Rendering and Eaves Lining Finished

After a break work resumed on the rendering with the last two of the large walls done, including the longest window header.

Last two large walls rendered

Small wall around front door finished

With one wall, above the awning on the main pavilion, left to go, bad weather and other commitments meant that  it was several weeks before we could line up a date to get together with Brett the renderer and finish it off. With the date scheduled in it rained the night before and looked like it might not be able to be done. Then it stopped raining overnight. It rained again at about 6am but had stopped by 7am. Brett arrived on site, the sun came out and dried the roof and the decision was made to go ahead. Now with lots of practice the final wall presented no real difficulties, beyond it location above the awning and the need to do both the window headers and the wall in the one day (previously we had left the window header dry for at least a day before doing the wall).

The wall was just finished, and before we had a chance to clean up, a brief thunderstorm rolled in. Most bad weather comes from the south west, which would have not been an issue, but unusually the storm came from the north. The awning protected most of the wall and it only got a few spots of rain on it. Climbing on the wet roof to clean up was tricky, but it was a great relief to have the rendering
finished.

Last wall, above awning, rendered

Internally the finishing touches were also being added with a second coat of Livos Ardvis natural oil to the window reveals and door frames and the installation of the internal cavity sliding doors.

Second coat of oil on window reveals

 In the mean time work continued on the decks. A friend, Elle, and her children visited for the weekend and between the rain and swimming at the beach we squeezed in a half a day of decking, finishing off the narrow deck outside the hallway. Careful selection from the random length decking meant that the decking could be done in single spans. We sanded off the burrs around the screw holes and gave it a coat of Intergrain Natural Decking Oil. As the deck was built by two women and was finished so beautifully we like to call it the "girl deck".

The beautiful "girl deck"

Deck outside the hallway

The following weekend we completed the deck around the corner that joins to the hallway deck. The narrow decks provide a transition between inside and outside, also a nice place to sit and look at the garden (when it is planted, or now just imagine the garden). The design of these decks was influenced by the Japanese "engawa". This deck is yet to have the fascia added and a coat of decking oil.

Deck goes around the corner

Apart from the decks the eaves lining was the other big job remaining. Originally I had wanted to not have any eaves lining and have the roof beams exposed and be able to see the underside of the corrugated roof sheets. Unfortunately, when trying to save money on the framing I did not get timber that was durable enough to be exposed to the weather, some being made of laminated timber. I would also have had difficulty detailing the joint between the wall and the roof. So, the decision was made the have Colorbond fascia and to line the eaves. To minimise the need for painting and maintenance I chose to use corrugated Colorbond for the eaves lining.

Corrugated eaves lining on front pavilion

I chose to run the corrugated sheets parallel to the fascia an fitted the edge of the sheet into the slot at the bottom edge of the Colorbond fascia. I then mitered the corners. This meant quite a bit of cutting of the sheets as the eaves were less than one sheet wide and the awnings were over one sheet wide. Luckily this meant that I could use the offcut from the eaves to make up the extra width needed for the awning lining. I bought some Metabo electric sheers to cut the sheets and they have proved worth the $230 cost.

Electric sheers cutting sheet on angle

The junction between the rendered wall and the corrugated sheet will be covered by an angled flashing and the miter corner by a cover strip, however the change of pitch between the two sections of the front roof may prove a little difficult to finish.

Eave with change of  roof pitch on right

Eaves lining at change of roof pitch

A weekend of two ten hour days of work was put in to finish all the eaves lining so that I could measure up all the exact sizes of the flashings and have them delivered the following weekend. The flashings were made up to go down the wall 25 mm then across the first ridge of the corrugated sheets and feather up along the corrugation. Each eave section was measured separately with different angles required for the top, sides and lower edge of each roof. My measurements were a little too accurate and did not leave a tolerance for the bend and fold down against the wall. This meant that the flashings were a little too long and sat a bit too far across the first ridge of the corrugated sheets, but once they are all installed it is not a detail that anyone but the builder will notice.

Eaves lining finished

Corner flashing put on between wall and eave

The longer awnings had sagged a little and had been temporarily propped up with some timber. This timber had to be removed to finish the eaves lining to the awnings, but I could not measure the exact, tin to tin, measurement for the length of the awning stays until the lining of the roof was installed. Thankfully I was able to e-mail Stainless Steel Worx and within a week they had made up the stays in 5mm stainless cable with turnbuckle to allow it to be tightened. We got three made up to make sure they worked. They were a success and so got a further three made up the following week for the main awning. The stainless steel cables are barely noticeable and it means that there  are no posts coming down from the awning.

Stainless steel awning stay

With the house being nearly finished it was appropriate that we got rid of the piece of reo mesh we had been using as a gate and install a more residential and easier to open gate. I am planning to weld up a decorative gate in the future, but in the meantime some generous neighbors have loaned us some spare farm gates and so the property now has a civillised and easy to open entry.

Front gate