I had intended to install the bolts along the front wall and finalise the waterproofing of the temporary roof in this area.

About all I managed to do was install 8 of the 12 bolts and not much more.

I arrived on site at 7.30 am.

Just like last week it was cold, wet and miserable.

Just like last week I purchased the newspapers, made a coffee, put on the heater and did not emerge until 8.30 am.

The first job was to complete installing reinforcing strips tying the lvl cross pieces in to the front frames.

I wanted to finish this first so that I would not need to bring the air compressor again next week.

I preformed 4 pieces by hammering bracing strips around a 90 mm dummy.

I then fastened them with my air coil nailer gun.

Next I turned my attention to the 12 bolts required across the front wall.

I followed Rosses' advice and during the week bought some long shank bits - 12mm and 6 mm.

In theory I only needed 200 mm but all that ToolMart had were 300 mm lengths.

The 12 mm was reasonably expensive - around $70 but the extra length really made the job easy.

I tested the process out on the left hand side and quickly gained a feel for drilling through a cavity in to thick steel.

Surprisingly - the trick is too use the 12 mm drill first to create a slight dimple in the surface and then use this to locate the correct entry point for the 6mm pilot bit.

I had two visitors in the day - this set me back a bit - but still very nice to have people drop in and talk to me.

As the day turned to dusk I was still trying to drill for the 4 inner most bolts.

Unfortunately, some wasp nests on top of the steel beam blunted my pilot drill bit so I will need to finish these off first thing next week.

I don't know when I will complete these bolts - it will involve crawling around on top of the rain water tank.

This has a rather unsavoury surface - water, dirt, scarf from drilling, plants.

I might just place the bolts from above and finalise the work in summer - I will see how keen I am about cleaning the top of the tank next week.

Sunday

Out on site from 9.00 am to 3.00 pm with at least an hour at Jim and Sandy's for coffee.

As soon as I arrived on site I set up my drill bit sharpener and touched up the 6 mm and 12 mm drill bits that I had been using.

Drilling the last 4 holes was relatively quick work.

At this point I could have chosen to leave the bolting until summer or try to clean up the mess on top of the tank.

I decided to have a go :

I set up a ladder on each side of the tank and by using a broom was able to sweep off most of the rubbish.

By using a small dust pan brush with a vigourous sweeping action I was able to fling off most of the water puddle lying on top of the tank.

Then I laid a small tarpaulin down and slid in and out on that.

I'm please to say that I completed all the bolting and remained spotlessly clean.

After this I just screwed the front edge of the temporary roof down again but left the large tarpaulin in place still.