His and Hers

While I have been busy banging and crashing around the house the other half has kept her sanity by burying her head in knitting, and this is her latest creation a wonderful baby wool shawl, if the colour is lovely the patten is out of this world, its length would be more than 2 meters so there is plenty to keep you warm, I would guess there would be more than 100 hours labor knitting in this shawl, I have a lot more banging and crashing to do so I expect there to be a lot more knitting done and as her confidence grows who knows what could be next?

I was not banging and crashing as I painted the ceiling and one wall, it's only a gib board sealer to protect the face from aging and so I can see any blemishes that need filling, this photo is of the wall that had the fire place, the ply on the floor is covering that concrete block that was the foundation to the fireplace and is now to be the floor of a new wardrobe, the posts of inlay are going to be used to divide the wardrobe into 3 bays, the posts going from floor to ceiling and the wardrobe covering the whole wall, it will be an open wardrobe (no doors) so I will use the same ply as on the floor and finish it as the floor is so it is pleasing to the eye, that wall at the end with the pink batts is awfully bent, the white strip in the corner is my attempt to cast plaster to the stud that is straight and plumb now I have to tinker with the other studs to get something to fix the gib to and fixings for the wardrobe shelves, there is no end to the excitement and fun the days fly by.

New Ceiling

It has been a dirty dusty few days, now the old insulation is gone the new has had a shake the Rondo battens are all in place and three and a half sheets of Gib board are glued and screwed in place, those ceiling joists are all bent and there is a general sag to the center of the room I think the strong back is bent too, I did consider taking it our and turning it over but thought it would probably then sag again so chose the leave all alone, the rondo system is so wonderfully straight and quick to fix, the supplier I use lent me a gib board lifter this is the first time I have used one and now I know the lounge

ceiling is also possible as that too will need three and a half meter sheets, I have chosen to use 10mm gib and put the rondo battens at 400mm centers they are in fact less than that at about 380mm and used plenty of glue, I have started to do the stopping and feel good about my ability to get it right with such a good surface to start with.
A long time ago I put together some different coloured timbers then cut them up and joined them back together again I have had 3 lengths in careful storage always looking and wondering what I

could use them for, today I machined 2 posts that will form the front of the new wardrobe and the inlay will be the feature of the room, the post will have a base using the same coloured wood and a hat, keep watching for the developments on this one. 

A Whole New Bed Room

This is the new wall from the bedroom side where the fire place was, now the ceiling has been removed too, it was fibrous plaster a product I think is better than gib board but it was sagging, acrylic paint had been used over an oil based paint and it was peeling off, there was all the awful insulation from a bygone age up there that is good to be rid of and I wanted the opportunity to anchor the roof better so it has gone and will be replaced with gib board.
The ceiling joists are awfully bent so I will be using the Rondo system of steel to straighten the whole ceiling up, here you see all the new insulation that has been added in recent years.
This is the wall at the other side of the bedroom, I have replaced this wall too so only the exterior wall will remain original, I am looking forward to seeing some gib board on the ceiling and think I will have to place some of the insulation as I place each sheet as the roof is very low and no crawl space.
The best part of renewing everything is knowing I am not painting over old paint and hoping for a good finish.
I am thinking a new window in the room but once the ceiling is up I will need a week to do something with the floor, fill the holes, sand and seal then put some gib on the walls.
Onwards and upwards. 

A little painting

This is the wall that once upon a time had a fire place, now its clean fresh and straight the holes that different obsolete wires came from are all gone and we have one more power point, I also took the light from the ceiling and put in two wall lights, there are now only two walls in the lounge that are still the blue painted wall paper one is the wall with the window and the wall with a sliding door both of which I hope one day to replace but not this winter and the bedroom behind this wall needs a lot of my attention.
I painted doors in the garage when doing the pantry, laundry and

hot water cupboard and each time had difficulties with either wind blown dust or insects getting their feet in the paint and leaving trails as they struggled to escape, so while I have an empty room and a ceiling I am going to replace I can hang doors and paint both sides at once, having them flat results in no runs in the paint and I am able to paint the top and bottom of the door to my mind a good idea as I have seen many doors suffer from not being painted top and bottom.
The wall behind the doors is the next one to be replaced I have

already removed 2 studs they were the straight ones all the others are bent I will put them over a planer and straighten them then glue them together in pairs this will keep them straighter so I can thickness them and cut them before gluing on a third piece to bring them back to 90 X 45, here I show those that came from the last wall, nails removed straightened and glued up there is much to do but I don't want to chop them up for fire wood as I no longer have a fire, they become very stiff when laminated and I hope there is little chance of them bending so I am going to get the best finish on the gib board that I can, it is a good feeling knowing that I am able to do it all myself  and get a reasonable finish, the walls are good practice before I start on ceilings.   

New Walls

The fire place has gone and there is a gap in the wall, some of the wall studs are bent and twisted and not going to give a good finish to new gib board so it has to be a new wall, I temporarily prop the ceiling and take out the old wall before building a new one as shown, here you can see some of the bedroom wardrobe wall still in place as I thought it was holding up that ceiling and the roof, this wall is a brace wall so will be lined with a bracing gib board, the 2  panels are to take the wall lights we had thought picture lights and
hang a picture underneath but changed that idea so may now hang a picture between the lights, there is the problem of covering up the hole in the floor and decided that we will always carpet this room so a bit of tanalised ply will fill the hole.
The wall of the bedroom wardrobe was built from rough sawn 75 X 50mm and while some was bent some was quite straight but all full of big knots I decided to try straighten it and glue up new studs with the hope of getting 90 X 45mm I was successful and managed to make 12 studs over 2 days which is not economical when I could buy a 3m length or LVL for $17 but the satisfaction was in using it and not burning it, so here we have a new bedroom / hall wall again a brace wall so sheeted with gib brace, I now have all the bent twisted studs from this wall and the other so again I will glue up some laminated straight ones and replace the wall on the right of the photo, then there will be only one internal wall in the whole house I have not replaced, the exterior walls are bent but I cannot see myself replacing any of them.
The floor in this room is Tawa and we think worth exposing so we will put effort into making it look good and varnish it then enjoy its honey golden glow that I have come to enjoy whenever I use the bathroom.
Ceilings are looming on the horizon, bedroom and hallway are due for replacing soon.