to get the windows first as we need to know the sizes of opening for the plans and the BASIX certification too.

Glad to have them all home and safe in the shed.

Below are some pictures of the outside white and inside brown.
Also a long awaited replacement a LN #7
:-)

Taking the black.

Well yesterday we finally settled on the land! It was such a long settlement owing to red tape at the titles office. There was no problem with the subdivision from the vendor, it just takes that long, seemingly.

As some readers are aware we hosted end if term drinks up on the block, and the positive feedback was very welcome! (Thank you all) It is so reassuring to know that everyone sees the beauty of our garden, as we do.

News regarding the house it's self is the architect has completed copying my drawings, the engineers drawings will be ready today(ish) and our house plans have passed the BASIX certification. Easy too.
Thus the development application should be ready to submit by next week!
Allowing for 6 long weeks in council means that we could possibly commence in as little (or long) 7 weeks.

I spent the afternoon up at the block this afternoon continuing on the wall. It's such a big undertaking that I'm considering "taking the black" so I may devote myself to the wall and joining the nights watch. (Game of Thrones nerd reference)

Also this week we committed to buying a stack of windows from the central coast.
Second hand of course! That seem like that will be great, the last picture below shows the top light. They are western red cedar, double hung sash windows with glazing bars and a leaded high light about with some stained glass. We love the idea of them, time will tell if stripping, repainting and balancing sash is worth all the effort.
Apparently these windows came out of a local public school which explains there size ( they are massive, at 2600mm high)
There are only a few schools in the area where they are from so for the story's sake I'll say they came out of Shelly Beach Public School?

Countries go to war over the love of ideas, I figure that I should at least be able to bring these windows back to life.

One Swung Done

This afternoon we took the ladder up to the block to place the last log in the swing set.
The cross bar.
Very happy with the end result!
Kids called it superiffic!
It's so high that when I pushed the girls I could make a cup of tea before they came swinging back! Awesome.

We had a pretty good run at getting the posts in plumb and level only had to dig three of the holes deeper or wider or longer! (Sarcasm) it was a pain in the backside!
Liza was introduced to the supreme accuracy of my water level (see pic below)
Perhaps I should have left it at home, because I wouldn't have been quite so picky about the braces being level and the Height being so spot on as she was.

Something tells me that my usual "she'll be right" attitude towards unseen, unimportant, irrelevant construction details needs an overhaul, as Liza isn't going to like "close enough to caulk" as a house building mantra.
I'm going adopt a new mentality towards this project, one that I strive for in my furniture making and that is;
"To make as perfectly as possible" this is also the title of a new book being published by Lost Art Press, a translation of a French work on marquetry, by Andre Rubbo.
Still not sure if it applies to our garden furniture.

Now to get permanent seats in place and back into the wall again.
Yes that is a 6' ladder in the middle!

Board? Try Swinging...

No, not that swinging... Today we visited the second hand timber guy and got some 150mm treated posts. 4.5m long with the intention of building an awesome swing for the tin lids and big enough for the big kids too.


what's the legal overhang?

cutting the notches for the housing joints



housing joint completed with bolt hole

Fence finished
With all the extra work that we've had on at work and the rain i haven't had a chance to get up to the block to take a photo of the completed fence. It's a little sad now that it is finished as it makes it look so formal and hemmed in. But i guess that it the job of a fence.
Our neighbours are quick off the mark and have already planted some native plants along a new stretch fence.
The contractor did a good job and it looks as though it will last at least two or three generations.

Completed boundary fence

new plantings along fence lines - natives

Strong foundations
Also completed this afternoon was the end of the first course of the garden wall foundations (if you can call them that).
Although they look higglety pigglety, they are rock solid and do not move under foot as you walk across them, proof that the are tightly bound together and should provide a stable platform for our low garden wall.
Now to start on getting it out of the ground!