Hard Week With Good Progress

With the end of the latest round of painting in sight I had enough work lined up for about 2 days of Paul Jr's time, so last week I arranged a visit by him at the end of this week.  I would have preferred a visit from him in the coming week but he was scheduled to fly to Melbourne in the wee hours of Saturday morning, so I had to work hard to have everything ready for him by Thursday.

He visited on Monday to discuss the task list and noted that he would not have to purchase any materials for the work.

On Thursday morning he was on site at 7AM and I arrived an our later.  We worked until 8PM which made it a 12 hour day for me plus two hours of travel. 

On Friday he was on site again at 7 AM and after a 4-hour absence to finish another job he returned in the afternoon and we worked until 7 PM.

Tasks that were completed include:

Under Sing Garbage Containers

Slid Out and One Container Removed

- Installation of ceiling lights in the office, hallway, sitting room, and back porch
- Installation of 3 GPO's in the sitting room.
- Installation of skirting boards and associated GPO's in the office and hallway
- Cutting and fitting skirting boards in the sitting room
- Mounting of cabinets in office
- Installation of a garbage system under the kitchen sink
- Designing and fitting a filler to a 50mm gap at one end of the kitchen counter

The sitting room light gave us problems.  The old fittings had 4 sets of wires going into it: 2 x black,  2 x green, 3 x red, 1 yellow.  I concluded that the extra cabling was to supply power to the flood light and associated switch on the south side of the house.  Paul photographed the setup and I drew a diagram before we dismantled the old fitting.  When we began to install the new light weeks later we saw that there were only 3 connectors for the 4 groups of wires.  We tried to fit the four groups into the 3 connectors in various combinations which all failed.   The light would stay on and not respond to the switch, then it would stay off and not turn on, then we tripped the RCD.  We concluded that the problem was beyond us and I would call in an electrician.

Sitting Room Next to Dining Room

Primer on Skirting Boards for Sitting Room

That night I woke up at 3.30 AM and before dozing off again I began to visualize the wiring to that light.  A 3-core cable came from the switch board and the other went to the flood light.  That left the two core cable that must go to the switch: red wire going down, yellow wire coming back.  Back at the house I suggested that we connect the black and green wires to the light as before, but leave the bundle of red wires aside and run the yellow wire into the active connector.  That worked fine and both the sitting room and flood lights were working normally.  Paul figured that I had saved about $200 by avoiding having to call out an electrician.  (I did some research on the internet later and learned that the 4th connector on the original light socket was a "loop" connection, designed to bundle wires on a serial connection and not to connect to the light.)

For the skirting boards of the sitting room I retrieved all of the long pieces of jarrah architrave that had been removed from two internal doors, removed the nails, then sanded them with a belt sander.  Paul took these pieces and cut the skirting board for the room using scarf joints along the 3 long sides.  He left the pieces loose and yesterday I numbered each piece as I removed it, then filled in all of the nail holes.  At the next session I will sand the pieces and begin the painting process of one undercoat and 2 top coats.  When Paul returns he will fix the skirting with his nail gun.

Office: Wall Cabinet and LED Lighting

Office Skirting with Plenty of Power Points (12 Total)

Single Window in Office

The office cabinets are a result of our decision at the beginning of the project to widen the passageway between the kitchen and hallway, resulting in less kitchen wall space and two surplus cabinets, 400mm and 450mm wide.  We put them together and fitted them in the office, and they look very good and will be very useful for storing office supplies and equipment.

I had ordered an under-sink garbage system with the cabinet set and Paul installed it with just a few minutes of work.  It is a very neat system with two containers that can be slid out on tracks for removal.  When they are in position they are snugly housed in a "garage" which will hopefully keep the rodents out.  I suppose that I will put vegetable peelings in one container and ordinary garbage in the other.

Paul Sr. had to build the half wall separating the kitchen from the hallway using the documented dimensions of the Kaboodle flat pack kitchen.  The actual result left a gap of about 50 mm between the end of the cabinet and the half wall.  Paul filled in this space with a robust piece of material which I will paint.

Paul worked until 7 PM on Friday night then left to catch a midnight plane for Melbourne, where he will pick up a BMW motorcycle which he purchased in an internet auction and ride across the Nullarbor Plain back to Perth.  In the meantime his father Paul Sr has left England for a 4-week stay with a friend at his place in southern France.  It's par for the course for Australians, who are great travelers. In every nook and cranny of the world you'll find at least one Australian.

Hallway Skirting by Paul

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Anyway, my plan is to spend a day or two painting the skirting boards that Paul has prepared, then later in the coming week will begin the phase of sealing the floor (YES!).  Today I visited Masters Hardware and purchased 16 liters of Estapol 7008 (8 liters of Part A, 8 liters of Part B) at a cost of $390, as well as 8 paint brushes that I will throw away after one use.

Even with the $700 that I paid Paul Jr. for his 2 days of work and the money for the Estapol, the renovation project is still below $40k ($39,435.96 to be exact).

I am most happy with the current state of the project.  The roof and all gutters and downpipes have been replaced.  The new kitchen is in place.  All internal walls and ceilings (except the dining room, which did not need replacement) have been replaced.  The painting has been almost completed (save some skirting board work) and the electrical work has almost been completed (still the installation of the new dining room light and the replacement of the rheostat switch in the dining room with an ordinary one).  The heavy floor sanding has been almost completed (still the belt sanding of half of the office floor) and I am poised for the final phase (before being able to move into the house) of sealing the floors.

Filler Piece