We have a Roof

So the bid day has arrived, its roofing day. With some additional help from Muna, Klaus and Damien we set about roofing the house. After a pilot test of fitting insulation and sheeting we were away. It is hard work on the roof laying insulation and roofing especially with our limited scaffolding to make the job easier.  After a long days effort thought it was done all the sheets were laid in a single day.

A special thanks to the crew who assisted. That left Tina and I 2 days to finish fitting all the roofing screws and fitting the Ridge & Barge capping. Well we can say apart form the odd screw and a little tidy up work the roof is finished with only the gutters left to complete this mammoth part of our project. It is a huge step and really makes it look like we are making progress again

New Car Park

In an effort to create some level parking, especially after the Tojo crash in the car park. Our excavator man Jess was summoned back to site to cut out a car park and a flat area behind the container. We have noticed that Jess does like to dig and soon we were convinced that if we are going to cut out a section behind the container we ay as well make it big enough to drive a car down. This sounds good in theory but wow do we have some big embankments now. So now some clever planning will be required to ensure these do not wash away in the rain.

Roof Works continue

Well April has brought a flurry of activity, a trip to Adelaide to catch up with the kids and family has not slowed down progress. We have finally managed to paint the main roof beams with the acquisition of a Wagner Airless paint gun. This has made a difficult job easy and boy does it spray paint you can literality watch the paint drum empty. So with beams painted and roofing materials ordered next job is to fit the purlins and roof bracing.

This was completed over 2 weekends and some scary moments adding the barge nesting channels but all done no injuries

The wet has broken

Well after some serious wet season rain over 500mm in one week the block and all the driveways and runoffs have handled it all well with no wash outs to be seen.  The rain has passed for now and it is a hot sunny weekend that greets us. Our new Paint gun in hand we are determined to complete the roof beams which need a good sanding down of wet season rust before painting. It is hard work and high off the ground so lots of ladder climbing and scaffold moves. But as you will see form the photos the results are great and now we are ready to put the roof up. Twice as big as the first one we built over the workshop and at 4-0m off the ground somewhat scary task.

A holiday to Adelaide first with all materials scheduled to be delivered on our return so watch this space

back to work on the house

The luxury upgrades continue with the inclusion of a sliding door kindly donated by our neighbour.

We are back into the house and have cut out the door holes to the main bedroom, bathroom, laundry and the opening between the dinging lounge area. Now we can get to all the rooms we are going to start calling it a house.

Roofing material have been ordered so soon we will have that roof on – any volunteers?? Free board. Food, beer and of course local native wildlife in abundance.

Luxury bush living

Now that Christmas is over it seemed to last until February we can again focus back on the block. We have done lots of work on the gardens and they are coming along nicely. But we have been neglecting the house and instead concentrating on the workshop / sleep out. This has resulted in a increase in luxury including, Paving, steps, How water, sink running water a hot shower.

Tully is in a drought

Well January certainly hasn’t brought much we to Tully with 2 lots of 8 day blocks with no rain. We should have built the roof. But Jan brought the kids back to Cairns. So we finished off the paving and planted a fruit tree for each of the kids and ourselves. The kids also made these cool shrinking labels.

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Major Announcement

It has come to our attention that there has been an issue preventing us from publishing stories since January. This problem has been rectified and as a result of some spanking sessions I can now advise that stories will be published shortly.

paving Stage 2 and 3

New years eve was open us so we started paving stage 2 which is in front of the workshop, this took most of the day but was finished late in the afternoon. New years day brought little enthusiasm but some tinkering in the morning then spread to work on stage 3 of the paving which the tractor park in front of the sleep out. We got this completed along with some additional landscaping which requires some extra plants and finishing decorative stones.

We need to build the stairs to fully complete the integration between stage 2 and 3 with stage 4 requiring a backhoe to finalise so this may not get done until after the wet season. Next job is to find and install an sliding door in the sleep out and finish the outdoor bathroom roof all jobs that can be done even if it rains.

12 volt system completed

I finally decided to look at our list of jobs and right up the top is the 12 volt system. This has sort of been made on the fly as we add and include new items so it was all a bit temporary. However there was a reason for this as we wanted to stay out and use the stuff to ensure the set up was correct. It took me a quite a while to draw the final configuration and required some beers to free the mind to allow some creative thinking.  So I disconnected all the old wiring joints laid additional cables and everything was set up ready to go until I realised that I had no solder it lives in the car toolbox which was with Tina. Lucky it was Friday and Tina returned so I could solder it all up. So the 12 volt is in place, with lighting indoor and out, as well as a sound system, pump wiring and TV, DVD plugs etc. And even with the rains I have never had to charge the batteries since I installed the 2 solar panels.

Paving Stage 1

Boxing day brings the start of cricket so there are some distractions but we start preparing and painting the roof beams. The weather is good but they get hot quick so we have to stop. Next job is paving the workshop area. I have broken this down into 4 stages and we start on stage 1 preparing the area with road base and levelling it off. We make good progress and as usual there is always some gardening and mowing to be done. Tina heads back to Cairns as she has to work and I continue on with the paving completing stage 1. It looks great and really opens up the area. I spend a day cleaning up all our building mess which has gotten a little out of hand as well as tidying and new area we want to work on as well as getting all the stuff out form under the sleep out. We think it is best to keep under the containers clean to avoid encouraging creatures to live there.

Our first window

Well its Christmas already and with 10 days off another big working bee is planned. First job on Christmas day while Tina cooks the turkey I cut the frame and weld it together around the window. Next job is to cut the hole in the container hopefully the same size as the frame. It goes together OK but I need to make a better guide for the plasma cutter. It takes most of the day but it is in and finally we have a window now  all we need is a breeze because it is quite hot.

Roof beams are launched

We have over the last couple of weekends though finished prefabricating the roof beams. So they were all bolted together posts fitted and prepared to weld onto the roof.
 
It has rained heaps in Tully early this week and we were worried we would have to cancel the erection of the beams. But it fined up later in the week and it was hot as hell and sunny when we arrived on Saturday morning sporting fine hangovers form another work Christmas party.
 Our neighbour Chris brought over his tractor with a lifting device which was not quite high enough, back to the farm to find the extension bar and we were into it. The first one is always the hardest and with the Safety Officer on watch (Tina) there were a few nervous moments but the first one was in place and tacked on to secure it. On to number 2 which was much easier and number 3 was fine as well. Looking good an lining up well, but onto number 4 this one was a problem because it was the only one we could not reach properly so we move out the extension bar and secured it precariously on the end of the beam (more nervous moments form the safety officer) but we got it in place and No. 5 was easy.

 Well that was over great work, well not really now I have to go back and fully weld them all. 34° burning sun n top of a hot tin roof with a welder. It was so hot and we got 9 of the 20 support posts fully welded that night. We knocked off and were both completely buggered time to celebrate Tina’s birthday with Prawns and Morton bay bugs. I have heard a rumour some folks down south have gone of their bugs, but I have got to say these were the fattest plumpest juiciest bugs I have had, and they were delicious.

 

So Sunday was left to weld the rest of the posts, close of some roof gaps with plate and clean up. All done and once again we were stuffed. A lot of storm activity was building up in the afternoon but missed us bit it did cool off a bit with the cloud cover.

We planted some more trees including a new Mango, Orange, tropical apple and pecan tree. Tina is going to learn how to make pecan pies. It was the first time we stayed over Sunday night so we got a lot more done and we drove to work Monday morning.

Roof beams up and fully welded a great milestone completed J

The Great Plasma Cutter experience

We have had a couple of weekends away since the last big working bee so progress has been a little slow.
However Tina and I have managed to mulch all the plantings we have done so far using some Cyclone Yasi mulch we got from the council. 

We have cut our first hole inside the container using the Plasma cutter MK2. It’s a long story but the first one I was sold would not run on the generator and we even purchased a $ 250 extension cord (on advice from Brian) to try to run it of the mains from our neighbours pump circuit board. All to no avail so after I took it back and had a bit of dummy spit, I parted with more money for a better one that was guaranteed to work on my 8Kva geny.

So with the new Plasma cutter in hand we cut out the first hole in between the lounge and dining area. The container walls are made of quite thick panel so we have to cut them off in about 900mm pieces. This takes a long time, is bloody hot and the burning of the special paints and coatings they use are quite noxious.  So one hole down but because the 2 containers are side by side we will need to repeat this for the second wall to get the full opening.

Tully rain fills the tank

We have water

I managed to pick up a load of seconds paver from a local manufacturer and it is our intention to fully pave under the workshop roof. This will need quite a bit of thought about slope run off etc as the rain comes in some mighty angles so there is always some water underneath the roof.

 
Tina and I head back on the weekend and with the tank connected awaited rain. They always say be careful what you wish for and down it came 100mm filling the tank in about 2 ½ hours. We did manage to fit the barge nesting channels on the workshop roof, weld the workshop containers to the stumps and fix up some water runoff issues. With all the rain we had some time to remove numbers from the containers  which seems to be a never ending job. There was a bit of of OH&S incident but we can report no serious injuries.

Brian and the Roof beams

Tina’s dad Brian is down for a friends party and kindly stays on for a few days to assist. First job we put up the gutter and wait for rain. While we wait for the main roof beams to be delivered we make all the support posts and we welded on all the brackets. I got the plates pre-fabricated this time with all the holes punched and cut to length which saved heaps of effort.

3 main beams arrive and after we are set up Brian welds on all the end plates and cleats. There was some delay between the delivery of the remaining beams so we carried on to other jobs. We did this all week in hot dry conditions on top of metal shipping containers. Hard work, but we had cold beers to keep us hydrated. So by the end of the week all 10 main roof beams are welded up with all the posts made as well. Just need to weld on the end cleats which I’m getting made this weekend of course then Tina needs to paint them.

So a special thanks to Brian who’s help has progressed us weeks ahead.

roof completed,tank in place

We return to the block after the week and the rain has washed over the back embankment and washed away quite a lot of soil under the roof. After some despair we pick ourselves up and carry on. We finish the last sheets on the roof and prepare the gutter but they did not supply any brackets so we could not finish it off. The tank has been delivered and we put it in place.

We have roof - well nearly

The morning weather is fine and we make a start first the insulation foil and then sheets, now these things are 9m long so are bloody hard work to get on the roof. But after a long day we have 5 of the 12 sheets on and finished. Wow a roof just in time for an afternoon thunder storm and showers. Sunday we are up early and into it more insulation and sheets and we get 10 of the 12 completed, with an insulation shortage stopping us form completing the roof. It is flahs and after 6 months our weary Tarp comes down and we have undercover living and workshop area.  

It turns out just in time to as a rain depression hits early in the week and dumps 700mm+ in 3days so we spent 4 weeks hoping our new plants didn’t die in the heat now they are probably washed away.

Workshop roof in progress

With no serious job prospects coming to fruition yet I’m back down the block in an effort to complete the workshop roof. It is a lot of work fabricating all the supports and brackets as well as welding all the cleats to the roof beams. I tackle some other little jobs around the place as there is no end to the work  to do.

Tina helps me lift beams 1-3 on the roof and after I realise they are around the wrong way. We swap them around and all is good. Tina heads back to Cairns for another week of week. My aim this week is to have all 4 beams  fully welded in place with purlins fitted so when Tina gets back next weekend we can fit the roof sheets. There is the odd dram during the week but mostly the heat creates problems with 35 + each day working on top of metal shipping containers. This really takes it out of me each day but come Friday afternoon the roof is ready for sheeting.

The stumps are in

The dry season contiunes

After a  week off to travel to Adelaide for Mel & Glen’s wedding I’m back on site. While away Tully had some serious rain with 100mm and 40mm falling over 2 days. This was going to test my blocks and recent work at the workshop. Well all is good with only a few holes full of water. Doesn’t look like much soil washed into them so all is good. I think they have settled a little and require a bit of correction to finalise but I need Tina here for this.

So my goal was to make a workbench, workhorses and finish of my drill press table. It took longer than I expected but after 2 days they are all done. So all I need now is the steel supplier to come through. He is now holding me up. Not sure if I should focus on the stumps or the workshop roof. Need the stumps so I can get the house concreted in ASAP, but need the roof so if it rains I can make the stumps hmm.

Well back for a week this time. Tina and I spend the weekend planting shrubs in front and behind the workshop and  some drain work. We start work on making a number of brackets required to fit the workshop roof and these take a fare bit of time and gives the new drill press a good workout.

The soil in the bottom of the stump holes has swollen a little and with the wash in from last weeks rain so we have to dig about 100mm out of them all. I haven’t done the ones under the centre of the containers, I will leave them to last. Tina heads back to Cairns for the week to go to work while I stay on with plenty to do. I spend the morning mowing the block and doing some more floor work for the workshop. The stumps and workshop roof beams arrive so I can start some serious work now.

First job is to weld in place all the Stumps to the containers so we can concrete them in place before any more rain comes. This takes a good couple of days work and I have some welder problems which I later find out is related to the tip. We schedule the concrete pour for Friday and a council inspection prior to approve prior to pouring. All goes well and we get our first inspection certificate. The concrete pour goes really well but we only just scrape in enough concrete to finish the job. It is hard work trying to finish off 25 holes before they go off.

I have made all the roof supports for the workshop and they are all ready to weld in place. I tackle some other jobs including making a carry tray for the tractor using one of our spare container doors.