Carport detail pics

Carport standing

Front section ready to be erected

Perfect fit

Lost in the madness of year end

So far so good, a royal Thumbs Up

Tues to Thurs, more pics

All starting to take shape

We have had very little contact with site during the week. The Team have been in Ninja Wood Mode!
Simon has promised more pictures on his return, I believe there is a lovely one with Nick giving it the thumbs up.

I wonder if The Frooties are going to sleep in the garage tonight...

Tuesday to Thursday, garage going up

Keeping you posted

Dear Orca House Followers,

I will be updating the blog as I receive the pictures.
Once again you will see the progress as the garage is erected.
Very, very exciting!
Warmest wishes,
Zoe 

Ox wagons loaded up with the goods

The garage is on its way to her new site.
Check list all ticked off and "Sharp Chisels" and "The Captain" make their way slowly up the coast.

Four frames standing

4 bent frames with the first frame - LHS, being a shorter frame, in situ this will sit on a high wall.

The purpose of assembling the whole structure in the factory  was to check all joints and proportions.  We elevated the frame with temporary legs to mimic the on site wall.

4 bent frames assembled - as to be viewed from Orca House into the back of the carport. 

Three bent frames standing

Pitched roofed garage being assembled as a whole in the factory in the distance.

Shipment ready, Hey Presto.

4 bent frames for the pitched roof carport complete and the "afdak" carport pre-assembled and ready to ship

Frames in the factory

Three queen post bent frames

Eric and Tauriq morticing a girt

Mike's arty shot

Carport perspective views 1 & 2

Third frame

Frame one and two in the background, while frame 3 is assembled on the benches.

Sawdust, camera, action.

Video of OJW team in action working on frame 2.

Second frame, Take 2

Girt and knee brace being fitted to frame two

First frame complete in the background with the second frame all ready, the joints cut and about to be assembled.

Girt

Being framed...

First frame complete

The complete ash frame will sit in custom-made hot dip galvanized mild steel foot plate which in turn will be chemically anchored into the existing low height brick wall.  This steel bracket keeps the timber frame away from any potential moisture leaching out of the wall.  This in turn will prevent the frame from decay.
The solid ash frame could last for hundreds of years, by which time the sea may indeed have risen to engulf it (thanks to global warming).

Second frame on its way

Mid week progress

3 tie beams receiving mortises

Queen posts fitted

Arches being machined and tenons being cut

Girts with off-set tenons

Getting in the groove...

Sharp Chisels and Mikey-Mike scratched their heads to get around this compact joint.
To put you in the picture, there is a post shown with a long haunched tenon going through the tie-beam into the principal rafter above it.

All three joints come together and are secured with hard wood 19mm pegs which are driven through the joints.

As you can see from the pictures the tie-beam (horizontal timber) has 38mm mortises chopped into it ready to receive the arched knee brace

Left hand knee brace template positioned on the frame 

Chop, chop half day Friday

Even and Eric in high spirits tweaking a bridal scarf joint (Sharp Chisels thinks there is more posing than chiselling going on).

Beam there, done that...

One of four extended principal rafters for the RHS roof of the pitched car port.

These rafters had to be extended with a bridal scarf joint pegged with a 19mm hard wood peg due to the fact that the length of posts available were a problem, but not for OJW.

Bridal scarf joint

Completed bridal scarf with pegs showing

Other bedrooms .....

This is our lovely bedroom.  The brass bed is an old Victorian one which I've had for ages, but it was a three-quarter size.  Mark Rupert from Plett Industria very cleverly changed it into a double-bed for us.  The painting above the bed is by Elizabeth Blackadder, and is one of our favourite paintings.

 This bed's still waiting for me to get behind my sewing machine and make the valance (night frill).  It's a south-facing room, lovely in summer, chilly in winter.  Note the super collection of old buoys, ropes and life-belts collected off the beaches during storms.

This is the only bedroom that has been allocated to one of our grown-up children!  That's Rosy - who is still at university, and "dependent" !  

It's window is north-facing and lovely and sunny all through the year.

Go to Sleep my Babies

 We had these little gypsy bunk beds made for one of the upstairs alcoves.

They were made by Sybaris of Knysna - a company we like, and which we have used a lot for the interior work at Orca.  

Like many other aspects of the house, I have yet to paint the gypsy patterns on them, and am in the process of making patchwork curtains for them.

The two drawers at the bottom are for toys.

 

Little Nicky fast asleep! 

Fireplaces and Tiles

A selection of the tiles which we put behind the Esse stove in the kitchen.  Rosy made some of these in Cindy's studio, but the majority of them were made by Cindy.  Nicky and I glued them on the wall, and I'm sorry to admit that we still haven't done the grouting.   We also have tiny ones behind the kitchen sink.  They are the only tiles I like;  none of the bathrooms have tiles anywhere.

This photo is looking down from the upstairs balcony.

 Rosy and James King keeping warm next to the Esse stove.  We brought this wood-burning stove in from England, and it works magnificently.  The steel pipe goes up through the upper storey landing, and through the roof.  Initially, we had trouble with smoking, and we found that if any window upstairs was open, even just a crack,  the chimney smoke would be  drawn into the house.  However, by extending the exterior chimney so that it is higher than the highest apex, the smoking problem went away.

In the winter months Nicky and I bring our chairs up close to this stove, and it makes a wonderful welcome when we have friends round.  I find myself looking forward to a wet and cloudy morning so that I can get it lit before breakfast.  I have baked bread and cakes in it,  and roasts.  Somehow it gives cooking a new meaning altogether.  There are three ovens, the top right being the hottest, the one below that the medium oven, and the one below the firebox is the coolest.

It really is the heart of the house.

Cindy and Sam!