The Carù National Observatory - Progress Report

The last couple of weeks have been blessed with excellent weather... 28°C in the shade... a golden sunshine... Ah, it's summer!!! :-D This meant that after my sister-in-law and her family had left I didn't have any excuse anymore to delay the construction of my little observatory-house.

First I made a structure of wooden girders. It was quite a daunting thing to do as there was quite a bit of wind at the time - unusual over here - and the top of the house is 3,5m above the ground. Moreover, I had to do it completely on my own. But I kept repeating to myself that "there's nothing a man can't do" and in the end I succeeded. And before I get any complaints from the ladies, yes... perhaps there are things a man can't do. But when you're 3m up a ladder, balancing against the gusts of wind and trying to hold these heavy girders whilst bolting them together, you need to say something like that to yourself in order not to wet your pants. :-D

Here the structure was nearly finished:

And then I started with the roof. The sky was still a bit threatening with rain the first couple of days and therefore I didn't want to take any risks with the wood I had just bought. With the roof finished I could safely store all of my stuff.

But in the end it only rained a couple of drops and the sky quicky cleared. I then started laying the brownish roofing tiles...

And here's the finished roof. I'm quite proud of it actually! :-) 

At the time of writing all the walls are already finished and all I still have to do is putting the doors in place, but I haven't taken any pictures yet over the last two or three days so you'll still have to wait a bit to see the final result. I've also already painted everything with a second layer of a special, whitish wood protector (a first layer had already been done by the factory where I bought the wood), so I'm ok for the next 5 years or so. In the mean time, Christine has also already decided on the climbing rose she'll put against the little house. For the experts, it'll be a "Kifts Gate" rambler which is a really wild rose that'll cover the entire house in no time. That being said, Christine was full of admiration for my work and if she says that, it has to be true... :-)