Second coat on cabin walls completed

Following the finalisation of the first coat of render on the cabin, and the alteration of the windows and doors, we first had to fix cement sheets under our eves before going on to the second coat of render. As can be seen from the below picture, our eves were only lined with the sisolation used when putting the roof up, and it was not the most attractive look:

The cement sheets we have been using under all our eves are generally either 450mm or 600mm wide and 2400mm long. The length we needed for the eves on the cabin was around 1500mm and as such we had to do quite a bit of cutting. Luckily we did not have much waste as we first made a cut of 1500mm and then used the remaining for the next layer combined with the off cut for the next sheet.

Geir preparing sheets for cutting.

Putting up the sheets took longer than we had anticipated, mostly due to some small tricky bits where the beam comes out from the wall towards the post holding the roof up. So, it actually took us a full day to do this, combined with quite a lot of hole digging for Jodie whilst Geir worked on the tricky bits alone - just not enough space to be two people doing the work.

Having completed the sheets, we could start rendering, something we did on the 25th of April - Anzac Day here in Australia. This meant that we were both home and thereby managed to do both the Northern wall and one part of the western wall in a day. We had fantastic weather for rendering: cloudy and no wind at all.

The next day Geir worked on his own completing the western wall and having a good start on the eastern wall as well. Then it was Friday the 27th - Jodie's day off - and we managed to finish the rest of the walls which made us both very happy indeed.

Northern wall after second coat - still drying in places

Eastern wall after second coat - again drying

Southern wall after second coat - still quite dark as this was the last wall we did. Here you can also see the eves now lined with cement sheets.

Part of the western wall - after second coat on the whole section

The rest of the western wall - again drying so different colours on the wall

We have now also removed the door into the bathroom on the western wall. We mentioned before that we found this not to be used as much as we anticipated. The door was therefore taken out, two extra studs were put in, sisolation (or reflective aluminium foil as it should be called, sisolation being a brand name) put in place and the hole sealed using some off-cuts from our roofing iron.

We'll post a picture of the inside as well, once the shelves are in place.

Having completed the second layer of the cabin we could again start working on the main house which has not received any attention over the last few weeks. Yesterday Geir started rendering the main house again and managed to finish the northern wall of the dining room + a little bit on the western wall.

The tire on the tip of the roof was there to help hold the tarp up  - as it was a sunny day.

The plan was to continue rendering on the western wall today, but it has just been too windy. We have found that it is not good to render in windy and sunny conditions as the render will dry really quickly, something that leads to cracks.

As such, Geir worked on the workshop instead and has now almost completed the work. All the benches are in place, the tools are up on the wall, and the room was also cleaned up quite a bit. Did not get any pictures of the workshop today as it was getting a bit too dark to take photos, but will make sure we post some in the next entry.

Hopefully the weather will be nice and quiet tomorrow so that rendering on the main house can continue.

Before finishing this entry off we would also like to share with you a nice rainbow we had the other morning:

And the stage one of what will become a nice bird bath  - take an old bathtub, line it with some excess render to help the birds not sliding down the sides, and then eventually fill it with water etc.

Until next time, have a nice week or two.

Any problems, please email webmaster. This page was last updated 24/07/2008