So BCITO (who im doing my apprenticeship through) have changed the way in which they assess you. With majority of the work now done online. I thought to make it easier i will use this blog to pretty much submit my work! This way you guys can see what ive been doing AND maybe learn something too. Plus there website is very limiting, so this way i can share exactly what i need to so i can show how much i understand. I will start with a few images, followed by a detailed explanation. 

Ceiling Framing: The two most commonly used framing options are Rondo or timber ceiling batten. I will comment about Rondo below. 

When setting up the heights of which your ceiling framing is to be set, we usually take the overall height of the wall (floor to top of top plate) We then think about how the walls will be lined (x2 1200mm sheets fixed horizontally with x1 layer of 13mm GIB for the ceilings, this information can usually be found in the plans) So we have 1200 + 1200 + 13 + 10 (the 10 is for ease of installation of wall sheets) = 2423. Instead of using an awkward number, we round this to 2425. 

Rondo: Using a line laser (or rotary) we set it to 2425 off the floor, before then going around each room and marking most corners and if its a long wall, a few points in between. Sometimes 2425 actually hits a nog line so its best to drop the laser 100mm and use a ruler to measure back up, this also means less needing to move the laser between rooms. 

Once all points are marked we use Rondo "C" Channel and fix it every 600mm using GIB wafer head screws around the perimeter of the room (tin snips cut this well), with the bottom of the channel flush with our marked points. Sometimes the screws can be hard to fit, so pre punching with a nailpunch and hammer can work well. 

After all perimeters are complete, look at the orientation of the trusses, measure the longest wall which is Parallel to the direction of the trusses. Divide this by two, and mark the centre of the room. From the centre point measure 300mm from either side of this, then measure 600mm thereafter. This will ensure the spacing is correct to ensure the Rondo battens don't get in the way for downlights. Complete this on both sides of the room, these are the centre of each Rondo batten. I like to then measure across the floor in the directions the battens will go, and remove 20mm of this (for ease of installation). 

I use a grinder to cut my battens to length. Slide each batten into the ends of the channel, ensuring each end lines up with the marks on both ends, keeping them straight. Where each batten intersects a truss, install a Rondo clip and loosly nail this with a product nail so it can still be moved up and down. Rondo rails can not span more than 1200mm so if you're trusses are less than 900mm apart for any reason, you may not need to include a clip on each intersection, but majority of the time, this isn't the case. 

Once all clips are fitted and all the ends line up, i like to turn my laser back on again set at 100mm below the desired height (2425mm) using my ruler or a laser card, push each clip point up until its at the correct height and hammer in the product nail, once all clips are set to height (or do this after setting each clip) i will go back and add two more product nails to each clip in the provided holes. 

Rondo is now complete!

I will update this later to include Diaphragm ceilings 

I know a few people have seen "ad" written all over Instagram stories over the past few weeks, and you're probably wondering "why" and "should I be doing that too?". Cue this blog post! Hopefully, I can answer some of your questions and enlighten you as to if you need to be doing this too. 

"An Influencer is a broad term used to describe people who have influence over the choice, opinion, or behavior of their followers. An Influencer is someone who has access to an audience (regardless of size) for their own organic content and ad content they generate income from. Influencers who develop and/or distribute content about products or services in return for some form of payment (including that of a free product) are providing a platform for advertising."

So no matter if you have 5 followers or 5000, if you are sharing content around a brand or company (even your own), you are classed as an influencer. This now means there is a set of self-regulated rules which apply. 

All advertising MUST be easily identifiable by consumers, so people shouldn't have to use a magnifying glass or message you to ask if the product or service you are talking about was given to you either for free or at a discounted rate. You will need to use the following:

AD
AD | Gifted/ PR Product
AD | Ambassador

These will need to be used on EVERY SINGLE SLIDE when talking about or sharing an item that comes under the AD classification. They must also be used on the first line on a post. So not at the bottom of the description and definitely not in the comments, you must be upfront and clear.

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What is classed as an AD?

The ASA's definition of advertising is broad and includes any content that is controlled directly or indirectly by an advertiser.

The way in which I see this is:

• If you are sent a message from a company saying "we would love to send you one of our products" this product arrives and you decide to share it on your stories, this is an AD!
• You have a partnership with a company which gives you a discount on products with the intention you share them with your followers, this is an AD!
• You have been given a discount code after you brought a product and you share it with your followers, this is an AD!
• You go to the shop and you buy a new tool and you love it so much you want to share it with your followers, this IS NOT an AD.

So for something to be classed as an AD, you DO NOT have to be getting paid for this. Anything which you are sent with the brand's intention that you share is classed as an AD.

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How do I share with my followers that my stories or posts are an AD?

You get given a new tool or product by a brand, or you are given a discount from a company so that you can purchase the rest of an item, you get it home and you want to show it off to all your followers. BEFORE you start posting about the product you MUST let your followers know that the following stories are an AD, that you were gifted the item, or given it at a discounted price. You may then proceed to share the item BUT each story must clearly show either AD, Advert, or Advertising. 

If you are being paid by a company or brand to post about an item, you can also use the Branded Content or Paid Partnership tools that Instagram offers through Business accounts.

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What if I was given workwear, a tool, or a discount code AGES ago, do I still have to say its an ad?

If you have shared the product prior and declared that it was an AD then 5 weeks later you want to share it again, you don't have to declare that it is an AD as long as you are not tagging the company.

If you choose to tag the company in your stories then you must declare that it is an AD.

And last but not least, if you are from overseas and thinking, oh this is just for New Zealand, it has nothing to do with my page.. this next one is for you.

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I don't live in New Zealand, this doesn't apply to me

Just because you don't live in New Zealand doesn't mean you are exempt from the ASA Guidelines.

If a proportion of your following is from New Zealand you are essentially advertising to New Zealand consumers. This will mean you are required to abide by the ASA guidelines as well, regardless of what country you live in. 

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Although there are no fines if you don't cooperate with the ASA guidelines, it does mean that if someone does complain about your post or stories via the ASA website, then you will be made to remove them. Even though this may not affect you, it may cost the company you are dealing with as they could lose sales or service which were intended to come from supplying you with free/paid product or service.

Hopefully, this helps you figure out if you should be using the word AD on your posts or stories. This information has all been taken from the original ASA Guidelines document which can be viewed here. 

If you have any more questions on this, leave a comment below, and ill try to answer them for you

 

This is something I've wanted to write about for a while, as it was one of the MAJOR things which were holding me back from taking that first step into a trade. I hope that this will help someone else who is in a similar situation to me. 

Ever since I can remember, numbers have never been a strong suit of mine. One of my most dreaded subjects. To the point where I used to get in hysterics at school knowing maths was next. It didn't matter how hard I tried, how hard I studied, it was like the numbers just went in one ear and out the other. Numbers just NEVER (and I mean NEVER) stuck. 

We tried all the after school tutors, the extra maths classes even tried changing after school tutors to a different company to see if it was the tutor... no success. As my school years went on I was so focused on at least getting my University Enterance credits so that when school was finished, I had the option to get into University if that was the path I chose to take. 

Back in 2008 (my last year I attended maths at school) the University entrance was 14 Credits..... I got 15! Boom, that was me.
Maths done!

After year 10 at high school, maths was then an optional subject and I was all about it. Leaving school and knowing I was going into a career that didn't involve numbers was awesome, I didn't even have to think about them! It wasn't until I was thinking about taking on an apprenticeship that it really started to bother me again. I knew that majority of trades worked SO much around numbers, and this is not something i was ever comfortable with. 

It was a phone call with one of my older brothers who had been a builder for many years now, that managed to change my mind. It was one of the things holding me back, I didn't (still don't) know my time's tables and suck at basic adding and subtracting. I knew if I took on a trade, this would make me look stupid and really hold me back. But the one piece of advice that he gave me: "it's 2017, you have a phone, your phone has a calculator, USE IT!", and that's exactly what I did.
Knowing that using technology to move forward is acceptable within the trades is something that made me feel, I guess, accepted, in a way. I was sold. I COULD take on a trade, and my terrible math skills were not going to hold me back. 

Fast forward 2 years and I've found that I'm wanting to now go out of my way to learn more maths (weird, who even am i) from the girl who used to ball her eyes out over a bunch of numbers and a maths test, to someone who will happily sit there and fill in her Apprenticeship bookwork full of maths equations. And the reason behind the change? I can relate all these numbers to real life, the numbers have become physical objects. I can see in my head myself measuring an object to get a number and then working out the size of another object which I need to take away from the other one. I'm not just taking "Jills apples" and working out how many jack ate. 

It's crazy how having numbers in a real situation can really change your mindset and ability to do the work. 

Again I'm not the best at blog posts, but I hope that someone else in my situation can relate to this and realise that you don't need to let numbers hold you back, technology is there for a reason, use it. 

• Water-resistant leather upper
• Ergonomics - rocker bottom sole design aids forward motion and reduces wearer fatigue
• Bison Grip nitrile rubber sole with multi-directional tread pattern helps reduces slips
• Extra Wide available in sizes 8W, 9W, 10W, 11W (W=Wide)
• Wheat Nu Buck upper leather
• EVA mid-sole, lighter than PU
• Anti-penetration insole complying with SBP standard

Standards:

• Complies to AS/NZS 2210.3:2009 and EN ISO 20345:2011. Class 1 SBP, SRC. WRU, HRO, E.

So i thought i would start a blog series on building our new home, the process and how we are going about building the whole things ourselves, ill start with our land purchasing experience.

One of the main reasons we moved to Queenstown was the opportunity of purchasing land and building for ourselves. This is something we could never afford to do if we continued to live in Auckland, it's just too overpriced. We had our eye on the new subdivision in Queenstown called Hanley's Farm long before we made the move, we signed up to a lonnnng list of hopefuls at the end of 2016 and paid our $2000 NZD deposit to be in the queue. After a few section releases we realised it wasn't really going to work until we actually committed to moving and were able to attend the sales days as you had to be present to purchase.

4 stages of Hanley's Farm had been released by the time we had finally made the move to Queenstown. In this time the realtor had decided to scrap the waiting list and return the deposits, the list had just gotten too long. We still kept up to date with all newsletters and social media following the progress and development of the new subdivision, just waiting for that email to say the next release was only moments away.

Tuesday August 14th 2018 i opened my inbox to find an email from the realtor about the stage 5A release, from this point, it was the craziest week of our lives to say the least. An open day was scheduled on Saturday 18th August, only 4 day after the first email was received with pricing set to be released on Wednesday 22nd (sales day), so much had to happen in this time, we had no clue where to even begin and so many questions, no much sleep was had that week.
Can we afford it? Will the bank even lend us enough to build? How do you find a lawyer? Are lawyers scary? Will i become broke if i just ask the lawyer a question?

We decided to go and see a mortgage broker to answer all these questions for us and to see if we were financially able to purchase in this release, or wait for the next. Friday the 17th we booked in to talk with Loan Market here in Queenstown, we spent an hour figuring out exactly what the banks would be willing to lend us, what our repayments would be on our mortgage and answering all the small questions keeping me awake at night. I can't recommend seeing a mortgage broker more, not only was the consultation free, but they were able to connect us to a lawyer who had vast experience dealing with first home buyers purchasing in Hanley's Farm.

Saturday came around in a blink of an eye, the realtor had set out the next stage (5A) with pegs for each section so we could visually see where they were placed in relation to the sun etc. They pinged a bit of a surprise on us as we were greeted by an agent when we arrived, not only were they releasing Stage 5A, but they had a sneaky 5B stage in there too, meaning only the perspective buyers who attended the open day had knowledge of these sections (promising!) Because there is SUCH a high demand for these sections, we were asked to choose our top 5 sections ready for when the pricing is released as you are not guaranteed to get your first pick, or let alone score a section at all.

After getting in touch with the lawyers which were recommended on Monday 20th we found ourselves filling in paperwork to ensure on the day we had every single legality covered. It was great to go in and see our lawyer too as she was able to give us a run down on how previous releases had worked in the past.

Wednesday 22nd was here, we were freaking out. 8am on the dot an email was expected from the realtor with a list of pricing for all the sections. Normally work starts at 8am so we went in a little later that morning. We pre-wrote our email listing all our section options so when the clock ticked 8, we could hit send. The email with pricing came through at 7.59am, it was a mad rush to check the pricing of the sections we had picked out, as soon as we saw the number and agreed it was totally fine , we hit send..... and not the nervous waiting began. 10 minutes went by, 15 minutes went by.. i started freaking out as the lawyer has said they wouldn't accept any emails prior to 8am, and we replied to the pricing email which came through at 7.59am.. not 8!! I had a wee melt down and re-sent our section options again, just in case, only 15 minutes later.
by 8.25am we had a reply, we had scored ourselves our second choice (only over the back fence of our first choice, our neighbours will love us)

We finally scored our own 748sqm slice of Queenstown!!

So now you can understand why it was the craziest week.. but the stress was worth the outcome for sure. We then had the lawyers look over the paperwork which we signed and had 3 days to have a 10% deposit paid to the realtor to secure the section as our own.
After scraping together all our savings, some help from both of our parents (if we were able to use our Kiwisaver we wouldn't have needed the help, but there was no way we could withdraw our funds within 3 days, so this will be used at settlement) we had our names signed on that pre-purchase sales agreement.

The adventure has just begun!

So a few people have sent me a bunch of messages asking for some more information on the Du'It Tough Hands hand cream constantly featured on my Instagram, so thought id pop a small post together about it...

I have the WORST hands, constantly dry and my nails are very soft and sensitive, hence why i always wear gloves... like everyday all day at work. When my gloves aren't on, the first thing i grab is the hand cream, because 9 times out of 10, as soon as my hands home out of those gloves, they're like prunes. I used to use any old hand cream i could get my hands on, whatever was close by. But most of the time they were full of fragrance, and didn't really give my hands the moisture they needed to stay moist (yes i said it haha) for more than a few minutes.

We were working on a bathroom repair on a clients house one week and he had this cream on top of his drawers. My eyes were drawn to "TOUGH HANDS".. YES this is me, i NEEED tough hands! So i snapped a picture and searched high and low at the local supermarket till i found some, literally the last one on the shelf hiding behind another brand. This was back in March. Its now September and I've just finished by last tube of 'DU'IT Tough Hands'. A small amount goes a lonnnnggg way.


The thing i love most about this stuff, is not only does it keep your hands moisturised for ages, but it kind of feels like you have a barrier on when you have it on, like invisible gloves almost. Its made me feel a little more confident in using my hands without gloves for some tasks, where as before finding this magical hand cream, you wouldn't see me take them off for anything.

I you have dry, sensitive or just tradie hands in general, i recommend this stuff 100%. My first tube i picked up from Countdown Supermarket in the isle with all the hand creams for around $15.00 NZD. And PaknSave also sell it in the womens body creams section (which is weird as its aimed at men) and on special is around $9.50. It would be best to shop around.

Heres to Tough Hands!!

*Please note, my reviews are not sponsored in any way (unless stated otherwise). I do these because I really believe the product is worthy of my opinion to help others, good and bad.

https://duit.com.au/product/duit-tough-hands/

Long time no talk. Its been almost six months since we have moved to Queenstown and I made the change from desk to building sites, and what can I say? I LOVE IT!

Some of the first weeks were pretty hard, VERY physical, and with starting in the peak of summer we were hitting 35 degree days, I was shattered by the end of those few months. Tying steel, lifting massive 5-meter posts (about a dozen of these), lifting frames, laying flooring, floor joists, putting up GIB... and well, a lot more.

After some thinking, and asking a million others what their thoughts were, I've decided to take the next step and begin a BCITO carpentry apprenticeship! Before I made the decision, these were some of the thoughts I had about joining up at this point in time.

Have I been working long enough to know I'm ready to take on an apprenticeship just yet? Do I start now or do I wait until I know more, saving me money in the long run because I don't have to be signed up for as long?
These are just some of the questions in my head prior to making the decision.

Because I have previously been to uni, I don't qualify for the governments' new scheme of free fees for the first year (rather silly when they're trying to get more people into trades and wanting people to "trade up" except if they have already studied there is no incentive to make them want to get a trade qualification) so, I would be dipping into savings to pursue my trade qualification. My boss told me, in the end, it was totally up to me as long as I felt comfortable that now was the time to sign up. Otherwise, I wait a year, have a lot more knowledge and as long as I am taking notes and photos of my work, I can backtrack and fill my books in when I finally do sign up. I did consider this option...

BUT..

At the same time, I feel like I loosely know enough of what I'm doing to be able to complete the work required, even though I've only seen theory books from years ago so have no idea whats currently in them and live with two builders who can help explain things to me when I need it. With the books in front of me, I can understand what I need to be doing to be able to get to the end of my apprenticeship as fast as possible.

So I took the leap! Because I already have a job in building, it made signing up to BCITO a breeze! I went to their website filled out the form, 20 minutes later I had a phone call from the team to confirm a few details and I have someone coming out to talk to me on Monday, all within the week.

It was so easy, I'm kind of kicking myself I didn't do it sooner. Can't wait to get into the books and see how much I've already learned.

I don’t want to say as a Designer you get paid like crap, but if I’m comparing the two, I was a qualified graphic designer with two diplomas and 5 years industry experience and in my first week as a labourer in the building industry, including one rain day, my weekly pay is more than what I received as a designer in any of those 5 years.

For so many years I was like a lot of people in New Zealand. I WANTED to be a builder so bad, but as a female, it’s just not what we do right? We go to uni, get a diploma or a degree and sit at a desk all day while the guys do a trade and make the bucks for the family. It wasn’t right. We have just as much skill and muscle as the guys do and I wasn’t just going to sit back and let them have all the fun. I may not be strong right now and have no clue what I’m doing half the time, but with a great mentor to help explain the job and help push my body’s physical ability to the limits, I can see myself being just as much of a asset as the “new guy” on the site. I’m just annoyed that it’s not something that was pushed more when I was at high school, if I had the courage to push through that “it’s a mans job” stigma when I was 16, who knows where I would have been right now!

If you are a teacher, parent, mentor, social worker or careers advisor and you know a girl who is lost in their career path, I can 100% recommend a trade, I have only been in this journey 3 weeks, but I can already say I have so many more dreams and aspirations for life than I ever did before choosing to take up a trade. Along with the need for more builders in New Zealand and the great starting wage, it’s one job you will never get bored. I hope that over time, this blog can grow and help others to see just what it’s like to be a female in the building industry, because when I was in the apprehensive stage of making the change, it was one thing I wish I had to read, someone else’s real life experiences.