It's now May.......nights are getting cooler, days are getting shorter and the leaves are falling. Unlike the seasons however progress remains at one speed.....slow.



Work on the verandah structure began in late March....



By the end of April the basic verandah structure was in place and work began on a retaining wall.





By last weekend (third of the way through May) the main frame of the verandah was completed by the inclusion of a massive 300x65 LVL beam which was then painted black (Weathershield charcoal) and the retaining wall had been completed....apart from the capping.

Now to the verandah roof....

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Ours is not to reason why.....only to point and giggle.

...it was supposed to be all finished by now <sigh> but we are still having fun

Anyway, the trusses are in!!


Lifted in with the aid of a Franna crane, these two oregon trusses (150x50 top chord, 200x50 bottom chord) went on with minimum struggle. And the pre-painted ridge beam (300x47 Hyspan) fell in perfectly.

The process of adding rafters began shortly after. They are 200x50 F7 oregon


We've since finished filling the main pitch with rafters and cross bracing it all back into the original roof. Now to do the rear section and add the battens etc. before covering it all in tin.

In other news, we've another new toy......a Biolytix septic filter


The tile drain on our old septic failed and this thing seemed the best option for us. Not cheap by any means and certainly not complicated despite the makers desire for it to seem so (my background is in sewage treatment so I am familiar with these things). It would actually be possible to assemble one of these from off the shelf parts (Biolytix do) but then that wouldn't be legal now would it. Oh well. But we can't complain as it will reduce our garden watering needs rather substantially which is good considering our very restricted water supply.

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Ours is not to reason why.....only to point and giggle.

Looking good SBD.

These things always take longer than you expect. I've given up being surprised when our renovation schedules blow out ... just need to condition the wife to accept them as easily as I do.

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Cheers.

Vernon.
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Bite off more than you can chew and then chew like crazy.

I'm just wondering how your redgum sleeper deck is holding up - as far as cracking and moving goes. i think its been a couple of years since you built the deck (based on the posting date). I was thinking of doing the same, but the sleepers are 'wet' (straight out of a plastic sealed pack, and seem to be holding a fair bit of moisture, but very straight). great post -

Ashley.....the deck is holding up just fine. It now just needs a good clean and an oil. Yes there has been some movement but nothing drastic or unsafe. As long as you can cope with some wobbly lines in your deck then I reckon that the sleeper option is a ripper.

There has been some substantial progress since I last posted but that is another tale.

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Ours is not to reason why.....only to point and giggle.

The last little while has been taken up with preparing to replace the kitchen. This has involved fitting a tad more of our recycled floorboards to give us the final (ish) floor area for the kitchen then sanding and oiling them. Also a bit of gyprocking, painting and whathaveyou.

That part of the fun done and we move on to the kitchen itself.

Like many these days we chose to purchase an IKEA kitchen. They are cheap (especially when you elect to have a drawer dominated kitchen like us) and it would fit easily into the space.

Unlike many these days we chose to purchase only the cabinet frames and drawers (no fronts and no worktop) so we could make our own bespoke kitchen.

Thus far this has gone smoothly......except for IKEA not holding any 800mm wide base cabinets in stock - they have to be ordered (or reserved in IKEA speak).

Interestingly...the cabinets are not special. Far from it. Made in Slovakia from compressed recycled matchboxes and two hopeful layers of melamine they are not brilliant. But they do work and appear quite strong.

The drawers are special. I thought they'd be made in China el cheapo double walled Blum knock offs. They are actually Blum TandemBox drawers!! If I'd known this I'd have bought only the drawers and got a Lamikit flat pack for the frames instead. These drawers are much cheaper at IKEA than anywhere else to my knowledge - 60cm wide drawers for a 70cm deep cabinet were just $45 each. Every other price I saw for these drawers had them at a cost of anywhere between 300 to 500 extra over the basic five drawer cabinet - wheras at IKEA we paid $310 all up per 60cm five drawer.

So there you go....more soon!

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Ours is not to reason why.....only to point and giggle.

The sleeper deck looks great SBD!

I used crapiarta TP sleepers on a small deck here. It's cheaper than decking, and I like the chunky look.

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Cheers, John

Short Stack (my son's band)

thanks for the update - well that settles it for me. i'll be going with the 200 x 50 redgum.

Works continue........as does the amusement.

We have focused recent attention on the wall that separates the house from the new verandah room. We knew that it was going to be replaced because it was likely to be complete crap in a structural sense and extremely difficult to repair and/or retrofit.

With the installation of the new roof trusses in the verandah (which were designed to support the full span of the wall) the original wall was no longer a significant structural component of the house....fortunately.

Stripping off the two layers of original cladding exposed the old frame....and it was just so special that I had to take a few photos and share the beauty...

We had studs that don't span the full height of the wall, unsupported lintels, not bracing bracing, a random approach to noggins and a number of other entertaining little mishaps.

The cream and cherry of the wall was the almost total absence of gyprock adhesive and fasteners so we were able to dismantle the entire wall without removing the internal lining.

The icing sugar is the power point under the old mini window that is wired up around the outside of the studs.....our electrician loves our place.

All the visible framing has now been replaced with new studwork with openings for two new windows and all is to Code (so much more timber!). The centre of the wall is still in place until I can put a beam across the internal wall perpendicular to this wall and then it'll be removed to make way for a set of double doors.....this weekend I hope.

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Ours is not to reason why.....only to point and giggle.

Well.......the beams went in. The beam over the new double doorway is a 2.2 m length of 300x63 LVL and that is supporting a 4.9m length of the same across the house. The remaining 400mm wall frame above the long beam is also cross braced with bracing angle.

If you compare the first photo with the first photo a couple of posts back (the one with the oven in it)....they are much the same view.

All installed by yours on the lonesome with some rope and rachets. Not entirely recommended because that LVL is on the stupid side of heavy but it worked none the less.

Just two windows and a set of double doors to go in.....perhaps this weekend?

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Ours is not to reason why.....only to point and giggle.

Good stuff SBD. All I can say is that your missus is more tolerant than mine. It will be a real transformation when its finished.

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WARNING
This persons post may sometimes contain
Course language
Adult themes
Drug use
Violence
Nudity

Tolerant? Tolerance is not required. Just Realism. And we have plenty of that.

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Ours is not to reason why.....only to point and giggle.

This year represents the third calender year of the renovation....which has of course really ended up being a rebuild.

To close off 2009.....we opened up the house...which you saw earlier. But now we've got windows, doors and new gyprock. And it is so much nicer.

We also have new tin on the outside but we can't seem to find the photos....

This year....we'll finish it. For sure. Mostly.

We still have the front to do outside plus the rest of the verandah structure and quite a bit of flooring....

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Ours is not to reason why.....only to point and giggle.

Looking good SBD....but what does finish it. for sure. mostly mean? haha this stuff never ends does it?

Three months later......time for an update.

Things have taken a turn for the slow due to 'other commitments' (there's a clue in one image) but there is still progress.

The first image goes back a few months just to get a picture of how far things have come. Everything is based on a frame. And this is our to be enclosed verandah...

The new old windows and doors went in on the inner wall then the wall itself was clad. Sparky has also been in - fitting lights, power points and fans in the verandah space. Then we moved to the outside walls of the verandah itself - more tin, topped with 200x50 river red gum landscape grade 'sleepers' (planed and oiled). Just finished the tin on the outside of the low walls.

Still to do here....hardwood verticals between the RRG posts to carry the (probably) galvanised steel woven insect mesh, painted timber mouldings or steel or both to hold insect mesh to the timber, four screen doors and the small matter of 50sqm of reclaimed Tasmanian Oak floorboards.

And then there's only the front to go!

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Ours is not to reason why.....only to point and giggle.