So how do I get that, in there?

So here is the latest photo of the inside of the back of the little cottage. As you can see I've sort of just kept taking the studs out that don't look like an open plan dining room and kitchen! Ok, I've put a little more thought into it than that. But that's certainly what it felt like today.

From where I've taken this photo, facing the Northern side of the house, there used to be two walls directly in front of me. The bathroom and laundry walls. These were a combination of add hock half studs, no noggins and patch work from who knows how far back.

Added to this, the wall between the laundry and bathroom was so full of holes from the old galvanised water pipes, new copper pipes and two generations of electrical wiring that it was amazing that it was still standing. A new hardwood one will go back in it's place, extending the bathroom in size and incorporating the laundry in the process. The old laundry, half of which will now be bathroom will give up the rest of its area to a nice little compact kitchen, tucked into an alcove of sorts.

This morning I screwed the top parts of the studs in the old kitchen wall to a hanger at the top end of the skillion roof you can see on the left. The bottoms of the studs were then cut away, after I had propped up that hanger with a couple of steel Acro-props. I love these things. You can literally prop up all manner of structural parts of your house with them while you build. Great.

You can then see the two large macrocarpa posts, on the right and far centre, that I have propped up in readiness for marking out and cutting of mortises tomorrow. Where the closest Acro-prop can be seen, another similar sized post will be installed. Two large 100 x 200mm laminated macrocarpa beams will be mortise, tenoned and pegged into place between all three posts.

Difference between this solid timber frame and one where the building is being stood up, such as a barn raising, is that I have a right angled frame which is mortised and tenoned together with angled support struts also mortised and tenoned between post and beam. Now while that is nothing new, the issue is how to get that whole structure together into that right angled void, which has top plates above it on both sides and also an external wall on one side and an internal wall on another. It cant be stood up individually as the walls wont allow the mortises to be fitted in situ and the skillion roof stops it in the other direction. If that makes sense?

So I've come to the conclusion that the whole thing will need to be cut, fitted and assembled in the room nearby by me and 'walked' into place with a combination of brute force and a delicate touch. I hope I can muster both on the day it goes in. Which at this point is 7.00AM Saturday morning. That's when I have a bloke coming around to help me do just that.

I've even sharpened up my new ( very old ) 3" framing slick and turned a new handle for it too. Looking forward to using it in earnest tomorrow. Off to bed to get some rest before the mortising begins in the morning!