Mud, branches and holes in the floor

First things first, I took a big step this week by purchasing my own domain, so now I get to be www.pourameliorer.com!

We keep experiencing house-that-jack-built scenarios, where one thing relies on another thing happening, which relies on another thing happening, which relies on another thing happening. I'm sure this is not news to experienced renovators, but given that this is mostly new territory for us, it's quite the mental exercise to figure out exactly what we should be focusing on first.

Today, we hoped to start building the framing for our kitchen extension, since we've had a gaping hole in the back of the house covered with a tarpaulin for almost a week now. We had stored some timber for this purpose alongside the shed in the backyard when we moved in. However when the shed leaked like crazy all over our furniture on our first night, Tom got up on the roof and cut away the tree that was growing onto it. The falling branches ended up on top of our pile of timber and stayed there!

Therefore, long story short, we had to remove the branches in order to get to the timber, in order to build the frame for our extension, in order to close the kitchen!


While we were loading up the ute with branches, Allie spent about 20 minutes standing behind the shed staring into space. We couldn't figure out what was so fascinating, and even tried crouching next to her and following her line of sight to see what could possibly be keeping her in one spot for so long. Eventually we tried calling her away, and she refused to move. So... completely mystified, we checked her legs, and discovered that she had got herself completely tangled in a vine, so she was trapped! We performed a rescue mission, and I'm happy to report that no animals were harmed in the making of this post!

Onto the next task! The way the house is constructed is that the stumps in the ground are attached to the bearers, which hold up the joists that run perpendicular to them, and then the floorboards run perpendicular on top of the joists (in line with the bearers). The wall frame of the house is then built on top of the floorboards. So the reason why this is relevant is because, in order to build our kitchen extension properly, we need to put in new floorboards before we frame up the new walls. It appears to be virtually impossible to match our existing floorboards (5-inch Oregon) without paying a fortune, so I had a brilliant idea. Since we will be tiling what will become the wet areas in the house (bathroom, laundry and ensuite), we won't actually ever see the floorboards in those rooms. Therefore, we could steal some of the floorboards from the bathroom in order to make up the floor in the kitchen, and no-one will be the wiser, because the bathroom will be tiled!

So, to put this plan in motion, Tom had to saw out a section of the floorboards from the room that is currently a third bedroom, but will become the bathroom.

This is the room:

Allie testing out the strength of the boards

And checking out the view from the window.

Tom hand sawing the corner

The rectangle sawed in the floor.

Tom using the circular saw and making fireworks!

Peeling the floorboards off the joists without damaging them was very hard!

Perfectly square!

Tom lifting the floorboards off the joists

Because the boards attach together through a tongue-and-groove system, placing them under pressure can break the tongue, which is a shame when we're wanting to reuse them. The pair sitting on top separated from the others when Tom lifted them, causing a bit of damage. We'll see what we can salvage.

The boards downstairs being de-nailed

This is the area of the kitchen (and extension) that we need floorboards for. The pale coloured rectangle at the top of the photo is the top of an old desk, performing the function of temporary floor so we don't fall through the gaps in the joists. That area obviously needs floorboards. Not only that though, three of the boards further into the kitchen are quite damaged, so they need replacement as well.

That makes for a total of eight boards required, and coincidence of coincidences, that just happens to be the number of boards Tom extracted from the bathroom!

And here is my extremely scientific working drawing to determine exactly what lengths of boards we required, and in what configuration. The boards Tom got from the bathroom are only 2.555m long, and one of the spaces in the kitchen where we need to replace the existing board is over 3m long. Plan now in place, we can hopefully attach the boards tomorrow, and start on the frame!

Until then,

Bec