My biggest d-i-y project ever

[Matty F]

This 160 year old cottage was in a very sad state. The lounge was tiny so I got some builders to take the roof off and build the framing for a top story lounge, 6 metres square. When a roof is taken off, it needs some fast work done otherwise the rest of the house gets flooded when it rains.

I've done all the finishing work, weatherboards, windows and doors. It's now valued at 40 times what it cost me.

've just repainted everything that you can see, using a ladder extended to 4 metres high that I discussed here once, to most people's horror! The rest of the house can be done using a two metre ladder.

[Chris J Dixon]

Another impressive piece of work Matty.

Chris

[Nightjar]

You certainly don't lack ambition :-)

BTW, if you scaffold the house and fix tarpaulins over the scaffolding, you can take the roof of without worrying about rain.

Colin Bignell

[fred]

In article , Matty F writes

[The Natural Philosopher]

where is that? west country? foreign parts?

[brass monkey]

What do you do in your spare time? ;)

[Matty F]

It's possibly the oldest house in NZ still being lived in.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Excellent!

Of course that introduces the metaphysical question of how much of it is actually still the oldest house, and whether it can be considered to be that house..

..a discussion that flops over into classic cars, where, by the rules, you can take one old car, and use half a dozen parts from it to 'restore' half a dozen 'original cars'...:-)

[dennis]

He plays with trams.

[Jules Richardson]

I'm surprised it's not more than that - in part because the end result looks so good, and in part because what you started with looks like a bit of a shed ;-)

Do you have in-progress shots of the framing work? Did someone have to strengthen foundations and lower-floor walls to take all that additional weight? (I've got a flat-roofed office at one end of our house, and keep thinking I'll put a top floor over it one day, so I'd have those kinds of challenges to investigate)

And 160 years? The entire state where I live didn't even officially exist when that was new. :-)

cheers

Jules

[Dave Liquorice]

Meh. This place was most likely the best part of 160 years old then... Though how much of the building from that time remains is anyones guess.

[grimly4]

Jeez, you are a productive bastard.

[Matty F]

The foundations were rotten timber and were replaced with concrete foundation blocks.

Here's the house when I bought it, and with a gable removed and the floor being built:

studs in the walls were a full 2"x4" and the span was only 10 feet for each of the two rooms under the new floor.

Here's the top floor being built:

finished the house from this stage after the roof went on.

Here's the house before and after the new floor went on:

[Peter Parry]

Most people think they are doing well building a shed on the side of their house - never mind a house on the side of their shed!