Loading the trailer at Bunnings warehouse. At least they have a fork-lift
5/10/13: So, this is our new DIY project. A wooden verandah at the back of our house. It took us several weeks just to get all the building matrials organised. The hardest to get was the timber. There aren't any sawmills here around Adelaide, so the final choice was actually Bunnings, a DIY warehouse. Three cubic metre so called Baltic Pine for almost three grand. Ouch...
Not to mention Nina's ouburst there to get them helping us. It's not always easy to get some decent service. Anyway. The next steps are getting the screw clamps and the PVA glue to produce the laminated parts, like rafters and posts. Who would have thought that I would do carpentry as a hobby one day?
Not to mention Nina's ouburst there to get them helping us. It's not always easy to get some decent service. Anyway. The next steps are getting the screw clamps and the PVA glue to produce the laminated parts, like rafters and posts. Who would have thought that I would do carpentry as a hobby one day?
At home unloading the trailer
We've got two hours to get it home (in order to get the trailer for free)
Looks like my former carpentry - just ten times smaller
Phew - just in time
11/10/13: The next step, gluing the wooden boards together. We could have bought some prefactored laminated timber but guess what? It's so bloody expensive that it was cheaper to buy the boards, the glue and an incredible large number of screw clamps. On the other hand its actually fun to do some real work sometimes.
Nina, removing the spill-over
Cutting the laminated timber to the desired dimension
20/10/13: We glued eleven rafters, twelve posts, three bars and two purlins last week. Now we have to cut all these timber beams to their final dimension and to plane the cuts to give them a good finish. That job reminded me of my old days ;o)
The wood smelled sooo good! Most people like the smell of wood and it was really intense. The weather was our friend too - 33 degrees and sunny and it is still spring.
The wood smelled sooo good! Most people like the smell of wood and it was really intense. The weather was our friend too - 33 degrees and sunny and it is still spring.
Then plane the cut...
... and enjoy the perfect joint!
Yeah, now have a break!
(Hey Nina, please remove the rubbish bins next time
you take a photo ;o))
(Hey Nina, please remove the rubbish bins next time
you take a photo ;o))
Working on the rafters
27/10/13: Yeah, two long weeks passed and all the gluing has been done. The real work started this weekend. I did work on the eleven rafters - cutting the ends, cutting kerves, milling rabbets and so on. And it does look quite good so far :o))
Always keep the workplace clean
And of course everybody does their part
OK, the rafters are done
Waterfall Development Methodology
10/11/13: Unfortunately I've been sick last week, so I wasn't able to do a lot. But of course a lot has been done the time before and I use the opportunity to tell you a bit more about it. As a software engineer I've a lot of management methodologies at hand to choose from. There is for instance agile methods, like scrum, or the spiral model for iterative development. I'm personally a fan of rapid prototyping but in this case I chose the good, old waterfall model seen by some people as completely outdated. Hey, and indeed - the main customer didn't see any progress so far. Is it really going to work? I'm still confident, because I did proper planning, unit testing and integration testing ;o)
Manual labour replaces machinery
Looks quite accurate
Proper unit-testing is indispensable
As it is integration testing. Does it fit?
Having a short break to treat the dogs sore eye
Looks like it did
A little blur of colour
A steak and a stubby after all that hard yakka
Saturday morning, getting the parts out to the backyard
17/11/13: Phew! What an exhausting weekend. But it was a quite successful one, too. I almost finished installing our new verandah. All the parts perfectly fit into one another. Some people claim that's always the case when I'm doing things, but I'm always a bit worried until it's really finished...
Not an easy job for a single person
Yeah, high above the ground
It takes shape
Ready for the roofing ceremony
What a nice structure
Incredibly stubborn boards - but they are awesome!
25/11/13: Again a week of hard yakka. I installed the wooden floor boards - 190x35 mm boards, fixed from the bottom. It wasn't really a pleasure to lie on the concrete getting large screws into quite resistant wood... But the result has been convincing again. I added the handrails too, so we are almost finished.
Fixing the last one has always been a bit tricky
Who would have thought that people travel around the globe to give us a hand
Hey! Someone occupied that place already!
The new railing
28/11/13: This page is getting longer and longer. But we are almost there. This was an easy week; I just finished the railing. The only missing parts now are the screens on top and the stairs at the right corner. Yeah!
The railing from inside
A niche for our stuff like the barbie
Installing the first sheet
02/12/13: Yeah, it's done! I installed the acrylic sheets this weekend. I nearly celebrated my very first construction project without any rain (it always rained when I did this kind of work back in Germany). But, hey, this is Australia, the sunburned country - what could possibly go wrong?. Nevertheless, it did rain of course... Whatever, this didn't prevent me from getting a fine muscle ache.
Done. Clear sheets to see the nice raindrops on top
A blur of colour - looks great in bright sunshine
View from top
List of suppliers:
Bunnings Warehouse - timber
Stratco - tools and different building materials
Adelaides Plastics Pty. Ltd - acrylic sheets
Capral - Aluminium profiles
We say thanks to all the suppliers. At the end, everything worked well.
Bunnings Warehouse - timber
Stratco - tools and different building materials
Adelaides Plastics Pty. Ltd - acrylic sheets
Capral - Aluminium profiles
We say thanks to all the suppliers. At the end, everything worked well.
