raising the roof

Well the house I bought recently had an alleged "lock up garage" which had a slab, four walls and a roof, but roof that was too low for me to get my Pajero 4WD into (not to mention being a windowless solar hotbox that reached 50°C inside, and a haven for Red Back spiders who love that sort of dark enclosed place).

(image from Wikipedia)

Which made the shed about as useful as a hip pocket on a T-Shirt. This is the shed...

I identified this shed as being essentially a flimsy "glorified garden shed" and a weakness in the price point of the house when buying the place (because I value highly being able to park my car under cover), but figured that I'd be able to "fix it" for not too much.

After some thought (and a few beers on the back steps in the arvo looking at it and thinking)

a solution emerged ... I would get some steel posts, raise the roof, leave the walls where they were and then fill in the gap (between the new roof level and the tops of the walls) with shade cloth.

Australian woven shade cloth is pretty darn handy. It'll block 90% of the UV (and almost block water) while allowing slow moving air to pass freely (keeping the interior cooler). In the past my wife and I had built "covered areas" in the back yard with shade cloth and it does an amazing job. Even in rain only a light mist makes it through the fabric, in light rain nothing comes through. With a little pitch on it  light rain is trapped in the fabric and the water flows out the low end (not that we want to sit outside in the rain that often). So it makes an excellent roofing material if you only need shade from wind and UV (remember, this is Australia and it gets bloody hot, and sunburn is a big issue here).

So got my tape measure, made a plan on a sheet of paper, bought the steel and set about working. I had to pick a day with no wind, as to raise the roof I had to unscrew it ... any wind would see it in the neighbors yard for a visit. I had to start and finish the major structural work (working alone) in a single day.

Below is the view of the progress from 8am to 7pm (and a quick lunch at the pub with some friends who turned up)

I've since added the shade cloth, which may seem in the picture below to only be on one side, but its actually all around.

There have been a couple of storms (with strong rain) and only a small amount of water blows through, certainly nothing the car can't handle ;-)

Total cost of this ventures materials was just under $600 ($500 for the posts and steel).

So now I've got a good under cover spot for my car to rest. As I use my motor bike for most of the daily transport needs I wanted to have my car protected from UV, tree droppings, bird shit and what not. Also as I'm about to head over to Finland for another "winter" and I'd like the the car to be under cover while I'm away.

Win Win

The Kicked Down Sand Castle Effect

Imagine you are a kid down at the beach building an elaborate sand castle. Your family gets there early in the day and in between swims you build this great structure.

You spend hours between swims and a bit of belly boarding adding to this castle.

Then someone (like your mean brother) comes along and kicks it over and you're in tears about it.

Depending when it happens in the day (say early) you may start again and build on that foundation and make a better castle. If it was nearly time to go home you may just give up and walk away, being mad at your brother all the way home (and perhaps for some time to come).

This is how I have come to currently understand my own grief at the loss of my wife.

The metaphor is not too far from the truth because we are all only here on this "beach" for an amount of time. We eventually "go home" and must leave behind all we have made here. Yet when we are building our sand castles we are not thinking of "when we leave" we are absorbed in the the thing we are making, in making it better, in making it "just right". Sometimes we've only seen the sand castles of others, and we shape our own on that. Other times we've also had a little experience in building them in previous summers when we were younger, so we can do a better job.

Although we know that we must eventually leave them, we may harbor the idea that it will be there again tomorrow (sometimes it is). When the time comes to pack up and go home many will plead for a little more time, no matter we always look back at what we made as we are leaving the beach. We know that in time the wind, rain and tides will erase it leaving no trace, but if we have it leveled down before our eyes it somehow hurts more, because we are attached to it and because it seems so unfair.

Past the initial shock and spending time in reflection (not just being upset, although there is surely a time for doing only that)  I came to see that without Anita, all that I'd built was smashed and meaningless. I soon also saw that my time on the beach was drawing to a close and there seemed less point in trying to rebuild.

Unlike sand castles much of what we have in life is needed to live comfortably; the houses we live in, the furniture we use, the stuff we have. Much of it is needed to make our lives comfortable, easier and doing things more convenient.

I don't believe I have enough time to ever make a castle again but I'm trying now to make something. Its not easy and I'm always struck with "what's the fucking point" ... I regularly think "fuck, can I just go home early". Of course some do just that.

As I've reflected earlier this happened to me at an awkward time, too old to really ever be able to build a decent sand castle again, too young to just "go home early".

So now I've bought another house, in a different place. There is much that needs doing to it, but its actually livable right now. Its small enough that I don't need to attempt anything grand, but enough work to keep me "on task" for some years.

Many times I feel like its all too hard, and I wonder "what the fuck have I done". But having kicked the can down the road for some 5 years now, I have decided its time to try. Its a total break from where I've been and in some ways like nothing I've ever done before.

Lets see what I make of it.