So the issue with writing a blog about a house restoration/renovation is that the house is so all-consuming and distracting the blog doesn’t get written! Hmmm, better work on that! A three-month time lag has ensued and we’re some way further along, so I need to backtrack a little to fill in some gaps.
ravishing red head
Our old girl had a rusty dilapidated roof that leaks like a sieve in the wet. When it rains there are upwards of eight buckets in the house catching the deluge. Sometimes, when it goes on for days relentlessly, it can play on your nerves to be honest.
The funky beat of random rain drops
The house has two ridge-lines at the southern aspect and these two rooflines meet in a valley, where years of rain and neglect in this poorly sealed area has created a nasty vulnerability and much leaking. The most significant house damage to some studwork is the result of this problem. Plus the front bull nose has more holes that roof.
Sadly the ‘attic’ was not full of treasure…just decades of bad attempts at DIY leaking roof vessels, including a baby bath
We four are living and working in the house as we’re renovating. The kids are picked up most mornings by the school bus at the end of the drive, (when we’re organised and up to catch it at 8.20am). The plot of land is so beautiful and tranquil and abundant with beautiful trees, but with big downpours the ground turns sodden and the red, red volcanic earth becomes mud that gets tramped through the house. When frogs take up residence in your camp kitchen (no kidding) you really know you’re living the dream.
Mind your head! Flying debris
So putting a new roof on the existing house was really a priority! First step, strip off the old corrugated sheeting.
Adios old back porch roof (this will be replaced with new family room, bathroom, laundry)
Despite its rich, red rusty patina on the exterior surface, the old sheets were rust free on the inside. Mick and I joked that we ought to just turn them inside out and jobs done!
The dusty, shitty (literally) old roof. It looks as good as new on the inside!
But alas, sanity prevailed and we have opted for a new glorious colourbond metal roof in the mesmerising colour of shale grey; Kind of a cloud-white tone.
Hmmmm. Pale and mysterious
Tex Lauder our St Agnes pal and builder-extraordinaire came down from his beautiful hand-made Sunshine coast home to lend a hand (and reside in our shabby-chic camper trailer garden suite).
Once the old sheets were removed and the bones of the roof were exposed to the sky for the first time in a very long time, we noted that virtually all of the 120-year-old local hardwood roof trusses and rafters were in incredible shape – (almost like new once the dust and cobwebs were cleared off them).
The infamous “valley”. cause of most of the internal damage to a few joists.
Mick heroically donned a facemask and took to sweeping the decades-old cocktail of dust, bat, snake and vermin poo out of the three roof cavities. Nice job. Our resident python was none to happy to be disturbed. Mick caught sight of him a few times relocating to get out of the way of the commotion.
Through this period the weather grew hot and up on the roof the temperature sizzled some days…
Its getting hot in here
And then the heavens opened once again. Obviously soon after the sheets had been removed, Mick had swept it all clean and before the new roof was delivered. We bought two massive tarps to protect the roof and keep us dry, as best as possible. The winds picked up during a few foul storms and Mick ingeniously managed to keep them from blowing off by tying our old Tesco shopping bags filled with bricks to the corners. Every little helps.
Check out our new valley and the abundance of tarp. Stay away rainclouds.
You know you’re living the dream when you feel the rain on your feet. When you’re in bed. As the rain comes through the old, ornate, pressed-metal air-vents in the centre of the bedroom ceiling. Mikey got up and chivalrously covered both our feet with some towels and we drifted back off to sleep again.
mollysgrassroad 