Carpentry 101

Our first task was to saw the wood planks to the right sizes and drill some holes before putting them up.  Under the supervision of our experienced handyman Joe, we started our little workshop and got down to business.

Getting acquainted with the hand drill

Having fun slicing planks with our circular saw

After preparing the 6 sleepers (68") and 1 parallel sleeper (120") we went over to the pondok to begin building the frame of the wall - well mainly putting up the sleepers. 

All of us had a go drilling the sleepers to the roof

Quality control, or rather, too excited to begin climbing

It was extremely fun finally getting to use our different tools - the circular saw was a little intimidating at first but actually very simple to use. And getting the top structure up was just a small step but such a great accomplishment for us newbie carpenters. 

Hunting for Wood and Tools

To build a wall we needed wood - so we did some research online, shortlisted several wood warehouses and drove down to check them out:

Some of the shortlisted warehouses

First time wandering into these large wood warehouses

Very happy to see piles of wood planks

Bought our first round of wood planks from Ban Heng Long Trading

The people working at the warehouses were pretty amused to see two girls attempting to buy wood, they told us no one really walks in to the warehouses and most of their customers are contractors purchasing for building projects. After hopping from warehouse to warehouse, we found the best deal at Ban Heng Long Trading but we had to go to the main office at No 11 Syed Alwi Road #01-07 to place our order (we were all the way in Sungei Kadut).

Round 1 of Wood Shopping

Type of wood: Kapur - not termite resistant but the cheapest

Wood for Sleepers: 12pcs x 2.43m x 22mmx 70mm (@$6.80 each) = $81.60

Wood for Base and Roof: 2pcs x 3.6m x 22mm x 145mm (@35.40 each) = $70.80

Next, we went to buy some screws and bolts, a hand-drill and our very own circular saw.

Cool hardware shop

Shopping for screws and bolts