Obstacles abound

Once the posts had been freed of their nails and bolts, we again loaded them onto the trailer in pairs and transported them to the block whenever we went there.  In the time it had taken to cut the beams, the slab had cured.  We had Jimmy Brennan (our local engineer) make us some 10mm steel brackets.  The were perfect.

After much investigation we bought about a billion 150mm dynabolts to attach the brackets to the slab and a ludicrously expensive concrete drill bit.

The concrete had cured beautifully and it proved quite a challenge to drill into it.

Drilling the first hole

Our cordless drill did not cut the mustard.  Although it did generate some cement dust, the resultant hole was about 5mm deep before the battery ran out of charge.  So, not to do things by half, we went out and purchased a more powerful, mains powered drill.  Oh, and a $5000 Lister Petter generator to be able to run it.    To store the generator, we then bought a used shipping container to protect it from the rain.

 The kids thought the shipping container was awesome and danced for ages when it was delivered.

Considering we had a shipping container and I found a bargain timber kitchen on eBay, we went to Melbourne to collect it.  Our luck being what it is, on the return journey I blew out the tyre on the trailer and we spent a very long 3 hours between Leongatha and Foster with the kids waiting for the tow truck with the two dogs in the boot.  In the rain.  Thankfully we happened to stop at the entrance to the Great Southern Rail Trail so we went for multiple short walks along the track, returning to the car frequently to check whether RACV were there yet or not.

The tow company eventually arrived and took our trailer to Foster for a new tyre

With great enthusiasm, we took the opportunity to order the timber for the roof frame too:

Little Miss and Padawan loading the pine floor boards into the shipping container

The almost empty (and very clean) shipping container

With all our new kit, we embarked on drilling holes again and managed to get one in.  The problem was, the dynabolt ended up a mashed up mess when we tried to hammer it into the hole and took my poor, patient husband about 5 hours to remove from the hole.  Being a dynabolt, it was not willing to leave it's home.

Rinse and repeat this process a couple of times over and even my hubby's patience was worn through.  Thankfully, my generous and resourceful Dad purchased a cheap SDS hammer drill for us and with many hours spent on Google, we concocted a puffer out of a straw attached to a hand pump from the swiss ball to clear the cement dust debris from the holes.  With the hammer function (and another ludicrously expensive SDS masonry drill bit) we at least quadrupled our productivity.

The posts are used, as you would imagine, to separate the roof from the floor.  The posts and the beams are the major structural component of the walls.  As such, the beams sit on top of and are attached to the posts.  As there are 14 posts (and one internal structural wall) holding up 21 beams, there were many interesting moments as I tried to work out how to chisel out the tops of the posts in the correct order so all the beams would attach correctly.

Preparing the first post (Padawan mastering the hammer)

Unfortunately, I am not blessed with great spatial skills.  My ability to take an object and transfer it into another orientation is, I have to be honest, abysmal.  Much to my poor husband's frustration, I was constantly checking with him to make sure I was going to be removing the correct portions of timber from the top of the beams.  

I've mentioned before that the posts and beams were heavy, we estimated that the posts weigh in at more than 100kg and the beams at about 60kg.  So to lift them to a height of 2.7m was going to take more than me standing on the slab with my hands in the air while my hubby secured them to their various attachment points.

Looking for a low cost solution served to while away more hours on Google.  Being a researcher at heart, my hubby found an old stonemason design for a crane.  In essence it is three (strong) sticks attached together at the top and tied together at the bottom.  In reality it's about 4 weeks of work (including some time at the forge to get the top piece that attaches the three sticks together and holds the endless winch).  The kids were keen for a challenge to find three straight saplings of even size at 4.5m.  My hubby's a pretty resourceful type and the crane has served us well!

The legs were braced with steel pickets

The first post goes up

You can see in the photo above that there is a strip of waterproof membrane under the bracket.  This will form part of the bottom boxing for the strawbale walls.

The brackets were in place for the first post.  For subsequent posts, though, we had one bracket in place before lifting the post then put the second bracket in to ensure a tight fit.  We found with the first post that we had to chock the post in order for it to fit neatly between the two brackets that had been attached to the slab.

Jimmy Brennan's great work

Chain attachment

We used a chain around the post, attached with a U-bolt, and connected the endless winch to that.  The only problem with this configuration was that the posts would go up with a lean.  It became my job to 'man' the winch while my hubby would guide the post into place.  Guiding the post makes it sound like the post just wanted to naturally go where it was meant to.  Wrestle with all the force you have in your body is probably a more accurate description of what actually happened.

The endless winch was just within my reach and my shoulders would burn in the iterative way we put the posts into place.  After the second post, I took our step ladder from home to the block and stood on it to work the winch.  It was a lot faster and reduced the amount of massage my hubby needed to deliver when we got home.