A Roof Over Our Heads.

Between all the other jobs my wonderful man does, he finally got time to  work on getting the roof up onto our new back verandah.
He started with a layer of chicken wire,

The reason for this wire is to help hold the foil insulation sheeting firm and to stop it from sagging down over time.
After  putting one row of wire up, they also put one row of the silver insulation followed by one row of the corrugated iron roofing.

The foil not only acts as insulation in the summer, but also when we have frosts in the winter it catches the condensation drips and holds them until absorbed by the sun and prevents those rotten drips from falling down onto all the outdoor stuff on  the verandah.

By putting the first row of iron up, it gave the men a solid surface to then work from as they slowly progressed across the roof.
It was about at this point that I  disappeared. I had  been invited away on a small girls weekend. We had helped  a  friend  move to another town about 3 hours away, about 3 or 4 weeks previously  and  didn't have room for her extensive collection of potted plants and shrubs so we decided to take a trailer load to her and have a nice little catch up in the process.
We got  about 2 hours into our trip and blew a tyre on the trailer, on a busy highway.

We were lucky my friend belonged to  NRMA roadside service, as the wheel spanner that was in her car did not fit my trailer wheel nuts, so the lovely man  sorted it for us.

We had a wonderful weekend once we finally arrived and we wandered the material and patch working shops, sorted a bit of gardening,

had some great food and wine and watched what we wanted on tv and giggled like schoolgirls half the night.

We then returned home and  when I arrived back at the farm, all the corrugated iron was up on the roof.

The next day our son arrived and helped his dad  screw down  the roof completely and add the very last sheet that had to overlap onto the existing house roof.

A few days later my lovely Sister In Law and next door neighbour was celebrating her birthday so we decided with a few other neighbours and friends to get together and christen the verandah and  celebrate her birthday also.

We had a wonderful day, even though it poured rain in the morning, having the roof overhead meant we were  able to continue on regardless of the weather situation.
It showed me that this will be a wonderful entertaining area, plenty of room for tables and chairs to easily seat 30 + people. I am sure it will be   used on a very regular basis.
 Brian then got in and added the  roof guttering and laid the groundwater drain system around the concrete.

And within a few hours of installing the drainage, we had a shower of rain and it all worked really well.

We have since added a great pull out clothes line under the cover which won't replace my  big outdoor rotary line but just compliment it.

This will give me an extra 35 metres of drying line, both for wet days and hot summer days.

Our friendly neighbour and electician called in a few days ago and he and Brian got my new LED lights up and running, it lights up  superbly now, the photograph does not  show it  as brilliant as it is.

This area is just going to be wonderful, it will be used to death I am certain.
We have really struggled without a large area here under cover, as we had on the coast, but this has really made a massive difference to our  life here.
Yesterday an old workmate of Brian's from the coast called by unexpectedly and it was just so lovely to sit out there for coffee and  a chat, he was very impressed with Brian's  handiwork as am I.
Brian was only saying yesterday, that 2 years ago he would not have had the confidence to do this job , but after having worked with our older builder who taught him a lot, I think he really surprised himself and is very proud of the finished  job, as well he should be.

All that is left now is for us to build a small retaining wall at the end of the verandah and halfway down the side. We haven't decided what material to use , we will will think about it for a while until we  find what we want at the right price.
We have purchased a drone and have been  taking a few  high up shots of our farm and this one shows out place, tucked in nicely against the hill. The new roof area on the right hand side of the house is the new verandah. We were surprised to actually see how big of an area it was.

We are having a blast with the drone, being very mindful of our neighbours and only  filming their  properties upon their request or permission. I understand that these can be very invasive of peoples privacy and we  are aware of all the rules and regulations regarding their use.
In another post I may post some of the pictures we have been taking.
So until we all meet again down the track,
Take care of you and yours,
Cheers
Jane.