Let's put a lid on it

Well, Christmas has been and gone - both families caught up with and presents deposited (the stage our kids are up to means we always seem to come home with far more 'stuff' than what we packed!)  With Phil the Builder doing the same and enjoying a well-earned break, things have slowed down at the house apart from the occasional days and half-days I've done screwing down the battens, adding cyclone ties (no, not a common occurrence on the North-West coast of Tasmania, but it's good to be prepared...) to hold the roof on and putting noggins through Level 3.  The latter job brought on the inevitable death of my very cheap home handy-man-only drop-saw... but all these things have a bright side - must be time to move on to a more expensive and feature-laden model!


The most exciting thing happening at the moment is the roof going on - I have to add "finally" to that sentence.  We've entered the nether-world of sub-contractors now at eightmangana - that shadowy, misty realm where nothing is as it seems and very little is firm or concrete... just as you think you've grasped reality and the truth, it slips from between your fingers and everything changes again...
Subbies are those extremely useful and important people who only do one thing and do it very well (certainly the ones Phil chooses to work with).  However, it also means they're constantly in demand, working several major and numerous minor jobs all at once, are constantly juggling priorities and know that they're indispensable.  That means timeframes can change over the course of a day, let alone a week.
The roof was going to get measured and started before Christmas; then it was just the measuring that was going to happen before the Yuletide; then it would be measured over the Christmas/NewYear break and delivered ready to start on the 4th January; on the 4th the guy turned up to measure... I have to admit, the first delivery of stuff was pretty much that same day, and then the gutter-guy (who sub-contracts to the roofing sub-contractor...) had 4 teeth pulled out and couldn't come that week... and then the week after poured with rain for 4 out of the 5 days.  Ahhh, patience...


But...  good things come to those who wait.  In amongst the rain there was some progress as John, Jye and Dan dodged showers and tried to predict the weather.  Last week (Jan 10-14) we did get gutter, fascia and a roof on Level 3, the garage just about complete, and the gutter and fascia on the workshop/storage area (John working bravely in the rain on the latter on Thursday so he could give the roofing guys something to keep going with so they weren't on his tail this week).  Happy with the colour and the look of it so far, and this week looks a whole heap more promising weather-wise - I reckon they're out there this morning getting stuck into it!
Here's a rough idea of where we're up to:

View from the north-west, pre-roofing but ready to go

Roof almost done on Level 3 - from the south