So, today we had planned to have an inspection. We’ve been working on lots of the disparate jobs that needed doing and… (ta da) were ready for an inspection today. Only we weren’t.
I’d got my inspectors mixed up, and the guy today doesn’t do electrics, he does framing, plumbing and mechanical. Some how I had him down as framing, plumbing and electrics. Which he’s not. Which didn’t work out ideally as they apparently like to get electrical done first, then he can come in and do the rest. Which would mean that we could drywall (if we pass).
Thankfully, he was very nice about it and had a walk round – flagging a few minor things for his return (a couple of bracing straps we need where the old-and-new meet and we couldn’t overlap the top-plates the way that we’d ideally have liked to (done). Where there’s no bolt next to the french door (because the french door sits partially over the crawl-space opening) he wanted some more nails (done, just dug out the nail gun and whopped some in there :) ). There’s a couple of strengthening plates to go over the top-plate on the triangular section above the laundry that I knew we were missing, but I’d forgotten to get. He actually didn’t flag that today, so I’m not absolutely certain that they’re required, but they are 40c each, so I picked them up while I was at BOB today, and will put them up when Kathryn’s free to be in the house too.
I also arranged an electrical inspection for the next day that works for both us and Oly planning – which means we’ll be inspected on Tuesday. Expect an anguished wail.
In other news we’ve continued the rainscreening – it was actually too hot yesterday we discovered after we’d got the scaffold up – so we only put one board up. I appear to have not taken a photo of it, so here’s a shot of it just prior…
We bought and fitted the wood for the shed base (treated timber) and spread out the gravel in the hole. Frustratingly, because my digging was far from perfect, the amount of gravel we’ve got is about 2″ shy of the top of the frame. Options include putting concrete in that top two inches (might be wise), or going and getting more gravel (cheaper). We should also really rent a compactor for a few hours and squidge it down. Maybe that’s a weekend job… and then we can see how bad it really is.
Kathryn’s cut all of the wood for the shed frame – so we should be able to put it up fairly quickly once we get a base to put it on… oh, and some ply to go on the outside of it.
And then I spent the afternoon today applying more of the near 250 strips of wood we’ve decided to apply to the house. I’d like to claim that it’s going quicker now I know what I’m doing, but it’s really not. At least not by much. I’ve made a ‘special tool’ which holds the strip up at one end (it’s a C-shaped bit of bent wire). This means I spend less time flailing about and trying to persuade it to fit. But most of the time is really trying to make sure it looks right. It’s not a case of getting the whole thing perfectly level, and the spacing all perfectly even because the bits of wood are not even widths, nor are they straight. So it’s more a “this is where it should be, now, what will make it look right” kind of deal.
Still, the first side is about 3/4 done – and that’s taken a day and a half – more or less. So hopefully a good week should see most of the house finished. Only… of course… we bought an insufficient amount, and there’s no more in stock. So that should be interesting.
