Day Seventeen: It's All Down to the Art of Making Templates

Today, the morning was dedicated to a trip to Bunnings! Certain supplies were needed before we could turn the mere frame of a bathroom into an actual room, three hours later we returned with palings for making the back fence, bathroom tiles, grout, glue, various saws, nails and screws, more paint, a whirlybird for the roof, and two more roses for the front garden. By the time I eventually arrived at Park St, the plumber had dug out the sewer and laid all the pipes for the bath, sink and toilet (which is now in position in the bathroom much to my delight!). 

The plan for the afternoon was to start putting up the villaboard walls, a task which required the guidance of my father. While I was awaiting his arrival, I proceeded to paint the FINAL coat (only number three!) of paint in the kitchen...now it really is white and the tobacco is long gone.

Dad arrived and together we painstakingly proceeded to attach the villaboard to the first wall...the sheets weigh approximately one tonne (villaboard is the technical name for ‘cement sheet’) and are 2.4m long and 1.2m tall. So not only are they very heavy, but they are almost impossible to cut and very difficult to manoeuvre. It took us about 8 goes to successfully position the holes for the toilet, basin and drain pipes, despite the numerous templates dad made for the holes. Templates are apparently the key to making this task simple, or so he said, however no matter how many we cut and marked out, we still couldn’t get the pipes lined up. Perhaps we would have been more successful if Alice, the graphic designer to be, had whizzed something up. Five hours later we trudged home, the first attempt is always the most time consuming so let’s hope the second try tomorrow runs a little smoother!

Posted by Lucy