Friday 12th March, 2010

Wow, it went  well today!

Even though we had a lot to do today I was able to fit some bits and pieces in between other things. I am still adapting to the increase in medication which makes me dizzy, so when I need to sit down for a while I can do some; when I was waiting for the Church Bulletin to print out I could do some, and so on. Because I had done so much preparation previously I was able to put quite a bit together and made good progress.

So the roof went on both parts of the house. I had to put another coat of the brown wash on the underside of the bedroom roof first, to make it slightly darker, but it didn’t take long to dry. This photo shows the narrow trim going along the join between the roof and the wall at the rear of the wall, and the ‘beams’ which went in next, one in the apex of the roof, one on each side in the junction of roof and wall, and two more on each side of the roof.

I measured up the inside trim for the window and door before the roof went on, since it was a bit easier to do it then than it would be later on. They are cut and put aside for later, after the outside cladding goes on. I won’t put the door trim on until I get the paper for the floor probably.

The plastic ‘shingles’ for the cladding was really easy to add, except that there was not quite enough to cover the walls. I must have done something wrong along the way. The instructions do mention a 3” strip of shingles that wasn’t in my kit, so perhaps that's why. But I managed to get most of it covered, and there was about 1/8” left on one wall, so I covered it with an extra timber strip. Guess there’ll be a vine growing up there to make it less noticeable – not that it is very noticeable now.

The windows and door took a bit of careful shaving and fiddling to ensure the frames would fit inside them, especially the oval window in the bathroom. But once that was done the pieces went in easily. I had pre-painted them all and cut bits of clear plastic from some packaging for ‘glass’ so they were all ready to go. And I love the look of the white against the blue. Nathan came into the caravan and noticed the Sea Shanty for the first time tonight and asked what it was. I just told him it was a new house I was making and his comment was that it looked like the sea. I was intrigued, and asked him why and he said it was because of the blue and white. So I guess I’ve achieved my aim with the colour scheme.

I started on the trim too, but have only got as far as the side so far. I wanted to make a bit of a verandah for the front, rather than sit the house straight on the wharf. There was just enough grooved wood after I had trimmed the extra from the wharf so I cut it to size to match the roof and made a support frame for it from thin paddlepop sticks. It is just four sides with three reinforcing pieces going across inside it for a little bit of strength. I haven’t stained it yet. But I really like the ‘finished’ look it gives and am debating whether or not to make posts for the verandah as well.

I’m really pleased with so much progress especially considering I had to fit it in between a lot of other things in a very busy day! The only thing that I’m wondering now is the colour of the roof. I had been thinking of a copper roof (with paint to give a verdigris look) but I’m not sure whether that will be right with the colour scheme so I guess it will be a matter of trying out a few different effects on cardboard and testing them to see what looks best before I paint the roof pieces themselves.