Rafters...(16th - 31st March)

Monday 16th - Thursday 19th
Mark spent most of this week working out what timber he needed for the roof rafters and then commenced building the roof. He bought 2 new toys - a pipe cutter and a pipe bender. There's not much I can help him with at this stage, so I spent my time writing modules for ECU.

Friday 20th - Sunday 22nd
We spent most of the day cleaning as Mark's mother is coming over for the weekend. Saturday night a crowd of us (16) went to The Indian Garden Restuarant in North Perth to celebrate Mark's birthday. Sunday we had a quiet day!

Monday 23rd
Back to work. Mark on the roof and me on ECU stuff.

Tuesday 24th
Mark worked on the house and I took his Mother to the Dr's. It's Mark's birthday today...so I cooked a roast dinner. Bree, Tara & Nick came over to help us celebrate.

Wednesday 25th
Same story...more roof & ECU work. I knocked off early to pick up Tim & Andrew from school as Aunty Jayne & I took them to see Cirque du Soleil. It was fabulous. We all went back to Luisa & Clayton's afterwards for pizza & pasta.


Thursday 26th
Mark's still slogging away on the roof rafter and battens. He's happy as his finally put up enough timber to attached some guttering.

Friday 27th
We knocked off work early today as it's Joyce's birthday. Picked her up and went down to the South Perth foreshore to have fish & chips and watch the sunset and the city lights. Ken & Linda joined us. It was a very pleasant evening.



Saturday 28th - Sunday 29th
More battens and valley gutters are happening.

Monday 30th
Mark started to get some roof sheets up, but it was drop-in day! First Gerald (a local lad) dropped in to say hi. Then Ryan, Amanda & Samuel who we haven't seen for about 8 weeks. Sam has grown so much and is dragging himself around the floor (not quite crawling...but close)! He has the most beautiful smile and giggles when he is held upside-down. he's so cute!
Then Ian, (the tuckpointing guy) dropped in to check out Mark's brickwork.


Tuesday 31st
Mark continued putting the roof sheets on. It won't be long now and we'll be protected from the elements!

Up Up and away... (9th - 15th March)

Monday 9th
I went to the hairdresser in the morning and Mark phoned around about hiring scaffolding. Finally located some at a reasonable price that will be delivered tomorrow so we had a quiet afternoon. Kacey dropped in to visit so Mark sat & chatted and I painted the window frames ready to brick in tomorrow!

Tuesday 10th
We spent the morning waiting for the scaffolding to arrive. It finally got here about 1pm. The new doors I ordered were also delivered today...so everything is starting to happen - yeah! We assembled the scaffolding and started laying bricks about 2pm. I also cleaned another 20 bricks...an hour at a time is all I can handle. By 7pm we had half of the side wall done. We were very happy.







Wednesday 11th
Today we moved to the front wall. Every brick in the wall needs to be cut (about 10mm) so this wall is very tedious. We only got a few courses done but Mark also shaped the lintel ready to put in tomorrow.




Thursday 12th
Finally got the front wall up above the window frame and the soldier bricks finished.
Nick came over and cleaned the last 30 bricks. Boy was I happy! We look like being short of bricks so I went and bought a pressure hose and Nick pulled up & cleaned some of the paving bricks in the backyard. Only 2 more courses to go on the front wall and 4 courses on the side wall. We expect to finish tomorrow.

Friday 13th







Yes - we did it! What a team.

The external brickwork on the front of the house is finished.

And does Mark look happy - oh what a feeling!!!!




Saturday 14th
Today we moved 1 section of scaffolding into the ensuite - over the top of the wall as there is no door into this room yet, and laid more bricks on the dividing wall. We have reached roof height at one end.







Sunday 15th
Day off.

A bit of this and a bit of that...(1st - 8th March)

Monday 2nd
A public holiday over here in the west...so like Sunday's we're not supposed to work. However it's Labour Day...so we laboured in other areas. We have a verge collection for general household junk this week, so we put out the old timber that we don't need. It was gone by lunchtime - some lucky man scored it for firewood. I did TADA & ECU stuff for the rest of the day and Mark serviced Tara's car, dropped the car back & put up some shelves for her. Then went over to Murray's to try & identify the source of his electrical problems in their new home.

Tuesday 3rd
Mark went shopping for timber and then commenced constructing the window frames. We can't brick any higher until the window frames go in and once they are ready we will need to hire some scaffolding as Mark's arms won't reach the ceiling! I phoned Midland brick about recycling our old broken bricks and then did ECU work.

Wednesday 4th
Mark is still building window frames...fiddly things! And I am doing ECU work.

Thursday 5th
Off to hire scaffolding and do a trip to the tip with our old bricks & rubble. No luck with the scaffolding, the place Mark visited didn't have what we wanted. So we just did a couple of runs to the tip. Mark pulled down the last of the old outside wall and Nick stacked the bricks ready for cleaning (groan). I just loafed about...well not really but it was an easy day.
Etsuko & I went off to the ballet - Giselle. Not the traditional version, a "twisted take on the classic" performed by Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre. It was very funny and extremely entertaining. By far the best performance I saw this festival.

Friday 6th
Mark finished off the window frames and fitted the side one ready to lay the bricks. I did ECU work. We knocked off early today to have dinner with Joyce before going to see the new musical that Leo is in - Assassins. It was very entertaining.

Saturday 7th
I started cleaning the last lot of bricks. Did 100 today. I average about 20 per hour, so it was a big day. Only about 100 more to go (Sh@#!). Mark cut the 80 year old lintel in half that came out of the front windows..so we can use it for the 2 new windows. He will do "soldier" bricks above both windows to match the existing house. So he had to bend the lintel into a slight arch...not as easy as he thought...finally managed it by arranging a complex ramp and running the Pajero over it. We've recycled as much as we can from the demolition of the old front room to build the 2 new front rooms.

Sunday 8th
Day of rest. I've just realised how slack I've been this week...as I didn't even take any photos. But I did get 3 chapters of my uni course written!