Roof insulation (warm roof)

I was trying to think of a was to insulate our front flat roof over the winter. Hopefully we will be replacing it this year some time. So I didn't want to spend too much money and time on doing it, but something needed to be done as the ceiling was so cold it was constantly wet and dripping with condensation!!! I decided to insulate the top of the roof as getting inside the rafters was going to be very difficult and messy. I bought 50mm polystyrene and placed it on top of the roof held down with bricks and paving slabs.

I thought I had come up with something unique till I read in a Reader Digest DIY manual that this is called a 'Warm Roof' and is a know way to retro insulate a roof.

From the top it looks a bit shanty town, but from the front is isn't very noticeable.

New draw under oven

We had some wasted space under the oven which was just blanked off. I
had 4 (half) runners which I had selvages from a filing cabinet that
seemed perfect for the job.
So I welded the two halves together to get the runners to extend fully
(instead of only coming our half way) and this was the result........

Raising sewer sides

The man hole around our sewer was in need of attention and we also needed to raise it a bit so the fish would not get flooded with you-know-what next time the sewer blocked up.We had some foreign labour to help us
and some child labour ;-)

Connecting the gas...

When the guy came to install the gas tank he said that we should use the gas in the old tanks and then I can just change over to the new tank when the old tank ran out. It did involve soldering the copper pipes which I thought was the difficult part.

What the gas guy failed to notice was we needed to connect a 1/2' fitting to a 3/4' BSPT fitting. So it was a freezing cold, rainy sunday afternoon when we ran out and I realized I needed a reducing fitting in order to connect up the new gas supply. None of the shops where open and my neighbour Terry didn't have anything to do the job so it was 'boer maak n plan' time.

There was a plug fitting that the installer had left in the pipe to stop dirt getting in. I used this to make a connection on the 3/4 side and turned down a brass fitting off an old braai to connect to the copper pipes and finally got the gas flowing.

Not the neatest solution but it will do till we can get the correct part.

Straighten foot path

The foot path to the shed was

layed out for people carrying

watermelons between their thighs,

you had to zig-zag down to the

shed. So we straightened it

out to make it more usable.

YouTube video not in email

I have put another video on the blog and I don't think you will be able to get to it via the email you receive. So please go to http://nealsoutter.blogspot.com/ if you would like to see it.

The link to the online blog Station Road can also be found at the bottom of all the emails you receive.

Liam using Potters wheel

I finally finished making the potters wheel today! Liam and Ispent some time this afternoon making more clay from the clay we dug out the front lawn. Then Liam made a few bowls on the wheel.

Since this picture was taken we have added a lot of lead (from the flashing on the chimney we took down) to the underside of the foot wheel to give it some weight.

Take a look at the video on YouTube.

Clay, clay and more clay.....

Considering we have so much clay, we decided to try and make something out of the clay. Liam and I spent time at the end of the day soaking some of the clay we dug out the ground and getting it into a usable state.

We then made a bowl each, as you can see they are beautiful works of art ;-)

Gas Tank arrived

The 2400 litre gas tank arrived today and was installed by a really nice guy!

Alison and I spent the afternoon filling in the trench. Tomorrow we have to tackle the hole!!!

Lead-go

We got talking about melting lead at the dinner table for some reason so the boys asked if we could try. We had some lead flashing from the chimney we took down but didn't know what to cast.

We finally ended up trying to make a lead lego piece but it didn't work too well. Perhaps we will try again sometime.

Hole in lawn

Some pictures of our 'poor' front garden. The trench goes all the way to the house and is 750mm deep. The main hole is 1.6m deep and more than 3m x 2m. It is huge!!! You can just see the little dumper in this top picture which they took away a bunch of soil / clay in. Else there woundn't have been enough space on the lawn.

The boys loved playing in the clay / mud, but it stressed Alison a bit.

The gas tank arrives tomorrow......hopefully!

Loft insulation (air filters)

I spent a long time in the loft moving the air filters that were in one big pile and spreading them out over the passage and boys room. I figure they can't hurt as an extra layer of insulation. They are two deep and packed in nice and tight as you can see in the picture.

Boys floor

We decided to take a look at the damp issue at the front wall of the boys room. When I lifted the chipboard replacement floor boards the previous bloke had used (they are like cheap loft board and will fall apart with the first sniff of moisture) I found they had put plastic under the them, I am guessing they did this to stop the chipboard getting wet. The wall on the left is full of mildew all the way up to about 2 metres high. When we bought the house a company came in and told us we had rising damp but with a bit of research we found it is probably not that at all, it seems to be condensation causing all the damp problems.

In this picture you can see the water dripping off the bottom of the plastic it was so wet.

We cleaned out the only air brick into the floor in boys room and I installed two computer fans (in a block of pink insulation) on a spare car battery so now it runs all the time under the floor moving out the damp air and it seems to be working. When ever we open the floor it is never dripping wet, but we need to insulate the out side walls in order to stop the condensation forming in the first place!

Zip wire (foofy slide)

I built a zip wire for the kids. After seeing it at Wayne's house they nagged me enough to get me to make one. It needs a few safety features added so it doesn't fall off the line and knock the kids out :-)