I only had about a half hour at it but I really enjoyed knocking up three pieces of lining.

Jose beats Doors

Borrowed Adam’s riveting device. Spent a long time getting the fire set in the right place. The spirit level was involved. Managed to strap the fire into place in what was intended as earthquake protection, and ended up doing that and actually being what held the fire to the floor. A pleasing job. Paul turned up at the window unexpectedly. We made some really good progress, having to rush against the coming darkness. We riveted the inner flue, and made the outer flue housing. Made a ceiling cap and man that thing was ugly. Cut the inner flue to length then sat the cap on and pushed the flashing around. It isn’t all finished but we considered if fireable.

Jose Feliciano provided the background music as we fired up the first fire. Good times. It gradually got up to speed and was burning hot, adding 8 degrees to the outside temperature. We cooked sizzlers, garlic toast, chocolate toast – with some spillages – and potatos. We gave the potatos 30 minutes – maybe a few too many. I need some different cooking tools. Oh yeah, we used the glove to allow us to cook things in the fire. Still too hot.

The fire really worked and we had some good times out there.

Looked at things for a while working out what was next. This was some rare daylight time so I decided I would just get into it, and I cut my chimney hole. Tentatively set everything in place, more so that I could see how everything looked. It can’t stay there, several different things need to be lashed down properly. But, it provided me with heaps of incentive to get into it again tomorrow. The tasks – finalise the position for the fire, brace it so that it doesn’t tip in an earthquake, cut the inner flue to length, build housing for top flue, rivet everything into place, fit flashing.

20?/6 I put up a couple more bits of iron to protect the walls – looking good in that corner now. I didn’t have to rip the iron again as I had expected I would, so that sped things up a little bit. Located some metal things that will support the outer flue nicely.

On advice from Adam Cron I moved one of the rafters to get out of the way of the flue. He also reckoned that the hearth was too big. I hadn’t really thought about it, but it was. So I made it smaller. Also banged some more corrugated iron up to protect the walls near the fire. Cronsai talked me right through the process of putting the chimney in, so I’m confident about next steps now. He also gave me an amazing old had which will fit both flues nicely. I also put up a few more pieces of lining.

Queen’s birthday Monday. I took out one of the roofing timbers to make way for the flue. That got ugly. Chiselling and sawing away. Had fun and games on the roof when the ladder blew down. Mum spied me up there and came to be of assistance, but by using the tape measure to hook the extension cord, I was then able to lasso the ladder back into position.

Went in to Rangers and bought another piece of flue once I had worked out how it was all going to work. Add another $23.84 for that. Made a hearth base then jammed some bricks in. I think it will do, not sure. The bricked hearth should mean that any rogue sparks don’t come to anything, but they are just jammed together, they aren’t solid. Probably won’t be spending much time standing on there anyway. Unwittingly, that hearth takes up a considerable fraction of the floor space of the shack. It really is the focus in there now. Oh yeah, I banged up a couple of pieces of corrugated iron onto the walls as fireproofing.

The big 3 day weekend didn’t see me in there, but I made good progress. The foot set me back a bit. Even if I had managed to get the chimney in, I wouldn’t have enjoyed sleeping out there tonight, much of the roof is yet to be nailed down, so it bangs and carries on. Oh yeah, I could feel wind coming through the gaps between my lining panels. Everything is not well sealed up yet.

So, next steps. Find the bricks that will hold the tripod legs of the fire. Get fire sitting correctly. Shape bottom flue. Spider bracket that onto chimney. Cut a hole in the roof. Attach flue to inside walls. Attach flashing. Shape and seal the top flue. I’m far from getting the fire going. Maybe next Saturday.

Put another $8.95 on the sheet for more nails.

I can’t even remember where today began. Worked for an hour before church. Then from about 3.30 till just before 9. The halogen bulb blew, which was a setback. Used a 40W normal light bulb which was sufficient but not awesome. I did what I needed to do to enable tomorrow to be the day of the fire. I put off the decision about where the socket would need to go, didn’t hammer some of the nails right in. Fenced in a piece around the window. Good progress.

Slept in till after 12, the remnants of yesterday afternoon’s illness still there. Fell off a ladder which set plans back a bit. Paul came out and we put down a few rows, plus fitted the batts into place. Those things are so horrible to work with. The scrap batts that Luke found were awesome, accounting for maybe half the batted area.

Because of the way I want my lining to overlap, I have to do the opposite wall before I can do the adjacent wall, the second one needed in order to be able to put the fireplace in.

We also mused about things electrical, I need to make some decisions soon before I line much further.

Got another 3 or so rows of lining up in an hour or so. Looking good.