Joint hangers, timber connectors etc

First trust up!!!

Steel beam in place and ceilings gone

Boiler plumbed in

Wayne, of all the solder, push-fit and compression fittings we did to connect up the boiler, only one solder joint leaked.  It was one I did this evening to connect up the mains water.

All the plumbing is done now just need to install flue and I will have hot water again :-)
Oh and I need to connect power to it.

Second beam being lifted into place

Today was day one with Rich my carpenter friend.  We checked the trust layout/dimensions and started getting the second beam in place.

Pad stones in place

Much to my relief, Ben theft brickie turned up at 8:00 today and spent 5 hrs bricking while I propped up what is left of the roof and cut away the roof timbers where the pad stones needed to go.

After Ben left I cleaned up a bit and drove to the tip (dump) to get rid of all the plaster board and rubbish Wayne and I generated taking down the flat roof.  Then I spent the rest of the day bagging rubble in the roof and cleaning the ceilings so there is less mess when the rest of the ceilings come down.

Tiles & flat roof off

Liam helped me a lot taking off the tiles on Wednesday and Thursday (Zac did a bit too) and on Friday I got a youngster from down the road to help me and we finally completed the job.
Wayne then arrived on Friday night and helped me for a day and as usual with Wayne here we got lots done!  We covered the roof with tarps, mounted the boiler on the wall, removed the flat roof section of the roof and built a temporary flat roof over the top.

The wind is blowing now and the tarps are making a racket, I just hope they stay on with the rain that is forecast for tonight.

Boiler move

I have been trying to move the boiler to the annex over the last few days.  I have been working on it in the late evenings, when I can't do roof work.  So last night, I was trying to take it off the wall and it just wouldn't budge and it is only 40kgs!  Eventually I hoisted it from the rafters in the roof and jacked it from the kitchen counter below, after all this force it eventually broke free!!  It only hangs on a mounting bracket, so no idea why it took so much force.

Now it is sitting on the kitchen counter on its side waiting for the sun to set.

Beam going up!

Look at all the fun you are missing, Wayne & Dad ;-)

Laying out main roof trust

Just checking to see if Sketchup and real life correlate.

Fixing shower

Finally got around to fixing the electric shower in the annex as I need to move these gas boiler in the house and may be without hot running water for a few days if I get it wrong.

One of the temperature safety cut-out switches had stopped working and in normal Soutter fashion I would have just bypassed it.  But luckily I salvaged one from an old broken shower.

Liam helping move 300kg beam thru house

First delivery of wood arrived today!

Painted hive

This is the second hive I built, Alison and the boys did a great job of decorating it for the bees! It is now filled with bees given to me by Bernard.

More bees! And first sting :-(

Bernard, my mentor with the bees has given me a new hive of bees.  They are a small colony liked mine so probably no honey this year and hopefully they will all make it through next winter.

I also got my first sting; I was fitting the landing strip on the front of my hive and when crouching down I caught/squashed a bee between my arm and leg and she stung me.