November 28th - Cladding & sundries

The forecast rain arrived mid-morning, by which time Melvin and I had added four or five rows of cladding above the verandah and Anna had painted a section of it. We moved indoors and instead prepared the way for the installation of the main power cable, which is scheduled for Monday 3rd December. I knocked a 50mm hole through the inner block wall below floor level with a hammer-drill while Melvin cut and mounted a 600 x 700mm section of chipboard on the wall for the electricity-meter and fuses. It was then a two man job (with muggins here volunteering for the nasty under-floor role) to feed the 32mm ducting in through the block walls and up through the floor to where the meter will be. We'd drilled through the floor and subfloor, then filled the gaps with expandable foam to exclude draughts and beasties.
That done, we pulled five lengths of plastic plumbing pipes up through the boxed-in section around the soil-stack. These pipes will connect the boiler to the hot water tank (which we lugged upstairs and into position), and to a header tank in the loft.
Rob the painter had brought his girlfriend's nephew along for the day. Nice young lad from Waneroo, the next-door suburb of Perth to Joondalup, where Mal and Michele have ended up. Small world, and nice to be carrying on the Aussie input to the project in a small way. He helped Rob with a bit of sanding and painting, and fitted a couple of doors to the kitchen units. Made a decent job, too. Shame he's set on joining the army. I'm sure Mal could have sorted him out with a job when he leaves school next year!
With the plumbing done (or rather, our supply of pipe exhausted), Melvin and I made a bit of a hash of fitting the cooker-hood, and will need to finish the job and touch up any damaged paint-work on the ceiling tomorrow, although with sunshine forecast, the cladding will take priority. Should finish it tomorrow, which is rather exciting.

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