Babe the builder

Rose gives her own account on the joys of being a builder’s mate.

(Reproduced by kind permission of The Dominion Post)

My mum always told me that I could generally be found hammering nails into bits of wood at kindergarten - we were allowed to do stuff like that back then! I can only have been three of four. Having a very practical and capable dad meant that we all grew up learning practical skills. I have always enjoyed the process of building, whether renovation work or putting together the latest henhouse.

When our builder, Dean, made the offer that we could help him with parts of the build I thought all my Christmas’s had come at once! Al had over the years given me an amazing array of tools and accessories, the greatest of which is my chainsaw which was a 40^th birthday gift.

When the opportunity came one Saturday morning I was very quick to don my tool belt and grab my trusty hammer and help as best I could. I had a ball; following instructions (yes me!) I helped Dean align the framing on the floor and then at roof height. Quite a precision art, we put in a multitude of string lines and, shortly afterwards, struts to hold the framing in the correct position. After that came the nail plates, which saw me clambering to the top of the framing, clinging on for dear life whilst hammering the plates into position.

There will be more opportunities to help I hope and it is a real joy to know that we have helped in the process of building our own house.

This image superimposes the Draughtsman's impression over our existing
framework to give an idea of how the finished home will look on our property