Trowelling good time...

Melbourne turned on its worst weather today, but that didn't stop application of the third outside coat of render.  No siree, these blokes just pushed through the cold and constant drizzle rain.  Our rendering mates, Mark and Adam, arrived early as usual but being a public holiday (Anzac Day), Paul couldn't join us, so MOTH took on the job of co-mixing the muck.  We also hired 2 hard plasterers to do the trowelling and we're really pleased with the result so far... way more professional than we could have achieved.  AC and Nama followed behind the trowellers, sponging the walls for effect.

Now the windows are covered with protective film, the inside photos come up much better.

Star glazing...

Excitement all round... the glaziers came today.  Here's what they windows look like with glass in them... noice

 

Fuzzy and MOTH finished off the door jamb today... see the freshly squeezed expanding foam?  The long awaited front door arrives in 2 weeks.  It wasn't so much waiting for delivery, more the fact we took so long to make a decision about what kind of door we wanted. 

Fuzzy also built a bridge over the threshhold, to protect the newly part-laid tiles at the entrance.  The wall will be rendered to meet the tiles.

Doors & Windows are in place...

Fuzzy & MOTH have installed all the window frames, and if it wasn't for the fact they run out of expanding foam, all doors would have been finished today as well.

I had the pleasure of watching the process from go to wo... and it was lovely to see father & son working together like a well oiled machine. 

Being European double-glazed windows, the frames are extremely heavy and all care is taken to see they are fitted precisely.  To start with, MOTH cleans all the dirt and muck off the door plate.  Then he takes measurements of the fixing block locations along the door frame and marks the door accordingly.  Metal clips are placed on the door at the exact location and the door is then lifted into position and adjusted to pefection.  While Fuzzy holds the door in a tilted position, MOTH squeezes silicone under the door to provide a waterproof barrier.  From there, the door is screwed in place while levels are constantly being checked.  Expanding foam will be applied to gaps tomorrow and the Master Cobbette will shape the wall to the edge of the window.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, the Master Cobbette (AC) continues on her mission...

and here's a window she prepared earlier...

I worked on removing the protective film from the window frames and placing Scotch Blue (a kind of masking tape) to define how much of the frame is covered by render and protect what is not being rendered.

AC's just about had enough of cobbing!  This photo shows the dry expanded foam quite well. 

We're all looking forward to next week.  The glaziers are coming first then the rendering crew return for coat number 3 on the outside walls.  yay

Window re-hash...

One of the windows arrived from the motherland slightly wider than we planned for, so MOTH has partly demolised the window space in the master bedroom.  It had to be pulled apart, re-boxed and rendered again, so all measurements were correct for the window to fit properly.

Boxed, chicken-wired & rendered

Discomboobilated

Restored to it's former glory + window

Windows...

The windows were delivered last week and the first few were installed today, minus the glass... and I must say they look mighty fine.  All the effort MOTH and Fuzzy put it to the preparation work has paid dividends.  By including blocks of wood along the frame of the window has given a sound base to screw the frames in firmly with ease.

 

MOTH and Fuzzy working together...

 

Meanwhile, K2 applied glue to the very bottom edges of the house (to give the final coat of render the best chance of sticking)...

and AC continued with the dirty task of adding cobb to dimples in the walls...

The 'Master Cobbette' at work

Fuzzy bending metal...

and K2 having a go at trowelling the second test mix for the final coat of render...