Measure, drill, screw, bugger...!

Well first the good news: another 4.5km on the road to the City to Surf. It's now getting easier. I'm firmly into the routine of the early rise and the half hour or so of exercise, and the 4.5km route is now consistently being achieved without a break.

Tomorrow morning will be a lie-in as there's squash on in the evening. But Thursday I aim to step up to the full 5km route and see if I can finish that last 500m up the hill. I have to remember though that I shouldn't be pushing it too hard at the moment, so perhaps I shouldn't pick up the pace too soon.

And now the bad news: the Cubby House. Having made the effort to measure the floor frame, measure each floor board width, allow for a gap between each board for expansion / movement; to make sure that I could complete the floor with whole boards, i.e. no cuts... I used nails to space the boards and measured every-so-often to make sure I was still on course. I've ended up with the last board needing to be cut! Bugger!! And it's not even as easy as a straight cut. There's about 3cm at one end, 5mm in the middle and 2cm at the other end!

There are two reasons for this: the boards are not straight (must be banana tree wood) and I only made my check measures in the middle (the 5mm gap was created when I realised that I was going to end up with a cut board and I didn't want two wedges with nothing in the middle); the gap I calculated at 3.42567mm was difficult to gauge so I used a combination of 3.0mm and 3.75mm nails (damned inconvenient that one can't buy 3.42567mm nails).

However, all is not lost. With a little improvisation (and a huge stroke of luck), I can cut the width I need to fill in that end board. The thin slice will not be seen as the wall will cover most of it and the slide will be on that side of the veranda too (I intend to put in a solid piece from the floor to support the slide). If I'd have finished on the opposite wall, that thin piece would have been painfully obvious.

So all is not lost.

I'll try and cut that piece tonight (better dose up on beta-blockers so the saw doesn't waver along the 2.1m length) and that'll be the floor finished (with the exception of decking oil).

I still have to dig the post holes - which should be easy / fun with my brand-spanking-new post hole spade! Then we should be in a position to set the elevation kit in position this weekend.

My Client (Shirl the Girl) is now starting to issue Variations to the original Scope. Those of us in the Construction industry know that this is the Clients opportunity to be a pain in the arse. Normally the Contractor (me) will have a decent Schedule of Rates in to price these variations (but no advantage for me here seeing as I am also the project Sponsor) and also will try to gain an Extension of Time (again no advantage for me seeing as I also have an interest in getting the thing finished in time for Lian's birthday).

So it's not getting any easier. As long as I can keep doing a bit when I can, then we should be right.

Now, where did I put my Power Tools?