Week 10 - the "Ups" and "Downs"

Ok, I admit this is a play on words.  The Ups and Downs of building have hit us in many ways since before Christmas.  At our last post you saw walls go up, exterior Ecoply put in, and we were still waiting on the roof.

We are please to say, that the Roof is now UP, however, it was a bit of an unexpected journey to the top.

We committed to putting DOWN the flooring for the main living area and the hallway.  A lovely hardwood floor which has been waiting in storage for 9 years.  A solid matai wood with more recently bought jarrah edging.  So, the roofers were to finish before Christmas break.  We would be away for a week and then we would return, lay the floor while no tradies were on the property.

Wouldn't life be grand if it worked as planned?!

Well it didn't in this case. The roofers ran out of roofing by 100 tiles and the tile distributor went on vacation, and wham bam... hole in the roof.  Now, in warm, desert climates in the middle of summer, this would be a breeze.  In New Zealand it was a downpour, literally through one section of the roof, which happened to be adjacent to the area where the hardwood was to be laid.  

Lesson #4: Wet floor and hardwood do not mix.

Overall this resulted in a change to the plan, the order of laying our precious floor was meant to be like this:

• seal floor
• measure and cut wood to fit
• glue and lay floor
• allow to dry
• done

However it was more like this

• patch roof with tarp
• dry room with dehumidifier and heater
• measure and cut wood to fit while floor dries
• pull up measured and cut wood, label each individual piece and stack in neat piles
• seal floor once dry
• glue and lay floor
• allow to dry
• done

While this may not seem like a huge diversion from the first plan, the fact is the wood had to be touched twice. Instead of measuring, cutting, glueing and laying, the wood had to be measured, cut and fitted on one day.  Pulled up, labeled, put in ordered stacks on another day.  Then on an entirely different day it was finally glued and laid.  

Needless to say we got there in the end, and so did the roofers.  They showed up, apologized, and finished the work the week after we the floor was laid.

Here are some beautiful pictures to illustrate:

                      The Floor

Cutting, while we wait for the floor to dry.

Another action shot... so much to do!

Floor is finally dry so we seal it up - that's the dark green stuff. According to Gavin it's gooey and REALLY hard to spread.

Glue is added using a V-notch trowel.

The floor is laid onto the glue, weighted and clamped.

The floor now looks like this - just needs a bit of evening off at the edges.  Unfortunately we didn't get any pics of the post trimming for this blog.

Floor is then covered with Ram Board for protection from the "other guys", voila!

The Roof - Done!

So beautiful.

Other events in the previous weeks (My mother is peering over my shoulder... she is a hard out home renovator. Both she and Gavin are here for what I thought was moral support... it turns out they treat their roles as multi functional. They have added spell check and style guide to their job descriptions as well as moral support, how lucky I am.) 

As before...other events in the last few weeks have been marginally slow, I guess that's what happens when the building of our house is plopped right in the middle of a national 2+ weeks of holiday.

So here is the rest of progress to date:

If you look hard you will see it... PLASTER! yep, that's right, some of the cladding is up.

Ooh... what a sexy fireplace.

Last, but not least, batts (aka insulation for the americanas reading along), wiring, plumbing, and gas! Now we just have to wait for the pre-lining inspection and the drywall will go up!