Elle L

Right, with the troublesome thermal break business taken care of I could now move on to the cladding!! This required some recruiting of extra hands and muscle as it's certainly not a one pair of hands kind of task. Especially with 2.7m ply sections. My dad and brother were amazing spending several days helping to get the bulk of the house clad. I had been looking into scaffolding options to see if I could pick up something second hand or possibly hire some. In the end I decided I might need to just buy some and sell it afterwards. But before I did that I thought of all my friends and if any of them might have something I could borrow. The only person I could think of was Tony who has been a great support to the project and even driven Maddi for me a few times. And guess what, he had some lying under his house just waiting to be put to use again! It has been unbelievably helpful. I'd decided on ply 'board and batten' as my cladding and to stain it with three coats of the 'warm kwila' colour. A number of these were pre done and ready to roll. And I must say I was glad to get these heffalumps attached so I didn't have to move them by hand ever again! It proved to be a pretty straight forward task. There was of course lots of measuring to make sure things were as centered and square as possible, measuring and cutting window holes and lifting them up and down. But we got a good system going and I provided yummy snacks for 'the workers' I did some of the smaller sections in the bedroom by myself which was a little tricky but rewarding to be able to do. Then magically the pile in the corner was no more and the house was 95% clad. There was suddenly a solidness and substance to the structure. The cladding at the front and the back would have to wait for the roof beams to be attached and custom front beam/thermal break sections to be made, but Maddi was that much closer to having a real house on her back

Well once again I have left it a considerable amount of time before updating progress! Perhaps it's obvious that I'm not much of a 'poster'. But it is fun to do a little write up and encouraging to have a look at when I'm having a bit of an 'ahhhhh ' moment with the project. Which is exactly what happened when I left off after my last post . . . . . the thermal break . . . . During my research for how to construct my home I'd read a lot about steel framing vs wood, thermal breaks, cavities, what was typically done on a house vs a tiny home on wheels etc. After deciding on what I'd do then getting thoroughly confused again I finally settled on how I'd go about it. Steel and wood framing with a 12mm thermal break that would also act as a small cavity. I'd opted to strip up 12mm treated ply, and I had a handy stash that I'd pre done when I was at an in between stage waiting for materials. So I made a start on the task and it was just somehow such a challenge and confusing for something that was actually rather simple albeit time consuming. I just felt totally stuck. I floundered around for a couple of days and hit a real low point. In the end I asked dad to come and have a look with me and of course with his input I was once again on a (if wobbly) roll. Can't tell you how glad I was when that task was completed! On the plus side it wasn't a heavy task, like the next one.

After all of that hard work, it was time to celebrate with a cup of tea in my bedroom to be The next challenge was the thermal break But that's a story for another day, it's time to get to the truck and get things done!

I even got some extra visitors

Next was what felt like such a momentous occasion, putting on the building wrap! Now you could really start to get a feel and sense of space of the house to be. This really felt like a milestone.

A little hard to photograph, especially with all the shed framing in the background! But you get the idea

Then I got the call I'd been waiting for, my timber framing was ready for collection! So I attached the trailer and went for a nice drive up the Motueka Valley. With the wood nicely stacked ready and waiting on the truck floor dad then gave me a hand to relocate the compound saw to the shed. I'd done some google research on building wall framing, learning about lintels etc and drew up some diagrams with dad and was then left to it. I must admit I spent a good few hours measuring and psyching myself up to cut the first pieces of wood. I was so nervous to get started for some reason. But once I got into it I was away. I spent the next few weeks measuring and cutting and measuring again and creating sections of wall to lift up and screw in place. It was quite exciting to see the shape really starting to appear, with window holes and everything! I asked dad to come and have a look at progress, just to check I wasn't doing something glaringly wrong, I got the A Ok so kept working away. My brother came out and tested kitchen window height with me. It's always good to get a second opinion on things like this when you're working by yourself. There was of course the inevitable jokes about being short I put in a lot of solid long days to get this task completed, so I couldn't quite believe it when I fitted the last section. I was super chuffed.

The catch up continues . . . . . . . . The next 'major' task I was keen to get stuck into was my wooden framing to fill in the blanks between my steel frame-work. This of course required final decisions on my windows and doors and making the frames for them all so the holes were the right size! So timber research it was as I needed an odd size because my wall cavity is only 40mm. I looked at lots of different options, various sizes to cut down, prices from different places etc then when I went into Knowles Timber to ask for more window framing I mentioned it to them and they reckoned they could find something to do the trick There was of course a wait on the timber so I busied myself with other smaller tasks, sanding off 'spewed' out glue on the beams, looking at colours, prepping windows etc. Then I got the call that my window frame timber was ready. Man a car full of freshly cut macroparpa smells totally amazing Very luckily for me my parents had recently moved to the area and dad is very generous with his time and his workshop! And his tools, the next to be introduced to being his compound saw. I love this saw, its friendly to use and makes it way easier and more accurate than using a hand saw for window frame making that's for sure. Not to mention learning some tips to make sure the frames are square. Many an hour was spent in the workshop working away on these frames for nine little windows and two doors! All of my windows and doors were second hand collections form tip shops, marketplace and trademe. Even the door frame timber. One of my doors is quite narrow (660mm) and I acquired a free door frame with a beautiful thick rimu sill what has been repurposed to make the sills for both my doors. They all have story of how they came to be collected and put into my house Doesn't make for particularly interesting photos, but here are a few anyway.

Goodness it's been awhile since I've updated progress!! I partly blame it on my computer breaking and having more interesting things to do (eg working on Maddi) than getting it fixed. But here we are three months later, a rather busy three months as well. So there's a lot to catch up on . . . . . . . . . After May being my 'floor' month and feeling super stoked to have got that down I then worked full time during June. But there was of course still weekends to work away on. My next exciting task that I've briefly mentioned was laminating all my roof beams! The roof line was a big factor when thinking about my design and overall shape of the house. I went through a few different ideas before settling on my original, a gentle curved roof running the same height all the way down the truck. I love curved roofs, I wont lose much space in my bedroom loft and by keeping a continuous line it will be easier construction wise. That decision made I then had to figure out how to execute the idea. Cue my talented dad again After being put in touch with Dylan and his awesome CNC machine I needed to sort out the design of the beam. Dad used his CAD software to help me design them and figure out the roof construction. Dylan came out to check out Maddi and give her a measure up, then a trailer of ply and cake later, plus a lot of work by Dylan and his machine, and I had a bundle of cut ply in the shape of my roof beams! Next was getting acquainted with epoxy glue, and then voila I have roof beams

I must say being unemployed this month as made for a productive time working on Maddi If not always appearing fruitful there has been organising and planning as well, trying to think ahead to the next stage. It's been great to finally get stuck in and make some headway! The first mission was to get the floor down. So I got busy with the polystyrene offcuts that had been sitting in waiting, filled in all the gaps then came the fun part; learning how to to drill and screw into steel! It took some practice to get the technique right but with a few handy pointers form Dad and Lance I was away. Getting the 17mm ply sheets onto the tray also required some extra muscle which my brother was also awesome at providing. Next challenge was doing the 'under floor' on my bedroom loft over the cab. That took screwing into steel to new levels with odd angles and above my head! But of course I got there with my brother again helping with the lifting and clamping in place. By that stage putting the floor down in my bedroom seemed like a breeze with all of my 'expert' skills gained so far. And then all of a sudden I had a floor to walk and sit on without risk of falling through a gap, amazing!! The organising, ordering, collecting supplies and getting quotes for timber and roofing always seems time consuming but necessary. The the most exciting thing was getting the ply cut for my curved roof beams! I'll have 12 beams with 4 laminates per beam and as dad wisely said I didn't want to do them all with my jig saw if I wanted a roof before Christmas. As it turned out a friend of a friend has a CNC machine and was happy to help!! What a lucky surprise. And so the list of awesome people I'm meeting along the way grows. Plus I now have a whole bunch of cut outs awaiting the glue I've ordered. Progress

And then something really quite exciting happened . . . . . . . . Maddi got her steel frame work done!! After quite some time thinking and researching I decided to go with and 'outline' of steel framing and 'fill in the blanks' with timber system. I'd met Alex and Hannah who had got in touch with me when I was searching for a shed. Not because they had a shed but because they thought Maddi was cool and liked the project. Firstly they asked me around to have a go with their welder! Now that was a little intimidating but actually rather fun. Although I did decide I didn't need to learn how to do absolutely everything and the framing would be best outsourced. As it turned out Alex and Hannah operate their very own workshop, Yellowhammer Workshop. And very lucky for me they agreed to take on my project. They have done an incredible job! I was just like a kid at Christmas going to see it for the first time Not to mention when we got to take Maddi for a drive, so exciting!