2009 Demolition Derby

Monday 16th - Thursday 19th Mark spent most of this week working out what timber he needed for the roof rafters and then commenced building the roof. He bought 2 new toys - a pipe cutter and a pipe bender. There's not much I can help him with at this stage, so I spent my time writing modules for ECU. Friday 20th - Sunday 22nd We spent most of the day cleaning as Mark's mother is coming over for the weekend. Saturday night a crowd of us (16) went to The Indian Garden Restuarant in North Perth to celebrate Mark's birthday. Sunday we had a quiet day! Monday 23rd Back to work. Mark on the roof and me on ECU stuff. Tuesday 24th Mark worked on the house and I took his Mother to the Dr's. It's Mark's birthday today...so I cooked a roast dinner. Bree, Tara & Nick came over to help us celebrate. Wednesday 25th Same story...more roof & ECU work. I knocked off early to pick up Tim & Andrew from school as Aunty Jayne & I took them to see Cirque du Soleil. ...

Monday 9th I went to the hairdresser in the morning and Mark phoned around about hiring scaffolding. Finally located some at a reasonable price that will be delivered tomorrow so we had a quiet afternoon. Kacey dropped in to visit so Mark sat & chatted and I painted the window frames ready to brick in tomorrow! Tuesday 10th We spent the morning waiting for the scaffolding to arrive. It finally got here about 1pm. The new doors I ordered were also delivered today...so everything is starting to happen - yeah! We assembled the scaffolding and started laying bricks about 2pm. I also cleaned another 20 bricks...an hour at a time is all I can handle. By 7pm we had half of the side wall done. We were very happy. Wednesday 11th Today we moved to the front wall. Every brick in the wall needs to be cut (about 10mm) so this wall is very tedious. We only got a few courses done but Mark also shaped the lintel ready to put in tomorrow. Thursday 12th Finally got the front wall up above the wi...

Monday 2nd A public holiday over here in the west...so like Sunday's we're not supposed to work. However it's Labour Day...so we laboured in other areas. We have a verge collection for general household junk this week, so we put out the old timber that we don't need. It was gone by lunchtime - some lucky man scored it for firewood. I did TADA & ECU stuff for the rest of the day and Mark serviced Tara's car, dropped the car back & put up some shelves for her. Then went over to Murray's to try & identify the source of his electrical problems in their new home. Tuesday 3rd Mark went shopping for timber and then commenced constructing the window frames. We can't brick any higher until the window frames go in and once they are ready we will need to hire some scaffolding as Mark's arms won't reach the ceiling! I phoned Midland brick about recycling our old broken bricks and then did ECU work. Wednesday 4th Mark is still building window frames.....

Monday 23rd Shopping day today. Off to Bathroom warehouse, electrical warehouse & Bunnings for plumbing and electrical bits. Mark needs to leave holes in the brick work for the plumbing to go through the wall so we needed to know what we are using. We both fell in love with a 900 x 1200 glass shower with a rounded corner - it will fit perfectly. Well nearly, Mark just needs to move the window over a brick & a half. Luckily he's only laid 2 courses of bricks above the window sill! Tuesday 24th I went back & fro between the computer and the bricks... Mark pulled out the front window bricks to move the window further over. Then he worked out where all the plumbing was going and welded the copper pipe for the shower fixtures. I knocked off at 3.30pm as I had our first TADA event tonight. Wednesday 25th We didn't do much today...just another course or two before we got rained out. Thursday 26th Mark pulled the external bricks out from around the front door and I stacked...

Monday 16th No work on the house today as Mark went up to Gin Gin to do some work for Robbie Ryan's brother-in-law). I paid bills, ordered the new doors and did ECU work. Tuesday 17th I cleaned bricks for an hour, then took Joyce to the Doctor and did ECU work in the afternoon. Mark laid more external bricks - we are now up to window height. He also pulled more old bricks out of the wall and setup the profiles ready to lay internal bricks. Luisa & I went to see the Grand Ballet du Geneve at His Majesty's Theatre. It was great, we both really enjoyed it. Wednesday 18th I had a big brick cleaning day - 9am til 3pm and by then my wrists gave out. Mark pulled another 100 bricks out of the wall and started laying the maxi bricks for the internal wall between the bathroom and the study. At 3pm I helped him lay bricks - I just cleaned up the excess cement on my side of the wall (hey every little bit helps). Tara, Nick & Bree came over for a BBQ dinner. Thursday 19th I went t...

Sunday 8th So much for a day off - Mark ended up taking the entire roof off and I carted timber from the front yard to the back & stacked it ready to reuse. Monday 9th 5 packs of bricks delivered. 2 packs moved inside the new front rooms. Tuesday 10th I didn't do any work this morning as I took Joyce to the doctor about her leg. Mark started pulling down the outside leaf of bricks from our bedroom wall as we need more old bricks for the external wall. I cleaned bricks when I got home. Wednesday 11th I cleaned bricks and Mark laid a couple of courses of bricks. We knocked off at 10am and got cleaned up as we took Joyce to the Lyons Eye Institute for her eye injection. Amazing the last visit and we finally sorted out the system and got through in only 2hrs. Back to the bricks in the early evening once it had cooled down a little! Thursday 12th I cleaned bricks & Mark laid a couple of courses of bricks before heading off to do some Cobra work. I went and did the grocery sh...

Sunday 1st Day of rest. Monday 2nd Back to slab & garden city for more sand and then to Limestone city to pick up the last 4 limestone blocks needed for the side wall. The limestone is finally finished. Hooray! Tuesday 3rd Mark went off to Bunnings to buy steel and brick ties etc. I spent the morning doing ECU work & sent off the first module to my supervisor! Mark laid the first course of bricks and I mixed mud. That's all we did today as Tara & Nick are coming over for a BBQ. Wednesday 4th We had a day off today as Mark has worn the skin off the tips of all his fingers laying the limestone. We are both buggered and need a rest. Thursday 5th I went to Bunnings to return our ubeaut hammer drill as it gave up the ghost yesterday. Also went to brick up bricks for the internal walls...but Midland brick did not have them in stock in our local store. So we'll work out what we need and order a few packs to be delivered. Mark put up the steel guides for the brick course...