Tondelver House - Shipping Container Build

I know how you feel.. I drove through Goulburn yesterday and my car airconditioner was not working

Sydney is even worse! Humidity plus heat.... yuk!

Finished the trusses and went back to working inside.

I decided to move the bathroom wall 200mm into the guest bedroom as I felt it was a little too close to the loo. I couldn't move the loo further away from the wall as their is a concrete pier almost underneath it.

Then I put in the first of two glass sliding doors. This one is in the guest bedroom is a two panel - one fixed one sliding. (The other is a three panel, one fixed and two sliding and will go in the lounge.)

Put the other glass doors in today. They certainly let in a lot of light.

Looking forward to seeing the fascias, flashing and roofing going on.

They look great!! Just going to check back through your post to see what you used for decking!

Hi BB7 - it's a budget build so they are budget decking boards! Big green shed. 90 x 22 @ $2.35 per metre.

The deck is 2.4m wide so I ordered their 2.4 lengths, paid for incl. delivery. On the morning they were to deliver them, they rang me and said they didn't have 2.4m lengths in stock (despite telling me they did when I made the order.) Did I want narrower boards for the same price. I didn't thank you very much. So they said they would give me the 3M lengths for the same price.

This turned out to be a big plus as several boards had split or gnarly ends so I was able to trim them off.

I bought deck spacers which were a great help and I made a measuring template using the bottom of a takeaway container.



Also, I used some of the offcuts to make a temporary gangway onto the deck as I will be using the back doors now as the main entrance. Eventually I plan to backfill up the the base of the deck so there will just be a small step down onto ground level.

Are there any eagle eyed readers out there who have noticed that the doors in the above picture are installed the wrong way round?

The first slider is on the outside track not the inside. When I bought the doors they are advertised as left hand opening which can be made right hand opening on site.

I wracked my brain trying to work out how they can possibly work as RHO - and the only solution I could come up with is to turn the doors upside down. This will mean I have to remove the casters and replace them on the other end. I will ring the company tomorrow and ask. If this is the case - it surely wouldn't have hurt to mention this in the assemble instructions. (Which I might add were written by and for gibbons.)

Has anyone else had this experience and needed to invert the doors?. By the time I finished installing the doors frames, squaring up etc it was getting late so I put in the doors temporarily for security.

Thanks so much! Really appreciate the details, you've done a great job.

Just been showing hubby your handy work - very impressed.

We are thinking of adding a structure either side of our shipping container. 1 for float and mower storage, and the other side for stables. Your build is a great inspiration to do something with it!

Wow just catching up you've done so much what a difference the doors and windows make!!

Things have slowed again. Once school started I began getting quite a lot of teaching (unusual for term 1) which put the brakes on the build somewhat. I need the extra work as at the end of June I am heading off on another overseas trip.

This one is 8 days hiking through the Fann Mountains in Western Tajikistan followed by a 2 week 4 wheel drive across Tajikistan and the Wakhan Corridor (Afghan border) into Kygyzstan. Then I am flying to Azerbaijan travelling up through the country into and around Georgia and then journeying down into Armenia. 6 weeks altogether and I can't wait!

I finally resolved the sliding glass door dilemma - it took me two weeks to get a hold of the person responsible at the company that made the doors. They were able to tell me that, yes, I do need to turn the doors upside down and move the casters. This was a bit of a struggle as the double glazed doors are pretty heavy and getting them on a trestle by myself was a challenge.

Another task concerned the ceiling PFC that crosses the kitchen and forms the top of the "T" beams that I put in a few months ago. I was always a little concerned, despite the engineers instructions, as to the strength of this beam to support the weight of the roof. My paranoia led me to believe I could see a slump starting to occur.

I put a straight edge along this beam and found there was indeed a slump of about 10mm over its 4.5m length. So to put my mind at rest I decided to put a second beam under the first.



It is placed a little off centre to the one above - this is so that it also catches the end of the perpendicular beam and provides extra support there too.



It will mean that the kitchen bulkhead will be 100mm lower but that will not bother me as the beam covers are meant to be a bit of a feature to break up the ceiling space.



A spare length of tubing and my car bottle jack helped raise the two beams 10mm while I fitted the extra vertical supports either end.





I also moved the door framing in the second bedroom due to the fact that when I moved the bathroom wall to make more room for the loo - it shortened the distance between the door frame and the bathroom wall and I was worried the door handle would hit the wall.

Otherwise the rest of my time has been spent with weed control and in the veggie garden. Despite the long hot summer I have reaped considerable produce. This is my first time growing eggplants and I have to say they have been very successful.

This is one of several baskets full:



There are several capsicums in there too - and you may notice a couple are purple. I'd never seen them this colour before - and they came from a packet of green capsicum seeds. I am going to keep seeds from these and grow them again.

Below are some of the 65 butternut pumpkins from this years patch:



Yesterday I ripped out the pumpkin vines and the eggplants and mulched them for my compost. And today I neatened up the garden, put down fresh compost and mowed around the veggie garden:

Epic. Everything.
My week was like, should I water the grass? yeah nah!

Lots of progress! Exciting trip too. So you managed to turn the doors by yourself? That's a monumental effort
Veg Garden looks fantastic.

OMG your veggie patch is putting me to shame!

Well it's been a long time coming but I am off tomorrow for 6 weeks on another overseas trip. So unfortunately no progress to be made on the house. But I've been working 7 days a week FOREVAH!! and I really need a break.

Since returning to casual teaching I have been kept busy with almost 5 days a week work - every week. It's been useful to put coin in the coffers and I've already paid for the trip, but it has slowed down work on the house miserably. So when I return in mid August I will cut the teaching down to 3 days a week which will give me 4 days a week to work on the house.

I am off first to Tajikistan to trek in the Fann Mtns for 10 days, then driving across the country along the Wakhan Corridor and up into Kyrgyzstan where I fly (via 27 hours in Moscow) to Azerbaijan, travel up into and around Georgia and then ending in Armenia.



(If interested in foreign climes - I shall be updating my travel blog whenever possible as I go: HERE )

See you in August and I look forward to seeing everyone's progress.

Was just about to ask for an update! Look forward to seeing your progress when you get back from what sounds like a fantastic trip

Thanks BB7 - I just caught up with your latest post - wonderful pix of the house finished. It looks fantastic you must be thrilled.

Enjoy your trip!

Terry has now posted some info on the start of his Tajikistan trip.
Link is HERE

Thanks Beetaloo