Walls

Mr Y and I met the PAAL semi-trailer at Glencoe at 6.20 am last Wed 8/10, it followed us out to the block and unloaded. Truck was gone by 8.30am. Mr Y and I spent a couple of hours storing the windows, doors, etc under cover, then started laying out the wall frames in the order they needed to be assembled.

My dad (Pa to the grandkids, so I’ll call him Pa here) arrived just before midday, helped us finish laying out the wall frames, had lunch and then we got into it!

End of the Day 1 (Wed) we had the wall frames up for two rooms.

Day 2 (Thurs) we had the wall frames up for all but the big open lounge/dining/kitchen area.

Day 3 (Fri) we finished getting all the wall frames up and got the external walls all squared at floor level and dynabolted to the slab.

Day 4 (Sat) Mr Y finished squaring up all the internal wall frames and dynabolted them to the slab while I started assembling and bolting together the roof trusses. It rained at 1pm so we quit for the day. (It turns out it was the only shower all day according to the neighbours, but Littlemiss was with us and she wasn’t at her best so an early day was good for her.)

Day 5 (Sun) Mr Y had work so Pa, Littlemiss and I headed out, we got 2 hours in before it absolutely p-p-p-poured down. Before it rained, I discovered that we had been sent an incorrect bracing pack which slowed down the roof truss assembly.

Having Pa there has doubled our working speed, because he is the extra hand that holds things steady for one person while the other gets on with another job. Bloody brilliant. He’s got a dodgy knee, arthritis and a touch of gout so if something needs doing at floor level he’s happy to let one of us bend down!

Monday Mr Y and I both had work, yesterday I worked and Mr Y wrangled the demanding child (!) and cooked dinner, today it’s just as well we’re not out there because the weather is wet again.

Hopefully the replacement parts will turn up by courier today and the weather will be better (will check BoM shortly) and we’ll get back into it tomorrow. Need to plumb, square and brace the wall frames, and insert hundreds of tiny screws before we start putting the roof trusses up anyway, so we really just need a dry day to knock some of that fiddly stuff over.
So far, going well.