Renovation Part Two

On the first day the ceiling all came down pretty easily, revealing the joists and giving me a bit of an idea where most of the water seems to be coming in from. It's hard because it's just a small amount of water, and it only occurs during our norwest storm cycles each winter, so it's probably a combination of wind and Venturi effect from cracks in the fibre cement under the tiles. I'm hoping that judicious application of Sikaflex works.

Some of the stud walls got installed on the first day. If the brick walls were all double brick it wouldn't need gyprocking, but it's a mishmash of double brick pillars and single brick walls in between, so all walls except the front wall will be clad with plaster board. It means I can hide the wiring, which until now has been exposed.

A little setback however, when we discovered that the ceiling joists are not all the same height. The joists over the verandah above are a little lower, so we need to batten the entire area to get an even ceiling. Sigh....

At the end of Day 1 the skip bin arrived, so I flexed some muscle and threw all the old ceiling, plus lots of my accumulated junk into it. I've told the builders I'm paying them to do work I'd struggle with, whereas cleaning up and throwing garbage in the skip bin is something I can easily do myself.

With the ceiling off the wiring can get laid, but there's a bit of a chicken and egg scenario between the electrician and the builder over what needs to be done before the other can do their bit. Because the ceiling needs to be rebattened the lighting can't be laid yet. Aside from that, by the end of Day 3 most of the wiring is in.

And the walls were all studded, the insulation installed and the main walls gyprocked.

With the ceiling off we could see that there was a bit of a sag going on, with the weight of the floor above probably not being supported adequately by the beams and the single post supporting it. This sag may also have contributed to the water pooling. The post isn't actually in a central position, and is frankly in a very annoying place as regards where the new kitchen layout will be, so we are moving it and supporting the weight above better by installing a steel bulkhead. This will probably make the house more structurally sound, and maybe sort the water issue as well.

Meanwhile, I've been doing my own DIY repairs. I've repointed the bricks on one of the pillars, applied Sikaflex the entire length of the verandah, and replaced the wire screens on all the insect screens in the rest of the house. Removing old spline is a right royal pain in the arse, but the new screens are worth the effort. Hopefully they will last another 30-40 years!!

Needless to say I'm not going skiing in the northern hemisphere this year....