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What a great day. I was out there before 8 a.m. having a look at things. Simon came out about lunch time and we worked for something like 4 hours, breaking to cook up some amazing salmon pasta.

We managed to fit the window today. During, I wondered why I’d shirked it. Really fun cutting wood and smelling it again. It probably did need the feeling that there was a full day there to be able to do it.

The day began with me wondering where the window would go. Astheticly I wanted the window in the center of the wall, but that would mean that the options for arranging bed and table inside would be limited. Eventually convinced myself it would be ok off center. Is that how you spell center? Centre? I’m lost.

We had to make room for the window. We cut off two of the studs part way up and put a whole new stud in. One of the studs I had mucked up when I put in originally. It was on a diagonal. Unfortunately, this was the key stud, would form one side of the window frame. We loosened the nails that held it by way of a hacksaw then belted it where it was needed. I was scared of this because there were brick ties underneath on this same stud. Eventually got it.

It was quite a tight fit in the end and we had to do a heap of hammering and chiselling to make it fit. A pleasing sight.

I spent a lot of time just thinking about what was to be done, I wasn’t exactly sure how to. I think it went ok in the end though. Used a table to check that the height of the window was ok. Eventually just attached it to the top wood.

There was some accidental miscellanery knocking of the bricks today. They crumbled. I didn’t like that.

I ran out of big nails at the end. Si had done a great job all day banging crazy ones back into straight. I’ll need to buy some.

The arc of the window is troublesome. It bangs on the truss meaning it doesn’t open fully. Maybe I’ll need to go to work on the truss.

Justin gave an inspection later on at night and pronounced all well.

I even managed to start cutting some of the corrugated iron, another of the feared jobs. Awesome. Jobs for tomorrow: locate or buy more black paper, get more sand, calculate bricks needed, make bricks, buy nails, finish up stud changes, do roof.

I pushed it all day today and my body, soul, and life cherished in it. Come on health, hold together for tomorrow.

Finished up just before 8 p.m. with a quick 3 bricks layed. There were a couple of tennis sessions in there too. I loved today.

In case you were unsure which line to cut

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My sand got wet in the overnight rain. I wanted to just lay a quick 2 bricks before church, to get on the board for the day. But the wetness of the sand mucked my ratios up, and the more sand I added to dryen the mixture up didn’t work. I had a heap of mortar and that made us late for church. We rocked up at 11. It starts at 10. Was there for the good bits though.

Deidre helped me out today. We laid a quickfire 15 in about 2 hours to make it 19 for the day. A good effort, we were by no means bored by the end either.

I’m up to my line of black paper – I’ll need to put another layer of that on now. I don’t know where the rest of that paper is, or if I have enough left.

I’m on layer 8, and I’m pretty confident that there will be 12 layers. That should make it pretty easy for me to calculate how many bricks I need. For some reason I am shirking this calculation. If I am going to finish my brick laying by the end of my Easter break though, I probably need to be making more bricks, if I need them, now. I think I’ll need a few more. It is just unclear to me how many bricks the new window will occupy. But it is an easy calculation if I just get onto it. My mindset right now is just get out there and lay bricks, while the other tasks of finishing off the roof and getting that window ready remain neglected.

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A steady run saw me continue until dark and be late for Mel and Heidi’s birthday dinner. A pleasing Saturday at it, not too tired in closing either.

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With Mum’s pending return I tidied the garage up a little bit today. The batts occupy a lot of space once they are sprung from their housing and it was a mess. They are now housed in the shack. I’ve got itchy arms and back.

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100 posts! I can't believe this project has gone on as long as it has.

Michael Green had been lamenting the end of summer. Well, we got one last day of it and a really fun 27 bricks, followed by the arrival of Hamish and Tatum, some tennis, high jumping, dinner, and cards.

The line “we’ll fix that on the next layer” has become a catch cry.

Earlier in the day I went down to North End Sand and Shingle Supplies near Woodend to pick up some more mortar sand. The guy there gave me an amazing deal on my sand. Thanks dude.

The sand was a lot finer and performed really differently. Better.

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The 6th (current) layer is going to be the last easy one. Bricklaying is at about rib height just now; the next layer up will require some difficult lifting.

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How easy was it to lay 6 bricks in a session after work? I’ll tell you how easy. Real easy. Good to be there. I get 2 weeks off at Easter so maybe I can hit it hard then.

A couple of outstanding jobs are annoying me – getting the roof tidied up, and fitting that new window. Detracts from bricklaying. I just need to toughen up.