Old Buildings Are Wonky

Anyone who's done any sort of renovation on an old building knows that nothing ever goes to plan. Ever. Lines are never straight, lengths are never uniform and don't expect any level surfaces. It's never without challenges, but when things somehow fit, and the plan seems to slowly come together, the satisfaction is (almost) better than a hard earned beer after a long day.

After all the walls came down, the old windows removed and the rotten insulation trucked off what we were left with was a pretty daunting pile to work through. There was plenty of good timber that came off various parts of the building which we wanted to reuse both to avoid wasting it and saving costs, but it also kept the vibe of the place true to its character. This meant that every spare bit of floor space was used to stack, store and pile it, constantly turning the whole area into a disaster zone.

Progress was being made slowly but surely. The fresh windows went in and all of a sudden we were looking out of clean glass into an amazing landscape that we knew was just outside, but could never really see.

With this build it was an all-or-nothing type project. The building had so many leaks and gaps that there was no way to do just a section of it and finish the rest at some later date. So this meant that the entire thing needed to be cleaned out, water tight and insulated. All the walls, all the ceiling. And to make sure we stayed warm and dry, new roof patches plus an extra layer of insulating foam.

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Glass wool insulation - perfect for keeping your building thermal regulated, terrible for itchy skin, horrendous to install in the summertime. Walls, ceiling, more wall, even more ceiling. All had to be covered and filled well or all the itchy, sweaty, frustrating work is for nothing but at least everyone walks away happy that it only has to be done once.

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So now the bits that keep us warm and dry are done, it's on to the parts to make the whole thing look nice. The old timber that had been used to clad various parts of the building were still in great condition. While it took quite a bit longer than just banging up some plywood, the results after plenty of measuring, cutting and a light sanding were beyond even what we were expecting.

After this round of getting the rest of the insides looking like an actual usable space, the next item to tackle is lighting, and space use. But that's for another day. Check back soon for the next (and hopefully) final piece of the puzzle that comes together in the Island Snowboards workshop re-build.