Elation and frustration

Elation! On Thursday afternoon a truck arrived with two large packages of and the nine roof trusses. Wow the house was actually arriving! About 8 am on Friday morning a small truck came up the driveway and Graham the builder commenced work removing the boxing from the concrete and unpacking the timber. In short order he had the frame of one wall standing up. I helped to stand a second wall a little later and the house was beginning to take shape.
Frustration! As Graham was nailing the third outside wall together I commented that the window openings did not appear to be correct. In fact one bedroom had no window in the south wall at all. This is not what we wanted. We then looked harder at the other walls and discovered that two of the external walls and the internal walls were wrong. A series of phone calls to the supplier unearthed the fact that we had been supplied with a standard “Cragieburn” house and not the modified design that we had ordered. No one is telling us who actually made the error, but construction has stalled after half a day’s work while they sort out how to remedy the situation.
Anyway Mr. Chirpy is happy. Mr Chirpy is a thrush who for the last month or so has been serenading us from the 1metre height of the fence between us and our neighbour. He is now perched on the top of the wall frame and singing happily. For a relatively small bird he has a very loud voice and when the weather is good sings for most of the day.

The floor is down

The floor is down. The building inspector came on Monday and asked for a small alteration to the reinforcing, which was accomplished while he was here. On Tuesday the first concrete truck arrived just after 9 am. The concrete contractor and his mate worked hard barrowing the mix around and by 11 am the floor was all in place. Screeding and floating took most of the rest of the day. My task for the last two days has been to keep the floor wet. This means moving a sprinkler about every 20 minutes – a task within my capabilities. The weather has been sunny and warm which means that there is a danger of the floor cracking if it dries too quickly.
My knee is improving all the time. On Saturday I knelt on it several times and it reminded me that this was not a wise move. It took until Monday for the soreness to subside. The swelling seems to be reducing slowly al the time. In the mornings it only looks about twice the size of the other one.
Yesterday I went down to the Coastguard radio shack to investigate becoming one of the radio operators. It seems to be a pretty relaxed outfit and I am sure I could handle it once a week.

Building starts

The three photos are: the start of excavations, the end of the first day, end of the second day.
8.00 am on Saturday 11th October 2008 we were woken from our slumbers by the sound of a revving engine as the site-work excavation machine drove up the drive. 15 minutes later the grass and topsoil had been removed from the building site and our house was under way. This was the end of my long wait. There had been some movement in the past few weeks with the building consent being approved, and the contractors coming on site and placing the pegs in the wrong place. Last Wednesday the contractor came and put the pegs in the right place and suddenly it was all on. Thursday the earthwork contractor, and the builder who is doing the boxing called in and said they would like to start this weekend. The earthworks were completed by 10 am Saturday and the builder was on site soon after midday. I now have to co-ordinate electricians and plumbers, and then my work will really start.
My knee has continued to improve but still swells each day if I do any work on it. I am able to ride my bike to the shops now, and am using it for exercise. I have not used crutches or the mobility scooter for three weeks.
At the AGM of the RSA I became a member of the committee, which involves a meeting each month plus some other duties. This will help to keep me from getting bored in the evenings. I am already playing snooker on Thursday evenings--- badly.