Day 7

Today was a very exciting day. All the tie beams were done yesterday and today they put up all the wall frames. Now you can get a real feel for what our second storey will look like. Wow I'm super excited.

The guys worked very hard today and I have no idea how on earth they got the last frame onto the roof with only four of them. The thing was almost 3m long.

The wall frame on the right of the photo sticking out of the highest part of the roof is the super big one.

Day 6

The roof cutting continues and all the tie beams are done. The 'rubble' continues to grow. Our roof tiles are in neat little piles all the way around our house just waiting to be put onto our new second storey roof.

This is one long tie beam mommy.

The 'rubble' pile now includes some of our 1945 meranti roof rafters and bits of concrete (who puts concrete in a tile roof - really)

Its astounding how much balled up newspaper there was in our roof.

Day 4 and 5

They have started in the roof now. They removed a row of tiles (or rows of tiles) and started to cut the rafters and connect the tie beams to the top of the walls.

Every evening they drap our home in pretty green plastic so it looks like a cross between a fumigation tent and the top of a shack, only instead of bricks and tires we have timber and roof tiles.

Day 3

Tie beams contructed. These were very time consuming for the guys.

The long flat things at the front of the photo are the tie beams.

Every night they sweep up and cover the wood pile.

Day 2

The frame building continues. Walls all done and onto A-frames for the roof. Look at all our 'rubble'.

Oh no what a terrible mess the builders have made (hehe).

Day 1 - Curious George joins the construction team

On day 1

• Our team of 4 guys arrives (ok 3 arrived and 1 came the next day).
• Our team is Joe, John, Walter and Patrick
• A huge pile of timber arrived the thursday before
• The team cut and nailed wall frames together. 
• Curious George was fascinated by the process. They wore hats he needed a hat, they brought out hammers he needed a hammer. 
• At the end of the day they swept up all their own sawdust and tidied everything away. Wow day one golden glow accomplished. 

Our home before......

 

Going Up, Growing Up

Welcome to my new blog. This blog is really meant so our family and friends and join in the roller coaster ride which we have embarked upon for the next 10 - 12 weeks. We are adding a timber frame second storey to our home during my last trimester of pregnancy. Yup we are definitely crazy. It was either do it now before our second blessing is born or do it when she's two so ....... we are doing it now.

Why a second storey you might ask. Well we needed an extra room and a bathroom and so we decided to just go ahead and add a whole second floor. OK that is a little exteme but we looked at all the options and our roof is such and strange shape that any ground level addition would require some serious roof construction. So it was go up timber frame style or move. We hate packing and we love our house and Witch Rooms offers a great timber frame process.

What are we putting upstrais:

• three bedrooms
• 1 and a half bathrooms (one on suite)
• and a little balcony off our bedroom
  

What will happend to the bedrooms downstrais

• Our bedroom will become a family room
• Our TV nook will become the dinning room
• Curious George's (my blog name for our 20mnth old son) room will be the staircase and a understairs office area
• The study will become a play room/ guest room

Why we liked the Witch Rooms option

•  A timber frame second storey will take 10 - 12weeks to finish 
• They build everything outside and on top of your roof and only come into your house in the last two week to build the stairs. 
• The leave your roof on (mostly) until the walls are up and the roof A-frames are up then they move your original roof tiles up. So you are only without a roof from like one day.

Sounds perfect right. Well keep track of this blog and you'll discover if this is true.