We get by with a little help from our friends

Walls! Roof!  It is all happening!

What we need now is a floor.  Generally speaking, a shed/house like this is built with a slab floor.  Our place has not for a couple of reasons.

1.     We couldn’t get a concrete mixer in here and I am not mixing that much concrete

2.     The shed is on an old flood plain, with beautiful fertile and unpredictable black soil that moves a lot

3.     It is pretty wet, and we don’t really have the time to wait for a slab to cure.

The FB came up with a cunning plan, involving adjustable stumps, timber joints and purloins and the digging of yet more holes.

After our original hole digging experience, digging the holes for the floor stumps was actually pretty fun.  Although it rained and we faced the same challenges with the post hole digger, we had a roof over our heads, and a carton of beer to help us!

I directed, and shovelled and did not drive the tractor, which meant that the holes were dug in good time and pretty much in the right place.  The beer definitely helped!

The adjustable stumps were a bit more challenging.  The FB had a very definite idea of how he wanted them to be, and back in the recesses of my memory, I had seen a very similar product, so I knew what he was speaking of.

Kind of like this

But not quite

Or like this

But not quite

We need the stumps to be adjustable to overcome the ground movement, and also to overcome the “It’s the first time we have ever built a house so it isn’t really100% square” issues.

So the FB talked to his Dad, who has been a fabrication engineer and problem solver, for pretty much the last 30 years.

Et Voila!  This is where a picture of the stumps would go - if I had one.  But rest assured - they are awesome.

The stumps are beautiful, what the FB wanted and TOTALLY over engineered for our purpose.  Perfect!

So more shovelling, more mixing, the adjustable stumps are in.

Another one's on the wall

When we first bought our house in Toowoomba, it had a REALLY old kitchen that was not at all practical.  It was built in the 1940’s/50’s when people were shorter and *erm* thinner.  They also had less ‘stuff’ so needed less bench space.

I HATED that kitchen.  We had a really big table in the middle of the room as well, so more often than not, all the prep was done on the table and the eating was done in front of the TV. 

So it was a happy day for me when we decided to get a brand new kitchen made and that the FB would put it in.

It is easy to see now that he has the mad skills, but the kitchen was the first indoor construction job that had been done.

He did a brilliant job (of course) but it was hard work.  The bit that made me REALLY happy was when he sang “And another one’s one, and another ones one, another one’s on the wall!”  every time he finished a section of cupboard.

This is the cooker and a bit of the kitchen the FB built

It has been like that at the shedhouse too!

The next step has been to put up a roof, and some walls.  We have decided that if nothing else the place has to be warm.  So a sarking cocoon has to be put around the whole building.

This has added a layer of complexity that was not really for seen, but I am betting we will be REALLY pleased that we did it.

The trick to putting up the first sheet of iron on a shed is to make sure you have the right tools and capable help.

As we all know, all the FB has is me.  And a BIG pile of stuff from Bunnings.  You probably need something that is more safe that the “old pallet tied on to crooked tynes on the front of a tractor” as well, so the FB decided to use Florrie and a ladder.  And me.

So Florrie is parked up as close to the side of the shed as able.  The FB stands on the back of the truck, on a ladder holding the sheet of iron. 

Next up we have old Mountain Blue Number one..

I squiggle my way between the truck bed and the shed and hold onto the iron by a combination of a set of good riggers gloves, swearing and squeezing my body and the iron in tandem to the side of the shed.

The FB then screws in the top two rows of screws, and we shuffle along to the next sheet.

Here is the first sheet!!  (see how close Florrie is to the shed??)

The blue stuff is the sarking.  It is stuck to the first roof purloin, and the next wrap will be across the roof.  They will be stuck together with the magic silver tape – which is the greatest stuff but has bee recalled – in part we think due to its awesomeness.  And part we think due to the inexplicable compulsion for anyone near it to STICK IT TO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE!

So we put the eastern wall of the shed on, because that is what we can do ‘safely’ and with the resources available.

Next step - keeping that rain off us!