WHAT A CATASTROPHE!

I'm glad I started with the easy walls first. My measurements were pretty okay. I mismeasured the jack studs as I had considered using 2x4 lintels and door headers, but I used 2x ceiling battens. So that meant they were about 30mm too short!! Since I had some spare offcuts (and my king studs measured okay) we butted the offcuts down the bottom to make up the length.

Both the front and back walls are together so this pic isn't great. The random offcuts nailed in is just to keep it square before it's moved up on the trailer. The problems started when I went from theoretical to practical with the left and right walls. First, I screwed up the roof pitch by measuring the full 4m instead of only 3.2m. That meant that not only were all my angles completely off, but the wall studs were all about 150mm off also.

Having the windows handy meant I could place them, double check jack and cripple heights, check the stud horizontal placement and then start trying to fix my bung measurements. Currently I'm waiting for my dad to appear with the skill saw so I can cut everything (again) and place them, nail what I can then measure what I don't have. Which is only a few studs, and now I realise why having surplus wood is better than having less. I'll probably end up with enough spare to make a deluxe chicken coop - maybe to match my house as I will have spare metal cladding also!

I haven't even begun cutting anything for the loft floor, I have probably enough 300x50s I could use, or 100x50 if I get desperate - it's only $2.90/lineal metre. But if I can use the 300x50 cut down to 150x50, I may not have to spend the extra $30 - it depends on my rafters. I have about 3 6m lengths of 100x50 to cut to roof width - but width is 2130... meaning I can only get two lengths per total length. Oooh but then I will have just enough to do the loft floor. Okay sounds like I will need extra 100x50.. Maybe I can talk dad into ripping down the 300x50 into 100x50... I have a feeling he will say no. Anyway I will jump that hurdle when it is in front of me.

I've also realised I can use the space above the large desk window (I'm talking king studs and jacks here, not that the window headers are load bearing more than my bed!) to support some more supporting 100x50s for the loft cantilever - where the bed sticks out it currently has uhh no support at all. It will have side support from the wall studs but my plans don't allow for anything underneath (!!) as I figured the back wall will support it enough. I don't think that it won't, but more I can take a couple of extra precautions - galv angle brackets and the 100x50 angled bracing. It also means my wall cladding will take on a more spaceship kind of feel. Which is awesome, I love spaceships.

Yesterday I spent $108 buying strap bracing and wire dogs so I'm waiting to hear when I can pick that up, can't really cover the walls with builders paper until I strap it. I also spent $120 on the 6m lengths of 100x50 and some window seal - $25 for 25m, that's half the price of the cheapest 150mm width rolls!

That means my total build cost is $2708, not including any interior furnishings (except the kitchen sink!) and thats also not including solar panel, deep cycle battery and small inverter. So long as I don't need any more timber, that's all I've got left to buy. Better go cut some wood now.