Easter Weekend

Yesterday was Good Friday. So in true DIY spirit, I spent the 'day off' - ok - the morning really - cutting the hedge.

We have a tall, probably 2, maybe 2 and a bit metre high hedge running down the entire length of one side of our property, and a shorter, I would say 1.3m high hedge running the length from the front of the property to the end of the house on the other side.  We have fantastic neighbours who keep their sides, and the tops nicely trimmed. We on the other hand, are useless at trimming our sides and the result is usually plain to see!

You see, I generally leave it to DIY-impaired husband to do - I don't see it as DIY. I see it as general upkeep, which is his department, like weeding etc. But having gotten sick of it not being done over the Christmas break when he was off for four weeks, and wanting to move my shed this weekend, I decided there was only one thing for it. Doing it myself.

One of my grizzling 'helpers' helping clear up the aftermarth

It was the first time I'd cut the hedges at this house. It wasn't a very long or arduous job though, took an hour or so, with a break for putting Red to bed with a milky in between. The clean up still remains however. I made the mistake of enlisting the two big kids to help. One prefered to hunt for crickets in the aftermath of the hedge trimming, the other kept telling me he needed a rest every two seconds. I eventually threw my hands in the air and told them to go inside and have some lunch because I was sick to death of hearing them grizzle! *Note to self: Purchase leaf rake - our neighbour from our last house still has ours!

More of a 'before' pic looking down towards the front of the section.

Today (Saturday) on the DIY front, I got my Mum to come over. We emptied out the shed and got the DIY-impaired husband to give us a hand with some muscle, he stood inside it, lifted at the beam inside and we guided it onto the platform from opposite corners.

The shed resting on it's new foundation with DIY-impaired husband inside, 

doing what exactly, I'm not sure!

I screwed it securely to the pallet platform/floor - wahey! We wriggled and jiggled it around a bit until some of the side panels that had come away were back where they were supposed to be in the channels at the top and bottom, and then with Mum inside the shed and me outside, she held the small piece of wood I gave her, against the metal as a chock, while I screwed it together from the outside. I went around and fixed anything else back into place that had come adrift.

The flashing in place!

Then it was time to fix the flashings on the roof. I love that my new Gorilla ladder is so versatile, I felt quite safe up it with the legs at different heights! I did one side to the middle, then had to clear away some of the hedge cuttings, and use the loppers on some of the hedge to cut of bits that were protruding  so I could get the ladder in the other side. I then fixed the flashing back on at that side to the middle! When I had put the shed together initially, I didn't fix the flashing on properly because a) I was much larger than I am today and was scared I was going to break something (like the shed or the ladder!) and b) my ladder was already rickety and I was aware that my father had fallen off of it once and it was a bit wonky.

Ramsay the ginger hard at work 'helping' by sleeping in the grass catcher!

Around that time, I sent the DIY-impaired husband off on a carpet collection run. I had managed to get a free square of carpet from Freecycle, this was to be used on the floor, not to make it pretty, but to make it more functional - I didn't want things falling through the floor! Once he arrived home, Red had decided it was time for a sleep, so I headed inside and left Mum and the two big kids to put the carpet down in the shed, and as it turns out, they also loaded everything else back in too!

The shed with it's back back on, manky carpet down, and most things moved back in.

After Mum left, when I had gotten Red to sleep, I did a bit of a tidy up in there, but it still isn't quite the way I want it. I will need to build the window seat for my room first, so I can empty out the cupboard I want to put in there.

Door attached - viola! We have a fully functioning shed again!

While cutting the hedge yesterday, I also rediscovered the old workbench top that was in the shed we demolished almost as soon as we moved in. It is a bit long for the shed, but I will probably build a frame for it and cut the ends off so it can become a useful workbench again.

Now that the sun has come out, plans for the afternoon include cutting the rest of the grass and enjoying the sun with the kids.

Happy Easter everyone!

Thursday Busy-ness

Yesterday turned out to be a grey and uninspiring day for outside DIY, so Red and I spent most of the day doing inside things.

Today, however, we were back to the absolutely stunning weather that we have been experiencing the rest of the week. This made me very happy!!

We had a lot to do in town this morning and got home around 12. Red managed to stay awake through the journey home, distracted by the roadworks along the way, then several loud renditions of 'Twinkle, twinkle little star'. After a quick change and a milky, she was off to sleep. I did a mad dash to the supermarket, inhaled a bit of lunch then headed outside.

My first task was to pack some soil around the new washing line socket. That took all of three minutes. But the washing line was full of about, oh, 5 loads of washing, so I had to wait until around 4pm to move the washing line.

There we have it! Clothesline in it's new position, and still, not a cloud in the sky!

Kids in the distance shoveling the mud from the hole into a bucket!

Then it was on to my next task - the one I have been wanting to do for a long time, but haven't had the time, or, lets face it, the inclination.

I grabbed the wheelbarrow, and brought the pallets around to the south side of the house one by one. I put down some black plastic (the kind you put under your house to help with insulation) and arranged four pallets as best I could, packing underneath as necessary with off-cuts of wood.

Pallets arranged together - shame they're not exactly uniform sizes!

Then it was on to nailing them all together.

These are nail plates - the one on the left is the side you whack with the hammer, the one on the right is the side that goes onto the wood.

So I bashed the hell out of 12 of these, sorry to anyone who heard me making an unholy racket this afternoon! I was sure I would wake Red up! But no! Amazing!

The finished product!

Red actually slept for three hours!! So I had to get the big kids to walk home from school. I even managed to get some of the old climbing rose cut up and into the wheelie bin (the rose who climbed too far, fell down, and subsequently got dug out because we need to re-clad the house, which may happen sometime in the next 10 years, if we're lucky!)

I have plans to get my Mum to come over on Saturday morning to give me a hand to move the shed to its new home on the pallet platform. Tomorrow morning I'm off to collect a square of ugly green carpet to put down inside the shed to stop things falling through the holes between the slats. Go freecycle!

Carpentry Classes 7 and 8 and the rest.

Oh dear - not so good on the updating of the blog last week, I shall chastise myself later! ;)

Carpentry Class: Week 7

Last week I completed the window seat for the girls room. I remembered to take my own drill, which saved a lot of headaches and got me finished in good time indeed!

The 'lip' attached around the top

I cut and attached the back, which is part of the chalkboard from my old shop, and cut and attached the 'lip' around the top of the seat to stop the cushion from shooting off and becoming either a missile or something worse (if you have children old enough, you will understand!)

Completed window seat, ready for painting and a cushion.

I need to paint it, as it is still sitting on it's end in my bedroom, not being terribly useful for much aside from keeping my drill on. Though the kids have started using it as a shelf!

Other bits around the house

With an off-cut from the chalkboard back on the window seat, I screwed it to the wall in the kitchen - it is now out menu board! I have written Sunday-Saturday on there and under each I write what we're having for tea that evening. I'm not terribly good at getting things out for dinner in advance - the menu board hasn't changed that!

Menu chalkboard in the kitchen - excuse my hideous turquoise walls! (A real treat paired with the 'when cats paint' wallpaper in the dining area, I'll tell you!)

Outside Bits

For a while now, the kids second trampoline (the first having been pitched about in the wind, the net destroyed and a hole put in the mat in some very strong wind just before Christmas 2010 - I do wish we had just had that mat either patched or a new mat purchased, in hindsight - it was a fantastic, sturdy beast!) which was a cheapie, has been twisted and is 'out of order' so they haven't been allowed to jump on it.

Poor wonky trampoline.

I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier, but it suddenly came to me the other day - why don't I take it apart, straighten it up, and drill holes through it and put in bolts to keep it straight? This morning we went to Mitre 10 Mega for a few things, and amongst our purchases was a packet of bolts. Perfect! If only my drill had been charged enough, I might have gotten more than two holes and bolts done. Never mind - tomorrow is another day!

Bolted through!

On Monday, on a whim really, I decided that I needed to move our washing line for winter. It was a good idea really, with winter approaching, the house casts a great big shadow over my washing line where it is, and, strangely enough, the washing doesn't dry. Another Mitre 10 purchase today was a Hills Rotary Hoist Clothesline replacement socket set and 2 bags of quick set cement. I only needed one as it turns out - so I shall take the other back.

After I had Red in bed this afternoon, I took a little break for lunch - bacon butties in the back yard, surveying all that I am Queen of, and contemplating all of those jobs that need doing! DIY-impaired husband was off at the movies on his day off, so was as much help as ever. After I had lunched, I dug a 650mm deep hole and sited the socket in the ground, mostly as per the instructions.

Ready to cement 'er in!

I got the water and the cement and put them in the hole, after making sure the socket was level (again, *mostly* as per instructions... One should perhaps read things properly next time - but alls well that ends well, right? It was supposed to be water first, then cement mix... not the other way around - oops!) I have left it to cure and tomorrow after lunch I'll whisk the washing line off to it's new winter home, 4m (maybe less?) away ;)

Waiting for the cement to set.

Final Carpentry Class for Term One

Last Thursday, I had a call from my mother saying that Frank, the bloke who sources things etc at her work, had managed to get me 7 pallets! My plan with these pallets was (is) to use them as a platform to anchor my shed to. None of them are the same size as each other, and they are slightly larger than I expected, so I decided to break one down and use it as timber.

Pallet before.

Pallet after!

My plan is to make the girls headboards for their new King Single sized beds. They will incorporate mostly the recycled wood from the pallet and some new wood which I purchased from Mitre 10 this morning with the help of Red.

Clears on the right, bottom of the pallet on the left, after being cut to 50mm wide

This evening at carpentry I got to dress them! I cut the wider bits dow to the right size then I got to run the rest through the thicknesser. Fantastic machine! They go in looking like manky old bits of wood, they come out smooth and shiny! Both sides were thicknessed, then the edges were buzzed with the buzzer - like an upside down electric plane on a table really!

Quite amazing - the wood was totally unrecognisable after it had undergone it's transformation!!

Bottom of the pile, the dressed timber, the one of the top is what it used to look like!

I measured and cut the pieces for the frame to which the old pallet will be nailed. I then mitred the corners (I used the mitre square to mark them - before Robert showed me that I could actually just set the saw to 45 degrees and cut like that! Easy as!)

Mitred corners - looks like it could be a frame soon! And there is my chicken scratching of a plan in the middle.

Then it was time to pack up and go home. I really didn't think I'd get to cutting up the dressed pine clears that I bought this morning. I thought that I'd probably spend all of the two hours dressing the timber, so that was nice! I had planned to just dress the timber and figure out the rest at home. I still need to figure the rest out, but I don't need to figure out mitring the corners now - bonus!

Tuesday, Carpentry Day

I do believe that Tuesday has become carpentry day.

I made a flying trip to Mitre 10 this afternoon when Red woke up from her sleep. I bought a pack of 38mm screws, a large spring (the type you put on a gate to make it self-closing) and a twin pack of hooks and eyes. We made it home just in time to walk around and collect the big kids from school.

When all 3 of them were happily playing, I took myself out to the gate (yes, again), and attached the spring brackets and spring, then tightened the spring so it will close the gate once it is opened. It took a little trial and error but I think I got it just perfect. Then I attached the eye to the gate and the hook to the fence post. This is for when we actually need the gate to stay open for any period of time - say for bringing something large in or out.

Self-closing spring and hook and eye on the gate.

Carpentry Class #6


The mood in the class tonight just seemed a bit off for some reason.

I ended up crawling around on the floor screwing my seat together, which wasn't terribly comfortable, as this morning, walking home from music and movement group with Red on my back in the Manduca, I rolled my ankle and skinned my knee. My ankle was fine about 3 minutes later, but my knee has been stinging the rest of the day.

It actually started to look like something tonight!

A rather large annoyance tonight, was that there were about 4 drills in the room, but only one had a partial charge that was useful enough, the rest were so un-charged that they were next to useless. I did see that there was a spare battery for one drill in the charger, but the charger wasn't plugged in! I would have thought that they would have charged them over night so that the school Wood Technology students could use the the following day. Being me, I plugged it in, and when the partially charged drill (which was being shared by 3 people!) pretty much ran out, I figured I had nothing to lose by at least trying the charging battery, which at this stage had been charging for about 15 minutes at the most. Imagine my surprise when it actually seemed to have a bit of oomph behind it! So I managed to get the seat looking like a seat tonight!

7 pieces of wood, 30 screws and some glue. Now looking a lot like it is supposed to!

I actually left a bit early tonight. Really, I couldn't do much else. I did think about taking my own drill this week, but it didn't happen. Next week I will make sure I do. And I will make sure it has a full charge in it too!


I am thinking now that I won't put the fancy looking feet on it - they just don't look sturdy enough and I don't have enough ply (in one length) to make fancy bits for the front and back. I think it will be better for the girls at the height it is now too - it will eventually have a squab cushion on the top of it too, which will give it more height.


More Planning


This afternoon I had the kids help me do some measuring.

I am in the very early planning stages of a play fort for the back yard. I established that it needs to be 1.5m from the back fence and probably 2m or 2.5m from the hedge along the side boundary. I think it will be between 1.5-2m square. It will be raised, underneath there will be a 'storage cage' for all the outside toys - bikes, ride-ons, naughty children (haha!) etc) Up on the platform, I want to build a really cool, functional play house, with a deck. There will be a slide to come down on. I also plan to put a large beam out from the side, with an a-frame at the other end, and I plan to attach 3 swings made from old tyres, suspended by chains.

I'm really excited about it! But I think it will probably cost an absolute bomb!! The kind of wood I will need isn't cheap! But the kids will have such a lot of fun in it!


Tools

I managed to win a Trade Me auction for a jig saw last week - $30! It arrived on Friday, but I didn't get to open it straight away as we had a very busy Friday and weekend. When I did open it, I was amused that a spider came crawling out! DIY-impaired husband, who is also scared of spiders, was not so impressed. I may have to employ spiders to guard all my power tools from him in the future!

Carpentry Class #5

Last night went FAR too quickly! I came home absolutely covered in white sawdust. It was fantastic!


So after cutting almost everything I needed last week, last night I got to use the table saw all by myself to cut the last piece (MDF for the top, as it won't be seen) That was great fun!

I spent most of the rest of the night sanding. First I was using the belt sander, then I finished off with hand sanding - I actually preferred the feel of the finish it gave after I had hand sanded.

I made a bit of a mess...

I got FILTHY!

I drilled holes ready for screwing the seat together next week. *Note to self, remember to sort out screws for next week!*

Two boards clamped together, marked and holes drilled ready for assembly next week.

Second Carpentry Class

I have realised that I didn't blog about my second week of carpentry class - when I finished my cooling rack/trivet.

I can't remember exactly, given it was 3 weeks ago, but I remember I drilled holes then spaced out the slats and then nailed it all together. When I brought it home, I oiled it, and I have been using it at dinner times when I have a hot dish out of the oven to put on the table

My first project, complete!

More on the gate!

Yesterday morning I didn't manage to control myself in the swearing department when I looked out the window before I took the kids to school. My gate was lying on the footpath!

I knew that the bottom packer had split a bit when I screwed it on, but I had hoped for the best. So before I met my Mum for lunch yesterday, I hot footed it to Mitre 10 Mega and bought a 650mm piece of treated decking timber (the same stuff I used on the gate frame). When I got home, I broke out the circular saw, cut off a 1 inch strip, then attached the remaining length to the gate post. I then attached the hinges to it - one gate, hung, better be for the last time, or I'll spit!!!

Right, gate, thats the last time I hang you!

With the 1 inch length I cut off, I screwed that to the opposite gate post, on the outside, as a stop. With the child-proof magnetic latch, when it is closed now, it closes with a distinctive 'clunk' so I know that it is closed!

The stop on the outside of the gate.

I don't think it will dare come off again! It would have ME to deal with if it did! I have certainly learnt a LOT while hanging this gate!

Front gate: Done!

Finally!!! It feels as if we have been without a functioning gate for a month rather than a week at most.

Saturday

After wrestling with a rusty, dull handsaw to cut the angles for the crossbearer, giving up, finding a hacksaw, putting in a new blade, starting it with the hacksaw and struggling with the rusty, dull saw for the rest of the two cuts, I put the crossbearer in screwed it on.

'WOOHOO!' I thought 'I can hang it now!' But my moment was short-lived when I discovered that the DIY-impaired husband had re-measured the gap for me, while I was at Mitre 10 Mega on Friday, and it turned out that MY measurement I had written down was correct, his measurement was 5cm too short. I was rather cross (understatement!!). I could carry the gate through the gap without hitting it on either fence post. I could have cried... but instead I yelled, and he left an hour early for work. Oops. Sorry Mr DIY-impaired.

After I had cooled down a bit, I decided I needed to just cut down a couple of the offcuts and attach them to the fence post then attach the gate to those. However, I was not really keen on attempting that with my saw (incidentally, it was found on the ground in the shed under the lawnmower) so when my Mum came to visit, she came with me to wrangle children and we made another trip to Mitre 10 and came home with some 75mm screws, a pair of whacking great hinges (that came complete with pathetic 'why even bother' screws) aaaand...... a shiny new Mactec (the Makita 'home brand' said the man in the shop) circular saw!

That night, Mum took the big kids to her place for a sleepover, so it was just Red and I, which was just lovely! The next day it poured with rain.

Monday morning

I had to wait to play with it until this morning. I didn't even get it out of the box - very restrained!

Off-cuts, ready to be cut down further to become packers

So this morning, when DIY-impaired husband took Red to her swimming lesson, I got on with it and cut down the bits of wood, attached them to the gate post, then attached the gate to the packers!

Hinges placed, ready to be attached to the gate.

I loved using the circular saw - and upon skim-reading the instruction manual, I see that I can but beveled edges up to 45 degrees too, so that it good to know!

I had to move the magnetic gate latch and re-site it on the fence post and the gate, and now it's all good to go!

All hung and useable! 

Sadly the picket profile isn't exactly the same, but I'm pretty sure our old pickets are pretty original!

The only thing I needed to sweat about, was that when I screwed on the bottom packer, it split! So I may need to do something about that another time, but hopefully it will just stay put for a good long time *cross fingers and eyes*

Now Red can go outside with the big kids and play safely while I cook tea each night! Woohoo!

Manky old gate. I'm going to hang on to it and hopefully recycle the pickets when I get around to making the playhouse that is in the pipeline.

The Saga Continues: The Gate, The (almost) Final Chapter

For the last month or thereabouts, our front gate has been annoying me.

First I had to replace the hinges. This did not work, due to the ridiculously small size of the accessible wood and rusty metal frame, I had to buy silly piddly sized hinges. Unsurprisingly, it came off of these hinges. On the bright side, I had to buy some taps to get some dead screws out, and will now forever own taps :)

These are taps - no, not the kind that water comes out of, they are to remove damaged screws.

Next I replaced the hinges with slightly more heavy duty hinges, and used decent treated screws, made for outdoor use in pine. Then the wood totally split and the entire gate became as what we call 'totally shagged'

The gate is currently leaning precariously against the fence post. We can kind of use it, in a pinch, if it is propped up with a brick and latched to the magnetic childproof latch. Not exactly ideal with a 23 month old Red to consider!

Totally fed up, I went to Bunnings the other day (I actually went in for a sheet of plywood for my carpentry class project) and asked what they could sell me in a pre-made gate, as I didn't really think I had the time to make my own. The man at Bunnings wasn't terribly helpful. They didn't have any. He didn't offer me any other options. So I bought my ply and left.

This morning however, I decided I would go and check out what Mitre 10 Mega had to offer me in the pre-made gate department. Sadly the only one they had was 200mm too small. So he suggested I could just buy the palings and some wood and make one. So that is exactly what I did! Well, sort of.

I had him cut the two pieces of wood to size for me (while he did, I introduced Red to a forklift), he then asked if my husband would be able to sort out the crossbearer himself, I laughed and said that my husband would not be going anywhere near it until it was hung in the gap! He smiled and asked if I had a handsaw to cut it myself. I said I did. He then carried it all out to the car for me and suggested I buy 45mm screws, gave me the bit of paper to pay on. I thanked him and he was on his way! Now THAT is what I call service! Just because I am a woman carrying a small child does not mean I don't know how to weald a power tool!

The back of my car, full of wood and Girl Guide biscuits.

So, home after a morning out to entertain Red, when she was in bed, I went and retrieved the wood from my car. I laid it all out on my bedroom floor in the sun, and got to work. I had screwed both end pickets to the two pieces of framing wood and had started laying out the others to work out the space when Mr DIY-impaired left for work. Soon after I had all of the bottom end screwed on. About then Red woke up and got out of bed and came in to project manage for me.

The beginnings of my new, extra-wide gate.

She looked after my other drill (I decided that taking out the battery would make it lighter for her, and would also just make sure she didn't drill anything she oughtn't, like her own hand!) and tried to put a screw in it as a bit while I screwed the other ends of the pickets on.

Trying to put a screw in the chuck

Lighter without the battery in the drill

Red through the gate offering me some of her lunch

I flipped the new gate over and marked where I needed to cut the crossbearer and went to find my handsaw. But wait... who has moved my saw? It isn't where I left it! In fact, it is nowhere to be found! I called the DIY-impaired husband to enquire of its whereabouts. He said 'it's probably in the shed' Ha! Maybe it is, but that shed is such a shitfight, I'm not taking Red in there to help me find it. He says he will go and find it for me tomorrow before he goes to work. We'll see.

All marked and ready to cut, when Mr DIY-Impaired fetches the saw from parts unknown

I'm very pleased with my gate so far, it looks nice, it's rather heavy - I may need to get some bigger more industrial looking hinges, as I fear the others I bought last week are a bit too piddly. We shall see though.