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.   

Fun pulling it all down

I was not sure what was involved with pulling out a fireplace, I knew there is a concrete pad down onto the ground and we had taken out the top of the chimney when the new roof went on so what I had to remove was below ceiling height but a lot of brick and concrete to break up and remove that will be used as a base for paths in the garden most of the concrete was a light weight pumice mix that made it easy to move outside.
View from the bedroom side that will become an open wardrobe as we find doors on wardrobes an inconvenience that sucks up floor space, I think we will have a hanging space at each end with space in the middle for a chest of draws, the room is the old 12ft wide or in my language 3.660 making it difficult for sheet sizes.
The gib board is very weak the core is crumbly and the paper has no holding power in those days nothing was glued so the gib was  easy to remove but messy so lots of clean ups, the stud work is very bent and uneven varying in width so it is going to be an entire new wall and as there is a bracing member there I will line it with gib bracing, at the top the ceiling is a mess a result of hot fires and leaks so the ceiling could face a similar future.
I have an idea of some wall lights on the lounge side probably the type that would be mounted over a picture, there is also a lot of work to fix up the floor which could involve some concrete cutting work, it is also a good opportunity to place the insulation in the right places.
Up and onwards with the fun.
 
   

One thing leads to another

Here is the photo that should have been in the last post, that daunting block
of concrete under the toilet that I took about 80mm off I then put some timber around the waste pipe to eventually fix the flooring to I then put some mastic that will remain flexible around the pipe to protect it, the flooring will all be cleaned and look like that on the right, most of that problem has now gone away.
The problem of what to do with the bricks and concrete around the fire place was often on my mind but as I got on with the garden project it became clear what I should do with it, the raised garden to the left is always in shade during the winter so putting a foot path along the side was an obvious choice, our soil is very deep and at about 500mm becomes sand

so a thick course of bricks and concrete will be covered with pebbles, the small middle path may be the same, I still need more soil so digging out more of the path to the end of the carport is on the cards.
I have been reasonably free of back ache these last few days so felt able to swim 40 lengths of the pool yesterday and felt the effects all day the result was an early night in bed, today we started with a 40 minuet walk before breakfast but then the back started to complain, I do find it best to keep moving about if I can when this happens with the hope that I can work the back right that is with rest, sheeting off part of the house and pulling down some gib board seemed manageable so here we are creating a footpath, those concrete blocks behind the stud work look heavy, the wardrobes on the other side of that wall are going to be demolished so the blocks may be coming out via the bedroom, there had been a few roof leaks prior to the new roof the ceiling is effected and will be another job once this wall is rebuilt and the bedroom brought back to use, I can see a few weeks work here given that I try not to put too much strain on my back by not doing too much at a time.
Keep watching. 

Windows and Garden

The windows arrived then it was my turn, I wanted to avoid painting the liners so I had them delivered loose and spent a while gluing formica to the face and edge, I used PVA or epoxy both work very well, then I used biscuits and epoxy to glue up the miters as it is the miters that often part as water gets into them and look tatty after a few years.
This photo is of the completed laundry wall, I used some of the old floorboards to edge the ply around the window creating a look I an so pleased with, the white liner behind the washing machine is 4.5mm
thick glued to 7mm ply, I used a H jointer between the 12mm ply and the white board below giving a very neat finish, at the window I cut off the legs of the plastic jointer.

All three windows are in now and the wall is lined with gib board unfortunately the supplier is out of the tile looking board I want to use on the walls in the bathroom so this room is going to look like this for some time now, I did install a new toilet, the project daunted me as there is a great lump of concrete below that the pipe comes through and used to show around the toilet, once I started demolition and saw how it had been assembled many years ago my concerns were not what I thought though I did dash off to the hire shop for a kango hammer which made the job easier on the arms, the mess at the top of the wall is my attempt to create a straight line for a scotia to fix to at a later date, the floor will all be tawa tounge and groove but not till the new shower base is installed, the shower will be in front of the toilet.
I had to find somewhere to plant 3 Blueberry trees that arrived home so I decided to have a break from house alterations, the bottom of the garden has for years been a dumping ground for grass clippings piling up the fence higher and higher, the Feijoa tree is now much smaller than it was so a plan was hatched to create a raised garden I am not sure how it is going to be used but it is stamping my mark on the back garden, a change in colour of the back fence could be in line.   
   

Time off

The laundry is finished, I need a break, so we are off to explore the road through to Gisborne State Highway 2 and have a look at Eastwoodhill Arboretum, its 200km and through a gorge following a river, its the end of May and a cold snap is over the country as we travel the road there is still frost on the grass at midday, we have a brief look at Gisborne then find accommodation for the night its boutique so one stand alone unit next to a house amongst the avocado trees there is a spa pool so I soak a while before we head out to eat.
Eastwoodhill is good but cold amongst those big trees, we had seen some dog trials so headed back to warm in the sun and enjoy the dogs and owners competing, a very competent pair I had watched seemed willing to divulge that the dog had been in training for 5 years it was 6 years old (sorry no photos), this road State Highway 2 is such a pleasant road to travel being a mixture of citrus orchards grape vines and sheep farming for the first few flat klms then its into the hills and following the river and the river got bigger and the hills higher we had the time so letting those past who just wanted to get to a destination I enjoyed the views we stopped at this relic of a bridge that in years long ago took 3 families to their farms, its the Tauranga Bridge and when I look it up on Google Earth there is no wonder farming was not possible in those hills, it must have been disheartening to travel past all that flat land from Opotiki then try and farm in those hills.
We had a good couple of days, the paint on the door frames I painted before we left is now well dry and I feel safe closing the doors on the laundry and hot water cupboard, that's 2 rooms finished. 

 

Mostly finished

The pantry is operational the fridge has a permanent home, the doors are painted as is the wall.
The shelves are a melamine faced MDF with a white formica edging glued on with pva, it was a slow process but now its finished well worth the effort, the shelves are sat on a steel bracket system so they are adjustable but look good to me as they are, there is another shelf high up not seen in the photo that we have all the chutney on, I had to put ply on the floor to cover up the old floor I don't like leaving old flooring in but in this case I had little choice and the new ply creates a rebate that the doors fit to making it mouse proof (I hope) as we have had a few around the house popping up where there are gaps in the floors due to what I am doing, I created removable panels so I can access the back of the switch board.
There is a 80mm gap either side of the fridge that works fine as the doors are thick and need that space to open otherwise the fridge would have to sit out but as it is we can keep it back in the hole, the

ceiling is unfinished as is the floor and will remain that way for now, I have used a 38mm dia round corner to the gibboard that I like and am pleased with the outcome.
The feijoa tree in the back garden has been greatly reduced now and has been taken to the green waste tip, we have had so much fruit and will miss having it stewed each day on breakfast but then there is a freezer full of the pulp just waiting to be defrosted.
After our visitors have gone it will be back to the laundry and new windows and I can have one room complete.

A Pantry in April

I didn't have to wait months for it to happen, the new fridge needs a home, I sold the small fridge so the only necessary ingredient missing is my enthusiasm and as I had a few days with only me in the house it is the right time to disrupt the kitchen, I built a new wall to the right of the pantry, I had pre painted 3 12mm sheets of MDF to line the pantry with I had edged a piece of 16mm pine ply and pre coated it for the floor, the doors were primed some time ago and will be taken off for top coating, the door frame has been pre painted but will get some more when the doors are off, I am making an access panel to the power box back should I ever need to get more wires to it.
I have been using the blue cover to prevent dust covering the whole house as I pull out the old gib board, the gib that is in the fridge area will go next and new will be put up in the next day or two, I am thinking a cupboard above the fridge but as the fridge is 1700mm high and it needs some room above to breath it may be too high to be of much use, I am looking forward to shaping up some shelves that will sit on the brackets and getting gib board stopped and painted.
Yehy