02 Kitek finds a good spot for a snooze.

04 New van at the Crossroads Lodge, Aotea (Great Barrier Island).

06 The Grand Union Canal in Southall.

21 Inside and front views of the NT4 server, Stonebird. It has a RAID-5 array of seven 10,000 rpm SCSI drives for boot and protected storage, and a RAID-0 array of two drives for a video storage area and the swap file. In case of failure on the protected part, the RAID-0 array can be dismantled and the drives reassigned as spares to allow recovery of the system, while getting a replacement drive. The data on the video store is backed up to DAT.

21 Elzbieta and Wolfgang Wittel at home.

22 Hornburg, Lower Saxony, Germany.

23 In Prabuty, visiting with friends.

25 Travelling in Poland from Prabuty to Rumia.

27 From Rumia to Hel and back. Lunch at a restaurant. Notice the cat fossicking for scraps under the ice.

28 Inside the house at Prabuty.

02 Elzbieta and Wolfgang Wittel, at a restaurant near Hornburg.

03 Calais to Dover on Seacat, travelling with Hoverspeed. Take a look at the Video directory as well.

13 New windows with a double hinge arrangement, more glass in the same size, much better thermal and acoustic insulation, easier access when opened on the vertical axis and better ventilation .

29 Bruce fishing for anchors in Shoal Bay, Tryphena harbour on Aotea (Great Barrier Island). Sunset over Kaitoke.

20 Kasjusz, walk along the canal with Aleksandra.

25 Last day of the van, before cutting up and disposal to the tip.

26 Barbeque, with Chris and Kirsty, Iris, Frank, Agnieszka, Kasjusz and Beata.

15 Walk around the block at Southall, and along the canal. Swan and cygnets.

19 The Chelsea Flower Show.

25 Ewa and Tad at Cliveden.

03 Preparations for the Founders' Day at the RHC.

05 Founders' Day at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, with King Abdullah of Jordan, to whom Aleksandra was presented.

07 Pictures at Ewa's parents' place in Nottingham.

12 Photo-survey of the loft "before" starting the conversion to an atelier. We can only proceed so far, then need to get an architect involved for the major structural work, and to get the necessary planning permission. Notice the wooden joists supporting the chimney breasts! These were discarded, but the steel gallows brackets were reused with much longer bolts to support the replacement steel and concrete lintel.

15 Kasjusz, Ewelina, Czesia, Jvona, Maciek.

29 Ronseal wood stain that didn't! It peeled off with the masking tape.

Kitek plays with a new toy. (Like all the others, it's broken.)

30 Peeling the ceiling of the kitchen.

09 White duck on the canal at Southall.

10 Nadia's wedding.

17 Mirek: for his bus-pass.

20 Barbeque with Agnieszka & Marcin and friends from Prabuty.

Pictures of the patio area from outside, and the kitchen, toilet, shower-utility room and lounge area during stripping for redecoration. Note the double doors that replace (exactly!) the original window. This now provides an excellent breezeway, especially when one of the windows in the main bedroom upstairs is fully open to provide cross-flow ventilation.

24 A galvanised steel lintel and concrete beam was inserted to support the remaining portion of the chimney. The existing gallows brackets were utilised: however, the fastenings were replaced with 150 mm Rawlbolts, which grip the second course of the bricks on the other side of the wall. Where the old chimney breast structure was removed, the surface was cleaned, painted with PVA bonding agent and a strong chromate-cement concrete plaster was used to dress the wall. Missing bricks were also replaced (for some reason, there were several holes through the wall, which is unattractive from the point of view of fire control!). The concrete plaster was then skimmed with a gypsum finishing plaster prior to painting. The opposite wall was also dressed the same way, to improve the strength of the wall and provide a sound base for the gypsum finishing plaster. The old and rather grubby glassfibre insulation was discarded, and the entire roof space vacuum cleaned, especially the rafters and beams, to remove dust and detritus. This is to reduce allergens in the air, and also significantly reduce the amount of flammable material near to the foam insulation.

Gino's restaurant was the venue for Aleksandra's birthday dinner provided by Reg and Len. Ian Gomes is the resident musician on Friday, a friend of theirs who plays at the Ritz during the week.

02 Aleksandra's birthday barbeque.

03 The central bracing strut for the roof beam was removed, and the entire ceiling covered by 18 mm hardwood ply, screwed to each ceiling joist using 5 screws at 250 mm centres, 100 mm from the edges for the 1200 mm width. All the fastenings were 60 mm zinc-coated or exterior-grade passivated screws. The central joints were gusseted with 150 mm wide strips of the same plywood, fastened using 40 mm screws in a zigzag pattern to increase stiffness and ensure no movement under tension across the joists. The plywood now also provides diagonal structural bracing to the building, which was not originally provided! It distributes any point loadings efficiently over several joists, and also provides stiffening as a compression member, effectively increasing the depth of the joists by the thickness of the ply. It also assists as the tension component at the bottom of the built-in-place roof truss, ensuring no spreading loads to the adjoining brick walls.

09 The nail-plate truss replaced the previous strongback supporting the ceiling (now new floor), which had a "set" of nearly 30 mm. The floor was jacked up prior to building the truss, and the result was that there is now almost no sag in the floor, and the sag in the roof beam (also jacked) was reduced by about 10 - 15 mm. All wood used was either Tanalised, or painted with Cuprinol. If wood was not Tanalised, then a damp-course was placed between the wood and brick or plaster. The 100 x 50 mm tension brace, the lower plate, was screwed down to every joist through the 18 mm ply using 100 mm screws, and the butt join in the middle was strengthened using a nail plate, as well as the underlying 18 mm plywood. The rafters that were used as structural fixing locations were each fastened with two wrap-around nail plates to the existing roof beam, which became the top compression member of the truss. The wall posts were fastened with two 120 mm screw fasteners and one 150 mm Rawlbolt each, and by nail plates top and bottom. The compression struts were fastened by nail plates at both ends. The vertical hangers were all fastened to the bottom plate by wrap-around galvanised steel straps, and to their matching rafters by two 90 mm galvanised screws. Without the truss, the ceiling sagged about a further 20 mm under my weight. After the truss was built, the observed deflection was miniscule, and the floor is no longer "springy".

11 The rafters were 85 mm deep by 50 mm wide: each second rafter was made deeper by a 65 mm by 40 mm Tanalised batten, so the effective depth became 150 mm, but with the 40 mm wide "cold break" at 780 mm centres. Glassfibre insulation of 100 mm thickness was placed between the battens attached under the rafters, leaving 50 mm ventilation space, and foam of 50 mm under the battens, totalling 150 mm, gives a U-value better than the required amount. The placement of the insulation was done during the heat wave. The air in the loft space was at 47 C when the downstairs temperature was 31 C prior to putting the insulation into place: this dropped to 34 C when downstairs was at 30 C afterwards!

The large double-hinged double-glazed window units were obtained from Poland. Very good quality, built to sell into the German market. When opened on the vertical axis, intended for cleaning, they can be used to bring large objects directly inside, and also provide excellent cross-flow ventilation in conjunction with the double doors in the lounge.

The kitchen cupboards were from Ikea. A new larder refrigerator was installed, and a shorter wall-hanging cupboard was used over it. The condenser at the back has good ventilation because of the "chimney effect" of the 100 mm wide cavity behind the cabinets caused by the pipe and cable duct at floor level.

Outside views of the yard: the sunflowers are doing well. The gazebo is very useful to help cope with the heat, and serves as a dining room when the lounge is being "worked on". Notice the detail of the new, large, fixed kitchen window. This was arranged to both give 50 % more natural light compared with the original, and also to promote controlled ventilation via the stove extractor hood. The prevailing wind is from the southwest, so forced (or chimney) ventilation is needed so that cooking fumes don't go through the house.

12 Foam insulation between the 85 mm rafters at 390 mm centres and 65 mm battens at 780 mm was inserted to total 100 mm, leaving a 50 mm ventilation space in the 150 mm ceiling space: this was done under the cupboard roof. Glass fibre of 100 mm was used under the main roof. A further 50 mm foam was applied under the battens. A ventilation duct was made running from the north end of the cupboard to the chimney space by leaving out the extra 50 mm between the rafters so that the void becomes 100 mm by approximately 250 mm, as the rafters are close together at this location. This will be heated in summer by the morning sunlight, and should therefore provide an automatic ventilation method. The lower portion over the cupboard retains the 100 mm insulation, with the 50 mm beneath the rafters making a total of 150 mm, as for all the rest of the roof.

13 Fitting the aluminium foil-backed gypsum board of 12.5 mm over the 50 mm foam insulation, using 90 - 100 mm zinc-coated or exterior-grade passivated screws. The central cut-out is for the Velux window. Notice the fit to the remnant of the chimney, which is now to become a ventilation duct. Above the ceiling adjoining the chimney is a 100 mm deep ventilation channel leading from the cupboard: initially, it will be tested with natural ventilation only, but it is not difficult to insert a fan at the top of the duct to force extraction. The cupboard doors will be louvered wood, backed with an insect screen. Insect screens will also be inserted into the chimney ducts, of a "V" shape, so that any drip water is led to the centre, under which a water collection and drainage channel will be placed.

19 Computer desk in the part-built atelier, some other things moved in as well.

23 Floor space cleared for filing cabinets: much of the stuff is now in the cupboard. Still a pile of paperwork to be sorted out, and slotted conduit for cables to be run just under the roof beam. Some "spot" inserts of foam over the beam are still to be done (don't forget!). The roof box for the Polo should sit on the filing cabinets with a little room to spare.

31 Here is a .DOC of 5.5 Mbytes, with information about the works.

It is now reincarnated as a Small Business Server 2000 machine.

06 Panorama around the loft, partly converted to an atelier. The rest of the house is now much less crowded!

12 The SBS 2000 machine, Dune, lurking in its cupboard.

21 Walk around Somers Town with Kasjusz and Agnieszka.

25 Flight on GBA TrIslander from Manukau to Claris (date & time still GMT!).

26 Incoming to Claris (date & time still GMT!).

27 The Crossroads Lodge, cabins, sundeck, generator shed.

28 Tip's first day away from his mother: keeping warm near the fire.

30 From the Lodge, run out of fuel, through Claris to the bunker on the Tree Farm.

02 Medlands Beach. Tryphena, Barrier Building Supplies. John Higgins' hydroponics garden. Views from the Tryphena hill road. View of the bunkhouse at Tree Farm with Te Ahumata behind.

03 Jill and truck in the carpark at the front of the lodge.

04 Tryphena. Views around the Crossroads Lodge. The main battery stack.

05 Views around the front of the lodge, Te Ahumata.

06 Stray horses, Shane's Lada in the car park at the lodge.

09 The kitchen, southeast porch and cabin verandahs at the lodge.

10 Walk from the garage at the lodge to the Great Barrier Golf Club. Claris Club fireplace.

11 The main block at the lodge. Dining area, entry and fireplace.

15 Around the lodge, down to the chookhouse.

18 Flowers on the reception desk. Late views where the trees are cleared next door.

19 Around the Crossroads Lodge, the chook run. Walk over Te Ahumata from Blind Bay Road to the top, then to Whangaparapara Road. Lots of pictures over Kaitoke Beach and Claris, and a Tui in a tree.

22 Along the road from the lodge to the Police Station.

25 Market day at Claris Club.

26 Te Ahumata, from the lodge, walk through Claris, to south Kaitoke beach.

27 The cabins at the lodge, outside during the day, inside at night.

30 Inside and outside the office at the lodge.

31 Walk along the north of Kaitoke back to the lodge, with views along the stream. Interior of bus shelter. Plane overhead after takeoff from Claris Airfield.

02 Bruce in front of the lodge. Walk along Kaitoke Beach northwards, back to the lodge.

04 Claris Airfield, TrIslander. Cairo finally got the bird.

05 Wiring at the bunkhouse, Tree Farm. Trees. Driveway. Garage.

07 Interior of HP UPS. Solar panels and wiring at the bunkhouse.

08 Road works at the crossroads. Beehive that used to be empty, but was invaded.

09 Christening at St John's in Medlands Beach.

11 Cairo and latest victim.

12 Sean O'Shea. Cabin building. Late afternoon view from the verandah at the Claris Club, walk back to the Crossroads Lodge.

13 Tip at Mum and Dad's place, Weymouth, Manukau City.

14 Central Wellington, near the harbour. The weird bridge.

16 Malcolm's garden in Titahi Bay.

17 Walk through Wellington, then fly back to Auckland.

18 Tip, Weymouth. Rail trip from Manurewa to the new Auckland rail terminus at Britomart. Bus up Queen Street to IHUG and walk back, then return to Manurewa.

19 House, Tip and beach at Weymouth.

23 Kasjusz' Christening.

06 Kirsty with latest arrival.

08 The Paddington Branch of the Grand Union Canal through Southall.

14 Tadeusz' new garage.

30 Kasjusz feeds the geese and swans in the canal.