The New Year

Welcome 2010! May this be the year that we finish this build J We are now jumping back into it after a little sojourn; about a week of guilt free/ work free holidays and a scattering of guilt ridden lazy days off. The New Years period welcomed a few guests to Tassie, the ger and the build. Bernt's mum, Froukje, left yesterday after 2 weeks with us camping out in the ger. Together we explored our primitive roots, fossicking for oysters at the river for a bit of a feast and watched an experimental damper cook on a slab of rock on the woodstove. Neither of these bush skills came easily to me, but somehow the need to Google for instructions didn’t dampen my grassroots enthusiasm.

The experimental damper rises in our makeshift oven; a rock carefully selected from the river and an upside down Pyrex bowl.

 

My aunties Jen and Bev were also here for a couple of nights during their Tassie campervan adventure. We accompanied them to Salamanca markets for what was the busiest market day of the year. With the Sydney to Hobart yacht race having just finished and Tasmania’s biggest food festival on the wharf; the harbour was full of boats, boaties and thousands of tourists. Bit of a shock to be pushing through all of those people after so many months hiding away on our own at the block.

And we had some campers at the block too. Friends of ours camped out in the future bathroom for New Years. A total fire ban meant the sparklers stayed in the drawer but we did get treated to a beautiful lightning display. And the ger got a visit from its mamma! Saatia (who we bought it from) brought a couple of friends for a night after having set up and taken down 10 gers at the Falls Festival. What a sight that would have been!

All in all it has been so lovely to have people around. I’ve really enjoyed having some human interaction, which was also important as Bernt returned to work yesterday so things will change around here. But this blog is not about the future, its about where we are at now so I will focus on what we did on the lead up to Christmas/New Years.

We decided that the best use of our time in the lead up to guests arriving was to focus on building the mezzanine floor into the apartment. We were unsure as to when people were arriving and how many guests would overlap. As the ger is fairly tightly packed and the only undercover area on the block it made sense to create another area undercover from sun and rain. So I ordered in a serious hunk of steel angle (specified by the engineer) and managed to squeeze its delivery in before companies closed for Christmas. We bolted it to the wall running through the bedroom and bathroom where it forms the structure for the mezzanine floor joists to sit on.

Steel angle running through bathroom.

Bernt realised that we could save a substantial amount of money by building the joists/ I beams ourselves. It was really straightforward. We used the Lucas Mill like an upside down table saw to cut grooves the length of pieces of framing pine. We then glued strips of ply between 2 pieces of pine to form the I shape. These were then cut to length and hoisted up (not as hard as the timbers, these are very light) to sit with one end supported on the steel angle and the other on the interior bedroom wall. Cutting the beams to length around the opening for the spiral staircase required Bernt's mathematical genius (always handy to have one in the family).

Gluing up our homemade I beam ceiling/floor joists.

 

Joists up in position in bedroom.

Next we pulled green tongue boards (they have a strip of green plastic which locks them together like tongue in groove boards) up onto the joists and screwed them down, sealing between the joins with sikaflex (to keep the floor like a watertight roof until we have the roof on) A long anticipated detail, for me, was to see the curvy bit on the timber frame intersect with the flooring. And it turned out just as beautiful a detail as I had hoped. Once finished we coated the whole floor with an anti decay product as it will be out in the weather for a month or so. We also cut the circle out through which the spiral staircase will poke.

Green tongue in position on top of joists.

 

One of the ‘curvy’ bits protrudes through the mezzanine, my favourite detail!

 

The void for the spiral staircase, covered in platforms for safety.

It is really exciting to stand up on the mezzanine, it gives a different perspective on the apartment and how the space will work. It will be so cosy up there in the nook of the angled roof that we are thinking about changing our room layout a bit. Don’t worry it doesn’t impact on anything expect the placement of furniture, I’m not about to start redesigning building elements now! J As the mezzanine is also the ceiling of the bedroom we now have a really nice little bedroom space with 3 walls, a ceiling and an amazing view. I can’t wait to sleep in this room.

Mezzanine.

 

Mezzanine; looking back into the apartment.

 

The bedroom.

While Froukje was here we cut some logs and got started on Frame 4, we also laid some blocks to build up the wall that separates the apartment from the workshop. That wall is getting high now, It’s a matter of carrying blocks up a ladder in order to get them on the platform. Now we have to finish that wall, and get Frame 4 up so that when the roofing arrives we can get part of it up over the apartment as soon as possible.

This wall needs to be built up to the apex of the timber frame.

Exciting stuff. Now we have to learn to work a bit differently with Bernt back at work but that certainly will do wonders for the bank account.

Till next time.

Slow and Steady

Well we are plodding along as usual. Two weeks ago we invested in a chain block and managed to get the third frame standing up by ourselves, without a crane.  I know I always say it; but it WAS a nerve-wracking task. Things really creaked and the two standing frames moved significantly (the chain block was attached to them so they were being pulled sideways by about a tonne of timber). One of the joins wasn’t strong enough so a wall plate popped out of its position. But it wasn’t fatal, so we clamped it back down and kept on going. Things should be much more stable now for future frame lifting since we have put in more purlins (the beams between the frames) and roof braces (we have curvy bits in the roof now!). And having the third frame up means that we are into the workshop now; pretty much finished the timber framing in the apartment! The veranda is going to be just gorgeous, I’m very excited that we have cut enough ‘left over’ timber from the milling to build it because it really wasn’t in the budget J

The chain block was attached to the already standing frames in order to stand up the third frame.

 

Nearly there…

And its up! Now we have to build that concrete wall (dividing the apartment and workshop) up to the top of the frame..

 

So this is the finished size of the apartment, now we will build 4 more bays for the workshop.

 

This will be our beautiful veranda. 

Bernt attaching one of the roof braces (curvey bits)

And a win on the roofing front. After about a month and a half of scouring the countryside for roofing I finally found a company who can make us the product we are looking for in a beautiful colour! We are using an insulated panel system which is essentially a sandwich with two colorbond skins glued either side of a thick layer of polystyrene (so it is the roof, insulation and ceiling all in one) . We had our hearts set on a colorbond colour called ironstone and I had been told in the design stage (back in Perth) that it was possible to have the product made in that colour for a small extra charge. So we went ahead and got our water tank in that colour and had looked into finding the perfect complimentary paint colour for the walls, and basically formed a completely one tracked view about how the build would look colour wise. So when I started ringing round for roofing quotes it was a huge shock to the system to find that all except one company was unwilling to make the product in that colour (and that company would only make it without a warranty). For a pretty good reason (if I allowed myself to think rationally, not colour-blindedly about it :). Ironstone is a dark grey blue colour, and being a dark colour will absorb more heat than lighter shades.  The concern is that the darker colorbond colours will absorb enough heat to cause delamination i.e.; the colorbond skins to peel away from the polystyrene core of the product. And one company told me that the melting point of polystyrene is 80 degrees so that was also a potential issue… So we were left with a very limited choice of colours; a pale green, an off white, cream, and a light grey; none of which were working with the little colour pallet fantasy we had created for ourselves.

After many many phone conversations and much sitting with my head in my hands I made one last call to a company that produces the product here in Tassie (the rest were going to be shipped from Sydney. Melb or Brisbane). I explained, to the very patient man, what we were trying to do and asked if there was any possible way to expand our choice of colours. I wasn’t feeling very confident because we had already poured over colorbond samples many times and there wasn’t any other colour that we were loving… And that’s when we discovered that… wait for it… colorbond has, in addition to its standard colours; a metallic colour range!!!

I know, I know, I can hear myself… I know I’ve been rambling for paragraphs about colour and that in the global scheme of things it is so infinitesimally insignificant. But here's the thing; we have made this huge leap of faith, Bernt and I, to move so far and to design and painstakingly build this dream of ours; we have spent months and months laying concrete block after concrete block; milling, chiselling and sanding timber after timber; shovelling and sweating and swearing and feeling our hearts swell with excitement every time we finish something that once seemed impossible. And if I then, picked up the phone and ordered 400 square metres of roofing in a colour which we both hated (yes, for all of you wondering what Bernt's position on the whole colour issue is; the answer is that he is far less willing than I to compromise) it would be a permanent disappointment which would really bug both of us whenever we looked up. And I would have always thought that I if had looked a little bit harder I would have found a solution that didn’t leave us feeling like we could have done better.

And the moral (and conclusion) to this long-winded self-indulgent story is; that if you keep trying you will eventually talk to just the right person who will have exactly what you need. And that’s what happened; my roofing hero got back to me and told me that they had recently done a job at a Tassie winery with a colour from the metallic range (its called Axis and is kind of a muted coppery silver) and that they had some in stock and could do our panels in that. And, we love it! And I am really excited because I think it will be really beautiful, probably 10 times prettier than our first choice even! And now I’m very aware that you all will be looking at the roof (when its up) with very scrutinising eyes, and most of you will be thinking, ‘Well I don’t see why a cream roof wouldn’t have looked just as nice’. All I can say is; if we were easy to please kinda people we would have bought ourselves a kit home and been wrapped with how simple a process it all was and how nicely it turned out. And that, my friends is the end of today’s rant… I mean blog… J

Framing Up

What an exciting and inspirational morning!! Today we had some more logs delivered (3 more loads to come later in the week) and after he had unloaded them, our favourite truck driver used his Hiab to put the trusses of frame 1 and 2 into position.  Nail biting stuff!! But let me talk through how we got to this point before I go into it…

Not long after I wrote the last blog, we decided (well Bernt decided and I reluctantly agreed with a big grimace on my face) to try and stand up the remaining wall and arcade posts of frame 1 by hand, without mechanic intervention. Bernt was confident and he obviously has a better grasp on physics than I do because his method worked perfectly without a hitch. We did enlist Dan's help (and ropes) on the day as I was content to watch on terrified from the sidelines. It was a slow process to tilt the frame up (already pegged together) but with the risk of its massive bulk falling, I wouldn’t have wanted it to go much quicker. We braced it in place so it wouldn’t fall over and got to work building the second frame.

Bernt’s ingenious tilting method.

Frame one just waiting for its truss.

It was slow going. Especially as we had to mill all of the timber, and we had some hot days in there during which we both gave up and productivity slipped a bit. But we milled and drilled and chiseled and sanded our way through frame 2. Bernt and I stood the wall and arcade posts of this one up ourselves. This time we did them one timber at a time (not all pegged together) but I still found the task scary because of the sheer weight of the timbers. The ones in the bedroom were fairly straight forward as we had concrete walls to help as stops. The veranda side was a little more scary but we managed it somehow, with the aide of scaffolding and engine crane. Then we worked on the door and window frames in the first bay, which tied frames 1 and 2 together and made them rigid. This meant we could take out some of the bracing. It was really exciting to see the character of the veranda emerging.

The wall and arcade post of frame 2 in the bedroom.                   

The wall posts extend out from the slab and will support the veranda.

To completely tie the frames together we put the ‘wall plates’ in. They are the timbers which stretch between the frames where the truss (the top triangle) meets the wall posts (the outer vertical timbers). On the veranda side this meant fitting in more ‘curvey’ bits, the rounded braces which give the whole timber frame its character (in my opinion) Putting the wall plates up was, again, daunting. They weigh maybe 150kg and we had to lift them about 3m in the air. We did it with the assistance of our trusty engine crane but that only lifts to less than 2m so it was a process of levering and ‘walking’ the timber up to different heights before we got it to where it needed to be.

The wall plate (the horizontal beam extending out towards the river) makes this part of the frame rigid so we can see it for the first time without bracing.

 

The intersection of two braces, or ‘curvey bits’ as I like to call them.

With all of those components in, the two frames were fairly self-supporting so we were ready to have the help of a crane to get the trusses up. As I mentioned in the last blog, there were some concerns with using a 28 tonne slew crane (namely, having the weight of it on our waffle pod slab). I rang Steve, who had delivered our Lucas Mill as well as all of our concrete blocks and logs on his Hiab truck (a truck with a crane attached to its back), and he seemed confident that his truck would manage the job. So we decided to do it in conjunction with our next log delivery. That meant we had to finish milling all of the remaining logs and clean up the milling area for truck access (two whole days of cutting all of the off cuts into firewood size and moving it). We also constructed two purlins (the timbers which join the trusses and will eventually hold up the roofing material) ready to be put in place on the day.

And today was that day!! Steve was here bright and early to deliver the logs. I thought Id really had enough of milling but when I saw them arrive I felt a little bit excited to get going on them again, Phew… because we have nearly 70 logs left to mill so I cant afford to have had enough yet!! And when he had unloaded them all, the fun began!

Stacey’s sculptural woodpile made from all of the off cuts from the milling, inspired by one a neighbour was building.

 

Steve drove the truck up onto the slab, he and Bernt talked through the logistics of what went where and how best to attach straps for lifting etc. Some of our concrete blocks had to be moved, but that was light work for the crane, and luckily the truck fit through the gap in the concrete block wall, with only 10cm to spare would you believe!! Then came time for the lifting which went really smoothly and then… the nail biting moment of truth, would everything fit together?...  Of course J Its almost like we had measured it or something! Haha… It was a moment of self-doubt though. And then the second frame truss went up and then a purlin on each side to hold them together. And everything fit!! So so exciting. And the end result is just breathtaking. It is sooo tall, the huge timbers we have been struggling with at ground level are so high up in the stratosphere that they look like matchsticks…J Well… exaggeration alert… but they do look much less bulky. It really will be an amazing space. But as I was talking to Steve’s wife about the benefits of owning such a crane, she mentioned that the forklift is much handier, to clean their 2^nd storey windows with and I suddenly thought; ‘How are we ever going to clean our windows??’… 

Truss being lifted by the Hiab.

 

Truss 1 fits perfectly!

 

Truss 2 being lifted into position. Note the truck squeezed through the gap in the concrete wall.

 

The mortises and tenons fitting snuggly together.

 

The purlins took a little more persuading to fit.

The view from the driveway, no wonder people keep stopping on the road! ;)

This shows that we have a huge amount of work ahead of us! 5 more frames to go.

First Frame Finished

We had a special assistant this week. Dan, a friend of Bernt's from work and also a furniture maker, offered to take a week of leave in order to help us out with the timber frame. It was such a lovely gesture and really helped get us underway with the frame making.

First we laid the timbers out over a full scale drawing on the floor of the workshop. Then we marked out and cut all of the joins. We are using traditional joinery i.e.; mortise and tenons (the tenon is like the top of a piece of Lego which fits into the mortise hole) and later some dovetails. It is slow work (especially with me at the chisel… Ill get quicker…) so it was super helpful to have an extra set of hands.

Frame pieces laid out over full size drawing.

Cutting joins.

 

Dan cutting a tenon.

Next is a lot of shifting and fitting which is pretty difficult when it comes to such heavy beams. We relied on our handy engine crane as well as tensioning straps to pull joints together (and apart). A little bit of sanding to smooth the beams a touch and then it was time to peg up (I make it sound so simple don’t I…).

Engine crane and straps helping move and pull together the timbers.

 

Elaborate strap setup to pull the rafter and collar tie beams together.

As we are doing this the traditional way we are using wooden pegs (like thick dowel with a taper on one end) rather than bolts to fix the joints together. Initially we thought that splitting and shaping a few hundred pegs was going to take us forever so I looked into having some celery top pine dowel made up for us. It was doable, through a local contact but he instead showed us how easy it would be to shape them ourselves using an angle grinder with a ‘flapper’ disk attached, kind of like a pleated skirt made from sandpaper. Making them ourselves meant that we could split the wood (with an axe) rather than cutting it which gives the pegs so much more strength so we decided to give it a go (when you split the wood it breaks along the grain rather than potentially cutting through grain thus weakening it). With the assistance of a wonderful peg making ‘machine’ than Dan built us we have found we can ‘whip’ up pegs in a reasonable amount of time.

Bernt testing out Dan’s peg making ‘machine’.

 

Birth of the first peg.

Dan proudly cradling the first peg.

 

Bernt hammering in the first peg (we have yet to make ourselves a proper wooden mallet).

 

The first frame finished.

The next problem to solve was how to stand up the frame. I looked into crane hire but there are some concerns about the 28 tonne crane sitting on top of our waffle pod slab so we are now pursuing other options. More on that when we get to that point. For now, Bernt and Dan felt confident that they could stand up part of the frame by manpower, with the assistance of the concrete walls and scaffolding. Before the beams could go up though, we had to construct steel brackets and screw them into the floor to locate and bolt the beams to. Dan set up a little welding cave in the bathroom (notice how I’m now referring to things as rooms… coz they have walls and are staring to feel like real spaces!). He pumped out some brackets for us while Bernt drilled holes and I gave them a coat of rust proof paint. Late Friday afternoon, with the brackets safely bolted into the concrete slab, we set to heaving the first posts into position. It went well, apart from a scary shudder when the concrete wall acted as a stop for the wall post.

Dan’s welding cave aka the bathroom.

 

The finished brackets getting a paint job.

 It’s a very cool sight to see some timber go up, I think the build is really going to start looking like something special when the first full frames go in. Bernt and I have just finished pouring a couple of concrete columns for the wall posts that will sit outside the floor plan (as part of the veranda) and this week hope to get frame 2 underway.

Pure manpower makes the walls shudder as the beam comes to an abrupt halt.

 

A tenon fitting into a mortise, ready for pegging.

 

First part of the frame in place!

 In other news, we had an electrician in this week to put a proper power point at the water tank for our pump. It means that the lights in the ger no longer dim when I turn on the tap…

Lucas Mill 101

The next step in the build is to construct our traditional timber frame. We have decided to cut the chunky beams ourselves from celery top pine logs (a native Tassie hardwood which is incredibly stable and suitable for this purpose).

The first load (about a third) of the celery top pine logs arrive on site.

Logs are lifted carefully off truck.

Big job!

We’ve been hard at it with the Lucas Mill for just under a week now. Had a few dramas with the transport company when one piece arrived damaged but it was all sorted eventually with the company agreeing to deliver a replacement to us free of charge (there was some disagreement about whether they were responsible for getting it from the Hobart depot to our block). But our contact at Lucas Mill was wonderful about the whole situation. Great Australian family company success story with super customer service!

Usually I write a blog when we’ve finished a job (to kind of celebrate its finish) but I can see that this will take a while so Ill take it in some smaller bites. Thought Id do a quick step by step of how we are milling up our timber;

STEP 1; ROLL LOG OFF PILE.

Aaargh, this is the scariest step! We had two truckloads of logs delivered in order to get a start. It should get us about a third done, depending on the quality of the logs. Bernt had them placed on a bit of a slope so gravity could assist us when we needed to roll them under the mill. Because of the number of logs they are stacked 3 logs high in places, which means that gravity is not only helpful but also a bit scary. They are so super heavy that moving them involves a huge iron crow bar, and much grimacing from the sidelines from me.

 

STEP 2; GET LOG ONTO BEARERS. 

Again much use of the crow bar to slide or roll the log up onto the bearer (which keeps it off the ground for ease of cutting).

 

STEP 3; ADJUST LOG TO BE PARALLEL AND LEVEL WITH MILL. 

A bit more tweaking with the crowbar to get the heart (centre) of the log running parallel with the rails of the mill and then the mill is adjusted so it will run level with the top of the log.

 

STEP 3; START CUTTING. 

 

This requires a bit of puzzling. We know roughly which piece should come from which log, dependant on the length and width of the log, but we are also trying to get as much as we can from each log. This means working around the chunky beam we are cutting and deciding if we can also cut some boards or posts (to use for the veranda later) or some stickers (little sticks of wood that you use when stacking green timber boards to keep airflow for even drying). Of course these decisions rely not only on the size of the log but also on what defects we find in it while cutting. It is a slow process and each log needs to be re-evaluated after nearly every horizontal cut.

 

STEP 4; PULL OUT TIMBER BEAM. 

While Bernt is cutting I work behind him pulling out waste and boards for stacking (to use later to build our veranda) but when we cut one of the timber frame components they are not moveable by hand. Yesterday we cut a rafter, which Bernt worked out to be about 250kg. So we use a roller system to get them from the mill onto the slab. It works pretty well and although not our favourite job, it is doable.

 

STEP 5; STACK TIMBER.

Boards for the veranda

Green timber will generally move (twist, bend or warp etc) if not stacked properly. So we are paying special attention to the stacking. Our chunky frame beams will be used green so they are just layed together in frame order for easy access. Timber that we are cutting for use as verandah boards and posts has been stacked properly with stickers between each layer to allow air to flow through and dry the timber evenly.

Chunky beams for the frame, labelled and ready to go.

I worked out a typically anal Stacey system of labelling which has come in quite handy. I laminated labels for all of the pieces we need for the frame and we attached those labels to the logs (as before mentioned; based on the length and width of the logs). We can now reassess what we can get out of the logs when we open them up and see what’s inside and the labels can be swapped around easily without losing track of what we have and haven’t cut.