#156 Renovating this abandoned Brick Ruin

Five years ago we bought this abandoned piece of land in Portugal to try to find another way of living. And since then, we have been setting up our base camp and living area, regenerating the land to protect it from wildfires, and discovering and renovating old ruins with local materials. And in this video, we are going to continue renovating this old brick ruin to build some nice bedrooms. Welcome to a new Bird Camp Update. In previous updates, we discovered this brick ruin in between the trees and the bushes. We cleared around, made a new design, and we are renovating it, keeping as much of the original materials as possible. In the last update, we demolished some parts of it and wiped out a big granite rock. Now we are ready to start building, and Ozan will explain us the plan. Ok, so this is what we are going to do. We will not use the existing structure as a load-bearing structure. Instead, we will introduce a new timber frame that rests on granite slabs. We will connect the posts with cross braces that run across the building, and then connect everything with a ridge beam and two big girders on each side. And finally, we will put the rafters on. So around the property, we've got these boulders that, in my opinion, could be a great option for a foundation. So I've looked around, found a few that are a good option. We're going to move them to the brick ruin. Ok, so this one looks good. This could be our first stone, but we need a couple of straps. It's very strong. I didn't think it was going to be that easy. Yeah. Two small pebbles. Easy! That was so heavy. Easy for the landscape. Three, two... Done! Ozan has been around for a while, but we never told you who he is. Hi, my name is Ozan. I have a background in architecture and woodworking. I design and build stuff ranging from spoons all the way to pavilions. I am part of a community called Nomad City, located in Hassel, Belgium. In reality, I don't know it myself. I just had a strong gut feeling. The future for me is dictated by that very gut feeling, meaning I don't really know what the future holds for me. I enjoy the present moment and let myself guide through life by the things I love and enjoy. These things include figuring out how things work, materializing abstract ideas, planting trees, using a sharp knife and a sharp knife only to mince garlic, a midnight peanut butter jam snack, and sitting on big rocks. Okay, that's enough talking. Let's get rocking. So now that we have somewhat of an inventory of all the rocks that we collected, we can start digging the holes for them. The posts will rest on 12 stones, so we've got the row inside along the back wall, and these are on stable and rocky soil. Therefore, they don't need to be very big and deep. For the outside stones, we will have to dig a bit deeper because the soil is not as compacted, and additionally, we will have to remove some roots. So the stump of this oak here is extending into the space that we need to put a stone for the foundation, so we're bringing the digger in to take it out, pull it out. What just happened, Liam? We had a little mishap with the wall. It's a little broken now. I'm going to let this tree go. Everybody is so excited. There's a gap there. Yeah, it is a gap. Mano, what do you think we should do? Duct tape. Do you want to take this off? Should we take this? Yeah, I think so. Your feet are out of the way? Yeah. Watch the other wall. Run, run, run, run, run. Perfect. Nice. So, no big deal. It's actually still pretty solid. But for now, there's a little bit of a gap in our wall. He did it! This part of the existing wall was only meant as a facade, so losing it was not as dramatic as it might seem. Nevertheless, we will have to temporarily secure it. Because of the mishap with the digger, the structure is slightly less stable, so I'm going to make some supports to stabilize everything. And for that, I'm going to try and use as much scrap wood as I can. I think it's important to note that the goal of this bracing is not to make it impossible for the structure to fall down, but rather to offer a little bit of support so that the structure doesn't actively fall down without us doing anything to it. This rock is in place of the stump that Anselmo took out. It's in the right place for our foundation. Perfect. It has the right height. So it's time to fill up the hole. And some textile to prevent new roots to grow in the stone. We have one more rock that goes in one more hole. What we're going to do is we're going to roll it here. It's going to come down this chute. It's going to bounce off this rock. And then it's going to bounce off this rock. And it's going to roll directly into this hole, vertical like that. So all we have to do is add a little momentum at the top. The rock will do the rest of the work. Let's do this thing. Okay, number one goal is we don't hurt ourselves. Number two goal is move the rock. Do you want to use that one? Nah. We have to aim it. We're going over? Yeah, I think over. Yeah, that is good. Nice wall, good wall. We're doing our best to preserve the ruin at every step. Which one is the top? This is the top, so let's just pick it up and set it in there. I'm going to catch it a little bit. It's perfect. It is perfect. It's the perfect height. You can tell that it's perfect from this angle. Since the stone beneath this location was too hard to dig a hole, we decided to pour a foundation out of concrete. There are a lot of these old concrete fence posts on the land. And they're not good. I don't know, we haven't figured out a great thing to use them for, but there's still some old wire on a lot of them, and I'm going to use it to reinforce the concrete. Wire. I made this wooden box using clay to seal it so we can pour concrete and make the concrete level. Now that I've made the reinforcements, and I've filled in the form, we need to pour our concrete to make our little footer. And for the footer, we're using Portland cement mixed with gravel and sand. Three metric parts of gravel. Two British Imperial System pots of sand. One metric part of Portland cement. And now we mix. Did we forget the water? We're done with the little footer, and now we're going to cover it so it cures a little bit more slowly since it's super hot here. But other than that, we wait. All the foundation stones are in place. We only need to level them. This square, I'm going to start from the lowest point. All our foundation stones are here, perfectly aligned and level. So now it's time to prepare for our structure. You have probably seen Carlyne in a couple of videos before. Let us introduce her. Hi, my name is Carlyne. I'm from a tiny village in the Netherlands. I've been running through life for several years. Teaching, making art, designing and making jewelry, and building boat interiors. I stopped and stumbled for all the interesting stuff I would run into along the route. Like photography, drawing, writing and reading, and many other things. I can't keep my focus for long, so I would run and explore new things quickly. I came to Project Camp to stand still and explore the community living in nature. I'm still running, but only for fun, or back and forward to the workspace. In the future, I want to continue learning to be more patient and enjoy the process. Especially the process of making. Because good things take time, and time is relentless. But I keep reminding myself of one thing. Tomorrow is a new day, with plenty of time to play. Enough running for now, let's go back and play! Wait, can I reach that one, do you think? Yes. It's Christmas. I made this handy dandy little jig that shows me where the bolt goes. And I place this jig on my reference line, I clamp it down, then I drill. And now, if you come closer, you can see that the hole, which I haven't drilled fully yet, is in a perfect location in relation to the edge of the beam and the edge of the future beam that is going to come this way. What are we doing, Kathleen? We're assembling today. Let's go! Hey, that looks pretty good! Is he checking your measurements? He's checking my measurements. I feel so offended now. It's about one and a half centimeters off. No, you said five at five, and then you said five at five again. Yeah, I repeated myself. For structural reasons, during the construction process, we put this end girder up first instead of these beams. Next, we'll do the girder on the other side, and then we'll attach those two with the beams through the middle. Isn't it better to go left? What? Can you turn there? No, I mean like further. Continue straight. Continue straight? Yeah. Guys, where are you going? It needs to go over there. Oh my god. Yeah? I got it, I got it. Wait. I'm already here. Let me know when. One, two, three. Are we ready to go over? I'm on top. Almost over here. Are you good, Liam? Yeah, I'm over. I'm stuck. Yeah, it's there. We've now put up the edge girders, and now we'll measure and cut the beams that will go across the middle of the structure. Do you think these... That's not right. You missed. But it's not your fault because the holes are not mirrored. Whoops. Oopsie. That's alright. Yesterday we made some great progress putting up our posts, our end girders, and two of our beams. We'll put up the other two today, and then we'll put up our central posts that will sandwich these, and our ridge that goes across the top. This is our zero. I like that. We're placing our last post, and in maritime tradition it is customary to put a coin under the mast before it is placed. It's unlikely this will be a boat at any point, but it's important just in case we decide to turn this into a boat to have the coin for luck. That's awesome balls, dude. Just doing a little bit of last-minute bug treatment. Pass me the hammer. Catch. That's not true. Give him a level. Just put up our ridge beam, and that completes our primary structure. Next up, brazing and rafters. For the rafters, we need to cut the ends at an angle, and then we have to cut two bird's mouths on either side of the beam in order to accept the ridge beam and the girder on the far end side of the building. In order to have an accurate cut, we're going to mark it in situ instead of measuring it, because that's how the pros do it. Let's switch this one. Nice. We're all finished with the primary wood structure of the building. Next up, we will finish the roofing, work on our heating system, but that's for a next update. So if you like what we do, you can support us on Patreon. You get the videos one week ahead with no ads and in 4K. If not, you can follow us on YouTube and we will see you next week. An important reminder for this week is that we have a Q&A coming for Patreons. If you want to submit your question, you just need to click the link below for Patreon. Support us there. And by the way, can you get off your screens and do something outside? Yeah.