The beginning of the day was a bit of a tidy up in preparation for the next frame.

I accurately measured and recorded the distances of the transverse frames from each other and the interior steel columns.

I need these dimensions to accurately trench the top and bottom plates of the hallway frames.

Next I had an issue with the vertical alignment of the transverse frames.

It turned out that they were some way off.

I was a bit concerned at first as I could not tilt them at all and I concluded that it was the weather proofing seals holding them rigid.

I decided to try releasing the temporary overhead beams that the tarpaulin had been draped over.

It turned out that they were in fact responsible for the rigid positions.

After accurately setting each frame on the vertical I reattached these beams, and some diagonal braces and ended up with a perfect arrangement.

After this a little bit of touch up painting - the first frame that I erected had not been painted on the top H2 plate.

There was a trace of greying and mould - so I gave it a coat of my mistint exterior paint.

I would like to give all the frames a second or third coat but I might leave this job to a Wwoofer one day.

The next job was to load 12 pieces of 4 x 2 jarrah on to the back of the utility to take home for processing.

I'm getting a bit smarter about this and rejected 1 in 3 pieces to improve the chances that those I took home would be usable as studs.

Finally - I needed to remove some gyprock from the ceiling so that the hallway frames can be bolted down and accessed from below.

At this point I also loaded on to the utility many of the tools I had been using over the last few months.

I was home by 1.00 pm and then spent the next hour unloading my utility.

I tested the timbers to check if they were jarrah using the flame test.

However, I could not obtain any consistent results.

We later realised that this was because I was including part of the weathered surface of the timbers.

I will wait until each piece has been thicknessed and then repeat the test.

Monday

I nipped down to Mundaring Timber and purchased 2 x 4.2m x 90mm x 45 mm H3 pine for plates as well as another 30 m roll of strapping, some more tensioners and some coach screws for enhancing the frame joints.

In the evening I docked each piece of timber at its most optimal points and stacked the raw lengths in my processing area.

Tuesday

During the day I cleaned up the thicknesser and changed over the blades.

During other breaks I processed the first two sides of 8 piece of timber.

Wednesday

During breaks from work I processed the first two sides of the remaining four pieces of timber.

In addition, I needed two pieces 1.8 m x 50 x 185 jarrah to form the lintel over the double doors to the stair case.

During my lunch break I visited my Midland demolition yard but no one there knew how to distinguish jarrah from karri so I decided to head on down to Vinsans.

Before I did that I decided to try Midland Timber for an equivalent product to save losing another hour out of my day.

They suggested 42 x 200 mm LVL H2 treated - which they assured me would be even stronger than the jarrah.