This one contains the kitchen window - quite a large window - 1940 by 1380.

Wednesday

Preparation for this started back on Wednesday.

During the middle of the day I made a trip down to Midland for various components.

My first stop was a salvage yard on Clayton Street.

I usually become frazzled when choosing timber, particularly when the sales person is helping me.

This time I took my time and warned her that selecting the piece of timber would take me a long time and I would give her a call when I had found the right piece.

It turned out to be quite difficult to find the piece I was looking for - 50 mm x 185 mm x 2.2 m.

Since then I have learned that:

a) I should not worry too much about buying something 20% oversize or overlength - I will be glad of the extra meat when I am milling the piece of timber.

b) I should not be worried too much by warps, twists and bows as the extra meat under point (a) will help me to mill it straight.

Anyway, I had quite a lot of trouble finding the exact dimensions I was after and settled on two pieces that were 50 mm x 210 mm x 2.6 metres.

I paid my money, had a friendly chat with the sales person and loaded it on to the back of my utility.

At this point I realised that I had bought karri instead of jarrah.

I was too embarassed to return the timber (I am sure I will find a use for it in the roof somewhere) and decided I would head on to Vinsans in Bayswater a little later and see what they had

Next on to Bunnings for some 12 mm threaded rod.

Unfortunately they were out of stock, so on to Rudds in Midvale for the rod and galvanised spring washers.

Next I telephoned Vinsans to check that they had the timber I needed in stock.

When I arrived Tony, the boss, was very helpful.

He worked through the timber stack with me and checked that I was definitely buying the right timber.

(In fact one piece was Wandoo and I later discovered how tough this was especially when I put it through the thicknesser).

He also confirmed that my first purchase was in fact Karri.

Vinsans is more expensive but they do have a larger range of timber and he did give me some informed assistance.

Friday

Friday night I finally sat down and drew up detailed plans and measurements for this stud frame.

I even brought one of the plate timbers in to the kitchen and marked up all the trench positions.

Saturday

I was up at 5.00 am, remeasured and reworked some of the plan and then spent the next few hours cleaning up the house and yard.

This was because Linda had been away in Tamworth visiting her mother in hospital and I wanted her to come back to a welcoming house.

On the way back from the airport we stopped for a bit of lunch and then, soon after we arrived home, Ian dropped in for a visit.

It was getting on towards the end of the day by now so I pressed poor Ian in to helping me push the top and bottom plates through the dado saw of my ancient radial arm saw.

Sunday

Construction in earnest started today.

I had contemplated assembling the frame in our main driveway and transporting it on the trailer as I have done before.

However, this frame is 2.75 m x 2.9 m and a check of the regulations for oversize trailer loads showed that 2.5 metres was the maximum width allowed.

Instead, I decided to set the carpentry horses up at the back door and cut a "kit" of components that I could put together out on site.

By the end of the day I had all timbers in place except for the header across the top of the window (90 x 185 x 2040).

In the evening I did a large amount of preparation for this as well.

I took the two timbers from Vinsans and planed one down to 40 mm and the other to 50 mm on the thicknesser.

This removed all the bows and twists and I ended up with perfect gluing surfaces.

The thicknesser was very blunt by now (from the Wandoo) so I deferred the last pass until the next morning.

Monday

(public holiday and I am taking a week off anyway)

I installed the thicknesser blades that I had sharpened on a wet stone grinder.

They must have been sharp because I sliced one of my fingers on them.

I took off a final 2 mm of the header timber.

Finally I asked Linda to help me put them both through the table saw to cut them to exactly 185 mm.

Next I cut each piece to exactly 2040 mm and dropped them in to the "kit" I had assembled.

The fit was perfect.

I applied "liquid nails" between the two pieces and then hand drilled and nailed them together.

It had been raining on and off a little during the morning but after a prolonged bout of sunshine in the afternoon all the timbers were dry and I was able to dismantle the structure and stack the pieces ready for painting.

Tuesday

I applied My "mistint" external timber paint to all surfaces of the frame timbers.

Friday

After two days of indulgence (nice lunches while on holiday) I was feeling like getting back in to house construction.

I had to take a lot of materials out to site arriving at 6.00 am.

While waiting for 7.00 am I unloaded all the stud frame materials and set up the carpentry horse as per last time.

I had an appointment in the afternoon so I had to start packing up again at 13:30

However, I did manage to get everything nailed together - apart from some skew nailing from the very short studs above the header, in to the header.

I will do that on Saturday morning as well as attach the strap bracing.