I also repaired some defects in the stairwell window frame and started applying primer.

Saturday

I really worked hard today and also I had some much appreciated help from my neighbour Jim.

The first job was to cut off the projecting edge of the temporary roof so that building wrap could be applied.

Initially I was expecting this to be the only task that I would complete for the day.

However, I noticed that rain was predicted that night and the next day - so I was forced to apply as much building wrap as possible to protect the newly exposed floor.

Removing the edge of the roof went slowly at first - I was using a reciprocating saw and I made the mistake of cutting right on the wall line.

This meant that the blade kept hitting the bottom plate of the stud framing and I constantly had to attempt to straighten it.

Eventually I realised that if I came inside by about 60 mm I could run along cutting for many metres without interuption.

This sped up the job but it still took me 3 hours to complete.

The next challenge was the state of the existing building wrap where it peeked above the existing wall.

It had weathered badly and was quite tattered.

I realised that I would have to loosen the top plank to allow access for an overlap with the well preserved building wrap underneath.

I also discovered a lot of composting leaf material that needed to be vacuumed out.

Loosening the top plank was complicated by the presence of the air conditioning ducting that was attached.

I managed to carefully undo all the screws in this while avoiding any damage to the piping (I tested the air con at the end of all this and it was working fine).

I inserted a fairly short run of building wrap behind the top plank and rescrewed everything.

By now it was 5.00 pm, I was exhausted and still needed to apply a full height run to keep the rain out.

Jim and Sandy very kindly offered me a coffee at their house and then Jim helped me to run a length of building wrap down the side of the house.

This allowed me to achieve in 1 hour what would normally take me 4 hours on my own.