Blood, Sweat and Tears. All Caused by a Bloody Building!

We knew when we bought the Forbes Building that repairing and renovating it was going to be a major enterprise. Michael had much more of an idea of the work than me. As I do not have a single handy person bone in my body, I have never been able to visualise the scale of a project until I can see the process. Hell, I can't even cut straight. I am right handed and left eye dominant. Michael discovered this fact when I was trying to help him cut poly pipe. I'd known him only a few weeks. He took the hacksaw off me...

And the building threw a few surprises at us. The catastrophic state of the external eastern wall. Which we repaired and stabilised. The extent of the leaks in the roof. Michael solved that problem by spending endless hours on the roof cleaning, fixing and applying copious amounts of bitumenised paint. And the endless succession of cracks. We only seem to fill one crack when another appears. Because the building is drying out and the back half of the building has different foundations laid at a different decade to the front half of the building. Joy.

But by far the greatest challenge - so far - has been the replacement of the floor in the biggest of our four shops. Only after we bought the building did we discover the cellar, its size and its ramifications. After the Meckering earthquake in 1968, all the water courses changed in the Wheatbelt. The cellar became unstable and was filled with yellow sand. Then a floor was just placed on top of the cellar's dodgy walls and pillars. Brilliant.

So forty-five square metres of floor (half the space) has come up. Initially, Michael was trying to save the floorboards and recycle them. That was going to end in tears. So we now have enough firewood at home and at the building to last us through the next Ice Age.

A great deal of digging then ensued, mostly by Michael's offsider and 2IC, Gary. Channels were created to place the extremely heavy steel members across the dirt to form new foundations. The steel was cut where it had been stacked and was manhandled into the workshop. Michael then had to grind the ends of each member so the weld would stick when two beams were joined. Then welded the beams to the correct lengths. The central beam was welded to a supporting steel post cemented into the old foundations. Then the other beams were placed into position and cemented to the edges of the shop walls. About from being absolutely back breaking work, Michael has six stitches in one hand and a squashed middle finger on his other hand to demonstrate the unforgiving nature of the beams.

This weekend Michael and Gary made metal cleats to weld onto the steel members to provide support for the pine joists that needed to be bolted to the cleats. I had no idea what these cleats would look like until Michael and Gary made them. Most of the cleats look like a fat, three-dimensional capital L with a hole in one side. Other cleats are double length and straight  in readiness for the same job on the back half of the shop. To bolt the joists into position on top of the members. They made eighty of these. Then measured the distance and positioned each cleat and then welded each one onto the steel members. Horrible and hot work.

Michael's ability to remain calm and patient was sorely tested yesterday. The pine joists, being pine, are not exactly straight. They bow a bit. I watched Michael and Gary trying to bolt the joists to the cleats all afternoon. This was hot, tedious and difficult work. I asked them both if they were having fun. They weren't...

At the end of the day, all the joists were in position. Half of them had been bolted to the cleats. Michael and Gary have been friends for a long time, but I was pretty impressed that they had survived the day without coming to blows.

So today, the beat goes on. Michael reckons he's mastered the operation and the rest of the bolting will go smoothly. I hope so, for both their sakes. And then they have to start laying the clipboard floor. With cutting the edges so the first piece fits around the door and windows like a jigsaw.

We have to go to the Big Smoke tomorrow. We are going to Vanessa's graduation. No way are we missing that. And with the usual hundred activities try to pack into a trip to Perth, we will not be back until Wednesday afternoon. And Thursday and Friday are predicted to be scorchers. Give us a break, it's supposed to be Autumn!

Our opening for the new exhibition is 2 April. Three weeks and three days away. Michael assures me every day that we on track. The new chipboard  floor just needs to be placed, the side wall insulated and covered with tin sheeting and a dividing wall constructed to seal off the back. And paint the walls. Then be ready to install new works...Wish us luck!

Steel members. cleats and joists on top.

View from the back forty-five square metres.